Latin American Plays

by Sebastian Doggart

  MECHE (tempted). Tonight?

  LITUMA. On the night bus from the Cruz de Chalpón. Let’s go.

  MECHE. Will we get married?

  LITUMA. Once we’re in Lima, I swear. It’s the first thing we’ll do. Are you game? Shall we go?

  MECHE (pause). Let’s go. We’ll never come back to Piura. I hope I won’t live to regret this, Lituma.

  LITUMA (kneels again). You won’t, Mechita, I swear. Thank you, thank you. Ask me for something, anything, tell me to do something.

  MECHE. Get up, we’re wasting time. Go and pack your bags and buy the tickets. Wait for me at the Cruz de Chalpón bus station. It’s half way up Avenida Grau, isn’t it? I’ll be there by midnight.

  LITUMA. Where are you going?

  MECHE. I can’t just leave without anything. I’m going to fetch my things. Some essentials anyway.

  LITUMA. I’ll come with you.

  MECHE. No, there’s no need. Josefino’s in the Casa Verde and he never gets back till dawn. I’ve got masses of time. No-one must see us together. No-one must suspect a thing.

  LITUMA (kissing her hands). Mechita, my darling Mechita. I’m so happy, it can’t be real. (Crosses himself, looks up to heaven.) Thank you, God, thank you. Now I’m going to change, I’ll stop being a bum, no more gambling, no more lazing around. I swear I’ll . . .

  MECHE (pushing him). Come on, hurry up, we’re wasting time, Lituma. Run, run.

  LITUMA. Yes, yes, anything you say, Mechita.

  LITUMA gets up hastily, running, rushing down the staircase, but half-way down he loses momentum, slows down, and his frenzy is extinguished. Heavily, slowly and sadly, he returns to the gambling table without the Boys stirring. The dice, the toasts and the oaths are again the centre of attention.

  VI

  Fantasies on a Crime

  MONKEY. Why not? Lituma’s right, it could have happened like that. Close your eyes and imagine Mechita. She rushes into the house, frantically looking this way and that. Her buttocks are stuck together, tight with fear.

  JOSE. She starts throwing things into her suitcase, trembling all over, stumbling, packing all the wrong things, terrified Mr Big might come back. She’s so scared the tips of her little tits have turned hard as rocks. Mmm, yummy!

  JOSEFINO (laughing). And? Carry on. What happens then?

  LITUMA. Then you get there. Before she’s finished packing.

  JOSEFINO. And I kill her because I catch her packing?

  MONKEY. That would just be your excuse. Actually, you were pissed off with the whole world. Remember I’d won so much off you that night, you were cleaned out. Holy Whore! I hope I get dice like that again!

  JOSE. Or maybe you had a fit of jealousy. Meche could’ve told you that Chunga had made her so happy, she was going to live with her.

  JOSEFINO. I wouldn’t have killed her for that. I’d have probably sent flowers to Chunga. And a card saying: ‘You win. Congratulations.’ After all, I am a fucking gentleman.

  LA CHUNGA (from her rocking chair, yawning). It’s nearly midnight and I’m tired. Last orders.

  LITUMA. Quiet, Chunga, you’re spoiling my line of thought. When you see the half-packed suitcase, you ask her: ‘Travelling far, are we?’ And she says: ‘I’m leaving you.’

  JOSEFINO. Why would she leave me? She was totally hooked on me.

  LITUMA (serious and concentrating hard, not listening to JOSEFINO). ‘I’m leaving you because I’m in love with a better man than you.’

  JOSEFINO. Better than me? And where did she dig up this gem?

  LITUMA. ‘Someone who won’t beat me, who’ll be faithful and kind to me, someone who’s not a bastard and a pimp, but who’s decent and honest. HE also wants to marry me.’

  JOSEFINO. How unimaginative, Boys. You can’t even invent a good reason for me to have killed Mechita.

  LITUMA. Because she betrayed you, Josefino. Like Judas betrayed his master. So you laid into her, like an animal. Perhaps you only meant to give her a beating. But you let things get out of hand and that was the end of the poor thing.

  JOSEFINO. And what the fuck did I do with the body?

  MONKEY. You could have thrown it in the river.

  JOSEFINO. It was September and the River Piura was dry. So what did I do with the body? Come on! Guess how I pulled off this perfect crime.

  JOSE. You buried it in the dunes behind your house.

