JOSE: (Trying to make LA CHUNGA get up out of her rocking chair; getting more and more excited) You took her by the arm, and you started to lead her over there. Slowly you began to climb the staircase, and you never let go of her arm for a single moment. Did you squeeze it? Did you fondle it?
(LA CHUNGA gets up and JOSE takes her place in the rocking chair. He tilts it – so that he can see better. LA CHUNGA pours a glass of vermouth, goes up the staircase and into the little room which is now lit with a reddish light. MECHE is there.)
The voyeur’s dream
MECHE: (With a nervous little laugh) So now what happens? What’s the game, Chunga?
(The cold woman of the previous scenes suddenly seems charged with life and sensuality.)
LA CHUNGA: It’s not a game. I’ve paid three thousand sols for you. You’re mine for the rest of the night.
MECHE: (Defiantly) Do you mean I’m your slave?
LA CHUNGA: For a few hours, at least. (handling her the glass) Here. It’ll calm your nerves.
(MECHE grasps the glass and takes a gulp.)
MECHE: Do you think I’m nervous? Well, you’re wrong. I’m not afraid of you. I’m doing this for Josefino. If I wanted to, I could push you aside and run out that door.
(LA CHUNGA sits on the bed.)
LA CHUNGA: But you won’t. You said you’d obey me, and you’re a woman of your word, I’m sure. Besides, you’re just dying of curiosity, aren’t you?
MECHE: (Finishing the glass) Do you honestly think you’re going to get me drunk on two vermouths? Don’t kid yourself. I’ve got a strong head for drink. I can go on all night without getting in the least bit tipsy. I can hold even more than Josefino.
(Pause.)
LA CHUNGA: Do to me what you do to him when you want to excite him.
MECHE: (With the same nervous little laugh) I can’t. You’re a woman. You’re Chunga.
LA CHUNGA: (Coaxing and at the same time peremptory) No. I am Josefino. Do to me what you do to him.
(Soft tropical music – boleros by Leo Marini or Los Panchos – can be heard in the distance. It conjures up images of couples dancing close, in a place full of smoke and alcohol. MECHE starts to undress, slowly, and rather awkwardly. Her voice seems forced, and unrelaxed.)
MECHE: You want to see me undress? Slowly, like this? This is how he likes it. Do you think I’m pretty? Do you like my legs? My breasts? I’ve got a nice firm body, look. No moles, no pimples, no flab. None of those things that make people so ugly.
(She has stripped down to her petticoat. She feels a little faint. She screws up her face.)
I can’t, Chunga. You’re not him. I can’t believe what I’m doing or what I’m saying. I feel stupid, all this seems so unreal to me, so … .
(She lets herself fall on the bed and stays there, face down, in a state of confusion; she is on the point of tears, but manages to restrain herself. LA CHUNGA gets up and sits beside her. She acts now with great sensitivity, as if moved by MECHE’s discomfort.)
LA CHUNGA: The truth is, I admire you for being here. You surprised me, you know? I didn’t think you would accept. (Smoothes MECHE’s hair.) Do you love Josefino that much?
MECHE: (Her voice a whisper) Yes, I love him. (Pause.) But I don’t think I did it just for him. But because of what you said too. I was curious. (Turns to look at LA CHUNGA.) You gave him three thousand sols. That’s a lot of money.
LA CHUNGA: (Passing her hand over MECHE’s face, drying nonexistent tears) You’re worth more than that.
(A hint of flirtatiousness becomes apparent through MECHE’s resentment and embarrassment.)
MECHE: Do you really like me, Chunga?
LA CHUNGA: You know very well I do. Or perhaps you didn’t realize?
MECHE: Yes, I did. No other woman has ever looked at me like you did. You made me feel … so strange.
(LA CHUNGA puts her hand round MECHE’s shoulders and draws her to her. Kisses her. MECHE passively allows herself to be kissed. When they separate MECHE gives a false little laugh.)
LA CHUNGA: You’re laughing – so it can’t have been that dreadful.
MECHE: How long have you been like this? I mean, have you always been … ? Have you always liked women?
LA CHUNGA: I don’t like women. I like you.
(She embraces her and kisses her. MECHE lets herself be kissed, but does not respond to LA CHUNGA’s caresses. LA CHUNGA gently draws her face round and, still caressing her, orders her.) Open your mouth, slave.
