_A television set plays. A woman sings i...

A television set plays. A woman sings in the dark: “Se me olvido otra vez” (Forgotten) by Juan Gabriel at ear deafening volume.

DIVINA: PROBABLEMENTE YAAAAAAA!!!! De mí te has olvidado Y mientras tanto yo Te seguiré esperando…

Perhaps… You have forgotten. And yet… I still await.

Lights.

Luz is making a Dominican "sancocho", a traditional hen soup. She cooks in an aggressive and nervous manner. At the table: DIVINA, Luz's slightly older sister, dressed somewhat bohemian style; a colorful scarf wrapped around her neck.

DIVINA: No me he querido ir Para ver si algún día Que tú quieras volver Me encuentres todavía-

I’ve chosen to stay In hopes that one day You will return and find me. _ Luz interrupts and sings in a whisper. Divina observes._

LUZ: Por eso aún estoy En el lugar de siempre En la misma ciudad Y con la misma gente-

It’s why I remain Same place Same city Same people

DIVINA: Get your ass over here, woman. SING TO BE HEARD, COÑAZO!

PARA QUE TÚ AL VOLVER NO ENCUENTRES NADA EXTRAÑO Y SEAS COMO AYER Y NUNCA MAS DEJARNOS

SO THAT UPON YOUR RETURN NOTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT IT WILL BE LIKE YESTERDAY NEVER APART

LUZ and DIVINA: Probablemente estoy Pidiendo demasiado Se me olvidaba que Ya habíamos terminado Que nunca volverás Que nunca me quisiste-

Perhaps I ask too much I’ve forgotten our time has ended That you will never return That your love was never true

DIVINA: COÑO!

LUZ and DIVINA: Se me olvidó otra vez Que sólo yo te quise!

I’ve forgotten… It was only me who loved.

DIVINA: Bunch of worthless motherf###as! All of ‘em!

Divina gives a shout, mariachi style.

DIVINA: AHUUUUA! STICK IT RIGHT WHERE IT DON’T FIT, BALSA ‘E CABRONE’!

LUZ: Turn down the volume, Divina!

DIVINA: Carajo, this concert is beautiful! That Juan Gabriel was the man!

Luz turns down the volume.

LUZ: That was the song Julio Cesar’s father put on tape for me.

DIVINA: Get out? When was this?

LUZ: Long time ago. He recorded himself singing it. Despair, I guess.

DIVINA Despair? A declaration of love is more like it. Just like that song: Buchipluma na' ma’ eso ere’ tu, buchipluma na' ma’. Buchipluma na' ma’ eso ere’ tu, buchipluma na' ma'. Full-O-Sh#t!

LUZ: Nino is so corny.

DIVINA: WAS, mija. Was corny. 'Cause, ya know…

LUZ: Right.

DIVINA: Ay, fo! ¿No te da como un vajo a fuiche? Smells like open ass up in here! Jodío chinos and their fish fry!

LUZ: This sancocho will kill that stink.

DIVINA: How did my boy's visit with his brothers go?

LUZ: Your what?

DIVINA: Fine. Your son. Julio Cesar.

LUZ: I don't even know. He got back late and this morning I was at work.

DIVINA: You dyin’ for him to get back so he can tell you all about the funeral.

LUZ: What are you talking about?

DIVINA: Look at you. A nervous wreck.

LUZ: I'm fine.

DIVINA: You gonna go?

LUZ: Ay, please. ¿Pa’ qué?

DIVINA: What about Norma? You think she went?

LUZ: Don’t know. Don’t care.

DIVINA: Those two were quite the pair. Didn't Nino use to brag about her?

LUZ: Every chance he got. At first it was all: "You know my wife knows proper English, right?” “She's an educated woman!"

DIVINA: And after they divorced all he did was talk smack. If sh#t were hair the man would have a giant 'fro coming out of that mouth.

LUZ: Here. Try some…

Divina tries the sancocho.

DIVINA: Mmmm. La semilla! This sancocho is giving me LIFE! If my cabezón don't get here soon we'll start the battle without him. When is it that he leaves? Tomorrow?

LUZ: Um hm.

DIVINA: How did it go with you two?

LUZ: How did it go with what?

DIVINA: Been a while since you've seen each other.

LUZ: Okay, I guess. He's still with that theater thing. I thought he was gonna be a teacher.

DIVINA: He tells me he's doing well.

LUZ: He tells you a lot of things.

DIVINA: That's what he likes and no one can take it away from him. Albertico was the same with all that military stuff.

LUZ: I don't know… Julio's acting a little strange.

DIVINA: Is he?

LUZ: Has he said something to you?

DIVINA: About?

LUZ: Ya know… if he has a girlfriend or a little somethin’ somethin’.

DIVINA: Don't ask me, honey. Ask him.

LUZ: He has to get married sooner or later. I don't wanna grow old with no grandchildren

DIVINA: It's not whatchu want, manita. It's what he wants.

LUZ: What does he want?

DIVINA: Ay no no. No you don’t. You are not getting me involved in that mofongo con huevo frito. That's between you two.

LUZ: And to top it off something slipped.

DIVINA: What do you mean?

LUZ: Forget it.

DIVINA: You brought it up, you gotta talk.

LUZ: I mean… long after dead, Nino’s come mierdura still lingers.

DIVINA: Oh… That.

LUZ: Um hm.

DIVINA: Reminds me… I'm going to D.R. in the next few weeks.

LUZ: What are you going to that place for?

DIVINA: Albertico's birthday.

LUZ: Oh, right. How many years now?

DIVINA: Adió’, 'Tico's been gone… over twenty.

