by Emilio Carballido
translated by William I. Oliver

"Pero mi rosa no es la rosa fria..."
"But mine is not the frigid rose..."
- Xavier Villaurrutia

"Amago de la humana arquitectura..."
"Portent of our human architecture..."
- Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz

CHARACTERS

The Medium
Tona
Polo
Maximino Gonzalez
First Professor
Second Professor
Announcer
Candy Vendor
Woman Peddler
Newsboy
First Male Scavenger
Second Male Scavenger
First Female Scavenger
Second Female Scavenger
Male Student
Female Student
Don Pepe. a Spaniard. owner of the garage
Gentleman
Lady
A poor Boy
A Poor Girl
A Poor Man
A Poor Woman
Teacher
Tona' s Mother
Polo's Mother
Paca. Tona's Sister
TheTwo Who Dreamed

Setting: Mexico City

(Harpsichord music. Silence. Darkness. A spotlight comes up on the MEDIUM. She is seated in a wicker chair and is dressed in peasant costume. She wears a white blouse and a skirt as dark as the rebozo which covers her head)

MEDIUM: I listened to my heart beat all afternoon. I finished my chores early, so I sat here, like this, quietly, looking out with bleary eyes, listening to my heart as it beat gently against my breasts, like a cautious lover knocking at my door, a chick pecking at the walls of its egg, trying to come out into the light. I summoned up an image of my heart.... (She brings her hand to her breast.) a sea anemone.... complicated, delicately colored, tucked away in its cave, an efficient, highly methodical thing, completely devoted to the task of regulating endless distances of crepuscular canals, some wide enough for royal gondolas, others barely wide enough for rowing vegetables and food to market by the slow stroke of the oars.... all of them pulsing regularly, in order. Locks opening and closing in rhythm to the complicated commands of the ever-powerful flower of the heart. And then I thought.... What if all the hearts in the world were to cry out at once? But more of that later. I thought of the air too.... I grant you it smelled of smoke and stale food.... but I was like a fish, sitting in my chair submerged in the air. I could feel it on my skin' I could feel its currents brushing against me snarling the petals of the anemone. Air that beats and circulates. And then I began to recall all that I know, and I know many things. I know about herbs, some that cure, others that have a nice taste or smell sweet, some whose effect is propitious.... they reconcile.... some that cause death or madness, and others that simply grow heavy with tiny flowers. But I know more. I store within myself part of everything I've seen: faces, crowds, views, the texture of rocks, corners, many corners...and gestures! I also retain memories, memories which once belonged to my grandmother, my mother, or my friends.... many which they, in turn, heard from friends and old, old people! I know books, pages, illusions I know how to go places. I know roads! But knowledge is like the heart, hidden and beating, glowing imperceptively, regulating canals that flow back and forth and flow into other canals, torrents and unexpected currents managed by radial complexity of very powerful central ventricles. All manner of news comes to me everyday: events.... they all take shape. Events sound and flash; they make themselves explicit, oracular. They intertwine and germinate. Things happen, and I hear them.... I receive them! I communicate them! I assimilate them! I contemplate them! (She gets up.) News.

(Darkness. We hear the racket and screech of a train derailment, whistles, shouts, iron scraping upon iron, crashes. Silence. Lightning flashes. Darkness. The NEWSBOY enters, running)

NEWSBOY: The Daily Press, sir! Get your paper now! Delinquents derail a train! Read all about the terrible disaster! It was only a freight tram! Only a freight train. But what if it had been a pullman? Buy your copy of The Daily Press! Today's Daily Press...

(He goes off. Darkness once again. The stage lights come up. A street. We see a telephone booth. POLO, standing on a box, is trying to extract the coins from the telephone with a wire. TONA stands guard.)

TONA: (Speaking rapidly.) Hurry! Hurry up! Someone's coming! Hold it! Hold it! There's an old man. He's going to use the phone! I can tell. He's looking at a little notebook.
(POLO comes our of the booth and stands next to TONA. MAN enters and heads for the telephone. He steps inside the booth and the children look at him.)

TONA: The telephone doesn't work. It's out of order.

(The MAN was about to drop a coin in the slot. He stops and looks at the children.)

MAN: Out of order?
POLO and TONA: Umhum.

(He throws up his hands and goes off. POLO returns to his task. TONA keeps watch as before. Finally he manages to extract a coin from the telephone. They examine the coin and are pleased.)

TONA: What'll we buy?
POLO: Fried plantain?
TONA: Candy! Candy's better.
POLO: All right.
TONA: There's another telephone on the avenue.
POLO: There're too many people there. They'd see me.
TONA: Not at night.
POLO: Come on. Let's spend it.

(They walk toward a CANDY VENDOR who approaches them with his tray of sweets.)

POLO: How much are the sesame candies?
VENDOR: Five, ten, and twenty.
POLO: Two fives.
TONA: Why don't you flip him for them.
POLO: You wanna flip?
VENDOR: For what?
TONA: Twenty!
POLO: (Doubtful.) I'd better flip for ten, uh?
VENDOR: Don't back out! Twenty! Here goes.
POLO: Heads!
VENDOR: Tails!

(They examine the coin. The VENDOR picks it up and walks off Silence. TONA and POLO walk on.)

TONA: I just thought that.... well, you could have won. You would have too, if you'd flipped.

(Silence. They walk on, scuffling and kicking things.)

TONA: Well? You should have told him to let you flip! And why did you play for twenty? All I did was mention it, that's all!
POLO: Shut up!

(Silence.)

