Second Bedroom Script

File = 2BR.html
Last update = September 11, 1996


Time = 1430 (Carmen and Eduardo enter the second bedroom.) CARMEN Eduardo, try to relax. I thought you were going to trust me on this. EDUARDO I am not good at so much waiting. CARMEN Eduardo, how would you like something to do with that bottled-up energy of yours? EDUARDO You have another plan? CARMEN Something I've been thinking about but reluctant to bring up because I hate it when people ask me to get involved in their personal affairs. EDUARDO You want me involved in your personal affairs? I'll do it! CARMEN I want you to do something for me. My daughter, Ana, is acting very peculiar lately. I think she may be smitten by Juan. You wouldn't happen to know if he is interested in her, would you? EDUARDO Juan wants Guillermina. CARMEN Everybody wants Guillermina. EDUARDO But no one wants her as much as I do. No one will prove his love like I will! CARMEN You were born in the wrong age. You should've been a knight in the age of chivalry. EDUARDO You know about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? CARMEN You read about such things here? I thought you'd be reading about knights chasing windmills. EDUARDO I've studied all about King Arthur and the Roundtable. The Green Knight is my favorite. Yes, I think my soul is in the age of chivalry. You are very perceptive to see this. [1530] CARMEN Yes, I am. So Juan is not interested in Ana? EDUARDO For a night, Juan would be interested in any woman. But his passion is not your daughter. CARMEN Of course, just because he isn't interested in her doesn't mean that she isn't interested in him. Ever since high school she's taken a liking to boys far beneath her. And then when she went to Art School in the United States, she started hanging around with political radicals. Sending her there was a huge mistake. I think she gets a thrill by hanging around with the underclass. EDUARDO Juan is underclass? CARMEN All things are relative, Eduardo. A gallery owner who goes bankrupt - yes, this is the underclass. EDUARDO I am underclass? CARMEN You are an artist. Class doesn't matter. EDUARDO Then maybe your daughter is interested in me. CARMEN Nothing personal, but from my perspective that isn't any better. I have nightmares about her marrying beneath herself. EDUARDO What is important, is to marry for love. CARMEN You silly boy. What is important is to marry for position. EDUARDO No, I refuse to believe this. CARMEN And that's why you and I have so little in common, Eduardo. Except a common desire to show a pompous critic for the bag of wind he really is. EDUARDO You are pained to think of your daughter with Juan? It is painful for me to think of Guillermina with Francisco. CARMEN Not so much pain as embarrassment. EDUARDO You would be humiliated? CARMEN That's too strong. Hugely disappointed. I thought I had raised her better. Of course, who knows what the nuns put into her head. And after that, the gringos. For a while she became a fashionable leftist. Thank God that phase is over with! EDUARDO I think the heart doesn't listen to arguments like yours. CARMEN To its peril, Eduardo. To its peril. (Juan enters.) [1630] JUAN I was afraid you'd left. CARMEN Eduardo has been showing me around the house. It has a quaint charm, don't you think? JUAN How would you like all the paintings I have left? You offer me a fair price, and they are yours. CARMEN And what's a fair price? JUAN You are an honest woman. A bargain - but a fair one. CARMEN What would I do with them all? I see only one I might possibly buy. JUAN You don't have to like something for it to be an excellent investment. CARMEN Now you're speaking my language. Why are you in such a hurry to get rid of them? JUAN I have to be out of here tomorrow morning. CARMEN Aren't the artists taking them back? JUAN So many of the artists have vanished. I can't reach them. CARMEN The perfect biography of your clients, Juan. Artists who disappear. JUAN Most are poor students, struggling to make ends meet. This doesn't mean they don't have talent. They were thrilled when I offered to show them. Some of the paintings here will be by artists who go on to be famous. They will become very rare and valuable. CARMEN And most won't be worth storage space in the garage. JUAN It is a gamble, yes. But investing is like gambling. (Ana enters. If she is early to this scene, she overhears from the hallway.) [1700] ANA Mother, what an opportunity. JUAN I have no choice. You are in the right place at the right time, madam. CARMEN I'll take them for [amount of money] JUAN I said a fair price. CARMEN I'm interested in a bargain. [same amount] (There's a pause.) JUAN [a price slightly higher] CARMEN [a price slightly lower] JUAN You drive a hard bargain. CARMEN That's why I own three homes and you are going bankrupt. My offer will be removed in thirty seconds. One, two, three, four-- . . . JUAN It's a deal. They're yours. CARMEN Excellent. Ana, I'll leave it to you to make the arrangements for shipping them to Spain. EDUARDO How can you buy so much for so little? Don't you have a conscience? CARMEN The conscience is a relic of the imagination, like Santa Claus and counting