JOSÉ
Why? How can you ask a question like that? People look at you and they’re amazed. You’re the brightest star in their universe. People will look at us walking together and wonder what magic I performed to have you on my arm. They’ll know that together we’re somebody. That we’re special.
CARMEN
I don’t want to be that special. Just loved, José. I want to run and jump right into forever after. Does that make sense to you?
JOSÉ’s cell phone rings.
CARMEN goes over to him and puts her hand over the phone, which he now holds in his hand. JOSÉ turns as he answers the call.
JOSÉ
Yes?… Yes?… Of course! I’ll be there right away, sir.
CARMEN
What are you doing?
JOSÉ
They need me down at headquarters at once. It’s a big operation.
CARMEN
But I’m standing here promising you forever, and suddenly the phone rings and forever is put on hold.
JOSÉ
(checking his gun)
I have to go. I have no choice.
CARMEN
No choice? One minute you’re saying that you have no choice except to love me, and the next…
JOSÉ
This is my job.
CARMEN
(confused)
How can you—? Who are you? One minute you’re hopelessly in love, and… and the next minute you’re leaving?
JOSÉ
(roughly)
Be sensible! I have to go!
CARMEN
(emulating a ringing phone)
Brrring! Brrring! Calling all mice! Calling all mice!
Brrring! Brrring! There are crumbs on the carpet for you!
JOSÉ
You don’t understand, Carmen.
CARMEN
Yes, yes, you’re right. I don’t understand. And I don’t understand how I let myself fall in love again! What was I thinking?
JOSÉ
A man must do his duty, no matter what.
ZUNIGA enters. He is tipsy. His collar is unbuttoned, and he is carrying a brown paper bag that probably holds a bottle of liquor.
ZUNIGA
Carmen! I thought you might still be here. I was thinking about you all evening. Come sit with me. You old enough to drink wine? We could go someplace.
JOSÉ
Carmen doesn’t need a drink from you.
ZUNIGA turns slowly and eyes JOSÉ with contempt.
ZUNIGA
You still running around the city? When’s your hearing? Next week? Then you’ll be gone from the force forever, and maybe they can even give you some jail time for letting a prisoner escape. They’ll love you on the cell block. Now, get back to the precinct. They must have some wastebaskets that need to be emptied.
He puts his arm around CARMEN.
JOSÉ
(angrily)
Don’t tell me what to do! I am as much man as you are!
Curious about the shouting, DANCAIRO, RAIMONDO, and ANGEL enter from the back room.
ZUNIGA
(shouting)
You? A man? You’re a boy who occasionally dresses in the uniform of a man. Now, get out of here before I lose my temper!
JOSÉ
Go ahead: lose it!
ZUNIGA slaps JOSÉ, and for a minute the two men grapple. Then ZUNIGA throws JOSÉ to the ground.
ZUNIGA
Look at you! Lying on the floor like the child you are! See how all your friends stare at you—wondering if you have the nerve to stand up again.
CARMEN
(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—
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 lea
ning 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
(glances at JOSÉ and then away)
Why not? She can tell us how wonderful we’re going to be living soon.
The three girls shepherd TERESA to a table.
TERESA
(in a wonderfully husky voice)
I’m thirsty.
FRASQUITA
What do you want?
TERESA
Cappuccino.
MERCEDES signals to a man behind the bar, who starts making the cappuccino.
TERESA opens her purse and takes out a pack of cards, which she shuffles and lays out facedown.