“Ashtabula”
by
jose luis gonzalez
c. 2004 ojo flojo
---
Characters:
Bruno: Late 20’s Latino. He’s been in prison for seven
years.
Lourdes: Late 20’s Latina. Bruno’s first love. She has
recently gotten engaged.
Passerby’s: At discretion of production.
Part I
STAGE RIGHT: LIGHTS COME UP on a cozy-looking porch. It’s daytime. Birds, children, traffic can be heard. The front door is open and music, Bob Dylan’s “Blood On The Tracks,” filters through the screen door.
BRUNO walks across the STAGE and stops at the base of the steps leading up to the door. He sports a plain white button-up shirt, jeans, and brown shoes.
He stares at the door, waits. Hesitation mixed with anticipation. Finally, he walks up and knocks. Doing so, he comes back to the base of the steps.
LOURDES emerges wearing sweatpants, a striped polo shirt, and no shoes. She dries her hair with a towel but stops as soon as she realizes who her visitor is.
Long silence, until simultaneously:
BRUNO: Hello.
LOURDES: Hi.
Pause. He moves a few steps closer.
BRUNO: Well. What do you think?
LOURDES: Uh. (Chuckles)
BRUNO: Should I go--
LOURDES: No, don’t. I just, it’s…
BRUNO slowly completes the journey up to her, his hand extended. They shake. Then, they hug for what seems like a hundred years.
LOURDES: How are you?
BRUNO: I’m great. You?
They release.
LOURDES: I’m great. Aw, damnit. You know, you say
I’m great so then I say I’m great without thinking.
BRUNO laughs.
LOURDES: But I am. I’m really good these days.
BRUNO: (Pause) Is he home?
LOURDES: (Pause) How did you know?
BRUNO: I read the paper.
LOURDES: Steven’s out.
BRUNO: Were you busy?
LOURDES: No, no. I just, I went for a swim.
BRUNO: Oh, you got a pool here?
LOURDES: No. There’s one up the road.
BRUNO: Oh.
LOURDES: (Pause) So, uh, what are you doing here. I
mean, I thought you were…
BRUNO: In prison? Yeah. But, you know, (Shows her his
wrists) good behavior.
LOURDES: What were you in for?
BRUNO: Can we go for a walk?
LOURDES: (Pause) Where?
BRUNO: You live here, I don’t. You tell me.
LOURDES: (Sighs) Look, Bruno. This is all. This is all
a little weird for me.
BRUNO: Well, it’s a little weird for me too, you know.
LOURDES: Well, I guess… Can you give me a second to
put on some shoes?
BRUNO: Yeah.
She turns.
BRUNO: Still listening to Dylan.
LOURDES: Yeah. It’s a good record.
She goes inside. BRUNO looks around the porch. He digs through her mailbox and thumbs through a golf magazine.
BRUNO: What’s-his-name, Steven, he’s a golfer?
LOURDES: Yeah, sometimes.
The music stops. She emerges with a blouse, jeans, and sandals. BRUNO looks at her for a while.
LOURDES: What?
BRUNO: You look pretty.
LOURDES: Don’t give me that shit.
BRUNO: Walking. Just walking.
She locks the door behind her and they walk down the steps. At the base, she stops. He stops. LOURDES eyes him for a moment, then flurry-punches him all over.
LOURDES: You-fucking-fuck-motherfucking-fuck-piece-of-
shit! Asshole!
She stops and gathers herself. BRUNO, still in defense mode, waits for her next move.
LOURDES: A walk. Okay, a walk. Let’s go.
She leads the way.
LIGHTS OUT
---
LIGHTS UP on a bedroom, CENTER STAGE. A man, RODRIGO, crawls out of bed to answer the steadily-ringing telephone. He grabs it, pokes it alive, then sits on the edge of the bed.
RODRIGO: Yeah.
The room is semi-bare, except for a few news clippings and CD sleeves thumbtacked to the wall just above the bed.
The person on the other end has certainly surprised him. He looks somewhere between someone who just won the lottery and someone who got kicked in the gut.
RODRIGO digs around the nightstand for some smokes. City noise permeates from outside.