TONA: Flip him again.
POLO: With what?
TONA: I've got my bus fare.
POLO: And how will you pay for the bus?
TONA: Well.... you'll win, won't you?
POLO: Sure. Easy.
TONA: But you flip this time. Here.
POLO: Hey! Hey! You! I'll flip you again. (The VENDOR comes back.)
VENDOR: You want to try again?
POLO: But I flip this time.
VENDOR: For what?
TONA: Twenty!
POLO: Twenty. Here goes.
VENDOR: Tails! (They look at the Coin.) Heads! (The VENDOR picks up the coin.)
TONA: Here, let me. There, see! Flip! Eagle! (They look) I won!
VENDOR: But if you flip you can't call. Flip again.
TONA: Oh yeah! Just because I won it's not worth anything, is it?
POLO: She's just a girl, she doesn't know.
TONA: So? I won, didn't I?
VENDOR: Oh, get out of here! What do you want?
TONA: Two ten-centers. (She takes the candies.)
VENDOR: Want to flip again?
(POLO and TONA look a: each other.)
POLO: O.K. For twenty centers. Here goes. (He flips.)
VENDOR: Heads. (They look at the coin) Heads! Once more?
(They say no. He picks up the corn and moves off)
TONA: Why did you flip again? We'd already won. So there you are, you're broke! I don't have enough to pay bus fare, and it's late! How do I get to school now? 'They eat their candies., Anyway. I didn't do my homework. She wipes her hands on her dress. Aren't you going to school?
POLO: Haven't got any shoes. Can't buy any until next week.
TONA: Go bare foot.... the way you are.
POLO: The teacher stands at the door to check to see we've polished our shoes. I'll be damned if I'm going to polish my feet.
TONA: I still got twenty cents. Lets buy some jicama.
POLO: All right.
(A WOMAN PEDDLER comes on selling jicama)
POLO: Two five-centers.
OLD WOMAN. They cost ten.
TONA: Gee, they're expensive! What about two for fifteen, hum?
OLD WOMAN: All right.
TONA: With chile.
(The WOMAN PEDDLER prepares them and hands them to the children. They pay and eat)
POLO: We got five left
TONA: Save it for later.
('They come to the telephone booth.)
POLO: (Gets an idea.) Maybe somebody's used it since we got the coin? (He goes inside the booth, lifts the phone and puts it back on its hook. He gets twenty cents change. He takes it out, astonished.) Hey! It came out all by itself! Twenty cents, all by itself. Look, twenty cents. I lifted it up and it came out all by itself!
(TONA rushes in. jiggles the hook up and down, up and down. She bangs the phone, shakes it. She dials, pushes the return button, jiggles the hook once more vet quickly and with great violence. She hangs up.)
TONA: No more.
POLO: Hey, here comes Maximino. Hi!
(They greet him as MAXIMINO comes on. He is about twenty-three; he wears a somewhat dirty white sweatshirt, old denim pant, and tennis shoes.)
MAXIMINO: Hi!
TONA: We got twenty cents out of the telephone! He just picked up the phone and out it came.
POLO: And I got twenty more out of it with a wire!
MAXIMINO: Good for you! Keep it up.... til they catch you.
TONA: What would they do?
MAXIMINO: They'd lock you up for five years.... more!
TONA: For twenty cents?
MAXIMINO: Sure!
TONA: All I did was to stand guard.
MAXIMINO: Accomplice.... four years. (There's an awkward silence.)
POLO: And your motorcycle?
MAXIMINO: Ran it too long without oil. It threw a rod and the kick pedal stuck. (TONA laughs.) Look at her. What's so funny?
TONA: Kick pedal! You make it sound like a scooter.
POLO: What a stupid broad! A kick pedal is a starter!
TONA: A lot you know about it.
POLO: You going to fix it at home?
MAXIMINO: No, in the shop. The whole thing has to be overhauled.
TONA: The trouble's that motorcycle's no damn good!
POLO: You just can't keep your big fat mouth shut, can you? You don't know a damn thing about it!
TONA: But you know it all, don't you? Next thing you're going to say it's a motorcycle! It's just an old
beat-up rattletrap!
MAXIMINO: (Proudly.) Two hundred and fifty cubic centimeters per cylinder and sixteen horsepower, that's all!
TONA: What does that mean?
MAXIMINO: That means it's very good!
TONA: (Convinced} Oh? It looked kind of old to me.
NIAXIMINO: What are you kids doing here anyway? Didn't you go to school?
POLO: I haven't got any shoes and she spent her bus fare.
TONA: He spent it! He gambled it away, flipping coins.
POLO: What a goddamn liar. She's the one who wanted to flip.
MAXIMINO: I'll give you your bus fare.
TONA: I haven't done my homework. Why don't you write me an excuse instead? Please, huh?
MAXIMINO: All right, but what'll I say?
TONA: I'll dictate it later.
MAXIMINO: Where do you plan to hang out all morning?
POLO: I don't know. The highway.
TONA: That's a garbage dump out there!
POLO: We might find something. You can see the train go by.
TONA: What'cha got here? Let me see' (She pulls MAXIMINO 'S wallet out of his back pocket.)
POLO: I bet you he's broke.
TONA: Let's see. (She opens the wallet and examines its contents. MAXIMINO and POLO watch her with masculine patience)
TONA: Hey! You turned out real handsome in this picture. Let me have it.
MAXIMINO: Yeh! The camera broke. Why do you want it?
TONA: Because I do. Give it to me.
MAXIMINO: I'll need it later on.... and if I do, then I won't have it.
TONA: Oh, come on, give it to me. I'll stick it on the mirror in my room.
POLO: She'll show it to her friends and tell 'em you're her sweetheart.
TONA: That's a lie. It's none of your business anyway. Oh, come on, give it to me.
MAXIMINO: All right, take it.
TONA: But you've got to write something on it. Please.
(MA XIMINO finds this very difficult. He takes his pencil and starts to write something.)
MAXIMINO: Oh, what the hell, take it the way it is.
TONA: Go on, write something. Write something!

(MA XIMINO thinks. He sits down and writes with great effort. Then he stops, thinks again, and writes some more. Then he signs it with a great flourish that barely fits in the little piece of cardboard. He hands it to TONA somewhat shame facedly.)

TONA: (Reading) To my little friend TONA with sincere appreciation, her friend, Maximino Gonzalez. Oh! I'm going to stick it in the mirror in my room, you'll see.
POLO: Friend isn't spelled with a "ph."
TONA: Aren't you the smart one! I suppose that's why you're still in the fifth grade. Let's see what else you've got. These your folks?
MAXIMINO: Yes.
TONA: Look, if these are your parents, who's this?
MAXIMINO: My girl friend.
TONA: That little skinny thing? Oh, she's ugly! She's cross-eyed too!
MAXIMINO: You're the one who's cross-eyed. (He takes the wallet away from her and puts it back in his pocket.)
TONA: She is cross-eyed! One eye points to the north and the other one to the south.
(MA XIMINO takes his wallet out and examines the photograph. Then he holds it out.)
MAXIMINO: Come on, where is she Cross-eyed? Show me! Like hell she is! (And he puts the wallet away.)
TONA: She's cross-eyed.
MAXIMINO: I'll be seeing you.
TONA Oh. I'm just kidding. She's not cross-eyed. Don't go!
MAXIMINO: I have to go change. It's late.
POLO: Goon.
MAXIMINO: I'll be seeing you. (He starts off) Don't you need bus fare?
TONA: Yeh.... but I didn't do my homework. (MAXIMINO starts to go and she says) Hey, when I have my picture taken. I'll give you one. But you've got to carry it in your wallet, huh?
MAXIMINO: O.K. (He exits.)
TONA: (Calling after him.) Be sure to say hello to little Miss Cross-eyes for me. (She laughs.)
POLO: She really cross-eyed?
TONA: Sure! Nah. (She looks at the photograph.) I'm going to stick it on my mirror.
POLO: Maximino's a great guy. He's all right.

(They go off. The lights go off on them and come up on the dump. It is a great carpet of garbage surrounded by a few plants and branches. In the background we see the railroad tracks. It is bright daylight. The SCA VANGERS walk about examining the garbage, picking up papers and stray bottles. They save some and discard others. One of the SCA VANGERS steps on a piece of glass and hurts her foot. She exclaims softly, and goes off limping and grumbling. The MAN looks at the WOMAN but goes on scavanging. He kneels down amid the garbage and discovers a shoe. He examines it but leaves it behind. POLO and TONA enter upstage, balancing on the railroad track. The SCA VANGER was about to leave. He has been gathering the things he wanted to save when he sees the children. He speaks to them.)

