Leave of Absence
post war drama by Christian Lanciai
The characters:
Vera
Martha, her sister Monica, her daughter
Harold, Monica’s betrothed Doctor Hugo
Ernest, Vera’s new husband Holger, Vera’s earlier husband
The action is in Finland some years after the war.
This chamber play in only one scene conveys everything that every Finlander has to carry on with him and which never can be repressed, and is dedicated to the memories of Ulf Segerstråle, Leif Westerberg, Gustav Brandt, Birger Gestrin, Bo Arlander and tens of thousands of other young men who waged their lives in the Winter War and the Continuation War and lost them in part or completely. It also has a reference to the Ukraine situation of today.
The scene is staged for an approaching Christmas a winter evening.
Vera There will be no merry Christmas this year.
Martha No, there can’t be.
Vera Do you also sense an approaching disaster?
Martha I only know that anything might happen.
Vera Should we get in touch with doctor Hugo?
Martha We already did. He is on his way here.
Vera Then we are insured.
Martha I hope so.
Vera Let’s just hope he won’t be here before the doctor comes.
Martha The memories have fallen down on us like a heavy curtain.
Vera We will never come out of them.
Martha But now they suddenly have become actual.
Vera I never thought for a moment that we would get rid of the traumas of the war.
Martha The war and its traumas were really trivialities in comparison with the human war damages in our souls.
Vera That’s why he has been locked up all since the end of the war.
Martha But now he has broken jail.
Harold (enters) Are you mobilizing your preparedness?
Martha We are expecting the worst. The doctor is notified.
Harold Is he coming here?
Martha Yes, he will come.
Harold Then you have nothing to be afraid of.
Martha But Vera is all washed up by the nervous strain. She was married to him, you know.
Harold But she is no longer.
Martha But he doesn’t know it.
Harold If we are lucky he’ll never learn about it.
Vera Such luck is impossible. If he comes here, nothing could hide it from him.
Harold He hasn’t turned up yet.
Vera Nothing could keep him away from coming here, once he is out.
Monica (enters) You do look gloomy. Have you forgotten that we have a Christmas to celebrate?
Martha Not yet.
Monica Nothing could keep it away from us.
Martha Yes, Holger.
Monica How so?
Martha He has escaped from the hospital.
Harold (takes care of Monica, hugging and comforting her) There is no danger, Monica. He appears to be harmless nowadays. He has tried to convince his doctors that he is well.
Monica Will he come here?
Harold Most probably.
Monica Then I will at last be able to see him again!
Vera Monica, he does not know that we are divorced.
Monica Then you will have to tell him.
Vera Yes, I will have to, when he comes, if he comes.
Monica He is still my father. Nothing could separate me from him.
Vera You don’t know how he is today. The war turned him into a totally different person.
Monica I know. He is still my father.
Vera Hopefully he will recognize you.
Monica Why wouldn’t he?
Vera So much time has passed. You have matured, and he has aged and been ravaged.
Martha The war has marked us all. Still we are the same. The question is if he is.
Monica What’s the latest you have heard about him?
Vera He has calmed down and kept quiet the last years. The first years were the worst when no one was safe for him.
Martha At least he never turned to rubbing alcohol.
Monica Then perhaps he really is well and dependable now.
Martha We’ll see when he comes, if he comes. (A knock on the door.)
Monica Come in! (enter Ernest.)
Harold (calm) It’s only Ernest.
Martha He had better not be here when Holger comes.
Ernest What are you talking about? Has Holger been released?
Vera He has escaped, Ernest. He managed to steal his way out without anyone noticing it.
Ernest Are the doctors informed?
Martha Of course. Hopefully it’s not as dangerous as it would have been a few years ago.
Ernest You never know about mental patients. There is always a risk of incalculability.
Martha Something tells me we don’t have to fear any ambush.
Harold We are safe if just the doctor comes here.
Ernest Shall we go out, Vera, and take cover just for security?
Vera We might as well do it at once. He could actually turn up any moment. (rises)
Ernest (takes care of her) Does he know that we intend to get married?
Vera No, that’s what he doesn’t know.
Ernest Let’s leave then.
Harold Shall we give a signal of all clear when it is over?
Monica You don’t need to. I know there is no danger.
Vera Let’s hope so. (leaves with Ernest.)
Harold What do you think about the matter? You, Martha, is the one who is best informed.
Martha If he himself claims to be well and is clever enough to be able to get out undetected, there is actually a risk of his being all right in his mind.
Monica In any case he is still welcome.
Martha You always were a daughter of his own, Monica.
Monica Yes, because he didn’t have anyone else. And his wife deceived him.
Martha You can’t blame her for that. He was gone and incalculable and remained so until now. No mother could endure being without her husband for too long.
Monica She could at least have remained faithful to his memory.
Martha She was. You must understand that her sufferings were intolerable.
Monica His own was even more so.
Martha We know nothing about that.
Monica I always felt it in my heart. (A knock.)