RODRIGO: Hey. Wow, how are you? No, I was awake. I was awake. Yeah. How are you? Yeah. Oh yeah. Nothing, really. No, you mean now right now? I’m not working right now. I mean, no I’m not, nothing, nothing regular. I do some construction work sometimes. And the art shit. But it’s kinda an off and on thing. Yeah. Barely. Well, it’s going, you know. So, you… Holy shit, man. (Laughs) I mean, spill the beans. Where are you, what’s-- Oh yeah. Well, I mean are you good… No, it’s just. It’s, I didn’t expect to hear from you. Ever, you know? Well, why? I don’t, uh, I don’t. I, that’s a whole other fucking conversation. It’s too early right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s really not up to you, you know. Yeah, well. What are you kidding? I’d love to see you. Yeah, I mean. Why… Oh. Oh yeah? Well, no, I do, I think about it all the time. But, you know, it gets kinda, well whatever. I’m not going to pretend I got an excuse, okay. No seriously, I’d love to see you. Do you have, or I mean, you gonna be around or--No shit? What are you doing there? No shit? No, never been. You know me, I can’t survive outta the bubble. Well, are you free, are you going to be-- Yeah. No, I can do that. I can meet you at the station. No, I’m you know, pretty flexible. Yeah, hold on let me get something to write on ‘cause I’ll forget. (Gets up) Ready. Yeah, Yeah. 1420, no 14420. Okay. What time was that? Okay. Okay. Yeah, no, that’s fine. I don’t have a car so we’ll have to hang around downtown or bus it or whatever. Yeah, I had to wreck that piece of shit. I know, I know. Listen, we’ll have fun, yeah. No, it’s great. I’m really glad you called. Bye, Samantha.
RODRIGO hangs up the phone and writes the info on the back of some business card. He sits down on the edge of the bed.
He rubs his face with his palms. He gets up, kicks around a pile of clothes and finds a clean pair of jeans and t-shirt.
He goes over to the record player and drops the needle. Leonard Cohen’s “Sing Another Song, Boys” scratches softly. He realizes he’s been holding an unlit cigarette this entire conversation.
He pulls a Zippo from the jeans pocket, lights up, lies back across the bed, and takes a long, sighing drag.
LIGHTS OUT
---
Part II
A you just end up getting a hold of all this dynamite because youre ordering form a company that does a lot of business with a lot of companies so some order a whole lotta dynamite and shit but some on;y order a couple cases because they only need a ouple of cases or whatever. But we were working for beta oil and they were really doing well that year so they were just drilling everywhere. Just like everywhere because no one was regulating. Soooo, I was laying down dynamite and c4 to prep the soil for ppipes and, man I t was just a goddamn nightmare becaue the soil was so fucking hard and of course it was cold as shit half the year. But wehatefer because really, it’;s like I put in about you know 65 hours a week on average but we were getting a fixed saklary but even though we weren’t making so much an hour we were making a whole lot at the end. So we worked hard. I mean we wokered hard all the fukging timwe . there was no two ways. But in the end we got this big ass check. So, the thing is, I got this kifd right. This eight year old kifd. And hes so cool. I mean he’s the coolest fucking kid,. And I hate kids but he’s super cool. Like you can talk to him like aregular persin and not like put on this kid moode thing. You know. So anyways, this kid is eight goig on nine
But you can talk to him like you know a regular person, not soe stupid whatever.. but anyways he’s sharp as shit and he you know he cant or he doesn’t do good in school because ehe c ant like you know pay attentionj because some peopkle can dop that shit. You know, like, everything I’ve done or all I do is like lay dynamite and you kjnow im good and I make a decent living but you know kid is making
Like leaps and bounds as far is school is concerned which is no big deal I know, but it is you know? Anyways this kid is duper smart like two grades up form the other kids but he’ssuper like polite and shit. Because I go to those meeting for parents they have and I know those folks don’t know what he fucks going on. But , I well I was going to the meetings but I was working this whole time in Alaska so I haven’t seen my kid in like almos four years
---
LOURDES and BRUNO stroll across a park. PASSERBY’S meander through the foreground and background. A lovely shade tree awaits STAGE LEFT.
LOURDES: What’s it like?
BRUNO: What’s what like?
LOURDES: Prison.
BRUNO: If it’s all the same, I’d rather not talk about it.
LOURDES: No fair. I think you owe me a bit of an
explanation, at the very least. I think I deserve
at least that.
BRUNO: Alright, alright. Well, first, it’s really
boring. It’s really regimented. And it’s basically just an enormous waste of time. Of life, really.
LOURDES: Is all that rape shit true?
