Bradbury, Ray - SSC 17
Page 5
GOMEZ
There we all are!
VILLANAZUL
Don’t we look good? Ah. Touch the mirrors this way, that. See? In the glass! A thousand, a million Gomezes, Manulos, Dominguezes, Martinezes, march off in white armor, away down the line, reflected, re-reflected again and again, indomitable, forever!
MANULO
(quietly)Don’t he speak pretty? Villanazul, you speak pretty.
Martinez takes off the coat. He holds it out on the air. In a trance, the others stand back as a dirty hand reaches to take the coat.
GOMEZ
Vamenos!
Martinez freezes. Vamenos pulls back his hand.
VAMENOS
(blows smoke)What did I do?
GOMEZ
Fire eater! Pig! You didn’t wash. Or even shave!
ALL
(seizing him) The bath! The bath!
VAMENOS
No, mercy! The night air! My death and burial! No!
They hustle him as the lights go out. There is a furious sound of thundering water, splashes, groans, the sound of a body heaved in, Vamenos protesting. From darkness we hear:
VAMENOS
I’m drowned!
GOMEZ
No! No! Just clean!
DOMINGUEZ
Where’s the razor?
MANULO
Here!
VAMENOS
Cut my throat, it’s quicker!
More water, more thunder, more shouts, and then at last the plug pulled and the great suction away down in the night. All fades to silence. The lights now come slowly up. Five men are standing in a circle on one side of the room, working over some unseen statue like careful and exceptionally neat sculptors.
VILLANAZUL
There.
MANULO
I can’t believe it.
DOMINGUEZ
It’s him, all right.
MARTINEZ
(in awe)
Vamenos…
They move back, away, to reveal Vamenos, unbelievable indeed in the white suit, his beard shaved, hair combed, hands clean.
He goes to look in the mirror.
VAMENOS
Is that me?!
VILLANAZUL
That’s Vamenos all right. Of whom it is said that when Vamenos walks by, avalanches itch on mountaintops, flea-maddened dogs dance about on their muddy paws, and locomotives belch forth their blackest soots to be lifted in flags to salute him. Ah, Vamenos, Vamenos, suddenly the world sizzles with flies. And here you are, a huge, fresh-frosted cake.
MANULO
(sadly)You sure look keen in that suit, Vamenos.
VAMENOS
Thanks.
He twitches uneasily under their stare, trying to make his skeleton comfortable where all their skeletons have so recently been. There is a long pause.
VAMENOS
(faintly)Can I go now?
Another pause, in which Gomez suddenly cries:
GOMEZ
Villanazul! A pencil! Paper!
VILLANAZUL
(whipping them out)Okay!
GOMEZ
Copy down these rules for Vamenos.
VILLANAZUL
Ready.
GOMEZ
Rule number one.
VAMENOS
(listening close)One, yes.
GOMEZ
Don’t fall down in that suit.
VAMENOS
I won’t.
GOMEZ
Two: don’t lean against buildings in that suit.
VAMENOS
No buildings.
GOMEZ
Don’t walk under trees with birds in them in that suit.
VILLANAZUL
(writing)… birds …
VAMENOS
(eager to please)… trees, no, no trees.
MARTINEZ
(chiming in)Don’t smoke!
DOMINGUEZ
Don’t drink!
GOMEZ
Good, no smokes, no drinks-
VAMENOS
(cuts in)Please. Can I sit down in this suit?
VILLANAZUL
When in doubt-take the pants off, fold them over a chair.
Everyone looks at the philosopher, pleased. VUlanazul goes on, writing, pleased with himself.
Vamenos mops his brows with his handkerchief. He edges toward the door, gingerly.
VAMENOS
Well… wish me luck.
GOMEZ
(a real prayer)Go with God, Vamenos.
ALL
Aye … aye…
He waves a little wave. He opens the door. He goes out quickly. He shuts it.
There is a ripping sound!
GOMEZ
Madre de dios!
All stand, riven by the terrible sound.
VILLANAZUL
Vamenos!
He whips the door open.
There stands Vamenos, two halves of a torn handkerchief in his hands.
VAMENOS
Rrrrip! Look at those faces!(He tears the cloth again)Rrrrip! Oh, oh, your faces! Ha!
Laughing, Vamenos slams the door, leaving them stunned. Gomez sinks slowly into a chair.
GOMEZ
Stone me! Kill me! I have sold our souls to a demon!
Villanazul digs in his pockets, takes out a coin.
VILLANAZUL
Here is my last 50 cents. Who else will help me buy back Vamenos’ share of the suit?
MANULO
(displaying a dime)It’s no use. We got only enough to buy the lapels and buttonholes.
At the window, Dominguez reports, looking down.
DOMINGUEZ
There goes Vamenos. He’s in the street. Hey! Vamenos!(leans out)No!
Gomez leaps up.
GOMEZ
What’s he doing?
DOMINGUEZ
Picking up a cigar butt and lighting it…
Gomez tears to the window.
GOMEZ
Vamenos! Pig! No cigars! Away!
DOMINGUEZ
There. Ah.(relaxes)Now he is making a very strange gesture to us with his hand.(waves)The same to you, friend. There he goes.
GOMEZ
There goes our suit, you mean.
Everyone has drifted or hurried to the window now. They are crushed together, worriedly, looking out and down.
MANULO
I bet he eats a hamburger in that suit.
VILLANAZUL
I’m thinking of the mustard.
GOMEZ
(turns away; pained)Don’t! No, no.
MANULO
I need a drink, bad.
MARTINEZ
Manulo, there’s wine here, this bottle-
But Manulo is out the door. It shuts.
Gomez stands alone with his thoughts. The others fidget. After a moment, Villanazul, with a great pretense of being casual, stretches, yawns, strolls toward the door.
