MECHE: Right, Chunga. Ciao, then.
LA CHUNGA: Ciao, Meche. Good luck.
(MECHE leaves the house. LA CHUNGA goes back to sit down on her rocking chair. She remains in the same position she was in when the curtain went up, at the beginning of the play. The superstuds’ voices are heard, beneath the smoke of the cigars. Long pause.)
LA CHUNGA: (Energetically) Time! Pay up and be off. I’m closing.
EL MONO: Just five more minutes, Chunga.
LA CHUNGA: Not a second more, I said. Now, be off with the lot of you. I’m tired.
LITUMA: (Getting up) I’m sleepy too. Besides, they’ve completely cleaned me out, down to the very last copper.
JOSE: Yes, let’s go — the night’s become very flat all of a sudden.
EL MONO: But first let’s sing the farewell song, superstuds.
(They sing — their voices sound flat, as at the end of a party)
We are the superstuds.
We don’t want to work.
All we need 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.
And now it’s time to say ‘so long’
Goodbye, Chunguita.
(They get up, make their way towards the rocking chair. LA CHUNGA gets up to take the money for the beers. They give it to her between them. LA CHUNGA goes with them as far as the door.)
JOSE: (Before crossing the threshhold, as if repeating a ritual) Tomorrow you’ll tell me what happened that time with Mechita, Chunga?
LA CHUNGA: (Closing the door in his face) Go and ask your bloody mother. She’ll tell you.
(Outside, the superstuds laugh and sing rude songs. LA CHUNGA bolts the door. She goes to put out the kerosene lamp which hangs over the table where the superstuds gamble. Sleepily she goes up to her room. It’s clear from the way she moves she is very tired. She lets herself fall on to the bed, hardly taking off her sandals.)
LA CHUNGA’S VOICE: Goodnight, Mechita. See you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mario Vargas Llosa lives in Lima, Peru. He is a novelist of international standing whose works include: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, The War of the End of the World, Who Killed Palomino Molero? The Perpetual Orgy and The Storyteller.