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your run, Adolf Hitler, run your run.”
    ( Pause )
         Albert, I fainting with curiosity.
    JORDAN
         Prepare to faint with shock, old friend. A girl came into this house last night. A girl from off the street—so drugged with tiredness that she’s slept in there for hours, except when she’s had to change or feed her child—standing there on the veranda near the ferns. An American, a drifter. I’ve feasted my eyes on them asleep in Junior’s room, and her name is Anna Herschel.
    PILGRIM
         So I can go now.
    JORDAN
         I’ve gone around the house on velvet feet. I warned the sunlight entering her room not to make a noise. I wanted her to sleep after thirty-five years of wandering among the ruins of bombed-out London. She said to me, last night, before she went to sleep, jokingly, “Maybe I’ll dance for you sometime,” like Esther, Esther Trout? Believe me, Ezra, she is Esther Trout.
    ( ANNA appears from the bedroom )
    PILGRIM
         I see. Hello. Remarkable.
    ANNA
         Hi … I didn’t know …
    PILGRIM
         Hello. Good morning.
    JORDAN
         Anna, my dear friend and editor, Ezra Pilgrim.
    ANNA
         Heaven, I’m in heaven. Joke.
    JORDAN
         You slept forever. Ezra here’s a rabid balletomane and an armchair conductor, like me. He sits here Sunday mornings with the bottle open and his eyes closed, conducting. I’ll turn it up … Would you dance for Mr. Pilgrim?
    PILGRIM
         Albert …
    ANNA
         Hooo, wait, wait, hold on! Would I what? I thought there’d be a catch. What kind of dance? That’s Chopin.
    JORDAN
         We so rarely get a chance down here, you see. I thought …
    ANNA
         You’re crazy. Sorry. I mean … Oh, shit, I’m a mess. Excuse me. That was a little joke on myself last night, about dancing.
    JORDAN
         Oh, I know. It wasn’t your promise. I thought you might have brought a little delight, joy, purely spiritual joy to the hearts of two old men …
    ANNA
         Dance. I had a baby. I haven’t danced … not ballet anyway; it’s eight-thirty or something … in the morning.
    JORDAN
         I’m sorry. The way I put it sounds a little obscene …
    ANNA
         Is Mrs. Jordan back? I’d love to thank her.
    JORDAN
         She’s gone.
    ANNA
         Gone. Aha … I see. I’m awfully sorry, you understand, Mr. Pilgrim, but I wasn’t such a hot dancer anyway, you know. Just an Off Off Off Broadway gypsy … And nothing you ever do or say could ever be obscene, Mr. Jordan … Ever.
    JORDAN
         It was just one of my selfish, crazy impulses, that’s all. Sorry. You better go to work, Pilly. God, I feel lecherous and soiled.
    PILGRIM
         It was nice to meet you, Miss …
    ANNA
         Call me Anna. I love Trinidad. I think you’re lucky to be in such a beautiful country and have such a beautiful friend as Mr. Jordan.
    JORDAN
         Go to work, Pilgrim.
    ( ANNA goes to the record player and bends to start the record )
         No. If you do that, Miss Gypsy, it will seem an obscene request.
    PILGRIM
         Shut up, Albert, we all understand …
    JORDAN
         … and I was not in quest of an obscene experience, but I simply wanted, because of the beauty and strength of this morning, to show my friend here that there is still innocence and grace left in this sordid world of ours and …
    ANNA
         Sit down please, Mr. Pilgrim … Now, there’s a legato passage here that I can manage better. What the hell.
    ( She turns the record over to a slower movement )
         Just make yourselves invisible and I’ll try … it’s like the legend of Susanna and the Elders, except they were just old Peeping Toms. And it’s not like an audition here, because I’m happy and, oh, cut it out and do it, lady …
    ( She begins to dance, PILGRIM looks on, then begins to applaud )
         No, no, don’t applaud, it’s terrible!