VILLANAZUL
I think I’ll just walk down to the plaza, friends.
Vfllanazul exits. The others look at the door, the window, the door, the window.
GOMEZ
Can you still see it?
DOMINGUEZ
(at the window)Who?
GOMEZ
The suit! And the monster in it!
DOMINGUEZ
He’s a long way off there. He’s turning down Hill Avenue. That’s a dark street, ain’t it?
GOMEZ
(twitching)How should I know!
Dominguez ambles toward the door. Gomez, his back turned, feels the motion.
GOMEZ
Dominguez?
DOMINGUEZ
(guiltily takes his hands off the door)Eh?
GOMEZ
If you just happen-
DOMINGUEZ
Eh?
GOMEZ
Hell, if you should bump into, run into Vamenos, by accident, I mean, warn him away from Mickey Murillo’s Red Rooster Cafe. They got fights not only on but out front of the TV, too, there.
M
ARTINEZ
Mickey Murillo’s Red Rooster Cafe. That’s on Hill Avenue, right?
DOMINGUEZ
(nervously)He wouldn’t go into Murillo’s. That suit means too much to Vamenos.
MARTINEZ
Sure.
DOMINGUEZ
He wouldn’t do anything to hurt it.
GOMEZ
Sure.
DOMINGUEZ
He’d shoot his mother, first.
MARTINEZ
Any day.
DOMINGUEZ
Well…
GOMEZ and MARTINEZWell?
Dominguez takes the cue. He exits, fast.
Martinez and Gomez, alone, listen to Dominguez’s footsteps hurry away downstairs. Now they circle the undressed window dummy. Gomez returns at last to the window, where he stands biting his lip and at last, unhappily, begins to search through his clothes until at last from a pocket he draws forth a piece of pink folded paper.
GOMEZ
Martinez, take this.
MARTINEZ
What is it? Names. Numbers.(reads)Hey! A ticket on the bus to El Paso a week from now!
GOMEZ
(nods)Turn it in. Get the money.
MARTINEZ
You were going to El Paso, alone?
GOMEZ
No. With the suit.(a beat)But now, after tonight, I don’t know. Hell, I’m crazy. Turn it in. We may need the money to buy back Vamenos’ share. With what’s left over, we buy a nice new white Panama hat to go with the white ice-cream suit, eh?
MARTINEZ
Gomez-
GOMEZ
Boy, is it hot in here! I need air.
MARTINEZ
Gomez. I am touched.
GOMEZ
Shut up. Maybe the white suit don’t even exist anymore. Andale!
Gomez runs out. Martinez starts to follow, comes back, pats the dummy for luck, reaches up, jerks the light string -blackout. We hear the door slam as he leaves.
Fast guitar music.
In the darkness after a time, as the guitar confines itself to single chords, a neon sign blinks on and off to the music: MICKEY MURILLO’S RED ROOSTER CAFE.
Out of the night, Villanazul strolls as nonchalantly as possible. Angled across stage right is the front of the cafe with swinging doors and a great flake-painted glass window through which one can peer through those places where the paint has snowed away.
Villanazul pretends not to be interested in the cafe or anything inside it, but at least he is drawn to peer in the door at the darkness from which voices murmur. He then puts his eye to a flaked place on the window and stands thus until: Manulo enters, looking back, wondering if he is being followed. He ducks into a setback near the cafe and peers out, at which point Dominguez comes mysteriously on. Manulo snorts and steps out.
MANULO
Caramba, it’s you!
DOMINGUEZ
Manulo! What you doing here?
MANULO
(lying badly)I was looking for a good place to have a drink.
DOMINGUEZ
I was just walking, myself. There’s a good place.(points)
MANULO
(amazed)Sure! The Red Rooster Cafe. Why didn’t I think of that!
DOMINGUEZ
So many places, they’re crowded. Let’s look before we go.
They line up with Villanazul, one on each side, peering through the flaked glass. Once they are half-bent, Villanazul becomes sentient, he feels them on the other side, but does not look yet.
MANULO
What do you see?
DOMINGUEZ
Nothing.
VILLANAZUL
He’s in there, OK.
MANULO
(looks up)Who is?
DOMINGUEZ
(the same)
Where!
BOTH
(turning)
Villanazul!
VILLANAZUL
Manulo! Dominguez! What you doing here?
BOTH
What! What?! Ha!
As if well rehearsed, all three turn back to the window and search for the best peepholes. Now Gomez and Martinez hurry on, do a double take, and line up with them. This time there are no greetings, no rationalizations.
GOMEZ
Is our white suit in there?
MARTINEZ
Wait! Sure! Way back in the dark there!
MANULO
(in awe)Hey, yeah … there’s the suit, and, praise God, Vamenos is still in it!
VILLANAZUL
It’s moving! It’s coming this way!
Off in the cafe we see a whiteness drifting.
MANULO
He’s got money! He’s going to play the jukebox!
The whiteness moves. We hear a fearful clangor of machinery as the money drops in and is digested. There is a vast hiss. Then, in one blast of light and sound, a huge behemoth of a jukebox explodes into color and brilliance, at the same time emitting such concussive brass and tympani that the five men are jarred from the window. Now, in full rainbow light, we see the suit, and Vamenos. He stands delightfully drenched with music, like a child out in the welcome rains of summer.
Vamenos lifts his hand. A glass is in it.
MANULO
He’s drinking!
The men gasp. Inside, Vamenos sips wine.
VILLANAZUL
He’s smoking.
Inside, Vamenos scatters sparks, blows smoke.
MARTINEZ
He’seating!
It isn’t easy, but juggling the items around in his hands, Vamenos shifts his cigar, his glass, and raises food to his mouth.