Carmen (7 page)

FRASQUITA

I told you that, girlfriend. I’ve been there once or twice myself. Yeah, me, Frasquita Margarita Ortiz. I’ve been head-over-heels in love before. Or was it heels over head? Anyway… I’ve been there! But I’m not sure about you, Carmen. You’re, like, really messed around over that dude. I can even hear it in your voice.

CARMEN

I’m over him. Love knows how to die.

DANCAIRO enters with RAMI and YOSHIRO. RAMI is a slightly built Indian, and YOSHIRO is stocky and Japanese.

DANCAIRO

Here’s my crew! Lay it out for them, guys.

RAMI

This marketing company in Pittsburgh is buying a list of credit-card users. It’s a one-time deal; they’re going to try to sell audio equipment over the Internet to everyone on the list. But instead of just sending the names and e-mail addresses, the card company sent the numbers, too. They have a good security system, but one computer—

YOSHIRO

On the third floor.

RAMI

It monitors everything. We’ve hacked the password and can download all the numbers onto a flash drive in—

YOSHIRO

Forty-two seconds.

RAMI

We need three minutes to go up the back elevator, into the office, get in, and download the numbers, and we’re out of there!

DANCAIRO

The building is empty on weekends except for a rent-a cop who guards the entrance on the first floor. We get a girl in there who needs directions because she’s lost. Then she sees how handsome the guard is. The other two girls are lookouts. Any cops passing by won’t be suspicious of two girls standing on the corner.

FRASQUITA

Sounds good to me.

MERCEDES

And when do we get paid?

DANCAIRO

We’ll do the caper Saturday morning, sell the numbers in the afternoon, and you get paid on Sunday morning. Right after Mass!

There are high fives all around, and DANCAIRO leads RAMI and YOSHIRO out. JOSÉ gets up and approaches the girls’ table.

FRASQUITA

Here comes José. You need us to stay?

CARMEN

No, I’ll be okay.

MERCEDES

We’ll be in the corner. You need us, mami, just whistle.

FRASQUITA and MERCEDES retreat to a corner table.

CARMEN

José, you look like shit, man.

JOSÉ

I feel out of place. What’s inside me, what’s really me deep inside, is different from what’s inside these people watching the world go by.

CARMEN

We all think we’re different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us.

JOSÉ

Zuniga screwed up my career big-time. All the time I was on traffic duty, I thought about how he was trying to bring me down. I made myself think about you to keep him off my mind. He’s trying to destroy me. You’re my flower, my promise of life and hope.

CARMEN

José, I’m not a flower. I’m not a promise. I’m Carmen.

JOSÉ

That’s not how I thought of you during those hard days.

CARMEN

José, you’re making my head spin. What else were you thinking about?

JOSÉ

About my mother, and how much I miss the life I had with her. Does that sound weak to you? That a grown man should be thinking of his mother?

CARMEN

Of course not. I admire a man who thinks of his mother.

JOSÉ

She doesn’t know about all the changes in my life. I know that what she wants is for me to settle down with some nice girl. I know she wants grandchildren. I think she’s lonely.

CARMEN

We could go see her. Maybe spend some time with her.

JOSÉ

No, I wouldn’t want to spoil the vision of me she has. She wants me to show up at her doorstep with a plain little girl wearing flat shoes and carrying a book. You know how old women are—everything has to line up just right to spell out the word familia or they just don’t get it.

CARMEN

She wouldn’t like me?

JOSÉ

She’d get used to you after a while.

CARMEN

Get used to me? You get used to dandruff, not people!

JOSÉ

Anyway, I have plans for us. You help these guys pull this caper off, and we can get out of here. Maybe find a place in San Juan. Near the beach. One of those gated communities they advertise for vacations. It would be like a whole new life for you. Clean. Fresh air. Safe.

CARMEN

I don’t want to move to San Juan. I don’t have any family there.

JOSÉ

If you’re with me, then you’ll live where I say.

CARMEN

Am I with you now, José? If your mother walked down the street right now, would I be with you?

JOSÉ

What are you talking about? Look, I’m telling you the way it is. Don’t get in my face. I don’t like it! You and me, we belong together—like you said before… something about feeling pain. I liked that. We’ve got pain holding us together.

CARMEN

Pain? Not love? José, maybe we need to slow this train down. I don’t know if I’m ready to make a lifetime thing of this.

JOSÉ

Carmen, don’t.… Don’t think of being away from me. I’ve given up my whole career on the force for you. It’s going to be me and you. Don’t even think about it being any other way. You don’t want me disappointed in you. That would really piss me off.

CARMEN

Don’t piss you off? Tell me, Don José, O brave one who gets pissed off: When you were a boy, did you hide behind your mother’s legs when the big boys came after you?

JOSÉ

Do yourself a favor, Carmen. Take my mother’s name from your lips.

CARMEN

(edging close to JOSÉ)

What will you put on my lips to replace her name?

She is leaning against him, but he pushes her away.

JOSÉ

You don’t understand. You will never understand what is between me and my mother.

CARMEN

I don’t understand, and I don’t want to understand! I thought you loved me.