SCAVANGER: (In need of a drink) Say, uh.... you wouldn't have five cents, would you?
POLO: No.
SCAVANGER: I need it.... you know, for a cure. I'm in a bad way, sonny. (POLO shakes his head. The SCAVANGER starts off)
TONA: Oh, sir! Go on. Polo, give it to him! Sir, come here! (POLO makes a face but gives him the money.)
SCAVANGER: (Mumbling so that he is scarcely understood.) God bless you. Bless you. (He' goes off.)
TONA: Did you give him everything?
POLO: Sure.
TONA: He only asked for five cents! Oh. You're so stupid!
POLO: You told me to give it to him!
TONA: But not everything; he only asked you for five cents.
POLO: You're crazy.... and what's worse. You're dumb
TONA: That's what you say.... God, what a stink!
POLO: Garbage.
TONA. Smells of weeds, too. Real.... real stinky weeds. See them over there? And it smells of.... oh. look at the flies! There's a dead animal somewhere, for sure! (She breaks into sang, imitating some orchestral arrangement of a dance tune.)
POLO: You crazy?
TONA: You know how to dance? My sister taught me this one, Look. (She executes a step while she sings. You know how?)
POLO: Yes. (He dances with her for a while and then he backs away, letting her dance by herself) Here's part of an engine. (He reaches into the garbage and pulls out an unrecognizable piece of steel. He turns it about in his hands examining it)
TONA: What's it for?
POLO: An engine. I'll take it to Maximino. (He puts in down to one side.)
TONA: I'm going to pick some flowers. (She begins to pick the tiny flowers. All of a sudden she screams.)
POLO: What's wrong?
TONA: I got pricked. It's got thorns. Ooogh, my, my, my! (She sucks her finger then, truculently.) Lookc! I drew blood. (She sings and dances a new step and picks more flowers.)
POLO: I went to see the "Masked Avenger against the Monsters" yesterday.
TONA: On Sunday I went to see the "Black Shadow of the Mansion." Frightened me so much I screamed at night because I was having dreams.
POLO: What did you dream of?
TONA: I don't know. It was ugly.... Those are wasps. Oh, look! There's lots of them. They sting!
POLO: Only if you're afraid of them. (He balances on the railroad track.) I hear there are guys that walk on a wire way up high and they carry a stick so's to hold their balance. They walk across the wire. You think it's true?
TONA: Sure. I've seen them in the movies.
POLO: Yeh, but in the movies that's all tricks.
TONA: I saw a woman who climbed up on a horse and stood up, you know. And then she stood on one foot like this and the horse runs around. I saw her at a circus.
POLO: When did you go to a circus?
TONA: Once.... my father took me!
POLO: Your father's dead.
TONA: He took me before he died! He was pretty nice, my father. And there was a bear on a little bicycle.
POLO: What's so hard about tiding a bicycle?
TONA: Well, it was damn hard for the bear. Look at me, at the little flowers I got.
POLO: Not many.
TONA: I'll pick more later on. I don't want to be stung by a wasp. Hey.... see that tub over there? That would be great for planting flowers! Gee, you could put a big plant inside of that one. (It's a round zinc tube. She goes to pick it up and she cannot lift it.) It's heavy!
POLO; I'll bet! (He gives her a Bronx cheer.) What's the matter, can't you pick it up? (He goes to her and tries but cannot lift it. He tries again. It won't budge. He straddles it but can't move it. She laughs so hard she drops her flowers. She continues laughing as she picks them up.) What the hell! What's the matter with this thing, huh? (He is actually scared of it. TONA suddenly stops laughing. She too senses something unreal about the weight of the tub.)
TONA: Can't you move it?
POLO: (Worried.) No.
TONA: (Exclaiming and moving away from it, holding the flowers to her breast.) Gee, it's funny it should weigh so much!
POLO: Chicken! (But he too moves away from the tub. There is a pause.) Let's find out what the hell's the matter with it.
TONA: You'd better leave it alone.
POLO: (Walking around the tub cautiously) I wonder why it's so heavy? (Then, understanding.) It's full of cement.
TONA: Yeh? I wonder why.
POLO: Must be one of those things brick-layers use or masons for.... well, I don't know.... something. Look, it's full of cement!
TONA: So that's it. (She examines it.) Yeh, it is full of cement. You couldn't plant any plants in that. (She starts singing and dancing again and puts some of the flowers in her hair.) What do you think?
POLO: (Pushing at the tub with his foot.) Hey, you can roll it! Want to help me? Come on!
TONA: Wait a minute. (She puts some more flowers in her hair.) All right. (She helps him and the two of them roll the tub.) Where will we take it?
POLO: To the other side of the tracks. (They roll the tub upstage.) It's harder if we go that way.
(They roll the tub in the most difficult direction, upstage and to the left. They hear a train whistle)
TONA: The train' s coming Hurry up (They hurry. We hear the train whistle again. They look at each other.)
POLO and TONA: Let's put it on the tracks!

(The idea makes them giggle nervously and happily as they push the tub. It's heavy and there are obstacles in the way. It wants to roll back, but they push. The train whistles once more, closer. They give tub a final push then run off. Whistles. The train approaches, the lights dim, and we hear the crash of a derailment. Darkness. Flashes of lightning reveal the children as they stare, fascinated. Darkness.)

NEWSBOY: (We hear him in the dark.) Read all about the derailment: Great losses! Great losses! Disaster caused by delinquent children! The Daily Press! Get your Daily Press!

(A spotlight comes up. The MEDIUM now stands before an enormous book, which rests on a stand. She points out the enormous engravings which are to be found on each page. They are perhaps ancient engravings in the style of Durer, or of certain botanical and zoological illustrations of the German school of the nineteenth century, or of certain old Mexican codices-perhaps all three. They are delicately tinted. She now wears somewhat lighter clothing.)

MEDIUM: This book is full of animals. (She opens it.) I'll tell you about them. Here it's written that a dog guards the physical integrity of the man to whom he has been assigned. Alone among beasts it is he who possesses a sense of property. He always seems to say. "My house, my patio, my tree, my money, my master, my love." He watches over these things and defends them like a miser, like a madman. He is the first to discover thieves, beggars, and creditors and then he barks at them and attacks them. "I protect my love and the world." He thinks his house is the very hub of the world. (Another page.) The cat watches over the spiritual integrity of those to whom it has been assigned. He gathers up shadows and expels evil wills by making small, bloody sacrifices for the good of the home. He kills scurrying rat and shrill birds and startled chicks and then, later, his prize between his teeth, he performs his ritual. When night falls, he climbs up to the rooftops. There he analyzes the halo around the moon and the waves of light .... radio waves....vapors. He consults with the air and is given secret assignments. Then he runs about emitting hair-raising cries and perpetuates himself... or he might surrender to the corrupting seduction of some secret ray which was destined for a person that was dear to him. That's why certain cats appear to be enigmatic. (Another page.) The hen is a great storehouse of nourishment. Daily and with the sweetest of efforts it gives up eggs that comply with a rigorous aesthetic and which encase within their shells an enormous explosion of chicken coops and such eternal questions as "Who was first, the chick orc" But beware in cracking an egg for if the whites are cloudy or if the yoke is murky, some old hag may have used that egg to draw off a whole body-full of passions and diseases! You may have broken into the small box of a local Pandora! And while she laughs at her regained health, we may be just a step away from swallowing all her old evils. (Another page.) Beware of sold fish. They make capricious little circles....weaving and unweaving! They weave out oceanic writings. They can see beyond the crystal with their little dead eves and they wave their fins invitingly, summoning scaly diseases. They turn and go and come, making signs that one does best to ignore and which we understand only when it is too late. Beware of aquariums, their best guardians are cats. (Another page.) Butterflies say very profound things such as "fleetingness... mystery." They say. "We love surprises!" They say. "Everything is possible!" They say. "All things matter!" (Another page.} And there are snakes, with a profound and burning secret on the tips of their tongues. (Another page.) There are bees that know all about solar energy and light. Things we don't even suspect! Oh, there are many, many books and many, many warnings. (She nods her head and brings her finger to her lips as the lights dim out. A vertical light falls upon the fore stage. We see a newstand, with the NEWSBOY standing to one side.

(AGENTLEMAN and a LADY stand examining the display of newspapers.)

LADY: (Eating something.) There's not a word about the trunk murder...the body was cut into bits!
GENTLEMAN: Seems that a pair of delinquents derailed a train. Barbaric! Absolutely barbaric! Seems that they rolled a tub full of cement onto the tracks.
LADY: (Her mind on something else.) Little savages, that's what they are. All of them. They're all a bunch of savages. (Then suddenly interested.) Any casualties?
GENTLEMAN: No, it was a freight train. The cars were overturned. Look at their faces, will you! Says here that they were twelve and fourteen years old. They, look forty.
(Projected on the background we see two enormous blow-ups of TONA and POLO as sinister as all police mug shots. They look frightened and much older. Photographs taken at the moment of some nervous twitch.)
LADY: (Absent-mindedly.) It's just vice and crime....vice and crime! Those people are criminal from the day they are born.
GENTLEMAN: (Looking to see if the bus is coming.) It's poverty that does it.
LADY: Oh,yes, their poverty's something awful. But they didn't say anything about the trunk murder, huh?
GENTLEMAN: Here comes the bus. (They move off to get on the bus.)
NEWSBOY: Daily Press! Get your Daily Press! Latest news!

(Blackout. The lights come up on the TEACHER, who walks downstage. She is heavily powdered, tightly permanented with a small red mouth. About sixty years old.)

