Carmen (4 page)

CARMEN rushes to JOSÉ, kisses him passionately, then runs off. JOSÉ is standing forlornly in the middle of the stage, holding his empty handcuffs. ZUNIGA appears and looks around for CARMEN. He stares at JOSÉ, hands uplifted in question. He sees JOSÉ’s shoulders droop and understands what has happened. Then he crosses the stage and stares directly into the JOSÉ’s face. JOSÉ turns slowly away, cringing. ZUNIGA turns to SHEA and LANE and motions them over.

ZUNIGA

This is what happens to weak men. He’s let that girl get away. Write him up. I’ll do the rest. He doesn’t deserve to be in our unit.

Embarrassed, SHEA and LANE walk away after ZUNIGA.

For a moment the stage is empty except for JOSÉ and some neighborhood types, who are motionless. Then an old man enters from stage right, pushing a cart. Perched on the cart is a portable radio that plays the “Destiny Theme.”

Scene 2

We are at Lillas Pastia’s social club. It is modest, with a roped-off area and a small, slightly raised stage. CARMEN is sitting at a table with MERCEDES and FRASQUITA. Several people are standing at the bar, most sipping small cups of coffee or tea.

FRASQUITA

Carmen, look at you! You’re glowing! Are you sick?

MERCEDES

(feeling CARMEN’s forehead)

She’s got the flu!

CARMEN

I feel fine!

FRASQUITA

You’re depressed. Tell me what’s on your mind. It’s better to get it off your chest.

CARMEN

What’s on my mind? I’m thinking about a certain police officer. Six feet tall… dark eyes…

MERCEDES

(alarmed)

Oh, my God! She’s in love.

FRASQUITA

With a policeman? Not that José? I don’t believe it.

CARMEN

Little scraggly mustache…

MERCEDES

Carmen, please tell me you are not in love with any man. Then tell me two times that you are not even thinking of being in love with a cop!

FRASQUITA

She’s thinking of it. Even though she knows that love doesn’t work these streets. When love has to pass through el barrio, it takes a taxi.

MERCEDES

And keeps its head down so it won’t even see us.

FRASQUITA

Then sneaks away without paying! How do you know you’re in love? It could be swine flu.

CARMEN

I just keep thinking about him, Frasquita. He’s like a tune I can’t get out of my head.

MERCEDES

Carmen, you of all people. You know better. He’ll forget your face and your eyes and your heart. All he’ll see is another poor Latina longing for a life she can’t have. Love is for people with bank accounts. And besides, if he felt that much for you, he’d be around here looking for you. When did you see him last?

CARMEN

They put him on loan to the tunnel authority. All day long he has to breathe car exhaust. It’s only temporary.

FRASQUITA

Temporary? They’re going to move the tunnel?

CARMEN

No, the assignment. His sergeant is mad because I got away.

MERCEDES

Frasquita’s right. Love isn’t for poor people, honey. You show me a man without a job or a kicking hustle, and I’ll show you a dude that’s mad at the world. We’re just sweet meat if a man can’t afford to get married. For us it’s just a quick kiss, a quick hug—

FRASQUITA

A quick bam-bam-bam—

MERCEDES

And a long, sad time to think about it later. You know too much to believe in fairy tales, Carmen.

CARMEN

My head knows who I am, Frasquita. My head tells me, “¡Vamos, chica!” But my heart says, “Hey, Carmencita, maybe this time it’ll work out.”

MERCEDES

The last time he saw you he arrested you!

CARMEN

And let me go! This time he will come and maybe he’ll put me up against the wall.

FRASQUITA

That he might do.

CARMEN sits on a table, hands between her knees.

CARMEN

He’ll run his hands over my body, looking for weapons, and I’ll tell him all the places he’s missing. Then he’ll notice that my heart is beating fast, and he’ll ask me what I have to fear if I’m telling him the truth. I’ll tell him I think I’m having a heart attack, and he’ll have to put his ear to my chest to listen to the rhythm.…

MERCEDES

She’s really in love.

CARMEN

Then he’ll see that I’m trembling and put his arms around me.

FRASQUITA

And suddenly all the streets with the empty food wrappers and the potholes and the garbage will disappear and you’ll be in a gleaming white castle on a hill far away.…

CARMEN

It could happen. I feel it in my bones. There’s something about him, something that draws me to him. That excites me, too. You don’t like him?