BRUNO: Sort of. They exaggerate it, you know, for
movies and stuff. All you gotta do is not be a complete fucking imbecile, kinda be cool with everyone, and try to get out as fast as possible. I worked mostly in the library. And I would do card tricks for everyone. It coulda been worse.
LOURDES: Huh.
BRUNO: Yeah, it’s not very exciting.
LOURDES: Well, it’s interesting at least.
BRUNO: And now you’re ready for prison.
LOURDES: What? I don’t-- Hey, now, very funny, jerk.
(Slugs his gut)
BRUNO: I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
LOURDES: Hey, at least if I get poked in the ass it’ll be by choice.
BRUNO: Oh boy. You know, it’s impolite to talk dirty to a guy who’s been in jail for seven years.
They get to the tree. BRUNO sits at the base but LOURDES opts to walk around while she talks.
BRUNO: What have you been up to all this time?
LOURDES: Well, in what sense?
BRUNO: I guess I’ll cut to the chase- How’d you two
meet?
LOURDES: I met him in grad school.
BRUNO: You mean gradual school?
LOURDES: (Laughs) Yeah, gradual school. I always used
to go to this one bar called The Escape Route because it had this fantastic jukebox. I knew he was studying pharmacy because his building was right next to the English building. I’d seen him around a bunch of times and finally one time he came up to me at the bar and we started talking and that was that.
BRUNO: Oh. (Pause) Is he worth a shit?
LOURDES: Yes, Bruno, he’s worth a shit. Why else would
I be marrying him?
BRUNO: Well, good.
LOURDES: (To herself) What do you care?
BRUNO: Excuse me.
LOURDES: Nothing.
BRUNO: What did you just say?
LOURDES: I didn’t--
BRUNO: Repeat what you just said.
LOURDES: I said what do you care, alright? What do you
care?
BRUNO: (Jokingly gasps) That hurts my feelings.
LOURDES: Yeah, well, tough shit. Since when have you
cared about other people?
BRUNO: (Darts up) Hey, look, now, fucking stop this
childish shit, alright! Look at this! Look at where we are. I’m here because I care. I cared for seven goddamn years and as soon as I found out you were getting hitched you’re goddamn right I cared enough to come see you. Alright? The past is, the past if fucked. I know, okay. I know that much. So get off my back. Just give me this afternoon. Please, just give me this. Be, you know, nice.
She eyeballs him as he backs away and sits down again.
LOURDES: He farts in his sleep.
BRUNO: He what?
LOURDES: Steven. He farts in his sleep.
BRUNO cracks up, so does she.
LOURDES: It never fails, man. No matter what he eats
or whatever. I don’t know how I’m supposed to handle that.
LOURDES goes over and sits with him.
LOURDES: But he’s very sweet, and very thoughtful.
Behind closed doors or otherwise, if you know what I mean.
BRUNO: Oh yeah?
LOURDES: Yeah. (Pause) It’s nice to find peace, after
all these years. You know?
BRUNO: Uh, no. Not really.
LOURDES looks at him and rests her head on his shoulder.
BRUNO: Remember when you got hit by that delivery
truck?
LOURDES: Still got the pins in my knee. You were the
first one there at the hospital.
BRUNO: I ran there.
LOURDES: You what?
BRUNO: I ran the whole way. I couldn’t find a ride and
I didn’t want to wait for a cab, so I ran.
LOURDES: From your place? That’s, like, 5 miles.
BRUNO: Yeah.
LOURDES: But you were there in, like, 10 minutes.
BRUNO: I know.
She tries to calculate it.
BRUNO: You think Steve would run to you like that?
LOURDES: If he had to, yeah.
BRUNO: Oh. Well, I hope he never has to.
BRUNO lays along a protruding root and drifts away. LOURDES lays alongside, rests her head on his stomach, sighs.
LIGHTS OUT
---
STAGE LEFT: LIGHTS UP on our tree and the kids coming-to. Stretching and yawning.
LOURDES: What time is it?
BRUNO: I’m not sure.
They sit up.
BRUNO: Did you ever get any of my letters?
LOURDES: I only got two.
BRUNO: I only wrote two.
LOURDES: Oh.
BRUNO: After I got transferred to Colorado, I kinda
stopped writing. To anyone.
LOURDES: Transferred?