(MECHE giggles nervously, and parts her lips. LA CHUNGA gives her a long kiss and this time MECHE raises her arm and puts it around LA CHUNGA’s neck.)
That’s it. I thought you didn’t know how to kiss. (Sarcastically) Did you see little stars?
MECHE: (Laughing) Don’t make fun of me.
LA CHUNGA: (Holding her in her arms) I’m not making fun of you. I want you to enjoy yourself tonight – more than you’ve ever enjoyed anything with that pimp.
MECHE: He’s not a pimp! Don’t say that word. He’s in love with me. We may be getting married.
LA CHUNGA: He’s a pimp. He sold you to me tonight. Next, he’ll be taking you to the Casa Verde, to whore for him like all his other women.
(MECHE tries to slip away from her arms, pretending to be more angry than she really feels, but after a short struggle, she relents. LA CHUNGA puts her face close to hers and talks to her, almost kissing her.)
Let’s not talk about that burn any more. Let’s just talk about you and me.
MECHE: (More calmly) Don’t hold me so tight, you’re hurting.
LA CHUNGA: I can do what I want with you. You’re my slave.
(MECHE laughs.)
Don’t laugh. Repeat: I am your slave.
(Pause.)
MECHE: (Laughs. Becoming serious) It’s only a game, isn’t it? All right. I am your slave.
LA CHUNGA: I’m your slave and now I want to be your whore. (Pause.) Repeat.
MECHE: (Almost in a whisper) I’m your slave and now I want to be your whore.
(LA CHUNGA lays MECHE on the bed and starts to undress her.)
LA CHUNGA: So you will be.
(The room becomes dark and disappears from view. From the rocking chair, JOSE keeps on gazing, mesmerized, into the darkness. At the table where the superstuds are playing dice, the noise starts up again: the noise of toasts being drunk, songs being sung and swearing.)
Speculations about Meche
The following dialogue takes place as the superstuds carry on playing dice and drinking beer.
LITUMA: Do you want to know something? I sometimes think all this about Mechita disappearing is just another of Josefino’s little stories.
EL MONO: Then maybe you’d like to explain it to me – loud and clear – because I don’t know what you’re talking about.
LITUMA: A woman can’t just vanish into thin air, overnight. After all, Piura’s only the size of a pocket handkerchief.
JOSEFINO: If she’d stayed in Piura, I’d have found her. No, she scarpered, all right. Maybe to Ecuador. Or Lima. (Pointing to the rocking chair where JOSE is sitting) She knows, but she’d die rather than give away her little secret, wouldn’t you, Chunguita? I lost a woman all because of you, a woman who’d have made me rich, but I don’t hold it against you, because basically I’ve got a heart of gold. Wouldn’t you agree?
EL MONO: Don’t start up about Mechita again, or you’ll give José a hard-on. (Nudging the invisible JOSE) It drives you crazy, doesn’t it – thinking about them up there, playing with each other?
LITUMA: (Carrying on, unperturbed) Someone would have seen her take the bus or a taxi. She would have said goodbye to somebody. She would have packed her things, taken them out of the house. But she left all her clothes and her suitcase behind. No one saw her go. So we can’t be so sure about her running away. Do you know what I sometimes think, Josefino?
EL MONO: (Touching LITUMA’s head) So you actually think! I thought donkeys only brayed, ha ha.
JOSEFIN
O: Well. What do you think, Einstein?
LITUMA: You beat her up, didn’t you? Don’t you beat up every woman who falls for you? Sometimes I think you go a bit too far.
JOSEFINO: (Laughing) So I killed her? Is that what you’re trying to say? What a profound idea, Lituma.
EL MONO: But this poor bastard couldn’t even kill a fly. He’s all mouth, just look at him there poncing around with his knife in his hand, as if he were the king pimp. I could knock him over with a feather. Do you want to see? (Blows.) Go on, over you go, don’t make a fool of me in front of my friends.
LITUMA: (Very seriously, developing his idea) You could have been jealous about Mechita spending the night with Chunga. And you’d just lost everything, down to your shirt, remember. So you were in a really filthy temper. You went home like a wild beast on the rampage. You needed to take it out on someone. Meche was there, and she was the one who got it in the neck. You could easily have gone too far.