TEACHER: Before we start class. I must inform you of some very sad and shameful news for this school. One of your companions, Leopoldo Bravo, has committed a criminal act and now finds himself in prison. As the newspapers put it. it was all due to idleness and (She reads.).... "loose living!" That boy was repealing fifth grade and I haven't the faintest idea why he was readmitted! Next year and in the future we are not going to readmit students that have been flunked out! Is that clear? Idleness and stupidity and well, lack of civic spirit! (She reads.) "The juvenile delinquents stayed by the side of the railroad tracks to witness their ghastly deed. They were easily captured. (She grunts and looks for another passage.) "One must also blame the lack of parental supervision." (She grunts her approval again.) "One must attack those parents who allow their children to drift into idleness as well as the irresponsibility of the schools and the teac...." (She stops speaking suddenly and folds the paper.) Well. now you know all about it. I brought it to your attention because it contains a lesson for all of us. The dangers of idleness. You. Martinez Pedro. who never do your homework, take it to heart! Your chum, your "buddv," is in jail! And you. Antunez. take care. If you fail you will not be readmitted to this school and be sure to remember that you must all of you have your white uniforms by Monday. No later! If you don't have them, you will not be admitted! There are no excuses and don't tell me that you don't have enough money to buy them! You certainly have enough money for other things. And now let us examine fractions. Let me see....you. Antunez! Tell us. What is a common denominator?
(Blackout. The lights come up on two university STUDENTS reading a newspaper.)
GIRL STUDENT: Did you see this? A couple of little squirts derailed a train. Look at 'em. See?
BOY STUDENT: Hey, wild! Anyone killed? (He reads.)
GIRL STUDENT: No. Fortunately. It was a freight train.
BOY STUDENT: Jeeze. What knuckle-heads. They've sure cooked their goose now! (He laughs.)
GIRL STUDENT: Two cars overturned....the engine smashed against a tree. Ifs a mess! (She laughs).. Anyway. It would be fun to do a thing like that, wouldn't it?
BOY STUDENT: Wild, man, wild!
GIRL STUDENT: What kids! That's what I call inspired!

(They laugh. Dim out. The lights come up in the shop. MAXIMJ.VO is working on a motor. The telephone rings)

MAXIMINO: Hello? Larranga's garage. Speaking. Yes. I'm Maximino. Oh. hi! Friends of mine? Which ones? In jail! That can't be! You mean the kids? Oh, I bet they caught them in the telephone booth. They did....what? A train? You mean to say that they derailed a train! You sure? Well, where did they take them? Oooooo psss! (He whistles.) That's rough! Oh. how can that be? Oh, well. I have to see what I can do. Yeh, well, they're friends of mine. You know. I kind of watch over them. Thanks for calling. Yeh, good-bye. (He hangs up and stares for a moment, thinking. The owner of the garage. DON PEPE. enters. He is dressed in denim trousers and shirt.;
MAXIMINO: Hey. Don Pepe. I've got to take off. They've arrested a couple of friends of mine.
DON PEPE: What have you cot to do with t?
NIAXIMINO: They just called me up to et me know. They' re just kids....you know. I take care of them, like wards, you know?
DON PEPE: What did they do? Why did they arrested them?
MAXIMINO They derailed a train.
DON PEPE: (Terrified) Communists!
MAXIMINO: No., no! Two little squirts ,that's all. You know, kids. You know them. I bring them here sometimes on the motorcycle. Polo and TONA.
DON PEPE: (Shaking his head) You must be wrong. They just did something to a street car, hitching a ride something like that.
MAXIMINO: No, a train. A railroad train. They, they derailed it....overturned it. I....I don't know.
DON PEPE: All right, take off. But be back in an hour and finish that job. It was a rush order.
MAXIMINO: Sure, Sure.
DON PEPE: And if you're late, stay after hours.
MA.XIMINO: Oh. sure, sure. (He starts out) Don Pepe, if they should need it, uh, well, could you....could you lend me some money?
DON PEPE: I knew that was coming....Icould feel it in my bones! What's the matter, don't they have any family?
MAXIMINO: Well, I don't think they can afford it.
DON PEPE: We'll see. We'll talk about it later. We'll see.
MAXIMINO: Thanks. (He exits.)
DON PEPE: But what the shit were they doing around a train?!

(Dim out. Lights up on the dump. The MALE SCAVANGER is coming from the train, happy and carrying a large pack or sack.)

SCAVANGER: Hurry up, woman! There are a whole bunch scattered over there in front of the car!
WOMK\ SCAVANGER: (Comes running over to the train.) I carried off a whole sack of beans.
SCAVANGER: And there's sugar too. This train was loaded with food!

(They run off opposite sides of the stage. A POOR BOY and a POOR GIRL enter.)

POOR GIRL: You're sure it's all right?
POOR BOY: There's no one around. Go on. go on. Look, the cars open.
POOR GIRL: It's overturned.
POOR BOY: What did you expect? And there's no one to stop us! Hurry up! The police will be here any minute.
POOR GIRL: Weren't there any people on the tram?
POOR BOY: They went off to testify.

(They run off The WOMAN SCA VANGER returns carrying too large sacks. She can barely carry them. She sees two other people coming and she says to them:)

WOMAN SCAVANGER: Hurry up....there are all kinds of things!
(A POOR WOMAA' enters covered with a rebozo.)
POOR WOMAN: Holy Mother of God, and isn't there anyone standing guard?
WOMAN SCAVANGER. They left a few guards but when they saw the food they picked up some sacks and ran off with them. Took them home. (She has caught her breath and now runs off) There's no one here now.
POOR WOMAN: Holy Virgin. Mother of God! But this nothing less than stealing! (She speaks to a POOR MAN who is approaching.) Sir. sir....will it be all right if I take Kmethjn2 from the train? What do you think?
POOR MAN: What...? You mean you can?!
POOR WOMAN: They say there's no one standing guard. I don't think it would be stealing, do you? POOR MAN: (Thinks about it.) Well, as I see it....It's dealing. No two ways about it.
POOR WOMAN: Oh, dear God. (She crosses herself)
POOR MAN: (Trying to convince her) Absolutely.
POOR WOMAN: Those bags look so heavy!
POOR MAN: I'll help you. Where do you live?
POOR WOMAN: Over there, by the outskirts.
POOR MAN: I live there too. Come on, come on!
POOR WOMAN: But my husband's so respectable, so jealous! What if someone told him that they saw me come in with you? Oh, that would be the end of me.
(They go running off The POOR CHILDREN come back carrying sacks.)
POOR GIRL: Hurry before they take it all away!
POOR BOY: They can't....not in twenty trips!
POOR GIRL. I'm going to fetch my sister. She's little but she can carry something.
(They run off and the POOR MAN and POOR WOMAN come back loaded down.)
POOR WOMAN: Oh. Virgin Mary, Mother of God. I really do think this is stealing!
POOR MAN: Stealing....shmealing....What the hell! It's corn and beans!
POOR ~VOMAN: Oh. I'm going to tell my brothers. They've got so many children! It's a pity mine are in school. They could help. Oh, but this is heavy!

(They go off and meet the SCAVANGERS on the way.)

SCAVANGER: I'm going to put it all inside my pack.
WOMAN SCAVANGER: And we'd better cover it over with newspapers in case they catch us. I told my sister-in-law. I mean, she's got a right to her slice of the cake, huh? And the kids will be here in a minute.
SCAVANGER: We've got to tell all of them! There's enough for everyone!

(They run off Dim out. The MEDIUM enters. Her clothes are even lighter colored than before. Her story will be illustrated by two DANCERS.)

MEDIUM: Now I'm going to tell you the story of the two who dreamed. They were two good men full of faith who lived one of them in the town of Chalma, famous for its sanctuary, and the other in the town of Chalco, also famous for its sanctuary. In one version of the story we are told that these men were brothers. Another claims that they were twins and resembled each other amazingly. And yet in another version it is said that they were just friends. It came to pass that these two men had a dream. During the same night, at the very same hour, each in his different town, they dreamed. And this was the dream they dreamed: a prodigious figure, radiant and full of miraculous signs, warned each one of them. "You must go immediately to your brother's town. Before three days pass. you must be with him. And the two of you together must carry out this injunction: You must dance and pray at the great sanctuary next to your brother's house." And in their dream they knelt to the figure and agreed. Then the fi2ure repeated with great emphasis. "Before three days are out and no later! The two of you together, not separately, but together.. ..and at the great sanctuary next to your brother's house!" They awoke, amazed, and told their dream to their wives and as they told it, it seemed to them that they could still hear the sound of many little bells and the music of a flute. Each one set out from his town, one from Chalma on the way to Chalco, the other from Chalco on the way to Chalma in order to tell the other the news and to carry out the miraculous command. After a day's journey, they met at the very center of their route. Each in turn told the other his dream and they were identical....like a mirror with two contradictory images....for they could not then tell which town to go to. Was it Chalma or Chalco? They tossed a coin in the air and it fell to the ground only to get lost in a crevice of the earth. "It's a sign," they said, and so they made camp on the very spot and waited for another sign....another dream.

