11 July 2015

PROMPT:  Ojala que cuando leas esto me entiendes mucho mejor. (Hope that when you read this you understand me much better.)

Leticia Rodriguez, artist/musician/dancer

Theresa, 52, and Cal, 54, sit at the table drinking coffee.
CAL
She just left?!
THERESA
She just left.
CAL
Where did she go?
THERESA
I don’t know.  She left with her boyfriend.
CAL
And she took her stuff?
THERESA
Most of it.
CAL
Why?
THERESA
I don’t know.
CAL
She didn’t say anything?
THERESA
She left this note.
Theresa picks up a slip of paper on the table and hands it to Cal.
CAL
It’s in Spanish.  Why would she leave a note in Spanish?
THERESA
It is her first language.
CAL
I know!  But it’s not even my second.
THERESA
You don’t have a second language.
CAL
I barely have a first.
THERESA
Can’t argue with that.
Cal hands the note back to Theresa.
CAL
What does it say?
THERESA
It says, “Ojala que cuando leas esto me entiendes mucho mejor...”
CAL
(interrupting)
In English.
THERESA
It says, “I hope that when you read this you understand me much better...”
CAL
I can’t understand her worse.
THERESA
Would you just listen! “I hope that when you read this you understand me much better.  I need to get away from your house.  I feel smothered by your love.  I don’t feel like I deserve it.  I’ve done such horrible things since I’ve stayed with you.”
CAL
Horrible things?! What horrible things?  Smokin’ weed, drinkin’, screwin’ boys, skippin’ school...
THERESA
... getting arrest for shoplifting.
CAL
It’s not like she’s the first girl in this house to be arrested.
THERESA
But it’s the first time she’s been arrested.
Silence.
CAL
We love her.
THERESA
I know... but I’m not sure she knows.
CAL
I’m not sure she even knows what love is.
Silence.
CAL
Does the note say anything else?
THERESA
It says she loves us and she’ll be in touch in a day or two.
CAL
Did we do something wrong?!
THERESA
Nope.  She’s... broken.
Silence.
CAL
I know.
Silence.
THERESA
We’ll see her again.
Silence.
CAL
I hope so.
End of play.