JOSEFINO: (Amused) And then I cut her up into little pieces and threw her in the river? Is that it? You’re a bloody genius Lituma. (To the absent JOSE, handling him the dice) Here, José, it’s your turn to win now. The dice are all yours.
LITUMA: Poor Meche. She didn’t deserve a son of a bitch like you, Josefino.
JOSEFINO: The things one has to put up with from one’s friends. If you weren’t a superstud, I’d cut your balls off and throw them to the dogs.
EL MONO: Do you want to poison the poor little brutes? What harm have they ever done to you, for Christ’s sake?
(JOSE goes back to his seat, as discreetly as he left it. At the same time, without the other three being aware of him, LITUMA gets up and leaves the table.)
JOSEFINO: (To JOSE) Why are you so quiet? What’s up, mate?
JOSE: I’m losing and I don’t feel like talking. That’s all. Right, now my luck is going to change. (Picks up the dice and blows on them. Puts a banknote on the table.) There’s a hundred little sols. Who’s going to take me on? (Addressing Lituma’s chair as if he were still there) You, Lituma?
(In the two following scenes, JOSE, EL MONO and JOSEFINO behave as if LITUMA were still with them. But LITUMA is now at the foot of the small flight of stairs watching LA CHUNGA’s little room, which has just been lit up.)
Pimping
LA CHUNGA and MECHE are dressed. There is no sign whatever of them having undressed or made love. Their outward behaviour is very different from the previous scene in which they appeared. MECHE is sitting on the bed, a little dejected, and LA CHUNGA, who is standing in front of the bed, doesn’t seem at all like the sensual or domineering woman she was before, but rather more enigmatic and machiavellian. MECHE lights a cigarette. Draws the smoke into her lungs, trying to hide the fact that she feels uneasy.
MECHE: If you think he’s ever going to give you back those three thousand sols, you must be dreaming.
LA CHUNGA: I know I’ll never get them back. I don’t mind.
MECHE: (Scrutinizing her, intrigued) Do you really expect me to believe you, Chunga? Do you think I don’t know you’re the most tight-fisted woman in town, that you work day and night like a black so you can keep on coining it in?
LA CHUNGA: I mean, in this case, I don’t mind. Just as well for you, isn’t it? If I hadn’t given him that money, Josefino would have taken it all out on you.
MECHE: Yes. He would’ve beaten me up. Every time something goes wrong, every time he’s in a bad mood, I’m the one who pays for it. (Pause.) One of these days, he’s going to kill me.
LA CHUNGA: Why do you stay with him, silly?
MECHE: I don’t know … maybe that’s why. Because I’m silly.
LA CHUNGA: He beats you up and you still love him?
MECHE: I don’t really know if I love him. I did to begin with. Now maybe I stay with him just because I’m scared, Chunga. He’s … a brute. Sometimes even if I’ve done nothing, he makes me kneel down before him, as if he were a god. He takes out his knife and draws it across here. ‘Be grateful you’re still alive,’ he says. ‘You’re living on borrowed time, don’t ever forget that.’
LA CHUNGA: And you still stay with him? How stupid women can be. I’ll never understand how anyone can sink so low.
MECHE: You’ve obviously never been in love.
LA CHUNGA: And I never will be. I prefer to live without a man. In total solitude. No one’s ever going to make me go down on my knees. Or tell me I’m living on borrowed time.
MECHE: Ah, if only I could break loose from Josefino …
LA CHUNGA: (Like a spider attracting a fly into the web she’s spun for it) But you can, silly. (Smiling mischievously) Have you forgotten how pretty you are? Don’t you realize what you do to men when you walk past? None of them can take their eyes off you. Don’t they pay you all sorts of compliments? Don’t they make you propositions when he’s out of earshot?
MECHE: Yes. I could have been unfaithful to him a thousand times, if I’d wanted to. I’ve had plenty of chances.
LA CHUNGA: (Sitting beside her) Of course you have. But perhaps you haven’t realized the best chance you ever had.
MECHE: (Surprised) Who are you talking about?
LA CHUNGA: Someone who’s crazy about you. Someone who’d do anything you asked, just to be with you, because he thinks you’re the most beautiful, the most exquisite creature alive – a queen, a goddess. You could have him at your feet, Meche. He’d never ill-treat or frighten you.
MECHE: But who are you talking about?
