ACT II
THE KINGDOM
Utrecht, Almere, London, Maarssen, Keukenhof, Monaco — April to October 2025
In which love is built, daily and completely. She writes poems for him in the dark. He calls her his wife. Everyone believes it. For a season — it is magnificently true.
SCENE I
Irving Berlinhof. The Keys. The Poems Begin.
He has keys almost from the start. Eurydice gives him everything — openly, gladly. And in the evenings, when the house is quiet, she writes.
EURYDICE
I am a poet. I write what I cannot say out loud. I wrote him Morning Dance — how we move around each other in the morning kitchen, two people learning the steps of a new life. I wrote The Quiet Gardener — his hands in soil, patient, knowing, tending what he loves. I wrote Gentle Shears — the way he trims and shapes without ever cutting what should live. I wrote Kisses in the Kitchen — his mouth finding mine over the cooking, over the ordinary day. I wrote Dinner Can Wait — because some things are more urgent than eating. I wrote Peachy Plans — the future we were making, ripe and possible and sweet. Six poems. All for him. I told him: generosity is more than money. It is the everyday moments — the kisses, the eating together, the unspoken moments. They are all captured in my poems. I wrote them all for you.
SCENE II
The MG. The Omakase. Keukenhof.
Three images from the kingdom at its fullest.
EURYDICE
The MG. Windows down. Dutch roads. His hand finding mine across the gearshift. He went to Manchester with Quintin and came back with records for us both. He thought of me. That is its own language.
June 13th — his birthday. The omakase. Four hundred euros.
GIJSBERT
No one has done this for me. Not like this.
EURYDICE
Then it was time someone did.
Keukenhof. Millions of tulips. Yasmina running ahead. Gijsbert standing among them — vibrant, exhaling joy.
GIJSBERT
I am in bloom. That is exactly how I feel. In bloom.
EURYDICE
He said he was in bloom. Meaning me. Meaning us. I will hold that image against everything that follows.
SCENE III
Almere. Gijsbert's Garden. Yasmina Plants.
His garden. His most private space. He brings them here — Eurydice and Yasmina. Yasmina on her knees beside him in the soil.
YASMINA
Gijs! Gijs! Is this one a tomato? Gijs! Look! Gijs!
EURYDICE
He loves hearing her call his name. A hundred times. And each time it lands in him like something warm.
SCENE IV
Maarssen, London, Monaco, Sunday Dinners, Yasmina's Birthday.
The kingdom in its summer fullness. Maarssen — her birthday, the three of them on the river. London — Coldplay in the rain, their first trip alone. Monaco — Yasmina running at the Mediterranean. Almere — Sunday dinners, his father, his stepmother. Yasmina's birthday — Gijsbert the jester.
GIJSBERT
All the way to Africa, Yasmina. Perhaps we'll go.
EURYDICE
Perhaps we'll go. Three small words containing a future. I believe him. I choose to believe him. This is the kingdom. This is before.
Gijsbert carries Yasmina to bed after the birthday party. Eurydice watches from the doorway. The kingdom is whole.
End of Act II
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This is a work of fiction. Characters, events and circumstances have been fictionalised.