The Seventh Strawberry

Fade in on a dark, smoke-swept field. The wind is whistling and occasional bolts of lightning flash in the distance. A symbolic fox on two lean legs suddenly appears, munches on a patch of mandrake, and then vanishes. A vulture swoops low, symbolically flying backwards. She picks a symbolic banana from a tree with her beak, and then flies off again. Cut to a black carriage drawn by two black horses, clattering down a nearby road. Cut to inside the carriage. Bjornstrand, a conjurer with Christlike features, is brooding silently in a corner and sucking on an unlighted pipe. At his side is Katherina, a beautiful blonde actress. At Katherina's left is a grotesque old woman, known affectionately as The Crone. Sitting alone in the seat opposite them is Dr. Svensk, a distinguished-looking octogenarian.

Katherina (to Bjornstrand): You make me go all hot under my corsets.

Bjornstrand: Heat is an illusion... (to Dr. Svensk) What is the hour, Doctor?

Dr. Svensk (looking at a watch that has no hands): I have half past eternity. But I may be a trifle slow.

Bjornstrand: Slowness is an illusion.

The Crone (playing catch with a human eye against the side of the carriage): I see what I know and I know what I see, little lizards.

The carriage stops and Gunnar, a white-haired old man wearing a black cape and hood, and carrying a scythe, climbs aboard. He sits down alongside Dr. Svensk.

Dr. Svensk (fatalistically): You have come for me, have you not?

Gunnar: Step by step we will go into the Darkness.

Dr. Svensk: I understand. But first may I accomplish one single, meaningful action on earth?

Gunner: As you wish. (Pause) You play, of course?

Dr. Svensk nods his head. Gunnar takes out a Monopoly board from under his cape and gives Dr. Svensk a pair of dice and a token. The doctor rolls the dice and moves his token six boxes to Stockholm Avenue.

Katherina (to Bjornstrand): You kindle a fire beneath my lily-white bosom.

Bjornstrand (to Katherina): Why have you come here to demoralize and destroy me, daughter of Eve?

The Crone (still bouncing the human eye against the side of the carriage, and occasionally showboating by catching it with one hand): I know what I see, and I see what I know, little lizards.

Dr. Svensk (his token resting in Jail): I long to bare my entrails, break my neck, cut out my tongue, and cleanse my impurities. But first I will have a dream sequence.

Dr. Svensk lies back in his seat and falls asleep. Cut to a silent, foggy street. The doctor is standing alone beneath a huge clock that has no hands or numbers. From his pocket he takes out a pencil and a small calendar that has no months. He makes a notation somewhere between where March and August might have been. Then he enters a nearby shop and purchases an Almanac with no pages from a storekeeper with no face. As he steps back into the street, a horse-drawn hearse with no horse appears. Dr. Svensk enters the hearse and crawls into an empty coffin that is stuffed with newspapers that have no dates. The hearse moves slowly to the seashore, where it stops. The doctor steps out of the coffin and removes his shoes and socks. He begins to run painfully over the hourglass-covered beach. He suddenly stops running, looks down, and screams. The hourglasses have no sand.

Fade and cut back to the carriage. Gunnar is shaking Dr. Svensk awake.

Dr. Svensk (opening his eyes): I did not die but I am a ghost already.

Gunnar (laughing mirthlessly): A shadow of a shadow, Doctor. Bliss is a thick, strangulating fog settling down on one's life.

Bjornstrand: Strangulation is an illusion... As a matter of fact, so is settling down.

Katherina (to Bjornstrand): You boil my blood and bring smoke to my loins.

Bjornstrand: That is a doubtful truth. God is silent and humans babble.

The Crone: Does anyone have a spare eye? Mine fell out of the carriage.

Gunnar (taking Dr. Svensk by the arm): Come, Dr. Svensk, the Darkness awaits us.

Dr. Svensk: But I have yet to accomplish my one single, meaningful action on earth.

Gunnar: You shall, yet. You shall, yet.

The carriage stops. Gunnar and Dr. Svensk alight and walk off into the forest.

Cut back to the carriage.

Bjornstrand (sucking on his unlighted pipe): Life is an angry ape.

Bjornstrand puts down his pipe, removes his Christlike mask, and reveals himself as The king of Sweden.

The king of Sweden (formerly Bjornstrand): But then again, apes are an illusion.

Katherina removes her beautiful actress mask and reveals herself as the real Gunnar, a white-haired old man wearing a black cape and hood, and carrying a scythe.

Gunnar (formerly Katherina): Anger is also an illusion.

The Crone removes her grotesque crone mask and reveals herself as a grotesque crone.

The Crone (formerly The Crone): Illusion is an illusion.

Gunnar (formerly Katherina): Your hours are up, my friends. It is time for you both to go into the Darkness... Dr. Svensk awaits you there.

The king of Sweden: Dr. Svensk? But he is not in the Darkness. He merely went off into the forest with Katherina, who wore a Gunnar mask.

Gunnar: Yes, and with Katherina's help there in the forest, he accomplished his one single, meaningful action on earth... A wondrous feat for an octogenarian, to be sure, but he has paid the price...

The three descend from the carriage and walk slowly down the long, dark road.

The king of Sweden: What is the hour, old Crone?

The Crone (removing a watch from her battered purse): I cannot tell, Your Majesty. This timepiece has hands.