Three Plays: The Young Lady from Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, La Chunga Read Free

You’re such a sensitive little flower. Everything seems to shock you, you’re so easily intimidated, and you blush at the least provocation.
    MAMAE: Isn’t that how well-brought-up young women should behave?
    JOAQUIN: Of course it is, Elvira, my love. You can’t imagine how I ache for Sunday. The thought of having you all to myself, without any chaperons. To know that you depend on me for the slightest thing. What fun I’m going to have with you when we’re alone together: I’ll sit you on my knee and make you scratch me in the dark like a little kitten. Oh, and I’ll win that bet. I’ll count every hair on your head; there’ll be more than five thousand, you’ll see.
    MAMAE: Are you going to count them on our wedding night?
    JOAQUIN: Not on our wedding night, no. Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you on our wedding night?
    MAMAE: ( Covering her ears ) No! No, I don’t!
    ( They laugh. MAMAE mellows .)
    Will you be as loving and affectionate as this after we’re married, I wonder? You know what Carmencita said to
me on our way back from the walk: ‘You’ve really come up trumps with Joaquín, you know. He’s good-looking, well-mannered, in fact quite the little gentleman in every way.’
    JOAQUIN: Is that what you think too? You mean you don’t mind that I’m a Chilean any more? And you’ve got used to the idea of being one yourself?
    MAMAE: No, I have not. I’m a Peruvian, and that’s the way I’m going to stay. I’ll never forgive those loathsome bullies who won the war. Not till the day I die.
    JOAQUIN: It’s going to be very funny, you know. I mean, when you’re my wife, and I’m posted to the garrison in Santiago or Antofagasta, are you going to spend all day arguing with my fellow officers about the War of the Pacific? Because if you say things like that about the Chileans, you’ll get me court-martialled for high treason.
    MAMAE: I’d never jeopardize your career, Joaquín. Whatever I think of the Chileans, I’ll keep it strictly to myself. I’ll smile and make eyes at your fellow officers.
    JOAQUIN: That’s enough of that! There’ll be no smiling or making eyes at anybody. Don’t you know I’m as jealous as a Turk? Well, with you, I’m going to be even worse.
    MAMAE: You must go now. If my aunt and uncle found you here, they’d be so upset.
    JOAQUIN: Your aunt and uncle. They’ve been the bane of our engagement.
    MAMAE: Don’t say that, not even in fun. Where would I be now if it hadn’t been for Uncle Menelao and Aunt Amelia? I’d have been put in the orphanage in Tarapacá Street. Yes, along with all the bats.
    JOAQUIN: I know how good they’ve been to you. And I’m glad they brought you up like some rare exotic bird. But we have been engaged for a whole year now and I’ve hardly been alone with you once! All right, I know, you’re getting anxious. I’m on my way.
    MAMAE: Till tomorrow then, Joaquín. At the eight o’clock Mass in the Cathedral, same as usual?
    JOAQUIN: Yes, same as usual. Oh, I was forgetting. Here’s that
book you lent me. I tried to read Federico Barreto’s poems, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. You read them for me, when you’re tucked up snug in your little bed.
    MAMAE: ( Pulling out a hair from her head and offering it to him ) I’ll whisper them in your ear one day – then you’ll like them. I’m glad I’m marrying you, Joaquín.
    ( Before he leaves, JOAQUIN tries to kiss her on the mouth, but she turns her face away and offers him her cheek. As she goes back towards her armchair, she gradually takes on the characteristics of an old woman again. )
    ( Looking at the book of poetry ) What would Joaquín do, I wonder, if he knew about the fan? He’d challenge the poor man to a duel – he’d kill him. You’ll have to destroy that fan, Elvira, it’s just not right for you to keep it. ( She curls up in her armchair and immediately falls asleep. BELISARIO has looked up from his papers. He now seems very encouraged.