BRUNO: Yeah, I had some priors in Colorado so after I
served in Oregon I--
LOURDES: Oregon? What?
BRUNO: Yeah. I got arrested in Oregon. That’s where it
all started. It’s kinda complicated, really--
LOURDES: How did you end up out there?
BRUNO: Aw, I was working for this guy out there.
LOURDES: Working?
BRUNO looks at her and smiles.
LOURDES: Jesus Christ. What the hell have you been
doing?
BRUNO: The best I can.
LOURDES: Is that why you left? To pursue this life of
crime.
BRUNO: No, I left because I was afraid. The crime
thing met me kinda halfway.
LOURDES: What were you afraid of?
BRUNO looks at her, speechless, then stands up.
LOURDES: At least it’s all over with, I guess.
BRUNO: Not exactly.
LOURDES: What do you mean?
BRUNO: Not exactly over with.
LOURDES: What are you talking about?
BRUNO: Remember how I said I was out on good behavior?
LOURDES: Yeah.
BRUNO smiles again.
LOURDES: You’re joking.
BRUNO: Uh, no.
LOURDES: You’re fucking joking.
BRUNO: Sorry.
LOURDES: You escaped?
BRUNO: Yeah. Me and two other guys.
LOURDES: You stupid fucking--
BRUNO: Yeah, we all split up just outside of- well, I
guess I shouldn’t tell you since then you’d kinda be an accomplice at that point.
LOURDES shoots up and open-hand slaps BRUNO who does his best to restrain her. He grabs her by the wrists.
BRUNO: Calm down, calm down. Please.
LOURDES: I am calm!
BRUNO: Look, I didn’t come here to get you involved,
okay.
LOURDES: I am involved, dickhead.
BRUNO: No, you’re not, okay. This is all new
information to you. You’re in the clear, okay? You’re okay, you’re safe. I promise. I swear, I promise. I wouldn’t get you involved.
LOURDES: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
BRUNO: Look, I escaped, okay. I came across the newspaper while we were planning this whole thing. Said you were engaged. It wasn’t that far from where we were gonna end up, and seeing as how this might be my last chance to see you, I took it. I took the chance. I had to see you.
LOURDES: Why? Why? What for?
BRUNO: Because I love you. I’ve loved you for seven
years. More than that.
LOURDES: Oh, how convenient. All it took was seven
years in jail for you to figure it out.
BRUNO: Yes. That’s exactly what it took.
BRUNO eases up. He lets her go and she stands, still fuming.
LOURDES: I can’t-- I can’t, I don’t want to believe
this. God, what fucking time is it?
BRUNO: I’m sorry, Lourdes. I’m really sorry.
LOURDES: What do you want? You think you’re going to
win me over? Is that what you think?
BRUNO: No.
LOURDES: Then what? What do you want?
BRUNO: Nothing. I don’t want anything. I just wanted
to let you know. That’s all.
LOURDES: Fuck you. (Pause) It’s too late. Bruno.
BRUNO: Yeah. I know.
She grabs his face like she’s about to crush it in her hands. They kiss, then hug for the final time.
In the distance, sirens and screeching tires grow in intensity.
LOURDES: Is that--?
BRUNO: Probably.
LOURDES: How long have you been out?
BRUNO: On the run? Two days.
LOURDES: Oh, God, what are--
BRUNO: I figured this would happen.
LOURDES: How did they find you? I mean--
BRUNO: I was more worried about getting here than
hiding out. It’s okay, though. It’s okay.
LOURDES: No, it’s not okay. It’s not okay!
BRUNO: You should go.
LOURDES: No, don’t do this.
BRUNO: You should go. It’s going to get ugly.
LOURDES: No, don’t do anything, you know. Don’t be
stupid. Okay, those guys have guns. They’ll kill you.
BRUNO: Don’t worry. I’m not that hopeless.
LOURDES: Fuck, Bruno.
They stare at each other.
BRUNO: Get out of here, please. Don’t get involved.
Let go. Let go.
LOURDES, reluctantly, lets go.
She backs away, step by step. The sirens are a few blocks away. She turns and runs.
BRUNO watches for a second. He returns to the tree, rolls up his sleeves and gets comfortable.
About to sit, LOURDES reappears. They lock eyes. She runs to him. They embrace, not a shred of space between their bodies as the sirens and the screeching tires and the summer air forever bind them to that little corner of time in the world.
LIGHTS OUT
The End