MERCEDES

I guess he’s all right. I like men, too, but I only like them for a little while. Two weeks, three, unless there’s a holiday coming up. You have to stay with them through the holidays.

CARMEN

He makes me feel like a schoolgirl again.

MERCEDES

That’s good to you? Why? I don’t remember you doing any dancing on the way to school.

CARMEN

You’re getting to be too hard.

FRASQUITA

Or you’re getting to be too soft!

CARMEN

Maybe, Frasquita. Maybe I’m too soft and he’s too romantic. I know.

MERCEDES

Your head knows, but your heart is too crazy to listen.

FRASQUITA

You got to be careful, homegirl. You open your heart, and it’s more dangerous than opening your legs.

CARMEN

What don’t I know?

MERCEDES

(resigned)

It’s wonderful, Carmen. Good luck with this dude.

FRASQUITA

Yeah, it’s wonderful.

The three girls, knowing what a momentous decision CARMEN is making, embrace one another.

On the small stage, a guitarist picks up his instrument and slowly plucks the same “Destiny Theme” we heard earlier.

MERCEDES

Whoa! What is that tune? Is there a funeral? Play something with life to it!

The guitarist quickly switches to something much livelier. Several patrons enter, including GERALDO, OFFICER SHEA, and SERGEANT ZUNIGA.

GERALDO

Cold drinks for the ladies over there.

BARTENDER

Six dollars!

GERALDO

Six dollars? You selling blood? What do you mean, robbing people like that?

ZUNIGA

I can afford it. Three drinks for the lovely ladies.

FRASQUITA

Keep your drinks! I’m not thirsty.

ZUNIGA

They’ll keep you cool. You look like a hot mama to me.

FRASQUITA

And you look old and cold to me.

ZUNIGA

You’d be surprised, chica!

MERCEDES

Chica? Now you’re acting Latino? I don’t think so.

OFFICER SHEA

What would you like us to be?

CARMEN

Gone! That’s what we would like you to be.

OFFICER SHEA

She’s longing for José. He makes her blood boil. He’s good with these locals.

MERCEDES

Local? I don’t go local, but I will go loca on your skinny butt!

ZUNIGA

José’s a loser. We’ve got him sucking fumes on traffic duty.

OFFICER SHEA

He’s back on the beat today. Maybe he can find somebody else to turn loose.

CARMEN

(perking up)

He’s back? Today?

ZUNIGA

(edging closer to CARMEN)

Look, you can do better than that guy.

FRASQUITA

Man, you really think you’re hot stuff, don’t you?

ZUNIGA

I’ve been around. I know how to make a girl like Carmen happy. Maybe I’ll take her shopping. Bet you would like that, eh, Carmen?

CARMEN

Cierra el pico, man, because ain’t nothing coming out that I want to hear.

ZUNIGA

I know what I have to know. You’re straight street, and I know how to take care of you.

FRASQUITA

Go home and take care of your wife.

MERCEDES

(looking at her watch)

He can’t go home yet. His wife’s boyfriend is still there having dinner.

The girls all laugh.

Suddenly we hear a commotion. A PATRON gets off his stool, shrugs to the crowd, and goes to the door. He looks out.

PATRON

It’s Escamillo!

MERCEDES

Here?

FRASQUITA

He’s going to shoot a video in the neighborhood. It was in the papers.

ESCAMILLO enters. The one-time street rapper turned entrepreneur and film producer fits the description often ascribed to him as the richest man ever to come out of Spanish Harlem. Tall and broad-shouldered, he’s wearing a light-gray tailored Italian suit with a sky-blue shirt. Over his shoulders is a satin silver-gray cape that shimmers as he walks. As he enters, he hands his assistant, GORDITO, his walking stick and hesitates just inside the doorway as one of his bodyguards removes the cape.

GORDITO takes center stage and begins framing film shots with his hands as ESCAMILLO leans casually against the bar.

GORDITO

(raps)

Hey, Escamillo can lift this place from its obscurity

And bring it to a place of peace and security

With a slam bam jam that opens the dam of go and flow,

But he needs something real to express how he feels

As a master blaster lifting his fate above the disaster