  MONKEY. You threw it to those German dogs that guard Señor Beckman’s warehouse. They would have finished her off, bones and all.

  JOSE. Well, I’m bored by these detective games. Let’s go for a drink in the Casa Verde instead.

  JOSEFINO. Why go so far when you’ve got Chunga right here. Go on, give him what he wants.

  LA CHUNGA. Why doesn’t your mother give him what he wants, Josefino.

  JOSEFINO. Don’t mess with my mother, Chunga. That’s one thing I won’t stand.

  LA CHUNGA. Then don’t mess with me.

  MONKEY. Ignore him, Chunguita, you know he’s not a Mangache like us – he’s a Gallinazo.

  JOSE. It’s a pity you’re always so tetchy, Chunguita. Even with us. You know we love you, you’re like a lucky mascot to us.

  MONKEY (gets up, without his friends noticing, and goes over to LA CHUNGA). These jokers are always giving you a hard time, aren’t they Chunga? Forgive them for they know not what they do. But I am always well-behaved when I’m with you. I hope you’ve noticed that. I never get on your nerves and I don’t make fun of you. I don’t follow the pack when they’re annoying you. I love you dearly, Chunga.

  LA CHUNGA (looking at him compassionately). You don’t have to play that good-little-boy game with me. What’s the point? I’m going to give you a good time no matter what you do. Come on, give me your hand.

  She takes his hand and leads him to the staircase. She goes up with him. MONKEY is happy, his eyes sparkle like a little boy about to realise a great wish he has harboured for a long time. The Boys continue playing as though MONKEY is still with them.

  VII

  A Naughty Little Boy

  MECHE. Hi, Monkey.

  MONKEY. Hi, Mechita.

  LA CHUNGA. Come in, don’t be afraid, we’re not going to beat you.

  MONKEY. I know you’re very good people.

  MECHE. Come and sit down, next to me.

  MONKEY sits down on the bed next to MECHE and LA CHUNGA sits down on the other side. The two women behave as if MONKEY were a spoilt child, and he too, in his gestures and expression, seems to have regressed to infancy. He lets out a sigh. Another one. It appears something is tormenting him, something that he wants to share with them, but doesn’t dare.

  LA CHUNGA. Relax. You can trust us. What do you feel like doing? You’re the boss here, you know. Ask anything.

  MECHE. We’re here to give you whatever pleasure you desire. What would turn you on?

  LA CHUNGA. Do you want us to do a strip-tease for you, Monkey?

  MECHE. Shall we dance naked, the two of us together, just for you?

  MONKEY (hiding his face, scandalised). No! No! Please!

  LA CHUNGA (pointing to the bed). Would you like it if we went to bed together, all three of us, with you in the middle?

  MECHE. Shall we touch and stroke you until you shout ‘Stop! Stop! I can’t take any more.’

  LA CHUNGA. Do you want us to pose for you?

  MONKEY (laughing, very nervous). Don’t joke like that! It embarrasses me. Please don’t! (Overcome by a fit of sadness.) You’re the best people I know, Chunga, Mechita. I’m sorry for getting like this, but I’m not like you. I’m . . . I’m a shit.

  LA CHUNGA. Don’t say that. It’s not true

  MECHE. A bit of a clown, perhaps. But deep down you’re a good kid, Monkey.

  MONKEY. You’re wrong. I’m very bad. One of the worst little boys around. You can’t tell me I’m not. You don’t know me. If I told you . . .

  LA CHUNGA. Well, tell us then.

  MECHE. Do you want us to comfort you? Is that it?<
br />
  MONKEY. I don’t want to make you do anything. Only if you insist . . .

  LA CHUNGA (makes him rest his head in her lap. MONKEY curls up like a frightened child). Come, rest your head here. Make yourself comfortable.

  MECHE (in a soft, caressing voice). Tell us, Monkey.

  MONKEY (nervously, making a great effort). I didn’t even understand what I was doing. I was very small, just a boy in short trousers.

  LA CHUNGA. Are you talking about what happened with the little girl? Doña Jesusa’s little girl, your neighbour?

  MONKEY. I was just a boy. Surely a boy can’t reason for himself?

  MECHE. Of course not, Monkey. Well, carry on. I’ll help you. You were spying, waiting for Doña Jesusa to go to the market, to her vegetable stall . . .

  LA CHUNGA. And when she’d gone out, you went into her house without anyone seeing you. You jumped over the cane fence by the banana plantation, wasn’t that it?