That could be him. (loudly) Come in!
(The door opens prudently, and doctor Hugo enters.)
Martha Doctor Hugo!
Harold You come at the right moment. Do you know anything about the fugitive?
Hugo I must assume that he is on his way here. I had hoped to find him here so that I could try to speak some sense with him.
Monica I am sure you can when he comes.
Hugo As I now seem to have arrived conveniently ahead of him, I think it would be worth discussing the matter while he is still away.
Monica If you want to plan some strategy, you will have to do it without me.
Hugo Harold and Martha, may I speak with you alone?
Martha We could go into the library. No one can overhear us there.
Harold I don’t think there is any danger. I will tell you all about it afterwards, Monica.
Monica Yes, please. No secrets in this house, please.
Hugo (takes care of Martha and Harold,. And they leave together in the other direction.) We will soon be back.
Martha You could spread some peace and calm over the place meanwhile by sitting by the piano and play some quiet music.
Monica Then I will do so. (moves to the piano. The others disappear and close the door behind. Monica starts playing Chopin’s etude in E flat major.)
(She has come through the first page when the other door quietly opens and someone discreetly gets in stealthily and remains concealed.)
Monica (interrupts) Is there anyone still here?
Holger (appears cautiously and quietly) Imagine that I would be greeted by my favourite piece! You must be Monica?
Monica And you could only be my father. Pardon me for not recognizing you too well.
Holger So many years have passed. Come and let me have a closer look at you. Yes, I recognize you, but you have matured.
Monica I was still a girl when you were taken away. Welcome back to reality!
Holger (embracing her tenderly) I never left you. The war came between us, but I never forgot you. I always wanted to return. But I was too ill, and I did not want to appear to you in an improper condition.
Monica Nonsense! You can never be in any improper condition as long as you are yourself.
Holger But I was not myself.
Monica You never were anyone but yourself, whatever the war tried to do to you.
Holger The scars of the souls run deep, but I am not bleeding to death any more.
Monica We will heal them, to make them disappear.
Holger Do you think it is possible?
Monica Nothing is impossible.
Holger What about the others?
Monica I have a fiancé, father. You shall meet him.
Holger That gives me pleasure. I hope he will do. Where are the others? Is no one at home?
Monica They are conspiring in the library. They are preparing a strategy for your return.
Holger Do they expect any attack?
Monica They expect the worst. I was lucky to see you first, so that I could welcome you. Holger Thank you, my daughter. I was actually rather nervous and tense myself ahead of my return to the living.
Hugo (opens the door. The others enter after him.)
Harold Apparently he has come.
Hugo How are you, Holger?
Holger Thanks, I am fine. How are you yourself?
Hugo You should have informed the staff before you took your leave. Holger In that case, they would have stopped me. I didn’t dare to take that risk.
Hugo Yes, they would have stopped you, but now you are here.
Monica (claims her father) Can’t you see that he is well?
Harold He undeniably makes a fresh impression and looks well. Can you see any symptom in him, doctor?
Hugo May I speak with you alone, Holger?
Holger I have nothing against it, but I have nothing to hide from the others. Where is Vera?
Monica She is out but will be back any moment.
Holger She must learn of my arrival.
Monica She knew it all the time, she just didn’t know when.
Holger Now is the moment of truth. Everything happens now. It’s the present moment that counts for everything. Yesterday is past and has no say any more, and also the future is created now.
(enter Vera with Ernest. They shake off their snow.)
Vera What weather!
Ernest We could not go on any more. But we obviously have a guest. Who is this man?
Holger I am the one who should ask that question. Who are you? You are not one of the family. Everyone knows who I am, except you, and therefore I have the right to know who you are.
Vera It is Ernest, Holger, a good friend of the family.
Holger Obviously. And an intimate friend.
Hugo Holger, forgive me, but I must have get things clear. Are you no longer troubled by your problems?
Holger We never get rid of our problems. We have to live with the evil of them for the rest of our lives. They never loosen their stranglehold. The war is over, but we will never let it go, it will never let go of us, with its enduring rape, its glaring injustice, its curse and its eternal evil. We did not deserve the Russians' atrocities of violence and invasion. They had no case against us. They were just bad losers and could not accept that they had lost Finland to a democratic legal order. They just had to take it back at all costs. Of course, we had to resist. We gave them the hell they had created for themselves. We sacrificed their soldiers in hundreds of thousands, while they only managed to make tens of thousands of us their victims. We answered with a vengeance, and they had to withdraw from a war that brought them only eternal disgrace. The Soviet Union is a nation of disgrace that has imposed its own dictatorship by dragging like a steamroller over its own people, its own culture, its own history, leaving behind only a clear-cut bloody mess of slaughtered people whose blood will
forever cry out to heaven. They are not human anymore. They are the bloody offspring of vipers, which are only good enough for fertilizing their own fields and the world with their slaughtered blood. Anyone who takes up arms by force will be destroyed by force, it is a karmic law of nature, and the Russians themselves have created for themselves the worst possible karma. It will always go to hell for them, until their empire created by force and blood is buried alive for good.