LUZ: Jesus. Time flies.

DIVINA: Not for me it don’t.

LUZ: I know.

DIVINA: You wanna come with?

LUZ: Ay please, mujer!

DIVINA: What?

LUZ: You stayin’ with Frank?

DIVINA: Who else?

LUZ: How’s he doing?

DIVINA: Still in the hills and valleys of Juan López. You know that primo of ours. Loves his jungles and plátano trees. You should call him once in a while.

LUZ: I don't know how anybody can stand that place. Nothing but dust and filth.

DIVINA: Mamita, that’s where you were born and raised until you came to live with me in Santo Domingo.

LUZ: And salí degaritá the minute I got the chance.

DIVINA: Our country has its dulcura, its charm-

LUZ: Its sh#t. Everything in that place moves backwards. Como lo’ cangrejo’.

DIVINA: That’s according to you, mijita, because I love my country. Nothin’ like laying on a hammock in Boca Chica drinking a nice cold one… That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

LUZ: The minute you land in that place you feel the heat. That sweat… The humidity just sticks to your body.

DIVINA: Remember when we use to get off the plane and there was always a band playing Perico Ripiao?

LUZ: And that smell… Like garbage… Como carne quemándose...

DIVINA: All them families at the airport crying’ after not seeing each other for so long…

LUZ: Then they go through your luggage and want bribes to let you pass.

DIVINA: And those men in their military outfits… Standing right at the front greeting you. AY, MI AMORRCH!

LUZ: Damn cars driving like they’re in a street race.

DIVINA: The habichuela con dulce.

LUZ: The blackouts.

DIVINA: The casabe.

LUZ: The polluted water.

DIVINA: El cuchifrito!

LUZ: I can't breathe over there.

DIVINA: You were young when you left, sis. Never gave yourself a chance to see the beauty of our country. Come with. It'll do you good.

LUZ: I’m busy.

DIVINA: You are one hard-headed piece of work. Uh, Luz? 'Tico's picture is crooked.

LUZ: The Chinito kids downstairs start jumping up and down and shake everything. I'll fix it.

DIVINA: I’ll get it.

LUZ: Sit.

DIVINA: I said I got it. Gimme a rag or somethin’ to clean it up. Look at that… So handsome… With his military outfit, his medal, that flag in the background… Julio Cesar looks so much like him.

LUZ: Julio Cesar looks more like his father.

DIVINA: There you go, papito. Clean and polished!

LUZ: You want some cider?

DIVINA: Cider? Get me a Goddamn beer, woman!

LUZ: Did you get Presidente?

DIVINA: Is there any other? They say the ones here don't taste like the ones there... Son to’ la mima vaina, ombe.

LUZ: Here ya go.

DIVINA: My ass wants to get LIT! Raise these motherf###in’ spirits!

LUZ: This late in the game nothin’ raises. Everything collapses.

DIVINA: Got that right. Even our cricas collapse!

They laugh.

LUZ: Don’t forget the tetas!

DIVINA: AMEN FOR THE SAGGING TETAS!

LUZ: Remember Julio Cesar’s obsession with Iris Chacon?

DIVINA: Oh my God…

LUZ: Every time that child saw that woman on television… right away: "Mami, mami!”

LUZ/DIVINA: “Look at the big balloons!"

They laugh.

DIVINA: My boy.

LUZ: Look at him now… all grown up.

DIVINA: And he finally came to see you.

LUZ: He didn't come here for me.

Pause.

DIVINA: You tell him about Freddy?

LUZ: Of course not. I mean he knows about Freddy-

DIVINA: But he don’t KNOW about him. You should tell him.

LUZ: It's nothing.

DIVINA: Didn't he say he was in love with you or some sh#t?

LUZ: The man has churria of the mouth.

DIVINA: Give him a chance. Julio Cesar has his life somewhere else, ya know. You all by yourself.

LUZ: I've always been by myself. I like Freddy, but marriage? I don’t know about all that.

DIVINA: You've never married, Luz. Always with the back and forth but nothin’. What’s up withchu? Don't you have urges?

LUZ: Urges?

DIVINA: Ya know… The itch.

LUZ: What itch?

DIVINA: You never feel like throwing some wood into the fire?

LUZ: Wood into the fire…?

DIVINA: Sex, COÑAZO! Da bizness! I mean it’s been ages since you… unless you and Freddy…

Luz smiles.

DIVINA: Hold up… Don't tell me you got stung by that bee!

LUZ: Stop talking nonsense.

DIVINA: WEEEEEPAAA! The parting of the seas has finally happened!

LUZ: Enough, Divina.

DIVINA: Ju likey o no likey?

Luz smiles even more.

DIVINA: AHA! Details! Locations, reviews, positions-

LUZ: No!

DIVINA: Are you calling him "papi"?

LUZ: What?

DIVINA: 'Cause if you callin’ him papi… You know…

LUZ: What are you-

DIVINA: Ay papi, ay papi, ay papi!

LUZ: Will you stop! No one's gonna be dictating my life. If he wants to keep going with this thing we can. Nothing else.

DIVINA: You are a lucky one. With all the pieces of sh#t I’ve gotten stuck with. Can't find a decent one from the lot. Mix ‘em up in a bowl and they either out of season or spoiled rotten.

LUZ: At least no one's messing with you.

DIVINA: Oh honey, I wish! Cooped up in those four walls? That's why I go and hang out wherever or go to Lola's salon and cut some hair or some shit. Anything to get this mind out of that cave.

We hear the door open.

DIVINA: MY BOY IS HERE!

LUZ: He’s not your boy.

END OF SCENE

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Marco Antonio Rodriguez

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