Flight of the Maybug (Script)

ACT 2

The two men chuckle.

WILHELM: Who came up with that?

FRITZ: I think it was Dietrich.

WILHELM: Dietrich?

FRITZ: Rudolph Dietrich, the Captain?

WILHELM: Oh, yeah. Forgot he had a name.

FRITZ: To be honest so did I.

Pause.

FRITZ: What an unpleasant man he was.

WILHELM: I always quite liked him.

FRITZ: Me too.

A pensive silence falls between the two men.

FRITZ: So how are your-?

WILHELM: Why did you do it?

Pause.

FRITZ: Wilhelm...

WILHELM: They found it, the diary, they found it. I'm not sure how but they did.

Fritz cannot bring himself to even look at Wilhelm.

FRITZ: I didn't think-

Fritz and Wilhelm's voices grow louder and louder.

WILHELM: You didn't think what?! That they'd find it?! Fritz you could have burnt it, you hear me, you could have fucking burnt it!

FRITZ: No, I couldn't-

WILHELM: Yes, you fucking could!

FRITZ: I couldn't! I needed it. There was a plan-

WILHELM: We had a plan! A good plan, a brilliant plan! But you gave it to fucking Max?!

FRITZ: I didn't have a choice; I was trying to save us!

WILHELM: Us?! There was no us! All you cared about was you!

FRITZ: I promise! It could have worked, it should have worked! But then Marcel-

WILHELM: Oh don't get me started on Marcel-!

FRITZ: Do you have any idea who he is-?!

WILHELM: Yeah, I do-!

FRITZ: (Screaming) Then why didn't Max recognise him?!

The two men stare at each other in seething silence.

FRITZ: Well?!

Pause.

FRITZ: You know I was going to burn that diary, I really was. But then I saw it, right there in black and white. How could a man, as wretched and evil, even by our fucking standards, stand there, and for Max to not even bat an eye?! We were gonna sell that old fuck as the bastard who could identify every last piece of dreck our side of the war, but he couldn't even recognise the worst of the lot! He was a senile, old man whose only use was to fill an empty grave. So I did what I did, I tried, I really tried. Then Marcel shot him.

WILHELM: He saved me.

FRITZ: Did he?

Pause.

FRITZ: He's a careful man that Marcel.

WILHELM: Not careful enough to shoot you...