Our lives are the rivers

that flow into the sea

of Death.

(Jorge Manrique)

THE PIRATE comes sailing down a river in his little wooden boat with a pirate flag fluttering at the top of a small mast. Enormously green and big mountains enclose the river. THE PIRATE whistles and sings, he is dressed in old-fashioned pirate rags.

P: -Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! I've got no crew, but I still can be called a pirate. What is there in this boat and this flag to be worth a living?

The lights fade away. When they switch on again, THE PIRATE is sailing through narrow canals of a small village of pure-white houses. SHE is crying at the top of a bridge. THE PIRATE stops just below and addresses her.

P: - My regards, sweet lady. What is there in this obscure world that troubles you?

S (strongly weeping): I am afraid. I AM AFRAID!

P: - What frightens your sweet heart?

S: - I fear the future, fear feeling, fear for this baby I have got inside me!

HE appears, running towards her.

H: - Oh my dear love! Please do not cry!

S (turning her head): - Oh no, please go away! Fade away as if you had never even existed! (To THE PIRATE) Please take him away of my sight.

H (ignoring THE PIRATE): - Please, my love, do not be afraid. We can make it real, we can live our dream!

P: - Stay away, gentleman. You do not want to come closer to this poor lady.

S (ignoring THE PIRATE): Oh how naive we were! Come, hold m tight! How is it even possible? Everyone in the town shall spit at our sins.

P (sadly talking to himself): I would better leave...

THE PIRATE leaves.

H: - We could escape from this society of jails! We could be free together with no town enclosing us but just the whole world! (Looking to THE PIRATE's boat) Look down there, as if created by God, that shall be the small boat of our future and that shall be the black flag of our troubled love! Let's sail till there are no eyes to look at us.

SHE stops crying and looks at him with a new gaze of hope. HE and SHE embrace each other and jump to the boat. They escape silently sailing through the canals.

THE PIRATE returns.

P: - Oh Lord, they took my boat! Shall every river and lake and sea condemn the acts of this thankless couple, shall their sailing be full of miseries!

THE PIRATE walks to the top of the bridge, then looks to the flowing water, to the exact point where his boat was.

P: - I've got no crew, no boat, no flag anymore. But I may still be called a pirate. However, how could anyone be a pirate in this world of jails? And if I am not to be a pirate, what is there in life to be worth existing? How can anyone survive this world without being a pirate?