Stranger 2
Stranger 2 left me heavy with the gravity of her stories; I was so emotionally affected by our time together. She lived alone in an apartment cluttered with stories. Walking into the cloud of incense felt like entering a new world. It was overwhelming. My senses worked overtime, trying soak in every ornament, intoxicated by the artificial scent, negotiating that all-important initial conversation. In the first 15 minutes, I found myself cross-legged on the edge of her [floor mattress] as she told me of her parent’s struggle with dementia, and how she’d “given birth to an angel” years ago. It was so used to feeling connected to someone through socially premature emotional intimacy that I didn’t stop to realise how burdened I felt. As she heated up dinner, I opened the envelope addressed to me; a poem she’d written. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I read her revelations on my project, concepts I’d felt, but been unable to articulate formed page after page of poetry written by stranger 2 in her anticipation of my arrival. She apologised for making me cry. Vegetarian lasagna, beetroot juice. We shared stories through a collaborative craft project sprawled on the lounge-room floor; winding together our lives with string and coloured paper storytelling. When I was sure I’d had my fill of meaningful discussion, she divulged the most evocative recount of the birth of her stillborn child. I wept - openly, continuously - as she described cradling her blue baby, singing to him, wanting to hold him forever. I hugged her; because my heart ached, because I didn’t have the words and I felt I should be comforting her, despite her even composure and my heaving breaths. Before we turned in for the night, she sung to me – a Nina Simone song she barely knew the words to. I tossed and turned that night. I felt the weight of her stories, a pressure to create a performance in honour of the emotional vulnerability offered and by the growing sense that each of her stories had been curated to create an impact. I’d asked to be affected, affected I was.
I performed for stranger 2 on the 8th of April 2017 at PACT centre for emerging artists.
