Elek. What are you thinking about?
Seleia. I was thinking about swimming to that sandbar.
Elek. You should.
Seleia. How far do you think it is?
Elek. I don’t know. Fifty yards?
Seleia. Yeah, you’re probably right.
Elek. Do you think you can make it?
Seleia. I’m pretty sure I can, but look at the water.
Elek. What about it?
Seleia. It’s dark. It makes me feel uneasy. I keep on thinking of things unseen between here and the sandbar. I’m actually afraid to go out there. Can you believe it?
Elek. It makes sense, but I don’t think anything’s out there in the water. At least anything consequential.
Seleia. I keep imagining myself swimming through clear, deep blue water. I look down, but then I’m afraid of what I can’t see beyond the deep blue. I feel there will be something that will appear from under me, and I am absolutely helpless to do anything. I know the water’s grey here, but I’m feeling the same sort of fear inside me. It’s keeping from my going out there, to the sandbar.
Elek. I’ll swim with you, if you like.
Seleia. I thought about asking you, but the fear is still strong. I wouldn’t want to go even if you swam with me.
Elek. Why don’t I just go out there, and you can watch?
Seleia. Elek?
Elek. Yeah?
Seleia. I feel like I’m crumbling.
End. Crumbling into the Ocean

Levente. Hello, my friend.
Sander. Hello.
Levente. Is there something you like?
Sander. How much is this one?
Levente. For you, my friend. Thirty dollars.
Sander. That’s a little too much, I think.
Levente. Then how much do you want it for? You are a nice person. Give me a price. Any price.
Sander. I would be happy to buy this watch for fifteen.
Levente. Fifteen? Fifteen? No, no. I need to feed my family. Fifteen is too low.
Sander. What do you think, then? What price will make us both happy?
Levente. For you, my friend. I will cut ten off and give it to you for twenty.
Sander. Give it to me for eighteen, and I’ll be happy.
Levente. I will give it to you for nineteen.
Sander. Eighteen would be nice.
Levente. It’s just one more dollar. You can afford one dollar. I’m very poor. One dollar means more to me than it does to you.
Sander. Since you ask for nineteen, and I ask for eighteen, let’s meet in the middle. Eighteen fifty.
Levente. Half a dollar. Nineteen.
Sander. We will both be happy with eighteen fifty. I get a watch, you get eighteen fifty.
Levente. Nineteen is not much more.
Sander. You are my friend. Let’s be friends. Eighteen fifty is where we both can meet, don’t you think?
Levente. Okay, okay. Eighteen fifty.
Sander. Thank you, my friend.
End. Meeting at Fifty

Reka. How well do you know Beatta?
Tasuro. Beatta? I don’t know. I know her, she knows me. We haven’t really gotten into any real conversations. Why?
Reka. I saw her yesterday, and we were talking about you.
Tasuro. Yeah?
Reka. But she was talking about you as if you two were really old friends. I was a little confused.
Tasuro. What was she saying?
Reka. Just what a really sincere guy you were.
Tasuro. Maybe she just a good judge of character.
Reka. It made me sick really, the way she talked about you. She has this utmost admiration for you, but she shouldn’t.
Tasuro. I don’t know if I should be offended by that.
Reka. You don’t deserve her admiration. You never really talked to her. How can she know what kind of person you are?
Tasuro. Oh, we did talk about one thing.
Reka. What was it about?
Tasuro. We actually had a light argument about “American Beauty”
Reka. Oh really?
Tasuro. She was saying that “American Beauty” was a perfect example of American suburban life, while I was saying that the example was too perfect where it was not real, but then she said that that was the point, that it was a spoof on American suburban life. I acknowledged the spoof then countered that the spoof itself tried too hard to incorporate everything that’s wrong with suburban life, that it was too general, thus making Kevin Spacey’s character watered down and impersonal, and at least to me, unlikable, which was unfortunate because I really like Kevin Spacey as an actor.
Reka. I do too. He was amazing in “L.A. Confidential.” He should have won Best Supporting Actor that year.
Tasuro. Who won?
Reka. Robin Williams for “Good Will Hunting.”
Tasuro. Which is why I don’t watch the Oscars.
Reka. So that’s the only conversation you had?
Tasuro. What conversation?
Reka. With Beatta.
Tasuro. Oh yeah.
End. Argument So Light

Uncle Gellert. Hey there, Antal.
Antal. Hi, Uncle Gellert.
Uncle Gellert. Your dad tells me that you’re about to mow the lawn.
Antal. Yeah. I have to do it every Saturday before I can play with my friends.
Uncle Gellert. When I was your age, I had to mow the lawn too. I was the only one who mowed the lawn though. Your father has allergies, so he used that as an excuse not to mow the lawn.
Antal. Yeah, Dad’s allergies are pretty bad.
Uncle Gellert. You’ve been to Granddad’s house, right?
Antal. Yeah.
Uncle Gellert. That was the lawn I had to mow when I was your age. The house next door and across the street from the house always had better lawns then we did. Those lawns were always greener, cut straighter, even the edges had a sharpness that my lawn never had. I experimented with different blades, fertilizers, even water schedules, but my lawn would never achieve the level of quality of my neighbors'. Then one day, I bumped into the neighbor across the street from us at a hardware store. He was buying a new blade for his lawn mower. I wanted to go up to him and ask him what his secret was, but I didn’t. You know why I didn’t ask, Antal?
Antal. Why?
End. It’s Just Grass

