Your Day

[DAHL]
How was your day?

[RACH]
My day?

[DAHL]
Did you get any writing done?

[RACH]
Writing?

[DAHL]
Writing

[RACH]
No

[DAHL]
Describe your day

[RACH]
Describe my day

My day
My day began with waking
I suppose
I don't remember it clearly
The moment I woke up
My memory is vague
I know I lay in bed
Staring at Natalya
In the beginning sunlight
And then I remember waking again and she was gone
She snuck out
She sometimes does that
Lets me sleep
And that was the first hour

(Music begins, based on the first 8 bars of the Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, op. 18.)

And then I lay there
For an hour
Doing nothing
Stretching my muscles
Staring at the ceiling
Staring at the day
And that was the second hour

Then I went to the kitchen
We have a Bialetti
It's a…it's a percolator I guess?
It makes espresso
The water is stored in a little tank below
And it boils
And goes up through the coffee grounds
And above, then there is coffee
I had to clean it out from the day before
The coffee collects into a little patty
Which I threw out
And then rinsed it all with warm water
And filled it with cold water
And placed in the coffee and patted it down
Very tenderly and delicately
So the coffee wouldn't spill over
And I spent so much time on this
On being careful and clean

And I think I put on music
Maybe a Beethoven record
Or Gordon Lightfoot…first it was Gordon Lightfoot
My mother used to listen to him
I know he's not cool
But he brings back a fond feeling
And I waited for the coffee

And I made an egg
In a cast iron pan
And I grated cheese over it with a new cheese grater
Salt, pepper
A piece of toast
Butter
And that was the third hour

And then I lay down in bed again
And that was the fourth hour

And then I lay down in bed again
And that was the fifth hour

Then I decided to start
To start my day
Really start
Wake up wake up wake up
Become presentable
Able to accomplish things
And I started towards the toilet
To wash

And I think I stopped at the chessboard
Stopped at the Queen's Knight
He had nowhere to go
And that was the sixth hour

Then I went to the toilet
I brushed my teeth
I stepped into the shower
I kept the water a bit cool
Afterward I trimmed my beard
And the hairs get everywhere
So
It took a while to clean that up
We don't have servants
We're not rich
You know
Money is a worry
And that was the seventh hour

So it's three o'clock now
School's getting out
I haven't really eaten lunch
And I've been inside all day
The windows are open but the air is still different inside
And it's bright out there
I feel itchy and clammy
Cooped up
And I think how good it would be to go out
How good to walk in the park
How good to just go, anywhere
See children
Married couples
Old men
Dogs
Squirrels and birds
And trees
And that was the eighth hour

And
And
I know if I could write three short piano pieces
I could get a payment
And that would help
And I think
I think maybe some of those activities went on a bit longer
So really we are at the ninth hour
And that was the ninth hour

And I read a book
I think
Or, I read a little bit of a few books
Books I really love
I stared at the shelf for a while
And tried to find ones I had forgotten about
And I looked at a poem
And then I sat at the piano
And I played a Bach 2-Part Invention
F minor
Though, not very well
I practiced the arpeggios at the end a bit
Got it up to speed
And then I was so tired
And that was tenth hour

And then I lay down in bed again
And that was the eleventh hour

Oh, oh, and all day too…
All through the day
I was reading letters
Little notes that came in from booking agents
Touring managers
About a concert in Lisbon or Helsinki
And I read the news
And various journals
And tried to keep up
And I wrote a few letters back
Threw many others away
This I did all though the day
So many minutes were spent with this
Spent on other people
Obligation
A prompt reply
A professional—
An in-control—
A sane way of doing things
So many minutes
On these worthless things
So now we are at the twelfth hour?
Must be
And that was the twelfth hour

And then Natalya came home
And I left
And came here
And that was the thirteenth hour

And this is fourteenth hour

And then I'll go home in the fifteenth hour

And then I'll talk to Natalya a bit
Find out about her day
And that will be the sixteenth hour

And then I'll go to sleep
For eight hours
And those hours are easy

______________________

[DAHL]
How long have your days been like this?

[RACH]
Three years

[DAHL]
That is a long time

[RACH]
I know

[DAHL]
What happened three years ago?

[RACH]
Nothing

(RACHMANINOFF begins playing the Prelude in C# minor, op. 3, no. 2. RACH walks to the piano and slams the lid closed.)