Characters:

JITKA – an actress, over seventy years old for more than seven years
KRYŠTOF – Jitka's son, an unresolved autistic, often expresses himself in poems, not always with seventeen syllables
MIREK – former entrepreneur, former actor, hotel maintenance worker, lifeguard, author, director, etc.
STRIGA – Mirek's daughter, experiments with sex, drip irrigation, and sustainable development

 

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KRYŠTOF: If you don’t change your habits, mom, there’s a high chance your hearing will worsen. That would be unpleasant. Specifically in your case.

JITKA: What’s specific about my case?

KRYŠTOF: If hearing loss is added to the decline of brain functions, we’ll have a serious problem.

JITKA: My brain functions are declining?

KRYŠTOF: Undoubtedly.

JITKA: (Jitka is affected by the answer, taking a moment to process it) Even if… at seventy, that’s common.

KRYŠTOF: At your age, it’s even more common. Memory lapses are increasing. It could manifest as age-related sclerosis, senility, or Alzheimer’s...

JITKA: (Trying to lighten the subject) I don’t know that guy, so it can’t manifest in me.

KRYŠTOF: Most people don’t notice the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Memory lapses are marginal, and the inability to concentrate is usually attributed to fatigue or insomnia.

JITKA: I sleep terribly, that’s true. I’ll start taking those pills again. When I get a good night’s sleep, everything controlled by the brain works much better.

KRYŠTOF: There’s nothing that isn’t controlled by the brain. In the human body. Jellyfish, for example, have it differently.

JITKA: I’m talking about intellectual activity. Working on a role. Or podcasting.

KRYŠTOF: Invite Tereza as a guest on your podcast.

JITKA: Who is Tereza?

KRYŠTOF: Our new neighbor. The daughter of your friend Rýdl. Tereza is her name only on paper. Everyone calls her Striga. Her mother was a Slovak from Revúca. We met in the elevator. With Striga, not her mother. She died of cancer. I offered my condolences.

JITKA: What do you find interesting about Striga?

KRYŠTOF: She doesn’t try to please, she can surprise… when she gets nervous, she talks like a sailor. The vulgarities could be cut out in post-production.

JITKA: How old is she?

KRYŠTOF: I didn’t ask. I’d say she’s younger than Gizela. She has longer legs. Thicker hair. She doesn’t wear a bra.

JITKA: Amazing observation – all that in a few seconds in the elevator!

KRYŠTOF: She stood in my personal space. Sixty… (after a short pause) … fifty-five centimeters away from me. It was impossible not to notice her secondary sexual traits and individual peculiarities.

JITKA: What other peculiarities did you notice about her?

KRYŠTOF: When she talks, the tip of her nose moves.

JITKA: What did she talk about?

KRYŠTOF: About how she likes to experiment. About random sex – she doesn’t practice it. About sustainable development – she advocates it. About a divining rod.

JITKA: The girl has a rich repertoire!

KRYŠTOF: She’s anti-system. Rules stress her out. She also mentioned my father.

JITKA: What did she say?

KRYŠTOF: That he produced lobotomized entertainment.

JITKA: Lobotomized?!

KRYŠTOF: She used it in a figurative sense. She meant dull, thoughtless entertainment.

JITKA: I know what she meant, you don’t have to translate for me. That cheeky witch!

KRYŠTOF: It’s not her opinion. She got it from her parents.

JITKA: And here we are!

KRYŠTOF: Mom…

JITKA: I told you so! Mirek…

(Kryštof forms his hands into a "T" to signal that he wants to interject. However, Jitka is on a roll and unstoppable.)

JITKA: Rýdl is bitter, vain, self-centered, and conceited, and his… Why do you think he married a Slovak woman? From Revúca! I’ll tell you why: he always had to have special privileges! He wanted to be original! Like when he wrote that one-man show about a mute speaker… there was nothing in it except for the desire for originality!