LEVON› You think GOD takes shit from anyone, Sarah?
SARAH› That’s sacrilegious!
LEVON› Is it? Isn’t that what the Old Testament is really about? Isn’t that what the Book of Job says? I AM GOD AND I DON’T TAKE SHIT FROM ANYBODY! I DON’T EVEN TAKE _QUESTIONS_!
SARAH› That’s awful!
LEVON› But true, yes? God in the Bible is sort of like Don Corleone, isn’t he? He makes people offers they can’t refuse. And minor bosses like Pharaoh have faith in their own power, and they wake up with a horse head in their bed. Or locusts. It’s all the same.
SARAH› I can’t believe you’re writing this. Aren’t you afraid?
LEVON› Of what? A lightning bolt? Now that I think of it, God isn’t really like Don Corleone. He’s more like a film director. We think we’re his actors. We think he’s in charge of us, that he has a Plan, that he wants good things for us. That he is slowly working toward some divinely inspired vision that we actors are too dim-witted to see. We think that’s why we exist. But that isn’t it at all, Sarah. We exist because GOD WANTS AN AUDIENCE. What’s the point of being the Alpha and the Omega, the be-all and end-all, if there’s no one around to applaud? No one to cower in fear or kneel in supplication? Once in a while God shouts like Bob Barker: “SARAH! COME ON DOWN!” And we think we matter for a while. But God is the only actor, Sarah. That is the secret. We are the audience.
“This guy’s scary,” I say under my breath.
“Shut up, Cole. This is a forensic gold mine.”
“Was Miles at EROS when you called?”
“That was him on the phone.”
I feel a sudden release of tension, an inexplicable gladness that Miles cannot possibly be the man behind “Levon.” Already the prompt looks different to me.
SARAH› I think that kind of talk
LEVON› What? Don’t be afraid to speak.
SARAH› It’s what the Devil would say! To confuse me!
LEVON› You think I’m Lucifer, Sarah?
SARAH› Maybe you are.
LEVON› I’m flattered. Did you know that Lucifer is Latin for ‘light-bringer’? Something to think about.
SARAH› Are you trying to scare me?
LEVON› It would probably frighten you more if I told you I know your real name and address.
“He’s never done that,” I tell Lenz. “He’s
“Shut up, Cole!”
SARAH› This isn’t right.
LEVON› Calm down, Sarah. I was only joking.
SARAH› I don’t like it. I’m frightened. How do I know you don’t know my name?
LEVON› Everyone’s protected on EROS, Sarah. That’s what we pay all the money for. I just wanted you to feel my strength. To know I mean it when I say I do not take abuse from anyone. And I think you need someone like me. Someone who could take care of you. Protect you.
SARAH› You make me sound so weak.
LEVON› We all have needs, Sarah.
SARAH› What do you need?
LEVON› Love.
SARAH› What kind of love?
LEVON› Unselfish love. The love that a good mother gives her child. Could you love someone like that?
SARAH› I think I could. I have a lot of love to give.
LEVON› I sense that, Sarah.
SARAH› I’m not beautiful, Levon. I want to tell you that now, because I couldn’t bear to go further and have you building up all kinds of expectations I couldn’t fulfill. I mean, I’m not fat or anything. I’m about five- seven, a hundred and twenty-five pounds.
LEVON› You don’t have to tell me this, Sarah.
SARAH› I want to. I _have_ to. I’m forty-six years old. My hair is brown, a little mousy maybe, but I have really good skin.
LEVON› You’re a healthy girl, aren’t you?
SARAH› I take care of myself, if that’s what you mean. All I’m trying to say is that I don’t look like Cindy Crawford or anything. But I’m not unattractive. I mean I get asked out at work and everything.
LEVON› Do you accept?
SARAH› Not often. I’m sort of skittish about dating. I got hurt by someone a while back, and I don’t think I’m completely over it.
LEVON Someone at work? A superior?
SARAH› How did you know?
LEVON› A married man.
SARAH› Yes. Though it still hurts to admit it. I feel so guilty about his wife and children. He said he loved me. But he just wanted
LEVON› To use you.
SARAH› Yes. I felt so dirty. Sometimes it seems my whole life has been like that. I try to have faith in men, but it just never works out.
LEVON› You are unstained, Sarah. You cannot be dirtied by such men.
SARAH› It makes me feel nice when you say that.
LEVON› It is but the truth.
SARAH› I don’t want you to get the idea that I have something against sex or anything. I mean, from what I said about my skittishness. I mean, I feel strange writing this, but I do get stared at a lot. I mean, because of- Well, men stare at my chest. I’m fairly well endowed in the bosom department. Not that they’re huge or anything, but I never had kids, you know, and so they’re still, well, firm and high. I’m not conceited about it. I don’t even like them sometimes. It’s like people don’t see me because of them, you know? It alienates female friends too. But I mean, for the right man, if he liked that and all, it might be nice for both of us. Would you like that?
LEVON› The needs of the body are secondary to me, Sarah.
SARAH› Oh. You mean, like sex isn’t that big a deal to you?
LEVON› On the contrary. Sex is of primary importance.
SARAH› I’m not sure I understand.
LEVON› I speak of a passion you have yet to experience. Spiritual, refined, prolonged sexual union, a melding of heart and mind and flesh. A marriage of the sacred and the profane.
SARAH› Wow. That sounds, I don’t know, poetical or something.
LEVON› But my time has ended for tonight, Sarah. I must go now.
SARAH› Oh. Will you be back tomorrow?
LEVON› Perhaps. I am never far away. Remember, you are far stronger than you believe yourself to be. You need no one.
SARAH› I think I need you. I mean it. Can you tell me some more about this spiritual sex? I mean, like describe it?
LEVON› I must go now, Sarah. When you most need me, I will be there.
SARAH› I’ll be waiting.
LEVON› I know you will. Good-bye.
SARAH› Bye. And thank you.
