GELO – And with this heartache you hide yourself here from life and people?

HERMIT – Sometimes I come across people. I go down into the valley to the fair. I wonder among the loud and variegated crowd, peer at their faces and their eyes. Trying to understand what they are thinking and feeling about and why they are hustling and bustling…

GELO – To get lost in a crowd doesn’t mean you are a part of them!

HERMIT – I think you’re right, that’s why I seldom do it.

GELO – And how do you feel when you are doing it?

HERMIT – Lonely, but in a crowd. It is a strange feeling; all around you is commotion, conversations, other people’s lives. I’m at center of it all, but it feels I’m on the outside looking in, at people and myself. I walk around and I don’t know who I am, where I am and why I am here. I’m alive but don’t have a life…

GELO – It seems you’re bogged down in your memories. They drag you like a quagmire. Shake it off! One cannot pity himself all life and condemn others.

HERMIT – What’s it to you?!

GELO – I’m trying to understand you because you saved my life.

HERMIT – It’s not my fault; I didn’t do it on purpose…

GELO – Listen! To live in the past isn’t a life but an illusion. Real life is in the present and in dreams about the future.

HERMIT – You’re wrong. A person’s memories are his treasure, his fortune, and his assets. One can’t throw away life experiences out the window, even if they are sad and sorrowful.