They ate, they slept, and then woke up. Their time was running out. No sign came. Their fear, their terror of that contradictory vision, grew in them and the sign did not come. Soon it was time to go to the sanctuaries, but yet there was no time to reach either one. The sign never came, and so they decided to fulfill their command right there where they were. It was a barren place covered with weeds and rocks. They cleared it with their machetes. They moved enough rocks aside to clear a space the size of the atrium of a small, very small church. Night came upon them, and a gentle breeze dried the sweat on their bodies. They had a few drinks of mescal and then they danced and prayed. They danced in that complicated rhythm that had been passed down to them from their fathers. They prayed the prayers that they had learned from childhood. Two tired, dirty men decorated with feathers and mirrors danced and prayed in a nocturnal ambiguity of that wilderness without answers.... there under a shower of pollen from the golden rod. Their time was up and they knew no better way of satisfying the whims of the arbitrary being that had spoken to them in their dream. They said farewell and returned to their homes long before the sky was cracked open by the dawn. They left....both of them feeling that the designs of providence had only been half fulfilled.

(She starts to go off as she is almost off, she stops and turns around.) And do you know what happened to that p1w of ground that the two men cleared for their dance and their prayers? (She is silent. She looks at everyone. A malicious smile creeps across her mouth.) But that's another story. Just another story. (She goes off hurriedly. Dim out.)

NEWSBOY: (Holding out his newspapers.) Delinquent jackals! Read all about the jackal kids! Half a million pesos damage! Half million lost in prank by delinquent kids! News! News! Get your Daily Press. (He goes off)

(Lights come up on TONA 'S mother. She is packing a small bag of food and carries several packages. One of her daughters, TONA 'S sister PACA. comes in. She is carrying a newspaper.)

PACA: Here's another picture of TONA.
MOTHER: Let's see. Oh. that's awful! She looks ugly!
PACA: She looked better in the other one. What are you taking to her?
MOTHER: A wrap, some clothes, and candy....the kind she liked. But it's so far away. I'll try to make it on time today. If I'm late, they won't let me in. You'll have to take my place at the hospital tomorrow. That's the only way I'll get there in time to see your sister. I've already told them about it.
PACA: You mean Eve sot to empty those slop pails?
MOTHER: If your mother can empty them. you car too!
PACA: But I wanted to so with you to see TONA.
MOTHER: You're going to stay here and take care Your sisters. And make sure they don't go around derailing trains.
PACA: But what a crazy thing for TONA to do! (She laughs.)
MOTHER: Don't laugh. It's no joke.
PACA: But who'd ever think of a thing like that? TONA's crazy.
MOTHER: (Almost laughing.) Oh, TONA. She was always one for getting into trouble. (She thinks about it.) But I don't think they'll let her out soon.
PACA: You mean they're going to keep her in prison?
MOTHER: It's not a prison! It's a....well...like a boarding school. (She wipes her eyes.] She needs her father, that's what. Oh, why did she have to go and do a thing like that?!
PACA: The paper says some awful things about her.
MOTHER: Give it here. (She is about to tear it up in her anger.)
PACA: Wait! Let me cut the picture! And look at how funny Polo looks! What a face!
MOTHER: Oh, the poor girl! The one who helped me most. Such a good girl. Poor thing.'
PACA: (Tearing out the picture.) Well, I think they're going to let her out. I mean, why would they keep her locked up? Fat chance she'll ever pay for the train!
MOTHER: They say it's to keep her from doing it again. (She takes the newspaper and tears it up without conviction, sadly, slowly, into several pieces.)
PACA: Oh, well, if she's going to go on derailing trains....
MOTHER: Oh, it's so late I don't think we can ever get there in time today. Yesterday a man at the gate told me to leave the things with him. Fat chance. They're a bunch of thieves! All those guards!
PACA: (Taking off her pin.) Here, give her this pin. She always liked it and I used to get angry at her when she put it on. Tell her it's a gift.
MOTHER: All right. We've go to tell the school we don't know when she's goin2 to come back. I think she's going to lose the year, that's what.
(They go out. The lights change and come up on POLO, who sits in one chair, his MOTHER in another under the shadows of some bars. The MOTHER is crying.)
POLO'S MOTHER: This would happen to us. It's not enough your father was a drunken good for nothing, but you had to turn out rotten too ... highwayman. It's over the newspapers! I've already warned them out there they shouldn't get the idea that we can pay for that train What with? The lady where I work....when she saw your picture....oh, she was so frightened I thought she was going to fire me. Work, work, work so that you'd have a chance to study and now look! I should have let your father beat you whenever he wanted to. He was right! It's all my fault for having spoiled you. But what I want to know is why the hell you were so stupid!....you and that idiot girl! Why did you have to stay there, huh? What's the matter, don't you know how to run? But you just stayed there looking until the police came and arrested you.
POLO: (Quietly) It wasn't the police.
POLO'S MOTHER: What?
POLO: (Quietly) It wasn't the police. It was the engineer from the train.
POLO'S MOTHER: And you couldn't run? What are your legs for? (She starts to cry) Just when I was going to buy you shoes out of next month's pay!....The lady I work for. she knows a good lawyer. But heaven only knows how much he'll cost. And the newspapers say that the train was worth half a million pesos! (She loses her temper and starts to shake him.) Oh. you're so stupid! I should beat you to death! Look at him! Sitting there so, so....meek as a lamb! Snotnosed, idiot louse that you are! Now look what you've come to? (She breaks out sobbing.) Now they're going to keep you here for I don't know how long! Thrown in with all those filthy criminals. Your father was right! I spoiled you! Keeping you tied to my apron strings! I miss you all the time. I've even thought....God forgive me....why didn't God take one of your other brothers instead of you! But that's the way it is when you love someone....we always love the ones we shouldn't. Oh, Polo, how are we ever going to get you out of here? How will I ever do it?
(Darkness. The NEWSBOY enters. Instead of print, his newspapers are now covered with stains that resemble Rorschach tests. He holds them out so the audience can see them and cries.)
NEWSBOY: Get your Daily Press! Latest news in your Daily Press. Schizoid children induce a public trauma! One moment of unconsciousness causes a half million peso shock! The Daily Press! Get your latest news! Daily Press!
(He exits.)
(The FIRST PROFESSOR enters. He dresses meticulously)
FIRST PROFESSOR: Our century has tended to place increasing and specific emphasis upon collective problems. In a way, it's only natural. We live massively, that is to say, in masses. Industrialization, syndicalization, the enormous urban problems, all these summon before our eyes great human con2lomerations great conglomerations of... (He smiles.) of individuals. And it is here that we discover our real nucleus, in the self, that complex self composed of (He smiles.) of individuals. And it is here that we discover our real nucleus, in the self, that complex self composed of many layers wrapped one within the other like....well, like the petals of a rose. We are intricate beings and the word "complex" has taken such roots in our everyday speech that it is used....well, even by the average patient....ah, what I mean ~s the average man! We use this word as though we were referring to the very gears which move and control the Strings and fibers of our everyday behavior, gears which lead us to the very source of traumatic nuclei. And it is our duty to make the patient aware of them and thus 2uide him until he discovers for himself the secret reasons which lie hidden behind his impulses, the unconscious controls, the frustration of our acts, very much in the manner of some sort of explicit formulation. And our most neutral conversations manifest the weight of hidden content which when interpreted correctly leads us to a proper diagnosis of all abberrational conduct. Let us take, for example, this terrible act, difficult to understand, when one tries to explain it as a conscious and rational deed. Two adolescents derail a train. Well, it just so happens that there are certain antecedent factors which will permit us to explain concretely the hidden and submerged impulses that gave rise to the case. Now, as we formulate them, we will see how the whole matter becomes logical and coherent! (He moves to one side.) Polo is in the telephone booth endeavoring to extract a coin from the telephone. TONA stands guard. Now I want you to observe the symbolic content of the phrase "stands guard." (We see POLO and TONA as described.) Keep in mind, please, that telephones are symbols of sexual communication.
TONA: When I was a little girl, I noticed that dogs did..., things with each other. You know, "things." That is....until my mother came and threw a bucket of water on them to separate them and then made me stand guard so that they wouldn't come together again. Therefore, now I stand guard in order to interrupt the communication. Hurry and get the coin out. There's a man coming to use the telephone. (POLO joins TONA. A MAN enters.)
TONA: (Fiercely.) It's broken. You can't use the telephone. (The MAN walks off, frustrated POLO goes back and extracts the coin.)
POLO: My father drinks and he always wants to beat me. I don't love him. I got the coin out of the phone. I'm glad I interrupted the communication. With this coin I'm going to buy some fried platain and I'll give it to you.
TONA: But I want sesame candy! My father always gave me sesame candies.

