(to both men)
Stop it! What are you doing?
JOSÉ
(pulls out his gun)
Watch your mouth, man!
ZUNIGA
Why, you going to mug me, lover boy?
JOSÉ fires, and ZUNIGA stiffens as he is grazed in the arm, then draws his own weapon.
CARMEN
(to JOSÉ)
Oh, my God! What have you done? We’re not murderers, you fool! Put that gun away!
RAIMONDO rushes over to ZUNIGA and gently pushes his gun down as DANCAIRO signals JOSÉ to calm down.
RAIMONDO
Sergeant, twenty thousand dollars! You forget this whole incident, and I’ll bring twenty thousand in small bills. I can have the money by noon tomorrow. Come on, man. You’ve taken money before. This is twenty thousand!
ZUNIGA
(angry but still greedy)
Twenty thousand dollars. Small bills. I’ll forget this incident but not this fool! No way I forget him.
DANCAIRO and RAIMONDO escort ZUNIGA out.
JOSÉ
(standing)
What have I done? My career is finished.
CARMEN
You shoot a man because he disses you? How stupid is that? I look at you and I don’t know who you are! When I saw your picture in the paper, I thought I recognized someone from when I was a girl. But now I don’t recognize you at all!
JOSÉ
Oh, God! Look, Carmen, I love you, but right now I have to think. I just know my career is wrecked.
CARMEN
What did the boy do? Did he look at you wrong, too?
JOSÉ
What boy? Look, I don’t have time to talk now. I have to go and pack some things.
(He looks around.)
I guess I’m one of you now. Carmen, wait here for me!
JOSÉ leaves, stopping for a moment to look at RAIMONDO as he returns.
RAIMONDO
We’re screwed if Zuniga changes his mind. He can arrest everybody here and make it stick if he wants to. Now we have to pull this job off. We better make it pay big-time or we’re all in trouble. How about you, Carmen? You down with us now?
CARMEN
Yeah, I’m down, Raimondo. I got nothing to lose.
RAIMONDO
Good. I need to hit the streets and get our lookouts on the corners in case Zuniga changes his mind and wants to hit us. You okay, Carmencita?
CARMEN
I’m okay, Raimondo.
RAIMONDO
Everybody out. I need you all on the corners looking out for the heat. Everybody out!
They all leave except for CARMEN, who stands alone, forlorn.
CARMEN sits and, for a long beat, thinks about what has happened. We hear the sound of a harp introducing her song.
CARMEN
(sings “Love Has Flown Away”)
Love came easy, but it just wasn’t for me.
It flew away like swallows on a summer evening.
Love sang softly, but it just wasn’t to me.
Was I a fool to give my love, to give my soul, and more away?
My heart aches with longing, cries each night,
As I just fall apart.
(clearly distressed)
What have I done? What have I done?
Am I so hungry for love that I can’t see
It’s not going to ever happen for me?
I saw the darkness in his eyes
And knew there was even more darkness behind those lovely eyes
And yet…
And yet I kept stumbling blindly
Like some silly schoolgirl from another place, another time.
I’ve got to be the old Carmen again.
Too hard to hurt, too hard to fall in love.
The music continues softly as CARMEN puts her head down on the table.
Act Two
Scene 1
We are in the back room of Lillas Pastia’s club, which is the home base of DANCAIRO’s crew. There is a bar at the back of the stage, and the back wall is covered with colored curtains depicting scenes from a tropical location.
At one table we see CARMEN, FRASQUITA, and MERCEDES. At the end of the bar, JOSÉ is drinking by himself, head down. The atmosphere is fairly busy, and the music from the sound system is upbeat.
MERCEDES
This boy wants me sooo much, you wouldn’t believe it. If I walk into a room where he is, his heart starts beating faster. You can tell from across the room-you can almost hear it! That’s how much he loves me.
FRASQUITA
Is he cute?
MERCEDES
He drives a BMW.
FRASQUITA
That’s pretty cute. What was he arrested for?
MERCEDES
How do you know he was arrested? You don’t know that.
FRASQUITA
He’s young, he lives around here, he’s been arrested. What for?
MERCEDES
On a technicality. They caught him with some television sets, which he was going to sell but they got to him before he could get the sets out. Then-and you’re not going to believe this-they charged him with possession of stolen goods, and the only reason he had them in his possession was because they arrested him before he could sell them!
FRASQUITA
That’s got to be some kind of violation. That’s what they do to us and then they say we don’t have family values. How are we going to have family values when you can’t afford a place to put your family?
CARMEN
I think I need somebody new to fall in love with. Maybe this weekend. Any parties going on?
FRASQUITA
Whoa, Carmen. What happened to José? I thought you were all hot and bothered over him. All the pain in his eyes and everything? I thought you went for that big-time?
CARMEN
Frasquita, I don’t know if I was really seeing his pain or just seeing the place where it should have been. Sometimes I look at him and I see that shining knight I was talking about. Then I look again and there’s a shadow across his face. I think you can hold some things in you too long and they go bad. It’s as if your soul gets dark. Then it gets to be dangerous. I’m a little bit afraid of him. Maybe I let my heart get away from me. It won’t happen again.
FRASQUITA
I told you that, girlfriend. I’ve been there once or twice myself. Yeah, me, Frasquita Margarita Ortiz. I’ve been head-over-heels in love before. Or was it heels over head? Anyway… I’ve been there! But I’m not sure about you, Carmen. You’re, like, really messed around over that dude. I can even hear it in your voice.
CARMEN
I’m over him. Love knows how to die.
DANCAIRO enters with RAMI and YOSHIRO. RAMI is a slightly built Indian, and YOSHIRO is stocky and Japanese.
DANCAIRO
Here’s my crew! Lay it out for them, guys.
RAMI
This marketing company in Pittsburgh is buying a list of credit-card users. It’s a one-time deal; they’re going to try to sell audio equipment over the Internet to everyone on the list. But instead of just sending the names and e-mail addresses, the card company sent the numbers, too. They have a good security system, but one computer-
YOSHIRO
On the third floor.
RAMI
It monitors everything. We’ve hacked the password and can download all the numbers onto a flash drive in-