EL MONO: What are you going to go on betting with? You’ve already lost two thousand sols, your watch and your pen. What more have you got, for Christ’s sake?
(Pause. JOSEFINO looks from one side to the other. He watches LA CHUNGA and MECHE for a moment. Then, resolutely, he gets to his feet.)
JOSEFINO: I have got something more.
(He strides firmly towards LA CHUNGA. He has the expression of a man prepared to go to any length to satisfy his whim.) I need three thousand sols to stay in the game, Chunguita.
LA CHUNGA: Over my dead body! You know perfectly well I never lend a cent to anyone.
JOSEFINO: I’ve got something worth more than those three thousand sols I’m asking you for.
(He grips MECHE round the waist.)
MECHE: (Taking it half as a joke, without knowing quite how to react) What are you saying?
(LA CHUNGA bursts out laughing. JOSEFINO remains very serious. The superstuds have gone quiet; they crane their necks forward, intrigued by what is happening.)
JOSEFINO: (Holding MECHE against him as if he owned her) You heard. You love me, don’t you? And I love you too. That’s why I’m asking this of you. Didn’t you swear you’d always do anything I wanted? Right then, now you’re going to prove it to me.
MECHE: (Open-mouthed and incredulous) But, but … have you gone mad? Do you know what you’re saying? Or have those beers gone to your head?
JOSEFINO: (To LA CHUNGA) You can’t fool me, Chunga. I know you’ve been drooling over Meche ever since you first set eyes on her. So what about it?
EL MONO: Holy shit. He means it. D’you realize, superstuds?
JOSE: Christ, he’s selling her to her. It’s as simple as that.
LITUMA: You might as well buy her yourself, Mono. Or isn’t Mechita worth those three thousand sols?
JOSEFINO: (Without taking his eyes off LA CHUNGA; still with his arm round MECHE) No. I wouldn’t lend her to Mono, not for all the tea in China. Nor to any other man, for that matter. (Kissing MECHE) It would make me jealous. I’d rip the guts out of anyone who so much as laid a finger on her. (To LA CHUNGA) But I’m not jealous of you. I’ll lend her to you all right, because I know that you’ll give her back to me — intact.
MECHE: (Snivelling, bewildered and exasperated) Let go of me. I want to get out of here. You miserable sod. You miserable sod.
JOSEFINO: (Letting go of her) You can go. But don’t ever come back. Because if you go now, Meche, you’d be betraying me. I’d never forgive you for letting me down when I most needed you.
MECHE: But, Josefino, do you realize what you’re asking me to do? What do you think I am?
LA CHUNGA: (To MECHE, sardonically) You see, so you wouldn’t just do anything that crook asked you, after all.
JOSEFINO: (Clutching MECHE) Did you really say that? Did you? Then it is true. (Kisses MECHE.) I love you, Meche. You and I will always be together, for as long as we both live. Don’t cry, silly. (To LA CHUNGA) Well, what about it then?
(LA CHUNGA has become very serious. Long pause.)
LA CHUNGA: Let her say it herself, in her own words, that she accepts. Let her say that from now until the first light of dawn she’ll do anything I want.
JOSEFINO: (To MECHE) Don’t let me down. I need you. She won’t do anything to you. She’s a woman. What can she do to you? Say it.
(Trance-like pause. The superstuds and LA CHUNGA watch MECHE’s inner conflict. She stretches out her arms and looks from one to the other.)
MECHE: (To LA CHUNGA, stammering) I’ll do anything you want until the first light of dawn.
(LA CHUNGA goes to fetch the money from under the bar. JOSEFINO whispers something into MECHE’s ear and caresses her. The superstuds start to recover from the shock. LA CHUNGA hands the money to JOSEFINO.)
EL MONO: Bloody hell, I really don’t believe this. I don’t believe my eyes.
LITUMA: I could even marry a woman like that.
JOSE: Shit. This calls for us to sing the old song again. For Mechita. She deserves it.
EL MONO: The song, superstuds — and a toast in honour of Mechita.
EL MONO, LITUMA and JOSE: (Singing)
We are the superstuds.
We don’t want to work.
All we want is a little bit of skirt.
Drinking, gambling all night long,
In Chunga’s bar where we belong.
Wine, women and song –
Wine, women and song.
In Chunga’s bar where we belong.
And now we’re going to drink a toast
To you, Mechita.
(They raise their beer glasses to MECHE and drink. LA CHUNGA takes MECHE by the hand and leads her towards her room. They both go up the small staircase. JOSEFINO, counting his money, returns to the gambling table.)
ACT TWO
The superstuds
As the curtain goes up, the actors are in exactly the same position as they were at the beginning of the first act. We are now in the present — a long time after the episode with MECHE. The superstuds are playing dice at the table, beneath a lamp which is hanging from a beam, while LA CHUNGA, in her rocking chair, passes the time by gazing into space. In the coolness of the night, the sounds of the city can be heard in the distance: crickets chirp, there is the occasional noise of a car, a dog barks, a donkey brays.
JOSE: I’m dying to know what Chunga did that night with Meche; how much do you think it would take to get her to tell me?
LITUMA: She’ll never tell you. Not even for a million sols. Forget it, José.
JOSEFINO: If I wanted her to, she would. For free.
EL MONO: We know what a naughty boy you are, Josefino, you great crook.
JOSEFINO: I’m not joking. (Takes out his knife and holds it so that it glints in the light of the lamp.) Chunga may be pretty tough, but there’s no man or woman alive who wouldn’t squeal like a parrot with this at his throat.
EL MONO: D’you hear that, Chunga?
LA CHUNGA: (With her usual detachment) Hurry up and finish those beers. I’m about to close.
JOSEFINO: Don’t be frightened, Chunguita. I’d make you tell me what happened that night if I felt like it. But I don’t feel like it. So you can stuff your little secret. I don’t want to know. I don’t give a damn about Meche. She could be dead for all I care. I’ve yet to meet the woman who’d make me run after her.
(JOSE has stood up. He moves slowly towards LA CHUNGA’s rocking chair, staring straight ahead of him, gaping slightly, as if walking in his sleep. The superstuds appear not to have noticed him. Throughout the following scene, they behave as if he were still sitting in the empty seat: they clink glasses with him, take his bets, pass him the dice, slap him on the back and joke with him.)