The Ride Across Lake Constance and Other Plays by Peter Handke

laugh . BERGNER cautiously puts the handbag on her lap, and with little wiggling movements puts herself into a comfortable position in the fauteuil. She emits a small sound.
    All of them try what it is like to have things on one’s lap, are satisfied, and put the things back in their places. PORTEN shows her naked arm to VON STROHEIM.) You see, I’ve got goose pimples.

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    VON STROHEIM
    Are you … Do you feel—( He stops in time. ) So you have goose pimples, do you? ( He laughs. )
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    ( All laugh as if it were an unpleasant memory . )
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    PORTEN
    Yes, I simply have goose pimples.
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    ( Pause. JANNINGS pulls something out of his upholstered seat. He holds it up and shows it to GEORGE . At the same time, as if unintentionally, with the index finger of the other hand he elongates one eye. GEORGE ignores that, bends toward what JANNINGS has in his hand. )
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    VON STROHEIM
    ( Also turns his head toward JANNINGS . In a playful mood) You have something there. What is it? Nothing special, I assume? Nothing worth mentioning, I hope. There’s no need to talk about it, is there?
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    (BERGNER and PORTEN turn their heads slightly too, but look away again immediately .)
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    JANNINGS
    A pin. ( They all look at it, as though surprised. )
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    VON STROHEIM
    A pin? You don’t mean “the pin”?
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    JANNINGS
    The very one.
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    PORTEN
    And it really exists? It isn’t merely a figure of speech?

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    JANNINGS
    Here, see for yourself.
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    ( He hands the pin to GEORGE, who hands it to VON STROHEIM very matter-of-factly, who hands it to PORTEN . )
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    PORTEN
    It has all turned out to be true. Not even the ruby-red pinhead is missing. It has all come true.
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    VON STROHEIM
    Did you dream about it?
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    PORTEN
    Someone mentioned it in the dream. ( She hands the pin to BERGNER.) When I saw the pin just now, I remembered it again. And I had thought it was also only just another word.
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    GEORGE
    Once someone told me about a corpse with a pinhead-sized wound on his neck. ( Pause. ) ( To JANNINGS) Did you tell me about that?
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    JANNINGS
    I can’t remember. But when you started telling the story, it seemed familiar to me, too.
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    GEORGE
    No, it was a movie. ( Pause .) It was thundering and at the same time fog banks on the village street …
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    BERGNER
    Should I drop it?
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    ( They all become quiet and do not move . She drops the pin.)

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    GEORGE
    ( Negates the effect by speaking again too soon.) Children with lumps of plaster on their eyes—( He breaks off, but it is already too late. However, they only smile, leave the pin where it fell. )
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    VON STROHEIM
    I already told you the story about the lake?
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    PORTEN
    No.
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    ( He looks at BERGNER: she shakes her head tenderly. )
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    JANNINGS
    ( Simultaneously ) No.
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    VON STROHEIM
    Then I probably only thought of it.
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    PORTEN
    Does it have anything to do with the pin?
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    VON STROHEIM
    I was sitting by a lakeshore in the morning and the lake was sparkling. Suddenly I noticed: the lake is sparkling. It is really sparkling.
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    ( Pause .)
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    PORTEN
    Something similar happened to me one time when someone told me that his pockets were empty. “My pockets are empty!” I didn’t believe him and he turned his pockets inside out. They really were empty. Incredible!

    (GEORGE takes a cigar out of the cigar box, then offers the box to JANNINGS , who takes out a cigar. GEORGE strikes a match and hands it to JANNINGS ; he lights his cigar and blows out the match. GEORGE lights himself another match.
    VON STROHEIM takes the red cloth from the table, jumps up with it, walks around with it, shakes it as if he wants to demonstrate it to them. They bend forward, inspect. VON STROHEIM looks around triumphantly. They nod, shake their heads surprised, laugh with delight, slap their thighs with laughter. Exclamations such as “A red cloth, indeed!” “No doubt about