SCENE 3A (OPTIONAL) — LATE AFTERNOON: MANTU’S HISTORY
(MANTU folds cloth. SUBHAS watches him, softer now.)
SUBHAS (to audience):
He has been with my family so long, the walls have learned his footsteps.
He was here when my children were small, my wife was alive.
People think a house assistant is furniture.
They don’t ask what he remembers.
(To MANTU.)
Do you remember the day we brought my son home? From the hospital?
MANTU (surprised):
Yes, Borda.
SUBHAS:
Tell me.
MANTU:
Madam was afraid to hold him.
She said, “What if I break him?”
You said, “Then we will glue him back.”
You laughed. Madam laughed.
And the baby cried like he was angry we were happy without him.
SUBHAS:
Do you think he remembers that?
MANTU:
Maybe not the laugh.
But he remembers safety.
That kind of thing stays.
SUBHAS (to audience, a simple landing):
Safety stays.
And yet the safe place becomes… a place you don’t visit.
because you believe it will always be there. Until it is not.
(Lights shift toward evening.)