TRISTAN RUFFE: (rasped) “Jonah!”

The faulty door opened immediately, and the young boy came inside. The darned shirt hung off his shoulders, a thin, worn-out belt held his too short pants. The boy had no shoes. His skinny feet were filthy, red and cracked. He had bright hair, chopped apparently with unsharp scissors. His gentle, but grimy face looked concerned.

JONAH: “Yes, master Tristan?”

TRISTAN RUFFE (muttering) “It’s terribly cold here. Would you do something about it?”

JONAH: (embarrassed) “I’m just sweeping out the furnace, but sir… there is nothing to burn with.”

TRISTAN RUFFE (grumbling) “Then why are you sweeping?”

Tristan stood up. He staggered on the rough floor. He opened the chest of drawers and started to rake it. When he failed to search again, he grabbed one of the shirts and trousers and put them on. He threw the rest of the clothes at Jonah’s feet.

TRISTAN RUFFE: “There, sell it. Buy some wood and spend the change for the liquor. Is there anything to eat?”

JONAH: “Not much, sir.”

TRISTAN RUFFE: “Then buy some bread, too.”

JONAH: “What should I buy less for there’s enough money for the food?”

TRISTAN RUFFE: “The wood, you foolish boy! And hurry.”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “Take it, Peter.”

The boy looked at his sister’s trophy in the dimmed light.

PETER SAFRAN: (disappointed) “Only two? “Is that all you earned?”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “I am sorry, brother. He does not even know that I kept that money.”

KATHERINA SAFRAN: “We asked you so many times to leave him. He almost does not pay you, why do you insist to stay his servant?”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: (mumbled, embarrassed) “Sister, he does not have anyone else. If only you knew him! He is a valuable man!”

PETER SAFRAN: “But he does not give you money for your honest work!”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “It is not a very good time for him now”.

PETER SAFRAN: “Oh, and it is the best time for us!”

Johanna looked at their second brother, a groggy seven-years-old Thaddäus, who lying under the pile of blankets, was slowly dying of tuberculosis. The girl snuffled loudly.

PETER SAFRAN: “Sorry, I did not mean to be so… rude.”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: (crying, she tried to joke) “We are not in a manor, after all.”

KATHARINA SAFRAN: (sobbing slightly) “If only mum heard that. She would have beat you both. Our home is a fairy-tale palace as long as we all love each other.”

ADAM SAFRAN: “Johanna… ask the master for the money. Maybe he forgot!”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “Oh, Adam. Come here, darling.”

She reached her hands to her little brother, placed him on her laps and started to stroke his bright hair.

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “I am worried that he would be angry when I remind him to pay me. I would not want to lose his friendship in a world.”

PETER SAFRAN: “You cannot eat friendship… But neither my working with the lumberjack.”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “He was a bad man, who did not want to pay you from the beginning. You couldn’t help it and you worked really hard and scrupulously.”

PETER SAFRAN: “I am worried about Thad. Nothing helps him.”

Having released Adam, she crawled to his older brother and put her skinny hand on his forehead.

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “Not much can treat such a nasty disease. He is so cold…”

KATHARINA SAFRAN: “We were thinking about…mmm…”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “Yes? Speak, darling.”

KATHARINA SAFRAN: “But not be mad, we really thought it through…”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: (impatient) “Just say it already!”

KATHARINA SAFRAN: (a little scared) “Maybe me and Adam should go to the docks or at the church… You know, to beg for alms.”

PETER SAFRAN: “We know what you think about it, Johanna, it is shameful even for us, but…”

JOHANNA SAFRAN: “Alright” (pause) “Alright. It looks like we have no other choice.”