Dude: i nearly died.
Dasch: i can see that you made it.
Dude: it was very close. i swear i could've been somewhere else.
Dasch: you do need to be somewhere else besides your room. maybe it was better that way.
Dude: you don't understand. you don't know what i had to go through. you can't say that if you did.
Dasch: i do have trouble understanding you most of the time. so is other way around. it's how it has been.
Dude: i don't know where i would be if i weren't in this couch. if it wasn't for this couch...
Dasch: your special bond with the couch has never been broken.
Dude: nothing supports me better. i am incomplete without it. in fact, i am nothing but flesh and bones if it weren't here.
Dasch: you sound like you almost lost it altogether.
where is this confession going.
Dude: i must say my sins are cleansed by this cubicle. i do not know what they are exactly. all i know is that i'm a better person in this couch.
Dasch: i didn't know ergonomics had such profound impact. you seem to have found faith in it almost.
Dude: this is where i return from wherever i was lost. it sits there waiting for me. emptyseated. no one but me.
Dasch: i do jump on it when you are gone though. maybe i shouldn't have said this.
Dude: what matters is now. i'm in it. i can be all that i am in here. i don't have to be anything else like when i'm wherever else. i know who i am in this couch.
Dasch: could you perhaps be becoming that couch? i know you spend awful lot of time there but this might be getting to dangerous level.
Dude: you don't know. oh boy. you won't ever know. this couch. me. couch beneath me. me above couch. we together. couch and i. together we.
Dasch: that doesn't sound...like...
Dude: i couldn't have come this far. i wouldn't have come this far. i shouldn't have come this far. without it.
Dasch: he...hey... um...what... the heck is...?
Dude: i... i....
Dude presses the side lever and legrest pops out.
Dude: lord
Dude leans back as the couch declines.
Dude: heavenly mercy....amen
Dude closes his eyes. Tear or two trickle down. Dasch sits stupefied. Eyes not blinking in silence.
Dude: ah... ah... ah!
Dasch steps back and exits the room. Dude's feet on legrest convulses.
Dasch flinches, runs away, and hides in the kitchen corner in a coil.
Dasch:...i... i...don't...ho...holy...he...he's...
His ears flap and cover his eyes.