224
JU ,LES
FEIFFER
COHN: In this life. But in another life maybe I was Abe and you
were Cohn.
ABE: It's possible. Anything's possible.
COHN: Or that I was Mozart and you were Thomas Jefferson?
ABE: It's unlikely. But it's possible.
COHN: Or that I was Moses and you were Christ.
ABE: It's possible.
COHN: Abe, I'm going to give you a chance to listen to what you
just said: It's possible you were Christ.
ABE: I didn't say probable. I said possible.
COHN: And it's possible that if I rub this lamp a genie will come
out?
ABE:
All
I'm saying is we don't know, do we? (COHN
rubs the lamp)
COHN: Now we know.
ABE: I beg your pardon, we know about one lamp. We don't know
about all lamps. Also we don't know that a genie
didn't
come out.
We don't know that there isn't a genie in this room this very mo–
ment. And that he isn't saying "Master, I am the genie of the lamp
and I have three wishes to grant you and anything you wish
will
come true." Maybe he's there and maybe we've been taught how
not to see genies in our time. Or hear them. Or take advantage
when they offer us three wishes. That's all I'm saying. That it could
be us, not him.
COHN: Who?
ABE: The genie.
COHN: Abe, if I had three wishes you know what would be my first
wish? That instead of you to talk to, to drive me crazy for another
twenty years, I had somebody with a brain I could talk to! That's
what I wish!
(A sudden explosion engulfs
ABE.
The smoke clears
and sitting in his place is a bearded wiseman in robes. He holds
a clipboard and a pen.)
WISEMAN: Name?!
COHN:
(shaken)
Cohn.
WISEMAN:
(checks the clipboard)
That's right - Cohn. Occupa-
tion? !
COHN: Musician.
WISEMAN:
(smiles)
Musician. Where are you a musician, Cohn?
COHN: At the present I am unemployed.