(They act out the coin flipping scene at breakneck speed. The resemble a silent movie.)

FIRST PROFESSOR: Now they're trying to lose the money they've obtained as rapidly as possible. This, of course, reveals the symbolic nature of their act as well as their hidden guilt and desires for self punishment.

(MAXIMINO enters and TONA hangs on his arm.)

TONA: You're my father image! I want to ride with you on your motorcycle.
FIRST PROFESSOR: Motorcycles are also sexual symbols.
POLO: And I too want to ride with you on your motorcycle.
FIRST PROFESSOR: Abnormal sexuality is really normal in all human beings. Incest, fettishism. homosexuality are, normally speaking, latent in all of us. They are simple stages which we outgrow unless, of course, we encounter traumatic elements along the way that
MAXIMINO: My motorcycle is busted.
POLO: What happened?
MAXIMINO: I crashed up and the piston's all bent. ( TONA laughs.)
FIRST PROFESSOR: Did you notice her laughter?
POLO: (Passionately.) She doesn't know anything about motorcycles. I do! Pay attention to me. Me! Pay attention to me!
TONA: (To MAXIMINO.) Your trouble's that your motorcycle is all worn out! And now I'm looking for an excuse to touch your body!
POLO: Don't touch him! (She removes the wallet from MAXIMINO'S pocket.)
TONA: Hey, you look pretty good in this picture. Give it to me. Write something on it. I'll keep it.
FIRST PROFESSOR: Fettishism. (MA XIMINO writes.)
POLO: (Truculently.) You prefer her to me and you spell friend with a "ph." I want that picture for myself....but I don't dare ask you for it! I'd like to blow you up....both of you. Her and you.
TONA: I hate your sweetheart. I hate her! I'd kill her! I'd like to pluck her eyes out! She's cross-eyed! She's horrible! (She spits.)
FIRST PROFESSOR: So we witness the birth of a first destructive impulse. Note the association of sweetheart and worn out motorcycle. (MA XJMINO leaves.) Now, here we are at the dump next to the railroad tracks. I don't believe that it is necessary to point out that by nature there exists within each and everyone of us a veritable garbage dump!
(The garbage dump.... but now in the various plants and objects are distinct sexual configurations. TONA and POLO dance and sing.)
FIRST PROFESSOR: Observe the very mechanism of the dance. Notice the mutual release and discharge of the libido! Polo fluctuates between virile and passive attitudes. TONA is alternately both mother and lover!
(The dance comes to an end. POLO thrusts up the broken piece of the engine.Ift now has a very suspicious shape. I
POLO: Hey, here's part of a motor. I'm going to take it to Maximino.
TONA: Blood! Look! I've been deflowered!
POLO: I saw a movie in which the super ego fights sadistically and triumphs.
TONA: Oh, on Sunday I went to see a symbolic realization of masochistic incest. Later on I dreamed about all manner of pleasures....but my self censorship woke me up...screaming with guilt'. Naturally, I've for2otten all about it.
POLO: (Balancing on the rails) Tight rope walkers are like a dream of fIight come true.
FIRST PROFESSOR: Dreams of flying are simply realizations of sexual impulses.
TONA: I identified with a bareback rider who rode a galloping horse standing on one foot! My father took me to the circus!
FIRST PROFESSOR: Horses are sexual symbols .Too.
TONA: (Very excited), Bears on bicycles, horses at a gallop! A circus full of all kinds of male beasts! Virginal flowers pursued by all kinds of large wasps with hug stingers that sting and draw blood! And over there....there's a round tub as empty as my womb....a tub in which we can plant flowers.
POLO: (He tries to lift the tub but cannot). This womb is fascinating and frightening....maternal!
TONA: I'm scared of it too. It frightens me.
POLO: We must roll it to the other side of the tracks.
FIRST PROFESSOR: Tracks, communication....an identical symbol with that of a telephone! Now we are going to witness the reconciliation of all contradiction... in dreams! The impulse that forces us to cross tracks of life Get the symbol? And at the same time the impulse that forces us to obstruct the path.
(POLO and TONA go round and round the tub, screaming.)
POLO: Incest! Libido! Maximino!
TONA: Defloration! Maximino! Father!
POLO and TONA: Womb! Jealousy! Crime!
(We hear the approaching train. )
FIRST PROFESSOR: Psychology! Whenever man conduct appears to be inexplicable psychology will lay it bare!
(We hear the terrible sound of the derailment. Dim out. Flashes of lightning. Blackout. Lights dim up upon the NEWSBOY. He is peddling newspapers that are printed in red on black.)
NEWSBOY: Latest news! Latest news! Routes of communication disrupted! Derailment! Significant protest against injustice to the workers. Read your Daily Press! Today's Daily Press! Read your Daily Press! (He goes off)
(The SECOND PROFESSOR enters. He dresses somewhat carelessly and a bit out of fashion. )
SECOND PROFESSOR: The individual cannot be judged except insofar as he is judged in the context of his fusion into the collective. The isolated individual does not exist. We are social beings. Robinson Crusoe lived solely in relationship to a society from which he had been accidently separated. We are all of us witnesses of the event commented upon so extensively in the press. It is without any question a clear expression of class struggle. Protagonists: two children of the proletariat.
(The scene in the telephone booth is repeated)
TONA: Hurry up. Here comes a petty bourgeoise. (The MAN walks up.) The telephone is our of order Since the telephone company has a monopoly, it gives very pour service. The phones are always out of order.
(The MAN becomes angry, curses the telephone and then goes away. The children laugh at him.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: Notice the workings of ingenuity, the best recourse and most typical weapon of the people. Here, in the presence of this machine which is not at her disposal and economic reach, the girl expresses her first gesture of rebellion.
TON A: (She beats the telephone and shakes it and gets the coin.) What will we buy?
POLO: Platains. They're full of nourishment.
TONA: Sesame candy. They have mote calories.
POLO: We didn't eat enough breakfast.
TONA: That s typical of the capitalist society in which we live!
SECOND PROFESSOR: Now, notice how devalued currency and diminished purchasing power give rise to a compensatory interest in gambling! The addiction to gambling is a typical symptom of underdeveloped countries! Gambling becomes the vice of the proletariat. (We see in pantomime the tossing of the coins and the purchase of the Jicamas.)
TONA: Aren't you going to school?
POLO: I cant.
TONA: Why?
POLO: Because of the exaggerated economic demands imposed by a bad educational system. The expenses of bus fare and the demands of the teacher....How can I?
TONA: There are not enough local schools and the teachers behave that way just to scare us off.
SECOND PROFESSOR: We are now going to encounter a living compendium of the youthful aspirations of a young worker. (MAXIMINO enters. His clothes are very clean, impeccably ironed. He is radiant.) An authentic representative of his class: exploited, socially responsible, self-sacrificing, incorruptible, fraternal, vigorous, alert. By his example, he plants within these children the highest ideals and principles.