LA CHUNGA: Haven’t you noticed? I suppose it’s understandable. He’s very shy with women …
MECHE: Now I know why you gave those three thousand sols to Josefino. Not because you’re a dike. But because you’re a pimp, Chunga.
LA CHUNGA: (Laughing, warmly and affectionately) Did you think I was going to pay three thousand sols to make love to you? No, Mechita, no man or woman alive is worth that much to me. Those three thousand sols aren’t mine. They belong to the man who loves you. He’s prepared to spend all he’s got and more just to have you. Be nice to him. Remember you promised to do whatever I asked. Now’s your chance to get your own back on Josefino for all those thrashings. Make the most of it.
(LITUMA has gone up the little staircase and is at the door of the room, but he doesn’t dare go in. LA CHUNGA goes out to meet him.)
Go on in. She’s there waiting for you. She’s yours. I’ve already had a word with her, don’t worry. Go on, Lituma, don’t be frightened. She’s all yours, enjoy it.
(With a sardonic little laugh, she leaves the room and goes to sit down in her rocking chair. The superstuds carry on drinking and gambling.)
A romantic love affair
MECHE: (Surprised) So it was you. The last person I would have suspected. Mono or José, perhaps – they’re always flirting with me, and they sometimes go even further when Josefino isn’t looking. But you, Lituma, you’ve never said a single word to me.
LITUMA: (Deeply embarrassed) I’ve never dared, Mechita. I’ve never quite been able to show what I felt about you. But, but I …
MECHE: (Amused at his awkwardness) You’re all sweaty, your voice is trembling, you’re so shy, it’s painful. How funny you are, Lituma.
LITUMA: (Imploring) Please, don’t laugh at me, Meche. For the love of God … I beg you …
MECHE: Have you always been frightened of women?
LITUMA: (Very sorrowfully) Not frightened exactly. It’s just that … I never know what to say to them. I’m not like the others. When they meet a girl they know how to chat her up, and make a date with her. I’ve never been able to do that. I get so worked up, I can’t get the words out.
MECHE: Haven’t you ever had a girlfriend?
LITUMA: I’ve never had a woman without paying for her, Mechita. Only the whores at the Casa Verde. And they always make me pay.
MECHE: Just like you’re paying for me now.
LITUMA: (Kneeling before MECHE) Don’t compare yourself with those whores, Mechita, not even in fun.
; MECHE: What are you doing?
LITUMA: I’d never make you go down on your knees to me, like Josefino does. I’d spend my life on my knees in front of you. I’d worship you, Meche, as if you were a queen. (He crouches down and tries to kiss her feet.)
MECHE: Ha ha, when you do that, you’re just like a little lapdog.
LITUMA: (Still trying to kiss her feet) Then at least let me be your lapdog, Meche. I’ll obey you, I’ll be loving and gentle whenever you want or if you’d rather I’ll just lie still. Don’t laugh, I’m being serious.
MECHE: Would you really do anything for me?
LITUMA: Try me.
MECHE: Would you kill Josefino if I asked you to?
LITUMA: Yes.
MECHE: But I thought he was your friend.
LITUMA: You’re worth more to me than any friend, Mechita. Do you believe that?
(MECHE puts her hand on his head, as if stroking an animal.)
MECHE: Come, and sit beside me. I don’t want anyone to grovel to me like that.
LITUMA: (Sitting beside her, on the bed, without daring to go very close to her or even touch her) I’ve been in love with you since the first day I saw you. In the Río-Bar, on the Old Bridge. Don’t you remember? No. Why should you remember? You never seemed to take any notice of me, even when you were looking straight at me.
MECHE: In the Río-Bar?
LITUMA: José, Mono and I were in the middle of a game, when in came Josefino with you on his arm. (Imitating him) Hey, look what I’ve found. What d’you think of her, eh? Then he lifted you up by the waist and paraded you in front of everyone. (His face suddenly clouds over.) I hate him when he does things like that to you.
MECHE: Does he make you jealous?
LITUMA: No, he makes me envious, though. (Pause.) Tell me, Mechita. Is it true he’s got one this big? Is that why women are so crazy about him? He never stops bragging to us: ‘Mine’s a real whopper,’ he says. But I’ve asked the whores in the Casa Verde and they say it’s not true, that it’s the normal size – just like everyone else’s.
Three Plays: The Young Lady from Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, La Chunga Page 18