Uncle from America

grown-ups

The arrival of an uncle from America (Janez) thoroughly disrupts the dynamics of relationships in a typical (Slovenian) family. It soon becomes apparent that individuals are driven by selfishness, envy and the desire for success, that family members are not and never have been sincere, and that in fact everything – the past, relationships, financial situation – is based on lies.

INSPECTOR: They say the weather’s going to worsen. It’s getting windy, a big black cloud followed me on the way here. (Takes the glass from Johnny’s hand.) Cheers. (Takes a sip, puts the glass down.) I’m listening. (Opens his notebook, waits.)

JOHNNY (after pause): Guilty.

INSPECTOR: That’s half the work done. Now the details.

JOHNNY: May I ask you something? (Inspector looks at him.) Do you ever get the feeling that everything around you is – empty? (He feels the air with his hand.) That everything you see – objects, people, trees – that all this is no more than pictures painted by your imagination on the canvass of emptiness?

INSPECTOR (looks at the walls): Your pictures? Are you a painter?

JOHNNY: No – they’re not mine – I’m talking about –

INSPECTOR: I know what you’re talking about, Sir. But I haven’t come here to discuss points of philosophy. I’m asking you to describe what happened and tell me why you did it.

JOHNNY (after pause): I killed him.

INSPECTOR: You’ve already said that, now tell me why.

JOHNNY: I let him die. Alone. In horrible pain. I could’ve saved him. He could’ve lived another twenty years. But –

INSPECTOR: But?

JOHNNY: There was a woman. A barrier I couldn’t break through. Between me and what I’d have to do to become the sort of man I wanted to be – there’s always, all my life, been a woman.

INSPECTOR: Sir...

JOHNNY: Not a flesh-and-blood woman, which I could understand, but my image of one, my creation, my wish. And my excuse for not ever having done anything.

INSPECTOR: Except what you did do. Was it deliberate, or an accident?

JOHNNY: Both.

INSPECTOR: The gun went off by itself, but you pulled the trigger.

JOHNNY: It’s not what I did do, it’s what I didn’t – (Looks at Inspector sharply.) – Gun? What gun?

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