Mark
and Deena
by
Per Jespersen
Mark and Deena
were sometimes invited to dinner in Dolphia’s apartment. But it did not happen
very often, as Dolphia was always extremely occupied, painting. Deena spent
much of her time helping Dolphia preparing the colours she used for her
painting. Always red colours, as she always painted sunsets.
As soon as Deena
entered her apartment Dolphia yelled, “Hurry up. I need some red colour.”
“You always do,”
Deena yelled back.
“So you know –
then why are you so late?”
“There’s
something called school, Dolphia.
“What is that?”
“Well, it’s not
so easy to explain. Its a place in which you learn.”
“Do you learn to
prepare the red colours?”
“No, not really.”
“Then I won’t give
a dime for that school.”
“And when you
were small, Dolphia – didn’t you go to school sometimes?”
“Well, sometimes
– but it never grew a habit.”
“But your sunsets
are a habit of yours.”
“I’m not the one
to blame, that the sun sets every day. It makes me sad.”
“But it gets up
in the morning again.”
“It’s not the
same.”
Deena worked
really hard with the colours. She liked it, because she liked Dolphia very
much, although she knew that she was not quite normal. Mark and she often
talked about that in the evenings. “I like her,” Deena said.
“Because she is
not normal?”
“In a way yes. I
do hate ordinary people.”
“What do you mean
by ordinary?”
“Well, you know
that, don’t you. People who do what other people do.”
“Listen”, Mark said.
„It’s the ordinary
people who makes the world go round. Without them everything would stop.”
“So what,” Deena
said. “Let’s stop for a while. The world does not have to develop all the time.
We need a stand still.”
“For what?”
“Contemplation.”
“Oh, Mr. Smith
told us that. And you bought it. Can you imagine a world, in which all people
are sitting on mountain tops meditating?”
“No, not all the
time. But we all need time for thinking. Ordinary people don’t have much time
for that. They fool around 60 hours a week.”
“To make money,
Deena. Nobody can do without money.”
“Who got that
crazy idea?”
“I think it was
the Romans – or maybe the Sumerians. I find it a pretty good idea.”
“Then ask
Dolphia,” Deena said. “Ask her what she thinks about money.”
“She doesn’t know
what it is. She just knows what painting sunsets is.”
They thought for
a while. Was Dolphia’s world really that simple? Did she not know anything
about the world around her. They decided to ask her one day.
That day came
sooner than they had imagined. Two days later she invited the children for
dinner, and as they were sitting around the table looking at the strange meal,
Dolphia had made: spaghetti and porridge, they wondered again. Why did they
like her so much? And why was Deena always talking about her? Normally she was
totally silent in school, except in Mr. Smith’s lessons and when they visited
Dolphia or were alone.
“I can’t figure
it out,” Mark said. “You are my sister, and sometimes I don’t understand you.”
“Boys don’t
understand much,” Dolphia smiled.
“And what about
painters,” Mark said.
“I don’t know
about painters. I only know about artists. That’s something else. And we do
feel a lot. We practice our art through emotions and intuition.”
“What about
thinking,” Deena said.
“It’s so exhausting,
“ Dolphia said. “You make me tired just by mentioning the word.”
“What do you
think about money,” Mark said.
“What? Money.
It’s something you never have. I have painted so many sunsets, and I don’t get
a penny for them.”
“That’s because
you won’t sell.”
“Why should I
sell the best things I have? Wouldn’t that be crazy?”
“You need a
living.”
“I do live. Some
people bring me food, and you buy things for me.”
“For money,”
Deena said. “Without it you can’t live.”
“Well so be it –
but I’m not dependent on it.”
And that was
right. Dolphia never thought about money. She had inherited a fortune, but
didn’t really appreciate it. Therefore, Deena said, “If you hadn’t inherited
this huge fortune of yours, you would have to work.”
Dolphia laughed.
“Can you imagine me working at a factory or something?”
The childen
laughed. No, they could not imagine. But Deena had an idea: “Maybe you could
come to our school and teach the students to paint.”
“I never set foot
on a school. They can come here, if they want me.”
