Three Plays: The Young Lady from Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, La Chunga Read Online Free PDF Page A

you saying all these things to me? And why that tone of voice? You’re talking as if you were angry with me for some reason.
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: Anger isn’t quite the word, my sensitive little flower. I’m not angry with you. I hate you. I hate you with all my power and all my mind. All year I’ve been willing on you the worst possible disasters. That you’d get run over by a train. That your face would be eaten away by smallpox. That your lungs would be racked with tuberculosis. That the devil would take you!
    MAMAE: But what have I ever done to you, Senora Carlota? I hardly even know you. Why are you saying such dreadful things to me? And here was I thinking you were coming to give me a wedding present.
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: I’ve come to tell you that Joaquín doesn’t love you. He loves me. You may be younger. You may be a virgin, you may still be unmarried! But he doesn’t like delicate little ornaments that blow over in the wind. He likes me. Because I know something young ladies like you will never learn. I know how to love. I know what passion is. I know how to give pleasure and how to receive it. Yes, it’s a naughty word for you, isn’t it? Pleasure.
    MAMAE: You’ve taken leave of your senses, Senora Carlota. You’re forgetting …
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: That I’m married and I’ve got three
children? I haven’t forgotten. I don’t give a damn! Not for my husband, my children, Tacna society, the Church – they can say what they like — I don’t give a damn! That’s love, you see. I’m prepared to do anything, rather than lose the man I love.
    MAMAE: If it is as you say, if Joaquín does love you, why has he asked me to marry him?
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: For your name, for the plantation you’re going to inherit, because an officer has to safeguard his future. But, above all, because he can’t marry the woman he loves. He’s marrying you because it’s convenient. He’s resigned himself to marrying you. Did you hear that? He’s re-signed to it. He’s told me so himself, hundreds of times. Only today in fact – not two hours ago. Yes, I’ve just come from being with Joaquín. I can still hear the sound of his voice echoing in my ears: ‘You’re the only one who can really give me pleasure, my soldier’s girl.’ That’s what he calls me, you see, when I abandon myself to him: his soldier’s girl, his little soldier’s girl.
    MAMAE: Señora Carlota, you’ve gone quite far enough. Please, I beg you …
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: I’m shocking you, I know. But I don’t care. I’ve come to make it quite clear to you that I’m not going to give Joaquín up, even if he does marry you. And he won’t give me up either. We’re going to carry on seeing each other behind your back. I’ve come to tell you what your life will be like, after you’re married. Every morning, every afternoon, wondering if your husband’s really gone to the barracks – or if he’s making love with me instead.
    MAMAE: I’m calling the servants to show you to the door, Señora Carlota.
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: And if Joaquín is transferred, I’ll leave my husband and my children and I’ll follow him. So all your doubts and torments will continue. I’ve come just so that you know how far a woman in love is prepared to go. Do you see?
    MAMAE: Yes, señora. I see. Maybe it is true what you say. I’d never be capable of behaving like that myself. For me,
love could never be a disease. I can’t understand you. You’re beautiful, elegant, and your husband such a distinguished man – the whole of Tacna respects him. And such lovely little children too. What more can anyone want in life?
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: All right, maybe that’s how you see it. But all these things you seem to hanker after, I’d gladly sacrifice the lot, just for one word from Joaquín. I’d risk hell if that’s the price I have to pay to go on seeing him.
    MAMAE: I’m sure God will be listening to you, Senora Carlota.
    SEÑORA CARLOTA: Then he’ll know I’m