- gooseberries, she said. I said again I thought it was hopeless and no good going on and she agreed, without opening her eyes. [Pause.] 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. I bent over her to get them in the shadow and they opened. [Pause. Low.] Let me in. [Pause.] We drifted in among the flags and stuck. The way they went down, sighing before the stem! [Pause.] I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side.
[Pause. Krapp's lips move. No sound.]
Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited.
[Pause.]
Here I end this real. Box – [Pause.] – three, spool – [Pause.] – five. [Pause.] Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. now with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.
[Krapp motionless staring before him. The tape runs on in silence.]