JOSÉ

I love you in a different way, Carmen. You’re like…

JOSÉ

A flower? A rose? Something that you can own? I don’t think so, baby.

JOSÉ

(embarrassed as people are looking at him)

Carmen, sit down. We don’t need to put our business in the street.

OLD MAN IN THE CORNER

It’s okay, I don’t mind. There’s nothing on television, anyway.

CARMEN

(clearly hurt)

José, I don’t know what you need. I know it’s not me.

JOSÉ

Carmen, baby, you don’t understand. It’s like you’re a part of me. When you become a part of someone, it’s forever. So when you talk about José, you’re talking about Carmen, too. We belong to each other and with each other!

CARMEN

I don’t belong to anyone!

JOSÉ

Don’t push me.

For a moment, the two stand toe to toe, then CARMEN turns and walks over to where MERCEDES and FRASQUITA are sitting on one side of the stage. JOSÉ goes to sit on the other side.

RAIMONDO

(trying to break the tension)

I have to go make a delivery. You, pretty boy, keep an eye on the door. Don’t let any crooked cops in here. Ha!

RAIMONDO exits.

TERESA, an older woman, enters. She is very dark-skinned and wears a blue bandana around her head from which wisps of gray hair protrude. Her eyes are large, and her fingernails are painted dark green. She is wearing large gold earrings.

FRASQUITA

(trying to settle CARMEN down)

Carmen, forget him. Look—Teresa is here. Let’s have her tell our fortunes.

MERCEDES

I’m due to hit the lottery, but I don’t want to play unless today’s the day.

CARMEN

(glances at JOSÉ and then away)

Why not? She can tell us how wonderful we’re going to be living soon.

The three girls shepherd TERESA to a table.

TERESA

(in a wonderfully husky voice)

I’m thirsty.

FRASQUITA

What do you want?

TERESA

Cappuccino.

MERCEDES signals to a man behind the bar, who starts making the cappuccino.

TERESA opens her purse and takes out a pack of cards, which she shuffles and lays out facedown.

MERCEDES

(lightly)

The cards don’t lie.

FRASQUITA

They’ll tell us what the future holds.

CARMEN

They’ll speak our destinies.

TERESA places her hands over the cards, closes her eyes, nods, and then turns the first one over.

TERESA

You will meet a young man. He has a job in an office.

MERCEDES

Young. But old enough to drive?

TERESA

Old enough to drive, and he leads many men.

MERCEDES

He’s in the army. How much does a general make?

TERESA

Everybody looks up to him!

MERCEDES

Oh, my God, it’s that cute quarterback that won the Super Bowl!

TERESA

He loves you very much. He adores you!

MERCEDES

Do you have a name? Does he have a tattoo?

TERESA

You are lucky. The cards have spoken well of your future.

FRASQUITA

Do me!

TERESA gathers the cards and once again shuffles them and lays them out facedown. She then begins to turn them over.

TERESA

Hah! You will marry an old man. He has been married before, but still he wants you.

FRASQUITA

Mine’s old! Pooh. How old? But look, diamonds! He’s going to be rich. Old and rich. Not good, but I’ll take it.

MERCEDES

Look how much mine loves me! I’d better start taking vitamins.

FRASQUITA

Will we have a big house?

TERESA

In the Bronx.

FRASQUITA

An old man in a big house in the Bronx? That’s no fun.

TERESA

More bad news: he dies.

FRASQUITA

Oh, look—he’s going to die. Poor thing. But wait—he leaves me all his money. I’ll be a rich widow! Yes! Yes! I’ll wear my black toreador pants to the funeral, the ones with the sequins.

TERESA

He dies, but such things happen. We cannot put our hands up against the winds of fate.

CARMEN

Teresa, do my fortune.

TERESA looks up at CARMEN. She brings her hand to her forehead and closes her eyes for a moment. She exhales heavily.

TERESA

I am too tired.

CARMEN

No, Teresa. I need you to do mine.

TERESA hands the cards to CARMEN, who kisses them up to heaven and then hands them back. TERESA shuffles them, lays them out, and begins to turn them over.

CARMEN

Oh, no! Diamonds, then spades—death! I see it clearly. First him and then me. Here, give me the cards.

CARMEN gathers up the cards and takes the rest of the deck from TERESA as MERCEDES and FRASQUITA go off to one side, still talking about their good luck. CARMEN frantically shuffles the cards herself, then lays them out and begins to turn them over.

CARMEN

Again! Two deaths! Two destinies intertwined. The cards come up one by one to speak of my doom. Let me shuffle them again.

(She does so.)

Again and again I shuffle them, turn them up, but it’s always the same.…

CARMEN throws the cards down and staggers to a table.

CARMEN

Teresa, what’s wrong with these cards?

TERESA

They’re only cards, Carmen. They don’t know how to lie.

FRASQUITA and MERCEDES go to CARMEN.

FRASQUITA

Teresa, Carmen, come with us. We’ll go case out the company. It’ll be fun.

CARMEN

One minute.

CARMEN shuffles the cards again. Again she lays them out and turns them over one by one.

CARMEN

Muerte, siempre muerte.