MAXIMINO: Where do you plan to spend the rest of the morning?
POLO: We'll look around....we might go down by the railroad tracks.
TONA: It's just a garbage dump down there!
POLO: But you can find useful things sometimes and you can see the train go by!
SECOND PROFESSOR: In Maximino's expression the children can read his disappointment at how corrupt syndicalism has betrayed the workers to the power of capitalism. How it has made it possible for the trains in which our very own revolution was carried forward now to be loaded down with the goods of the monopolies!
(They examine each other's faces. TONA sees MAXIMINO 'S wallet.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: And now the young girl asks lot a photograph. She's not one to enthrone the false idols of a cinematographic industry....an industry devoted exclusively to the ends of rank imperialism! She is going to cherish the image of a comrade!
TONA: Who's this?
MAXIMINO: My sweetheart.
TONA: (Looking at her carefully, then speaking 'cautiously.) She's cross-eyed. One eye points to the north and the other one to the south!
MAXIMINO: What do you mean by that?
TONA: It's just that....she's a little middle-class, and her
ideas couldn't help being cross-eyed. You'd better watch out. (MA XIMINO goes off very worried.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: And now we will witness a sample of those dances with which capitalism manages to corrupt the true spirit of the people.
(TONA and POLO do a ridiculous dance. The dump is now altered and instead of sexual symbols, one makes out the trade names of many Yankee products: chewing gum, soda pop, etc.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: The authentic expression or joy in these children should be something other than this....something like ....( TONA and POLO dance a jarabe) Note that the dump is an eloquent symbol of what it means to have undiciplined industry and production. It is proof positive of the false values that capitalism fosters and creates. And now, behold the fraternal relationship between these youngsters and the downtrodden proletariat.
SCAVANGER: (Entering, very ill.) Please. won't you help me. I'm so sick! I need help.
TONA: Yes, why don't we help him. They don't have social security.
POLO: Neither do we. That's only for the privileged few. (They exchange a comradely good-bve with the SCA VANGER. Presently they see the tub and are amazed. They give each other a look of consultation and then return to examine the tub more closely.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: We are now witnessing the uncertain gestures and signs that reveal the birth of a social conscience. Extreme contradictions produce extreme results.
TONA: Leave that tub alone. It frightens me.
POLO: Fear is a springboard of all revolutions.
TONA: One must fell a certain number of trees in order to preserve the forest.
POLO: Who can blame the woodsman for leveling the forest in order to sow the ground with seed.
(We hear a hymn. TONA and POLO push the tub with heroic gestures. We hear the train and the sounds of the derailment. Darkness. Lightning flashes. On/v this time the flashes of lightning last a bit longer in order for us to perceive quite clear/v that TONA and POLO are posed in heroic and statuesque postures. while the SCAVANGERS and the other persons of the neighborhood loot the train in a triumphal procession, MAXIMINO enters and completes the heroic and sculptural tableau.)
SECOND PROFESSOR: Man is economy' All of life rests upon the infra-structure of economy. There is nothing inexplicable in this act. It is typical of its class. Even down to the lack of true intellectual direction.
(Dim out. The lights come up on MAXIMINO and TONA seated under the shadow of bars.)
MAXIMINO: But how stupid can you be? Whatever made you think of derailing a train.
TONA: (Quickly.) Nothing. We just wanted to see what would happen.
MAXIMINO: Well, now you know! Didn't it ever occur to you that someone might be killed?
TONA: Later....but then it was too late. That's why we didn't run away. We were so scared we couldn't move. We just stayed there, like statues. And it was a mess! Oh. it was really ugly.
MAXIMINO: Well, what did you expect? The engine half turned over. Three whole freight cars rolled over and broke open. And then the whole neighborhood came out and stole everything. Do you know how much that little game of your cost? Half a million pesos!
TONA: (Thinking.) How much is that?
MAXIMINO: How stupid can you be?! I tried to see if! could get you out by paying your fine, but fat chance! Your joke was too damned expensive. (Pause.)
TONA: (Truculently.) There're some girls in jail with me that were arrested because they threw boiling water on a man when he came to collect the rent. They claimed they didn't do it on purpose. What do you think? And then there's a girl who used to sell marijuana. And there's another one who used to make her living by showing off little girls....naked....you know. Then the mothers of the little girls caught her. But she says that the little girls like to show off that way. What do you think? And then there's another one....
MA.XIMINO:(Desperately.) Don't you have anything to do with them, do you hear! Don't you talk to them! None of them!
TONA: But they're nice girls....and they're a hell of a lot sharper than the girls at school. They nearly died laughing when I told them I derailed a train.
MAXIMINO: You see! I don't want you to talk to them anymore! They're just a pack of stupid bitches....pigs....and criminals!
TONA: (Sadly.) Is that what the papers say I am?
MAXIMINO: (Putting his arm around her.) ....Well....anyway, don't have anything to do with them! (Pause.)
TONA: At night ....I'm scared. I wake up....! I don't know where I am! And my cot smells of pee because the girl that had it before used to wet her bed. You know, they won't tell me when I'm going to get out of here. Some of the girls say I'll be here for years! Imagine!
MAXIMINO: We'll get you out of here. You'll see....oh, now don't cry! (He tries to make her feel better) Anyway you're famous now. Your picture's been in all the papers and everything! If you're lucky, they'll give you a job in the movies.
TONA: Fat chance! My pictures were awful! they didn't even look like me!
MAXIMINO: You looked fine! Here. (He takes our his wallet.) See. I've got your picture.
TONA: You've got it in your wallet! Oh....I didn't see that picture. It was so small. Hey, what if little cross-eves sees my picture in your wallet? Hey. let me look at her picture. See, see! Look at her close now! Is she or isn't she cross'eyed?
MAXIMINO: No more cross'eyed than you....no! She's
TONA: No?
MAXIMINO: Well, she just looks that way because....well, because of the way she's standing. See. She's looking off to the side.
TONA: (Taking advantage of the attention he has paid her.} Why don't you get rid of that picture! Just keep mine. huh? (Pause. They look at each other. TONA speaking in earnest.) Just mine'? Huh?
MAXIMINO: All right. From now on I wont carry any other picture.
TONA: Swear?
MAXIMINO: Promise.
TONA: (Hugs him weepily) And come to see me whenever you can. I want you to come and see me lots and lots and lots of times! (He embraces her.)