Maybe she should
not have said that, because Deena said, “I’ll see to that. I’ll call you to
morrow.”
The next day
Dolphia’s cell phone rang, and she rushed around to find it, until she finally
heard it under her pillow. It was Deena, “We’ll be there in an hour.”
“What?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith
said, it was a good idea, and he loves your sunsets.”
“And that means?”
“That we’ll be
there, so you’d better prepare.”
An hour later the
whole class came singing down the street together with Mr. Smith. They stopped
outside Dolphia’s apartment and started to cry, “Dolphia, Dolphia – we are here
for you.”
She opened the
window, dressed up in the most ugly clothes Deena had ever seen and with a hat
as big as the queen’s hat.
“I’m here,” she
sang. “I hope you brought something delicious.”
“We did,” they
yelled back. “We have twenty burgers.”
“Burgers? What is
that?”
“Never mind,”
Mark cried. “It’s a new invention. But it’s pretty good.”
They all spent an
hour with Dolphia who talked and talked about sunsets and red colours and
danced around them, as if she was a dancing queen. Mark and Deena laughed, so
they could not stop. This was too crazy, but they noticed, that Mr. Smith was
very interested in one of the paintings.”
“What do you
think, sir,” Dolphia asked.
“It’s amazing. What’s
the price,” he asked.
“For what?”
“The sunset.”
“You can see a
sunset every evening, as far as I know.”
“I mean for the
painting.”
“Oh, that’s
charming. You’re really a gentleman. I’ll pay you a hundred.”
Now Deena broke
in. “No Dolphia, you are not supposed to pay. Mr. Smith is.”
“I don’t care. If
you’ll hang it up in the building, in which there are so many children coming
to learn – I won’t mention the name – I’ll pay two hundred.”
“Done,” Mr. Smith
said, shaking his head and asking Deena, “Is she always like that?”
“Sure,” Deena
said. “That’s what I like, and she has helped me and my brother a lot.”
“I know,” he
said.” You once had some serious troubles, and I did wonder how you got rid of
the whole thing. I see now. Ordinary people can’t handle those sort of
problems.”
“You’re a
sweetheart,” Deena said and kissed his cheek.
“No kissing in
this house,” Dolphia screamed. “It makes me disturbed.”
“Can you be more
dis ---- ?” Mark did not finish his sentence. “Sorry Deena. I didn’t mean to.”
But they had all
learnt a lot. Existentialistic problems cannot be solved by ordinary people.
As Deena put it
on their way home. “Ordinarity is the real disturbance”.
“How profound you
are,” Mark said. “We’ll talk about it in Mr. Smith’s next lesson.”
“What did you
say,” Dolphia yelled out of the window.”
“You are crazy,”
Deena and Mark yelled.
“That’s the best
compliment I’ve ever had,” Dolphia screamed, losing her hat.
“I’ll take it,”
Mark said politely.
“Doesn’t matter,”
Dolphia yelled back. “I have another one. Give it to Mr.Smith.”
The whole class
went home, laughing, but also wondering about how different people could be. So
they all turned around, yelling at Dolphia’s window in chorus, “We will come
back. We will come back.”
But Dolphia did
not hear. She was already preparing for the next painting.
Questions to
discuss:
Deena speaks
about ordinary people. She seems to feel a kind of contempt for them.
What does it mean
to be ordinary?
Is Mark right in
saying, that ordinary people makes the world go round?
Do you know
people who are very much different from others?
The two children
talk about development.
Why does mankind
develop new things all the time?
Is development
necessary? Try to explain.
How do you think
our world will develop in this millennium?
Deena says that
we need to stop for a while.
What do you
think?
Does this count
for the single human being as well: that we need to stop and contemplate
sometimes?
Meditation has
grown modern again. Why?
Have you tried?
The children also
talk about money.
What is your
attitude to money? Try to explain.
How would the
world be without money?
Has money and
development anything to do with each other? Explain!
Dolphia is an
artist.
What is art? Try
to give a definition.
Is art important
for the modern society?
Has art anything
to do with money?
What kind of
necessity does art possess?