  MONKEY. Yes. And there was the little girl, crouching down, milking the goat. She was squeezing its little tits. Like this! And she didn’t have any knickers on, Chunga! I swear to you!

  MECHE. Of course we believe you. So you saw everything then?

  MONKEY. It was more like she showed me everything, Mechita. Well, why else wouldn’t she have had any knickers on? Why else? She wanted people to see her privates, she wanted to show them off to the boys.

  LA CHUNGA. Do you mean she provoked you, Monkey? Then you’re not to blame for anything. She asked for it, the little tart.

  MECHE. Was that what you wanted to tell us? That it was all the little girl’s fault?

  MONKEY. Well, no. I suppose it was me too, a bit. After all, I did sneak into Doña Jesusa’s house. That’s what burglars do, isn’t it?

  LA CHUNGA. But you didn’t go there to steal anything, Monkey.

  MONKEY. I just went to see the little girl.

  MECHE. Did you want to see her with no clothes on?

  MONKEY. I was just a kid, you know. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t tell the difference between right and wrong.

  LA CHUNGA. But you were carrying a knife, this long. Do you remember, Monkey?

  MONKEY. I remember.

  MECHE. Didn’t you feel sorry for the little girl? Not even when she smiled at you, thinking you were just monkeying around.

  MONKEY (disturbed). I was just monkeying around! And she didn’t have any knickers on, Meche. She provoked me. She . . .

  LA CHUNGA (telling him off, without great severity). Tell the truth, Monkey, tell the truth. She did have knickers on. You made her take them off.

  MECHE. By threatening to kill her. Yes or no, Monkey?

  MONKEY. Well, perhaps. It’s a long time ago now. I’ve forgotten.

  LA CHUNGA. You liar! You haven’t forgotten. You ripped off her dress and ordered her: ‘Take down your knickers.’ And when she did, you saw everything you wanted to see. Yes, Monkey?

  MONKEY (ashamed). Yes, Chunguita,

  MECHE. And you also fondled her, didn’t you? You touched the little girl’s body all over. Yes or no?

  MONKEY (anguished). But I didn’t rape her, Meche. I swear to God I didn’t rape her.

  LA CHUNGA. You didn’t rape her? Then what did you do? Doesn’t it all come to the same thing?

  MONKEY (laughing). What do you mean the same thing! Don’t be silly, Chunga. (Lowering his voice conspiratorially, placing a finger to his lips, and going ‘Shhhh, Shhhh’ as if he were about to tell a great secret.) I put it up her the back way. Do you understand? She stayed intact where it mattered. I didn’t even make a scratch there. Her husband could have broken it on their wedding night. That’s a very, very important difference. Ask Padre Garcia if you want. He told me: ‘If the hymen was undamaged, I absolve you. But if it was broken, then there’s no magic cure, you wretched child: you must marry Jesusa’s little daughter.’ Well I didn’t marry her, you see, so . . . You women have your honour in that little piece of skin, in the hymen, and that’s what you must defend tooth and nail. But we men have our honour in our ass, and the man who gets it up the back way, wham! He’s buggered for ever. (LA CHUNGA and MECHE look at him, derisive and silent, and he becomes forlorn and remorseful. He sits up.) Yes, it’s true. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. What I did to the little girl was very bad. I could fool Padre Garcia, but not you. I know that when I die God will punish me for it.

  LA CHUNGA. Why wait so long, Monkey?

  MECHE. We can punish you right now.

  MONKEY (takes off his belt and hands it to them. He gets into a position to be whipped). All right. Take away the filth, make me pay for my sins. Have no pity on me. Destroy my honour, Chunga, Mechita.

  LA CHUNGA and MECHE (while they whip him). Naughty little boy! You spoilt child! Beastly boy! You vile child! Nasty little boy! You wicked child! Pervert!

  MONKEY moans as he receives the blows, his body straining, sweating, with an enjoyment that culminates in a spasm. MECHE and LA CHUNGA sit down and watch him. Satiated but despondent, he stands up, wipes his brow, puts on his belt again and combs his hair. Without looking at them, he goes out of the bedroom. Discreetly, MONKEY takes his place at the Boys’ table.

  LA CHUNGA. Are you going, Monkey? Without a goodbye? Not even a thank you?

  MECHE. Come back when you want to tell us more of your sins, Monkey.

  VIII

  Two Girlfriends

  As soon as MONKEY has disappeared from the room, MECHE and LA CHUNGA change their demeanour, as if the previous scene had not occurred.