(The lights shift and come up on the dump. It is a night scene. The SCAVANGERS of the previous scene plus two more, male and female. are seated around the fire.)

FIRST SCAVANGER: It may be poor and rickety but I'll say one thing about my house though, it's warm. I built it myself out of some boards I found....and some old broken boxes. I made the root out of some sheet metal I stole from a chicken coop over there. Yep! Well....when do you plan to come and pay us a real visit?
SECOND WOMAN SCAVANGER: That's up to you.
FIRST SCAVANGER: Well....in honor of your company, I'm going to dedicate this little old song to you. (He sings, accompanying himself on the guitar.)
You're a rose of the few
That bends with the dew
It's a pity you're dry now
You're nothing but thorns. Aw!
The light of your eyes
Bright as cloudy skies!
And the curves of your legs
Are as graceful as kegs!
SECOND WOMAN SCAVANGER: If you're going to insult me....I warn you!
FIRST SCAVANGER: (Laughing.) Pass me the bottle. (He drinks)
SECOND SCAVANGER: The next thing you'll be telling me you got the tequilla from he rain too!
FIRST SCAVANGER: In a way we did it, we sold a little bag of garbanzas!
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER: We got the tamales by trading off a few pounds of sugar.
SECOND WOMAN SCAVANGER: (Intimately) You can tell the master of this house is a very .important man. He has a way with money-doesn't he!
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER. I'm pretty good at that myself.
SECOND SCAVANGER: Well, they're right, you know, when they say it's better to have bad company than no company at all!
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER. Go on, say whatever you like....it's water on a duck's back to me!
FIRST SCAVANGER: (Sings)
Your sweet little voice
Makes the torn cats rejoice!
Teeth brighter than pennies
But you're missing so many!
Your throats like a stream:
Your songs flow like a scream.
And your breath is as sweet
As the smell of your feet. (They all shout and applaud.)
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER: If you can sing that about me, just think what I could sing about you. Nah, I didn't like that song.
FIRST SCAVANGER: Really? Didn't you like it? Nat even a little bit?
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER: Now why should I like to have things like that sung to me? What are you thinking of?
FIRST SCAVANGER: Hey, come on. Snugg1e up a bit. It's cold.
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER: No, thank you. I'm very well where I am.
FIRST SCAVANGER: You snuggle up a little closer and you'll see. Come on, come on, snuggle up.
FIRST WOMAN SCAVANGER: I don't know why you're making such a fuss about my snuggling up. ...(She does so.) when you turn around and sing nothing but insults to me.
FIRST SCAVANGER: (Furring his arm around her.)
Later on I'll sing very pretty to you, very pretty' You'll see, you'll see!
SECOND SCAVANGER: How about sharing that bottle? 'Cause my little woman and I....we got to Warm up too, huh? What do you say, my little old sow? (And he gives her a hug.}
(Darkness. Lights come up on MAXIIMINO talking on the telephone at the garage.)
MAXIMINO: What happened? Well, no. no, I couldn't go. Well....there wasn't a telephone around. I couldn't let you know. No. I ....think whatever you want! I didn't say I'd stay here. Yes, working....but some place else. What do you mean where! If you want, I'll give you the address and you can go and check up on me! Look. I'm going to hang up because the boss gets mad if I talk on the phone too much. Well, then don't talk to me anymore if you don't want to. That's your business! Well, sure I do. But you say that you didn't want to talk to me and that's your business. (He makes a gesture of impatience.) Oh. call me back then and ah....ah....Hello? Hello? All right good! Good! (He slams the phone down on the hook.) Goddamn cross-eyed bitch!
(Three enormous projections appear on the backdrops arose, a rose petal, and the fiber of a rose petal seen under a microscope. An A.NNOUNCER of the master-of-ceremonies type enters, energetic.)
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen! A very good ending to you! I am here with you this evening to put a few questions to you. Now! To begin with....which one of you ladies and gentlemen can tell me what this is? (He points at the rose with a long snack) We stand before the image of a flower of a dicotoledonous bush of the rosaceous family. But! On the other hand, it might be something utterly different. It might be one of those divine roses which, among cultured and refined people. is taken as the favorite symbol of the human architecture. Let's see now! Let's see! Young lady? Or you, sir? It's one or the other! It can't be both! Won't anybody answer? (He pauses briefly in disappointment. Then he doubles his vitality., Very well, let's get on with it. Our job now is to reject quite definitely and conclusively all false images. Look at them carefully: there are three of them and only one of them is authentic. The other two should be stricken from the books so that they will be forgotten forever. And any person who divulges them should be pursued by law. All those who believe in these false images should be suppressed and isolated! Kept under constant surveillance! Pay very close attention now. It is supposed that this is a rose. Is it? It is supposed that this is a petal. Is it? And it is supposed that this is the fiber of a petal seen under a microscope. Is it? First hypothesis. Without petals there are no roses. Look at this one. Take its petals awav, what's left? No rose, that's sure! It has never existed. There has never been anything but petals. Second hypothesis. A petal in and of itself is nothing. When have you ever seen a petal grow like this? What stalk produces petals such as this? And who can tell if there are two or three petals missing in a rose. No, there are no petals, there are only roses. There exists only a reunion of cells which form fiber. Suppress this and you've got nothing. And that fiber is composed of primal matter, live matter. And that matter isn't really mater-it's energy. There is no matter, there are no petals, there is no rose, no perfume, no nothing. There is only a fusion of miraculous fictions. One of them is called a rose; others have different names. One miracle after the other, everywhere you look. Without the least possibility of rational explanation. (He points to the three images.) If you accept one of these images as certain, as real, all the others will be false. Because no one would dare pretend that there are several answers to one question. Any intellectual could tell you that one answer precludes the others and that's the way, things are....and we are among intellectuals, are we not? Now, which is the true image? This one, this one, or this one? Any persons answering correctly will be the recipients of a magnificent prize which they may claim after the show is over in the offices of this theatre. You have ten seconds in order to answer. Ten seconds. Here we go.

(Dim out. The NEWSBOY enters with his newspapers. Now they are printed on parchment or vellum or any very ancient paper. .Not only can we make out letters but also hieroglyphs and magical signs.)

NEWSBOY: Get your latest news! Latest news! All of it true....the total truth! Learn about all things and choose the most convenient! They all add up to the same thing. They're all the same. News! Get your latest news! (He, The MEDIUM comes on from back stage. She's dressed in white with some small touch of vivid color. The cloth of her gannets is filmy. It weighs nothing at all and seems to float in the air.)
MEDIUM: Now it's time to share the news! Such as springtime or eclipses...or to investigate any algebraic proposition and find it decorated with snails and petals! But I should talk less and cleave to my subject. Now I'm going to explain the accident. (TONA and POLO enter, balancing on the railroad track.) There they are, turning into everything that surrounds them. They become the dump, the flowers, the clouds, amazement, joy....and they understand....they see! That's what happened. That was it. (Pointing with a small flashlight, the MEDIUM indicates the flowers. We hear WOMEN'S VOICES.)
WOMEN'S VOICES:
I have strength....
I have promise....
I am beautiful....
I am the labor of the universe....
Flies love me.
...and I welcome both wasps and bees.
(TONA and POLO dance. The dump begins to glow from within. It shines, it sparkles, as though it were covered with jewels.)
MEDIUM: It's with gestures such as these that we pray for rain! With rhythms such as these we summon and arouse fertility! This is how we call upon the sea and air!
(The dance stops. POLO raises a metal object.)
POLO: This came out of a mine! In order to give it shape, it required the total effort of all the peoples of this world! It's resting now, but even so. it hides energies, surprises, changes....
TONA: There's a spell in the air of violent news:
explosions, changes. There is no death. Flies and wasps buzz back and forth guarding the secret of flight.
MEDIUM: They are looking at signs like children learning the alphabet. They are looking at arrows that point out directions, paths. They are searching for crossroad signs, signs....
TONA: Oh, I'm so happy! And I love my body. It's good to be alive! Oh. it's good to be alive! My mother works with the sick and the dying, but I'm healthy. Thank you.
POLO: I am my parents children and I will relive their life. My father and his salary and his vices and his fate. My mother's love is a destiny.
TONA: Discovering the joy in my body will not be easy
POLO: My whole life can be reenacted.
TONA: Easily....very easily
MEDIUM: (Smiling and shaking her head.) We can't even tell what gestures our hands will make from one moment to the next!
(A column of light falls upon the tub full of cement.)
VOICES: Each step turns a corner. Each step is a journey. Between one choice and the next there are many roads. We always find ourselves some place else and not corner. Some plants bloom before others and some trees grow very s1o~viv!
TONA: Look! Look, that tub would make a wonderful planter. You could put a big plant in that one.
(They start to push the tub. They hesitate and then they make up their minds. In the meantime we hear voices, single and in chorus.)
VOICES: Choice is only one face of the coin that's forever flipped in the air! Freedom is an act of madness! And so is choice! And freedom takes the shape of the gesture in which we choose freedom.
(TONA and POLO begin to push the tub towards the railroad tracks.)
VOICES: And there's beauty, too! And the free circus! And the long paper tails that some practical joker pinned to the asses of comets! There's day and there's night! Waves! Light! Fiestas! The kangaroo and armadillo! The rainbow and the echo! Everyday life! Thanks!
(TONA and POLO push the tub onto the tracks where the train will pass. We begin to hear joyous laughter all around. We hear the racket of the derailment which gradually turns in to music. There is a great shout of joy! Colored lights dance about everywhere. All the figures in the play run on MAXIMINO. the SCAVANGERS, the STREET PEOPLE, the PEDDLERS, the PROFESSORS, the ANNOUNCER, the MOTHERS, the DREAMERS, everyone. They embrace, they kiss, they dance chaotically.)
MEDIUM: (Shouting.) You know that a sudden and amazing change occurred! But do you know how Polo came to own his own garage? And what TONA's wedding looked like? (The CHARACTERS begin to dance in order. There is now a certain symmetry to their movements.) Well, that-you've guessed it-that's another story. (The pattern of the dance has become clearer and more definite.)
MEDIUM: (Asking in the manner of a teacher.) And now, what about the light from that star....extinguished now so many light years ago?
TONA: (She answers the question with the memory reply. She has her arm around MAXIMINO), It kept flowing into the telescope....but all it meant to say, all it ever meant to speak, all it meant to reveal....was the humble existence of the hairy hunter who was drawn by his friend. the painter, on the wails of an African cave.
(The DANCERS have now taken hands and they have formed a kind or' solemn chain. The classroom hand on hand combining in precise and complex figures.)
MAXIMINO: And now, all of us....
TONA: For a long time....
POLO: Let us listen to the beating....
TONA: In each and every hand....
MAXIMINO: Of the mystery...
MEDIUM: Of our single heart

(The chain-like dance continues. The light has been growing more and more intense and bright is though by heartbeats. It is at its brightest when the curtain falls.)