Scene Four
A wide sunny field
in the province of Ivez in southwest Montillano. The music is soft and
plaintive. Upstage stands a lovely shade tree under which twelve year old
INKEY ESCABOSA, sits, alternating between nibbling on a long French bread
and playing with the toy known as cup and ball. He is quite oblivious to
everything about him. ISHMAEL appears from the left, utterly exhausted.
He spies a space of rich earth, sets the geranium plant down and wearily
begins to dig.
ISHMAEL
Oh, little plant…I’m so tired…so
hungry…I have to leave you here…you’re too big now…
(HE is suddenly seized
by a fit of coughing which wracks his entire body. INKY turns, sees him
digging.)
INKEY
Hey! What are you doing?
(HE drops the toy, rises cautiously, the bread in his hands.)
Get away from there or
I’ll call my Papa.
(ISHMAEL is transfixed by the bread.)
You’re ruining our rutabagas!
(ISHMAEL makes a grab for the loaf.)
Stop that!
(HE snatches the bread away as ISHMAEL continues to go for it.)
Cut that out! Papa! Papa!
Help! There’s a man out here trying to steal my lunch!
(ISHMAEL makes a
final lunge for the bread. In defense, INKEY hits him with it. ISHMAEL
passes out cold. INKEY regards the loaf, astonished. Then HE glances back
at Ishmael and back to the bread. HE is suddenly delighted with himself.
The set swings to the right revealing the interior of the Escabosa farmhouse,
BLASINA ESCABOSA, a short, heavy woman, is at a sewing machine industriously
working on a dress. ALEJANDRO ESCABOSA, a chunky man in his 50s, is at
the wall tearing off a large photograph of Jose and Flora Ibañez.
Their lovely daughter, ROSA, is clearing the table.)
ALEJANDRO
There! There! And there!
(Stomping on the torn pieces)
For the little man, eh?
Well, that’s what the little man thinks of you, Ibañez! And you,
you former fan dancer.
BLASINA
The others were bad. But
they were nothing compared to these two. They never passed an Anti-rutabaga
Act!
ALEJANDRO
All these years I’ve been
growing my rutabagas. Suddenly that jackass decides you cannot make money
by exporting rutabagas. Americans don’t like rutabagas. Americans like
beef, he says. So now I must turn my rutabaga farm into a ranch!
ROSA
Oh, Papa, it may not be so
bad.
ALEJANDRO
It may not be so bad if he
buys me the cow and the bull. But no! I have to buy my own cow and my own
bull. Because all the money for the cows and the bulls go to the Florita
fund for Underprivileged Children! Bastardo! How about my own underprivileged
children?
(At that moment,
INKEY bursts into the room swinging his bread in the air and glowing with
pride.)
INKEY
Papa! Mama! I just killed
a man!
BLASINA
What?
INKEY
He’s outside by the big tree---stone
cold dead.
(ALL THREE rush out
the door followed by INKEY. The set begins to revolve to the left as they
hurry to where Ishmael lies.)
INKEY
I’m the biggest, strongest,
bravest twelve year old in the province of Ivez! I’m the biggest, strongest,
brave twelve year old in all of Montilliano! I’m the biggest, strongest,
bravest twelve year old in the whole goddamned world!
(THEY reach Ishmael’s
body. ROSA leans down, listens to his heart.)
ROSA
He’s alive.
INKEY
Oh, shit!
BLASINA
Oh, dear Lord! Oh! Oh!
ALEJANDRO
What is it?
BLASINA
It’s…it’s…
ALEJANDRO
What? Who?
BLASINA
Baldomero!
ROSA
Baldomero?
BLASINA
Yes! Yes!
ALEJANDRO
That’s Baldomero?
BLASINA
I would recognize him anywhere…his
picture has been plastered over the countryside for more than a year!
INKEY
Get the reward, Mama. Get
the reward.
ROSA
But where is his mask? They
say he always wears a mask.
ALEJANDRO
That couldn’t be Baldomero.
Baldomero is a much bigger man with powerful arms and a great chest.
BLASINA
The poor thing must have
lost weight…what with all the stealing from the rich and giving to the
poor…
INKEY
Get the reward, Mama.
BLASINA
Go away, Inkecito! I tell
you, our prayers have been answered!
INKEY
Well, I almost killed him.
He was trying to plant that thing in our rutabagas, and I…
(THEY ALL turn to regard the geranium.)
BLASINA
The geranium plant! The secret
geranium plant!
ALEJANDRO
It must be Baldomero. It
is
Baldomero. Rosa! Quick! Bring the wine. This is a day of celebration.
(ROSA rushes off left.)
INKEY
Get the reward, Papa.
ALEJANDRO
That secret weapon nobody
has been able to figure out…
BLASINA
God has put him here! Here
on our farm to save our rutabagas!
(Music begins. ROSA
returns with a jug of wine and some cups. THEY drink as THEY sing and dance.
Only INKEY refuses to participate. HE goes to the side of the stage and
sulks.)
ALL
Oh, Baldomero!
He can do what the others
can’t!
He will fight for what’s
right
In the day or the night
With his secret geranium
plant!
ALEJANDRO
I am told he’s
made a million
And he’s one of the noblesse;
And I’ve heard he’s so
Castillian
He cannot pronounce an
"s".
ALL
Oh, Baldomero!
He can do what the others
can’t!
He will fight for what’s
right
In the day or the night
With his secret geranium
plant!
ROSA
I have heard
that he has blonde arms
That no woman can withstand,
And he fought off twenty
gendarmes
With a prayer book in
one hand.
ALL
Oh, Baldomero!
He can do what the others
can’t!
He will fight for what’s
right
In the day or the night
With his secret geranium
plant!
(ISHMAEL begins to
awaken. The first thing he sees in the wine. He regards it longingly, but
the Escabosas are too absorbed in their song and their dance.)
BLASINA
He won’t let
Ibañez plague us,
For I’ve heard a strong
belief
That he’s mad for rutabagas
And he never touches
beef.
ALL
Oh, Baldomero!
He can do what the others
can’t!
He will fight for what’s
right
In the day or the night
With his secret geranium
plant!
ALEJANDRO
I am told Flora
Pasquale
Tried to get him in the
sack;
That was known as Flora’s
folly
And now she is striking
back!
(ISHMAEL continues
to follow the wine with his eyes. The bottle is quickly being emptied mostly
by Alejandro.)
ALL
Oh, Baldomero!
He can do what the others
can’t!
He will fight for what’s
right
In the day or the night
With his secret geranium
plant!
With his secret geranium
plant!
(THEY dance wildly
about him as HE stares weakly toward the wine. The music swells to a joyous
crescendo.)
LIGHTS DIM RAPIDLY
