MS-HRC-SB-5-4

[0262] (KRAPP switches off, winds tape back,
switches on again)

[0263] - upper lake, with the punt, bathed off the bank,
then pushed out into the stream and drifted.[0264] She lay
stretched out on the floorboards with her hands under
her head and her eyes closed.[0265] Sun blazing down, bit of
a breeze, water nice and lively.[0266] I noticed a scratch on
her thigh and asked her how she came by it.

[0267] Picking
gooseberries, she said.[0268] I said again I thought it was
hopeless and no good going on and she agreed, without
opening her eyes.[0269] (pause)[0270] I asked her to look at me
and after a few moments - (pause) - after a few
moments she did, but the eyes just slits, because of the
glare.[0271] I bent over her to get them in the shadow and
they opened.

[0272] (Pause.[0273] Low):

[0274] Let me in.[0275] (pause)[0276] We drifted in among the flags
and stuck.[0276|001] (head gradually down)[0277] The way they went
down, sighing, before the stem![0278] (pause)[0279] I lay down
across her with my face in her breasts and my hand
on her.[0280] We lay there without moving.[0281] But under us
all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and
from side to side.

[0282] (Pause)

[0283] Past midnight.[0284] Never knew -

[0285] (KRAPP switches off, broods.[0286] Finally
he gets up and goes backstage into dark-
ness.[0287] Ten seconds.[0288] Sound of bottle
against glass, then brief siphon.[0289] Ten
seconds.[0290] Bottle against glass
alone.[0291] Ten seconds.

[0292] He comes back a
little unsteadily into light, carrying mic-
rophone, lays it on table, takes reels
from tape-recorder, lays them on
dictionary, takes virgin reels from
drawer, loads them on tape-recorder,
plugs in mike, sits, takes envelope from
pocket, consults it, lays it on dictionary,
adjusts position of mike, concentrates,
clears throat, switches on, records)

[0293] Just been listening to that stupid bastard I took
myself for thirty years ago, hard to believe I was