Bence. Look, did you see that?
Ferenc. What?
Bence. Out there. Did you see the flash of lightning?
Ferenc. Lightning? What is that?
Bence. You must know what lightning is.
Ferenc. You know. My English.
Bence. Okay. Lightning is light from the sky.
Ferenc. Lights in the sky? Airplane?
Bence. No. First, there is a flash of light, then there is thunder. Do you know what thunder is?
Ferenc. No.
Bence. Just wait. It’ll happen again. Look outside. The lightning is far so we can’t hear the thunder.
Ferenc. I’m tired. I sleep now.
Bence. You don’t want to see the lightning?
Ferenc. Maybe another time.
Bence. There it is again. Did you see it?
Ferenc. Lights in the sky? No.
Bence. What about fire in the sky? A line of fire in the sky. Boom.
Ferenc. Fire?
Bence. Never mind. Go to sleep. We’re almost there.
End. Not Knowing Lightning

Yuriko. Let’s see what disgusting things you have in your refrigerator.
Hatsunori. Don’t be misled. They’re all experiments. I’m going to make the perfect cheese.
Yuriko. Hey, one of your onions is growing a stalk. Look at this.
Hatsunori. Ooh, I was going to use that today.
Yuriko. You can you still use it, can’t you?
Hatsunori. I don’t know. Can I?
Yuriko. It’s still an onion, but it’s an onion plant too.
Hatsunori. It feels immoral to use it now, you know? It’s alive. By accident, I’ve created a new life for this onion. I don’t feel I have the right to take it away.
Yuriko. Morals for an onion. Well, I think you should plant it.
Hatsunori. But where?
Yuriko. What about the park?
Hatsunori. Gee, Yuriko. You’re full of ideas, aren’t you?
*Yuriko punches Hatsunori in the arm*
Hatsunori. Ow.
Yuriko. Do you have a trowel?
Hatsunori. No, but I could get one at the hardware store.
Yuriko. You know? I should have planted onions all over my university campus.
Hatsunori. I probably would have helped you.
Yuriko. I would have taken onions from the dining halls and planted them everywhere. I should have done something stupid like that.
Hatsunori. I guess it’s too late now.
Yuriko. Well, let’s go to the hardware store. We’ll plant this one in the park and that’ll be that.
End. The Influence of an Onion

Marten. I stopped my car and told Reka to get out the other day.
Timea. Like Fred Flintstone does to Barney Rubble?
Marten. I made sure I did not yell, and I dropped her off at a subway station so she could go home or wherever she wanted.
Timea. What happened?
Marten. The topic of God came up. I can’t even remember how we started talking about God, but all of the sudden she started to make derogatory remarks about God and how stupid He is. Then, something exploded inside of me. I could not rip my steering wheel out of its column. That’s when I stopped the car and told her to get out.
Timea. What did she do?
Marten. She had this confused sadness in her eyes, but she got out. I was quite firm with her. I really don’t know what came over me. You know me. I believe in God, but I don’t really care which way or the other.
Timea. So why did you tell her to leave?
Marten. Because I was afraid if she remained in the car, I would have swerved into oncoming traffic.
End. Exit Right

Karad. Could you stop doing that please?
Ilona. Stop what?
Karad. Stop pretending to yawn. You’re making me yawn.
Ilona. But it’s the only way I can control you.
Karad. The only way you can control me is to make me yawn?
Ilona. I’ve been trying for months now, but I get nothing out of you. Every command I give you simply brushes by, but I’ve found your weakness. My ability to control your yawning is the key.
Karad. I’ve been saving this for a special occasion. *takes out a card from his pocket and reads* Ilona, we’re just very different people. We’re going in different directions in our lives. I don’t think we should see each other anymore, but we can still be friends.
Ilona. It’s too late. See? *yawns*
Karad. *yawns* What are you doing?
Ilona. The reason why you yawn is because you’re empathetic.
Karad. What does that mean?
Ilona. Unconsciously, you believe that I’m tired so your reaction is to be tired as well, but it doesn’t stop there. *takes out a knife*
Karad. What does stabbing me have to do with yawning?
Ilona. I’m not going to stab you. *takes the knife to her hand and draws blood*
Karad. *Karad winces in pain* What are you doing?
Ilona. Did you notice your reaction? You winced. You unconsciously felt my pain. Do you understand now?
Karad. So is that why my stomach tenses up when I see objects in free fall?
Ilona. Yes. You see something falling and your body reacts as if your body if falling. *starts to cry*
Karad. No, you’re not sad.
Ilona. You can’t fight it. You feel sad don’t you?
Karad. Will you at least give me a hug?
End. Sense of Yawn

Ovidiu. That was odd. Why did he start speaking French to me? Didn’t you hear me say that I wasn’t French?
Magda. But he just asked you if you could speak French.
Ovidiu. And I did. I mean, who doesn’t know that in French?
Magda. But I think when you answered in French that you couldn’t, it threw him off.
Ovidiu. He really wanted me to be French, didn’t he?
Magda. What do you mean?
Ovidiu. My pronouncing our order in French triggered something in him, so he had to ask me if I was French. When I said I wasn’t, he just continued to speak.
Magda. I think it was something about his father.
Ovidiu. I got that too, but he just kept on talking.
Magda. Maybe he needed to talk to someone. To tell someone in his own language about his problems.
Ovidiu. Is that all we need? All we have to do is talk about our problems? Doesn’t it matter if the recipient understands or cares?
Magda. But you pretended you understood.
Ovidiu. Yeah, but he forced me. It would have been rude to ignore him. He trusted me with what he told me, so I had to oblige him.
Ovidiu. He must be very lonely to have told you whatever he told you.
Magda. Yeah, I feel bad for him.
Ovidiu. We should do something.
Magda. I wouldn’t know what to do.
Ovidiu. Here he comes with the wine.
End. Waiter from France