Hugo Your bitterness is an abyss without a bottom.
Holger I know, and that’s what I now wish to bury.
Harold That sounds reasonable and sound, doesn’t it?
Holger But I still haven’t learned who your friend is, Vera.
Vera Holger, you were gone. No one thought you would ever be back. Medical science had evidence that you were lost. We had no contact with you anymore. You were isolated with your demons that you had to fight alone in isolation so that no one else would be harmed in your personal war with your ghosts Would I then endure walking here alone with another close friend available in the vicinity whom I could confide in and who could comfort me?
Holger So you found a lover.
Vera Holger, you and I are no longer married. Because of your illness and hospitalization, I was free to find myself a living man. You were dead to us and to yourself. So I remarried. Can you forgive me?
Holger You couldn't imagine that I would be back. You couldn't imagine that a buried ghost would return to life. You had all the freedom in the world, because I was unaccountable. But still, you have all let me down. You never gave me a chance in my illness. You locked me up in a mental hospital just to get rid of a bad conscience and a constant reminder of the war. None of you were innocent of repressing me, as if I no longer existed, except possibly my daughter. She was the only one who welcomed me when I came back. Come, my daughter. Let me embrace you. (She comes up to him, and he embraces her tenderly.) Now sit down at the piano again and go on playing. Perhaps your divine music could dispel all the mists of the dark fog curtains of repression, bad consciences, traumatic scars that still bleed, the bottomless melancholy and the sorrow of Finland's misfortune after its martyrdom for the destructive supremacy of evil...
Hugo What you need, Holger, is rest and more rest. Forget your constant nightmares and try to get out of them. As long as you still linger in wallowing in your traumas, you could never be completely normal and healthy again.
Holger Do you really then think, doctor, that I could get rid of them? Do you think I could forget all my friends who went lost and down in the war? Do you think I could forget all those who just disappeared and never came back? The flower of the youth of Finland was lost to the bloodthirst of Stalin and his imperialistic egoism, and their blood will never cease to cry to heaven by constantly heart-rending screams of outrageous anguish!
Monica Still you are healthier and saner than most, father. You never resorted to rubber alcohol.
Holger Still I understand those who did. Many of them ended up in hospital for detoxification. As soon as they were somewhat detoxified, they embraced their freedom by immediately celebrating it, starting all over from the beginning by drinking heavily
and drowning their agonizing memories of an unspeakable melancholy that nothing in the world could ever cure. The liquor numbed it, and was thus at least some kind of medicine.
Monica You won’t certify him again, doctor, will you? You can see for yourself that he is perfectly of sound mind and clear in his head?
Hugo He should have a very good rest. What he needs is a thorough rehabilitation. Holger Could anything in Finland be restored after two wars of universal ravishment? A rape is a rape, nothing can defend it, and nothing can cure it. The only possible rehabilitation would be to see Russia go under with all its inhumane gangster empire, which is only there to torment and murder innocent people. And we will have to wait for that day.
Monica He is not ill. He is just infinitely bitter and melancholy, which is no wonder. Holger I cried myself to death in the hospital, I cried my soul out until it was exhausted and dried out by all the drained tears, I continued to cry still day and night endlessly, and I still cry non-stop, even though my crying is dry and invisible and only wears myself out, as I never want to expose my surroundings to what I suffer myself.
Monica We will take care of you, father. You are at home now. You have been through the worst, but the worst is over now. Now you have your freedom, and we have the music, you have us, your own family, and nothing could separate us any more.
Holger But Vera has forgotten her husband and does not need him any more.
Vera Could you accept that I have a new husband?
Holger I guess I will have to accept facts, Vera. You lost your husband. I was dead and no good any more. So you had the right to get a new husband. The question is whether you can accept that he in spite of all still exists.
Ernest If you could tolerate me, I guess I must tolerate you.
Holger Thank you, Ernest. You are approved. And so are you, Harold, as my daughter’s husband. I am not even in the way. If the doctor wants me to, I’ll go back to the hospital.
Hugo Just for a routine check, Holger. I think we could rather instantly check you out. If you’ll just cooperate, we will surely make an agreement.
Holger Did I ever refuse cooperation? Did I ever refuse to obey orders? I was obedient all through the war and submitted to everyone’s insisting on my getting treatment I have been treated to death. There is nothing left of me. I just exist and am no living human being any more.
Monica You are lying, father. You are more alive than anyone else.
Holger You are the only one I could believe, my daughter. In spite of all I did something good in life. I managed to give the world a daughter, and she is the best daughter in the world.
Harold What about the music? Wasn’t she supposed to play for us?
Holger Exactly. Sit down, daughter, and bless us all with your blessed music.
Monica In spite of all, we have not just the music but also each other, life and everything to live for. (Sits down by the piano and resumes the music from the beginning. All the others sit down comfortably to enjoy and relish.)
The End