YOSHIRO
Forty-two seconds.
RAMI
We need three minutes to go up the back elevator, into the office, get in, and download the numbers, and we’re out of there!
DANCAIRO
The building is empty on weekends except for a rent-a cop who guards the entrance on the first floor. We get a girl in there who needs directions because she’s lost. Then she sees how handsome the guard is. The other two girls are lookouts. Any cops passing by won’t be suspicious of two girls standing on the corner.
FRASQUITA
Sounds good to me.
MERCEDES
And when do we get paid?
DANCAIRO
We’ll do the caper Saturday morning, sell the numbers in the afternoon, and you get paid on Sunday morning. Right after Mass!
There are high fives all around, and DANCAIRO leads RAMI and YOSHIRO out. JOSÉ gets up and approaches the girls’ table.
FRASQUITA
Here comes José. You need us to stay?
CARMEN
No, I’ll be okay.
MERCEDES
We’ll be in the corner. You need us, mami, just whistle.
FRASQUITA and MERCEDES retreat to a corner table.
CARMEN
José, you look like shit, man.
JOSÉ
I feel out of place. What’s inside me, what’s really me deep inside, is different from what’s inside these people watching the world go by.
CARMEN
We all think we’re different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us.
JOSÉ
Zuniga screwed up my career big-time. All the time I was on traffic duty, I thought about how he was trying to bring me down. I made myself think about you to keep him off my mind. He’s trying to destroy me. You’re my flower, my promise of life and hope.
CARMEN
José, I’m not a flower. I’m not a promise. I’m Carmen.
JOSÉ
That’s not how I thought of you during those hard days.
CARMEN
José, you’re making my head spin. What else were you thinking about?
JOSÉ
About my mother, and how much I miss the life I had with her. Does that sound weak to you? That a grown man should be thinking of his mother?
CARMEN
Of course not. I admire a man who thinks of his mother.
JOSÉ
She doesn’t know about all the changes in my life. I know that what she wants is for me to settle down with some nice girl. I know she wants grandchildren. I think she’s lonely.
CARMEN
We could go see her. Maybe spend some time with her.
JOSÉ
No, I wouldn’t want to spoil the vision of me she has. She wants me to show up at her doorstep with a plain little girl wearing flat shoes and carrying a book. You know how old women are-everything has to line up just right to spell out the word familia or they just don’t get it.
CARMEN
She wouldn’t like me?
JOSÉ
She’d get used to you after a while.
CARMEN
Get used to me? You get used to dandruff, not people!
JOSÉ
Anyway, I have plans for us. You help these guys pull this caper off, and we can get out of here. Maybe find a place in San Juan. Near the beach. One of those gated communities they advertise for vacations. It would be like a whole new life for you. Clean. Fresh air. Safe.
CARMEN
I don’t want to move to San Juan. I don’t have any family there.
JOSÉ
If you’re with me, then you’ll live where I say.
CARMEN
Am I with you now, José? If your mother walked down the street right now, would I be with you?
JOSÉ
What are you talking about? Look, I’m telling you the way it is. Don’t get in my face. I don’t like it! You and me, we belong together-like you said before… something about feeling pain. I liked that. We’ve got pain holding us together.
CARMEN
Pain? Not love? José, maybe we need to slow this train down. I don’t know if I’m ready to make a lifetime thing of this.
JOSÉ
Carmen, don’t… Don’t think of being away from me. I’ve given up my whole career on the force for you. It’s going to be me and you. Don’t even think about it being any other way. You don’t want me disappointed in you. That would really piss me off.
CARMEN
Don’t piss you off? Tell me, Don José, O brave one who gets pissed off: When you were a boy, did you hide behind your mother’s legs when the big boys came after you?
JOSÉ
Do yourself a favor, Carmen. Take my mother’s name from your lips.
CARMEN
(edging close to JOSÉ)
What will you put on my lips to replace her name?
She is leaning against him, but he pushes her away.
JOSÉ
You don’t understand. You will never understand what is between me and my mother.
CARMEN
I don’t understand, and I don’t want to understand! I thought you loved me.
JOSÉ
I love you in a different way, Carmen. You’re like…
JOSÉ
A flower? A rose? Something that you can own? I don’t think so, baby.
JOSÉ
(embarrassed as people are looking at him)
Carmen, sit down. We don’t need to put our business in the street.
OLD MAN IN THE CORNER
It’s okay, I don’t mind. There’s nothing on television, anyway.
CARMEN
(clearly hurt)
José, I don’t know what you need. I know it’s not me.
JOSÉ
Carmen, baby, you don’t understand. It’s like you’re a part of me. When you become a part of someone, it’s forever. So when you talk about José, you’re talking about Carmen, too. We belong to each other and with each other!
CARMEN
I don’t belong to anyone!
JOSÉ
Don’t push me.
For a moment, the two stand toe to toe, then CARMEN turns and walks over to where MERCEDES and FRASQUITA are sitting on one side of the stage. JOSÉ goes to sit on the other side.
RAIMONDO
(trying to break the tension)
I have to go make a delivery. You, pretty boy, keep an eye on the door. Don’t let any crooked cops in here. Ha!
RAIMONDO exits.
TERESA, an older woman, enters. She is very dark-skinned and wears a blue bandana around her head from which wisps of gray hair protrude. Her eyes are large, and her fingernails are painted dark green. She is wearing large gold earrings.
FRASQUITA
(trying to settle CARMEN down)
Carmen, forget him. Look-Teresa is here. Let’s have her tell our fortunes.
MERCEDES
I’m due to hit the lottery, but I don’t want to play unless today’s the day.
CARMEN