The performer is to be seated on stage in front of a table. On the table a deck of cards. Performer shuffles cards and cuts deck. Draws one card at a time at equal intervals and reads from the score the sentence connected with each and every card. Preferably in a rather neutral but quite audible voice.

© Copyright Karl-Erik Tallmo. You may freely stage this act - no royalty, no charge, no fees, but please drop me a line and tell me about the event.

If you are a Macintosh user with access to Hypercard, you may download the stack version of The Harbor (41 K).

	Hearts
2	They were all victims.
3	Such an inexpressible sensation of emptiness!
4	The signal at the entrance showed the red light.
5	The whole thing appeared in a way - convulsive.
6	You could only wait, a kind of fatal, everlasting wait.
7	The whole harbor seemed to inhale, joining the waves in a sort of anguished breathing.
8	Even though all possibilities were at hand, this was complete isolation.
9	You got a feeling of rust, decay, desolation, the first day of an eternal strike.
10	It didn't matter what you did at this moment, in any case you would have to face accusations and still more accusations.
J	Nobody seemed to have the strength to do anything.
Q	Amid all of his papers and folders, the harbor master suddenly came to think of his wife.
K	The harbor master slowly put the telephone receiver down, he stood completely still, gazing at the endless sea.
A	It was a small boat, a dingy, and there seemed to be two men in it.

	Spades
2	The quay was empty.
3	The whole area was like a deserted town.
4	Cigarette butts lay scattered along the crane tracks.
5	Not a docker in sight, nobody at all.
6	In the middle of the railroad track there was an empty boxcar, its doors wide open.
7	Quay berths no. 1-75 were vacant, not a ship anywhere in sight.
8	Not one single car on the roads, which ran criss-cross among the storehouses.
9	All the cranes stood still in straight rows, skeletons of steel, presenting arms.
10	Usually it was such seething life here - and now not even the distant wailing from a steam whistle.
J	Were they asleep down at the coastguard's office?
Q	It appeared inexorable!
K	This required restraint.
A	Slowly, ever so slowly, the vessel bobbed closer.

	Diamonds
2	All of the windows of the port authority's office - not one single movement.
3	Tall piles of pallets everywhere.
4	The loudspeakers were silent in all directions, high up on their poles.
5	In front of storehouse no. 7 there really stood a truck, its tarpaulin fluttering indifferently.
6	A smell of oil and salt water, and then a faint odour of rubber.
7	There was almost complete silence, only a line striking against a stay in the wind.
8	The buildings were at least fifty years old, dirty and corroded by the sea breeze.
9	On the asphalt-coated grounds, which normally were heavily trafficked, there were now only occasional oil slicks.
10	Beneath one of the cranes, a large box had once stood, you could see that, since chips and chaff formed a rectangle around the place where it had been.
J	You couldn't see if the gates were closed either.
Q	At the end it had to be inevitable.
K	To think of any kind of organization was absurd.
A	It was closer now, so it was easier to see.

	Clubs
2	The sky assumed an almost foreboding appearance.
3	The air was damp and chilly.
4	At the edge of the embankment the water just gurgled softly.
5	Farther away along the coast it appeared to be raining, a real cloudburst.
6	Here, three of the four elements united; earth, water and air.
7	There wasn't much of a wind, but it wasn't totally calm either.
8	On the main square there was nothing but a few leaves whirling around the corner of the customs house.
9	For a moment it almost seemed as if the sun was to break through, but then the grey overcast closed again.
10	The sun was efficiently hidden behind the leaden skies, which merged so completely with the water that the horizon was undiscernible.
J	The patrol boats were nowhere to be seen, they were probably being repaired.
Q	The situation was almost unbearable in its oppressive persistence.
K	Good Lord! Was the harbor master the only human being out here today?
A	Something seemed to be going on out there on the surface, but it was impossible to see what.