  LA CHUNGA. Some men hide it better than others. But once you scratch the surface, the mask peels off and the beast comes out.

  MECHE. Do you think all men are like that, Chunga? Do they all have something dirty to hide?

  LA CHUNGA. Yes, all the ones I know do.

  MECHE. Are women any better?

  LA CHUNGA. At least what we have between our legs doesn’t turn us into devils.

  MECHE (touching her stomach). Then I hope it’s a girl.

  LA CHUNGA. Are you pregnant?

  MECHE. My period’s two months late.

  LA CHUNGA. Haven’t you been to see anyone?

  MECHE. I’m scared they’ll tell me I am.

  LA CHUNGA. Don’t you want it?

  MECHE. Of course I do. But Josefino doesn’t. If I am pregnant he’ll make me have an abortion. He’s not going to let any woman tie him down with a child.

  LA CHUNGA. For once, I think he’s right there. It’s not worth the trouble of bringing more people into this world. What do you want a kid for? So he can grow up to be like one of them?

  MECHE. If everyone thought like that, life would come to an end.

  LA CHUNGA. It can end tomorrow morning, for all I care.

  Pause.

  MECHE. You know something, Chunga? I don’t think you’re really as bitter as you’re trying to make me believe.

  LA CHUNGA. I’m not trying to make you believe anything.

  MECHE. If you were that bitter, I wouldn’t be here. (With a twinkle in her eye.) You wouldn’t have given Josefino those three thousand sols to spend the night with me. Besides . . .

  LA CHUNGA. Besides what?

  MECHE (pointing to the bed). When you were holding me just now, you said some very sweet things. That I made you feel as if you were in heaven. That you were happy. Were you lying?

  LA CHUNGA. No. That was true.

  MECHE. Well then, life isn’t so ugly after all. It has its good things. (Laughs.) I’m glad to be one of those good things that life has to offer you, Chunga. (Pause.) Can I ask you something?

  LA CHUNGA. If it’s how many women have been here before, you’d better not. Because I won’t tell you.

  MECHE. No, it’s not that. But, could you fall in love with me, Chunga? Like a man does with a woman? Could you love me?

  LA CHUNGA. I wouldn’t fall in love with you or with anyone else.

  MECHE. I don’t believe you, Chunga. You can’t live without love. What wo
uld life be worth if you didn’t love anyone, if you weren’t loved by anyone?

  LA CHUNGA. A woman who falls in love becomes weak. She allows herself to be dominated. (Looks at her in silence for a while.) You think it’s something good now. Let’s talk again when you see what Josefino does with your love. Let’s talk again when you’re in the Casa Verde.

  MECHE. Why do you keep frightening me with that?

  LA CHUNGA. Because I know where you’ll end up. He’s got you right under his thumb, he already does what he likes with you. He’ll start by lending you to one of the Boys, on a night like tonight, when he’s drunk. Then he’ll tell you a fairy-story of what you could do together if you had more money – buy a little house, go travelling, get married. And he’ll end up persuading you to whore for him.

  MECHE. When you say things like that to me, I don’t know if you’re doing it out of kindness or cruelty. If you want to help me, or if you just like scaring me.

  LA CHUNGA. I want to help you.

  MECHE. Why? Because you’re in love with me? You just told me you weren’t. Why would you want to help me? You let everything wash over you. You couldn’t give a damn about anyone else.

  LA CHUNGA (looks at her, pondering). You’re right. I don’t know why I’m giving you advice. What should your life matter to me.

  MECHE. Have you given advice to any of Josefino’s other conquests?

  LA CHUNGA. No. (Watches MECHE. Takes her chin in her hand and forces her to look into her eyes, bringing her face very close to MECHE’s.) Perhaps I feel sorrier for you than I did for the others. Only because you’re prettier. There’s another thing that’s unfair in life. If you didn’t look the way you do, I certainly wouldn’t give a damn about you.

  MECHE. You’re a monster sometimes, Chunga.

  LA CHUNGA. That’s because you won’t see life as it is. It’s life that’s monstrous. Not me.

  MECHE. If life’s how you say it is, I’d prefer to stay the way I am. Not to think about the future. But just live for the moment. And let God’s will be done. (Deeply troubled, she looks down at her belly.)

  LA CHUNGA. Perhaps you’ll work that miracle: make a ‘new man’ of Josefino.