A monologue by Jean-Pierre Martinez
You have to expect anything in life. Be prepared. In the morning, you wake up. Like every day. You never know if it might not be the last morning of your life. Well, there are times when you can suspect it a bit, right…? Like when you can’t even get out of bed anymore. When you’re suffering from a long illness, a long illness that’s more towards its end, you see, and the hospital chaplain happened to pass by to ask if you really needed anything. Then, you think that if it’s not for today, at least it won’t be long. When you’re about to jump out of an airplane in mid-flight, looking up at the sky so you don’t see what’s below, and you imagine what would happen if the parachute didn’t open. So, you check one last time that the ring isn’t stuck. That the fabric isn’t torn. That by mistake, you’re not about to leap into the void with your sleeping bag. Even if you’re not religious, you make the sign of the cross just in case. It can’t do any harm. And then, with all shame aside, you can always decide not to jump. Stay in the plane, ring the flight attendant, and order a whiskey. While waiting for the plane to land smoothly. Or crash. But all together. When you’re a matador, and you’re about to kill six bulls in a row, from five to seven. And if one of them doesn’t see eye to eye on this? Without further ado, the ox that he almost became might revolt. How long will you survive in this open-air slaughter? Since the dawn of time, killing to live is a risky job. In the death row corridor, when you hear footsteps behind the door in the wee hours, and room service brings you a continental breakfast on a tray, served on fine china, instead of the usual dishwater in a tin cup. Then, you know you have to check out of the room before noon, that the bill will arrive soon, and you won’t escape it. When you bungee jump, and you know the cord could snap. When you snap and jump without a cord. When you hook up with a condom and it snaps. When you snap and hook up without a condom. When you wake up in the morning, and you no longer know why. When you think that living would be surviving it. When you’d rather die for something than live for nothing. When you’re starving, you already weigh nothing, and there’s no other way. When you’ve been told too many times to go hang yourself. Yes. There are times when you can suspect there won’t be a next time. And then there are times when you don’t see it coming. Times when you leave as you came. By accident. Where you die as you lived. Foolishly. Times when you pass away by chance. Without notice. When you die by mistake. Without an announcement. One day you wake up in the morning, and there won’t be any more. And you don’t know it. There are times when you die without warning.
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A sketch from the collection Like a fish in the air
Link to the collection for free download (PDF)
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