angels on the heads of pins. JUAN Shall we go below and sign the papers? CARMEN Certainly. Eduardo, keep Ana company, will you? (Juan and Carmen go downstairs). [1800] (Ana calls after her mother, not wanting to be alone with Eduardo:) ANA Mother . . .! EDUARDO You are afraid of me. ANA Of course I'm afraid of you. You're unpredictable. EDUARDO I will not hurt you. ANA I don't expect to wait around to find out. So if you'll excuse me . . . (But Eduardo blocks her way.) EDUARDO You are insulting me. ANA No - I'm merely leaving. I have a lot of work to do to arrange for getting the paintings shipped to Spain. EDUARDO Your mother is a snob. ANA Well, you certainly show a lot of gratitude. She's the only one here who isn't treating you like a madman. EDUARDO She thinks she is helping me. All she is doing is making me anxious and upset. I hate waiting. I am a man of action. ANA And I am a woman of action - so if you'll excuse me. EDUARDO Your mother is worried about you. She told me. ANA How do you mean? EDUARDO She thinks you are in love with Juan. She thinks you are attracted to men who are beneath you. ANA Well, she's entitled to her opinion. EDUARDO Is she right? ANA That's none of your business. EDUARDO Are you attracted to me? ANA To you? (She laughs.) EDUARDO You think I'm not worthy of you? ANA I think you are, well - let me put it this way: I think your opinions and words come streaming out before your mind realizes what you are saying. You're impulsive, that's the word. EDUARDO You think I don't know about what you are up to. ANA What do you mean? EDUARDO About the arrangement you have with Juan. You both think I am stupid, but I've been seeing what is going on. It is very clever, what you do. ANA And what do we do? EDUARDO Such clever business the police would like to know about. ANA Eduardo, I have no idea what you are talking about. EDUARDO Then you shouldn't mind if I tell the police. ANA I don't like false accusations being charged against me, if that's what you mean. Now just what is it that you think I'm up to? EDUARDO Juan and I go way back. ANA What does that have to do with anything? (Eduardo smiles. Then he begins to sing the Violeta Parra song:) EDUARDO "Because the poor don't have anywhere to turn their eyes, they turn them to the skies with infinite hope of finding what their worldly brother has stolen from them ..." You recognize it? (Ana doesn't reply.) EDUARDO Violeta Parra. ANA What are you trying to tell me? [1930] EDUARDO I know of your interest - your passionate interest - in Violeta Parra. It was 1967, wasn't it, when she killed herself? Everybody has always thought it was because she was going broke, and because her lover had jilted her. I can understand that kind of despair, believe me. But what if that's not what happened? What if Violeta Parra was murdered? ANA I don't know what you think you're up to, Eduardo. EDUARDO Interesting year, 1967. Already, despite a new president, there were cries for change. Allende was gaining support, and of course this is just the kind of candidate, a socialist, a man who talked of social justice, that Violeta Parra could support, that she could sing about. Music had become very political. This was before our time, Ana, but I'm sure you've studied about the sixties in school. In the United States, Bob Dylan was popular. He was the spiritual grandson of Violeta Parra, did you know that? She was the grandmother of the entire protest song movement. That's what made her so dangerous. ANA Get to the point. EDUARDO Who fears socialism more than anyone? The United States. The corporate state. Look what Castro did to the gringo's business interests in Cuba. Would Allende do the same thing here? Would he nationalize the mines and drive out the gringos? That troubled the U.S. long before Allende was elected - they wanted to stop him before he even got started. They wanted to stop anyone who might fuel interest in socialism, in any kind of world view of social justice. Social justice has never been good for business. ANA That's a ridiculous theory. EDUARDO But I haven't told you the most important part yet. ANA I'm listening. EDUARDO We know the CIA was involved in over-throwing Allende. ANA Not everyone thinks so. EDUARDO Don't be naive. But the CIA was watching what happened here long before that. And they especially were watching Violeta Parra. ANA Are you implying that . . .? EDUARDO They murdered her. ANA That's laughable. [2100] EDUARDO And you and Juan think you can prove they murdered her. ANA Eduardo, you should have been an author - of fantasy! What you are saying is beyond comment, it's so far-fetched and ridiculous. (Carmen enters.) CARMEN Show time, Eduardo. May I borrow him, dear? ANA Certainly. CARMEN Are you ready? EDUARDO I'm not sure what is going on. CARMEN Francisco has stopped playing dead. If you want to tell him what you think of him, now's the time. EDUARDO I will show him, not tell him, what I think! (He turns to Ana) Don't go away - we have more to talk about . . . (He hurries out.) CARMEN Eduardo! That's not what I meant . . . Come on, dear. (Carmen quickly follows Eduardo.) (Ana moves to the master bedroom.) End of Second Bedroom script