SCENE 1: GERARDO'S ARREST

VOICES OFF-STAGE: Bring the knife, ring the bell, when you.
die you'll go to hell.
(Whispered:) Step on a crack ...
Bring the knife, ring the bell, when you die you'll go to hell.
(Whispered:) Step on a crack ...
Bring the knife, ring the bell, when you die you'll go to hell.
(Whispered:) Step on a crack ...
Break your mother's back.
(The NARRATORS enter, speaking as they come, gathering
casually around the Ford Falcon, leaning on it, exploring it,
etc. NARRATORS speak individually, one speaker per unit of
text [units are marked by ellipses or end punctuation] except
when it's indicated they speak together.)
NARRATORS: It's not everyday that you open the door and
four rooms are wrecked by a gale that murders the past
and tears the hands off the clock.
It's not every day that mirrors shatter and garments shred.
It's not every day that you try to escape and the clock has
moved...
the door unhinged ...
the windows jammed.
Cornered, you cry.
Minutes do not tick by.
It's not every day that you stumble and fall with hands
behind your back.
Trapped in a night so dark ...
lost amid overturned chairs...
emptied drawers ...
opened suitcases ...
torn maps ...
severed roads.
You barely make out the reverberating echoes-
(Enter MILICOS, in uniforms; they stand like soldiers
Upstage and shout.)
MILICOS: You thought you could escape!
NARATORS: An enormous mouth opens up.
An enormous mouth devours you.
(MILICOS pull NAOMI and GERARDO out of the crowd.)
MILICOS: Bitch!
Bastard!

NARRATORS: What's happening?
Who are these
Why me? Why us?
Familiar voices whisper
NAOMI & GERARDO: We haven't done anything.
We haven't. (MILICOS pull NAOMI and GERARDO
Downstage. The NARRATORS move away to separate
themselves from the victims. They leer at the fate of their
friends.) .
NARRATORS: Yet, here you are, on this side, in this body.
If you haven't done anything ...
Soles tattooed onto your skin ...
Why else are you here? Why else would the police ...
Boots on your back...
Unless you ...
A gun at the nape of your neck.
Unless.
MILICOS: On your feet!
NARRATORS: You stand meekly...
confused ...
bewildered ...
beaten ...
NAOMI: They're taking me, they're taking me! (MILICOS
blindfold first GERARDO, then NAOMI. She resists.)
NARRATORS: We watch as they blindfold you ...
Stuff you into the elevator ...
Drag you out of the building ...
Two in the afternoon!
Space vanishes under your feet.
You scream at the top of your lungs ...
With your legs ...
Arms ...
Guts. (NAOMI screams silently.)

NARRATORS: On the sidewalk you kick and scream against a
nameless fate in some mass grave.
You flail untamed on the edge of obliteration.
They push you.
You land on the floor of a car.
Blows rain on you. (GERARDO is pushed onto his knees in
front of the Ford Falcon. NAOMI is shoved into the Ford
Falcon.)
MILICOS: (Kicking) Take this for screaming, you piece of shit.
This for kicking us.
And this and this.
NARRATORS: One moment you're here, the next ...
Gone.
Only the fading sound of the car to remind us
That you lived and died here,
In this neighborhood,
Your neighborhood ...
Gone.
The car that snatched you from among us
Now offers you up to them,
In their neighborhood.
VOICE: (Calling out) Where?
NARRATORS: Only the distant sound of the car ...
The Ford Falcon
MILICOS: You stink! Both of you.
We're gonna clean you up, alright.
Clean you good.
Won't recognize yourselves.
We're gonna turn you into soap.

NARRATORS: (Retreating Upstage, whispering together) Bring
the knife, ring Ue bell, when you die you'll go to hell.
Step on a crack ... (MILICOS remove GERARDO's gag, then
mime beating him 'n a stylized fashion.)
MILICOS: Confess!
Spill your guts, pukehead.
(GERARDO speaks rapidly, fearful of being hit.)
GERARDO: The lock to the front door, as if by some perverse
magic, turns itself, steps rush in, three pairs of shoes,
practice their disjointed tap-dance on the floor, the
clothes, the books, an arm, a hip, an ankle, a hand. My
body. I am the trophy of the day. A hide with hollow head,
glass eyes. The make-believe hunters step on me ...
NARRATORS: (Whispered from Upstage together) Step on a
crack, break your mother's back.
GERARDO: My sins are exorcised in a ritual inside the temple
of the Ford Falcon bearing no license plates: a green¬
colored temple speeding through traffic lights down
Corrientes Street on the wrong side of the road. No one
bats an eye.
NARRATORS: Business as usual.
(Whispered:) Bring the knife, ring the bell ...
Nothing unusual.
(Whispered:) When you die ...
Anybody see anything? (Heads shaken, SEVERAL turn away.)
GERARDO: They came looking several times, closing in
gradually until one dawn they took me away from here
forever. Were there warnings, signs, hints of what was to
come? Sure. The first was when the hooded men came to
our workplace. Several friends had already been
kidnapped, and yet... You persist in believing... can't
happen ... Even as their clubs... their fists... the heavy
cords... swung like lariats ... even then ... even then, no ... I
could not... Mistake ... mistake... I cried out ... please ...
(GERARDO collapses from the beating. MILICOS stop
beating, study their victim, prod him.)

NAOMI: Don't, don't, please, no more, you're going to kill me,
you're killing me.
MILICOS: Step on a crack …
Break your mother's back.
NAOMI: That smell. A blue smell. Gerardo. That's Gerardo. It's
his voice. I don't know anything, stop, stop, oh please stop.
It's him. I know it's him. Please don't hurt him, please.
MILICOS: Bring the knife, ring the bell ...
NAOMI: He must be in the next room, or is it just a recording
to make me talk? I bite my tongue so that I won't scream.
(Screams from NARRATORS Upstage.)
MILICOS: Hey, look. She's got a scar exactly like his.
They must stamp them like that at the factory.
We got her brother. Toss her out with the garbage.
(MILICOS shove NAOMI aside, then drag GERARDO's
beaten body Off-stage. Silence. NARRATORS approach
NAOMI, comforting her as they speak.)
NARRATORS: Our infected vaccination marks we wore so
proudly...
Little soldiers with our war wounds n.
Binding us together n.
Setting us apart.
NAOMI: They got me.
MILICOS: (Off-stage) Bring the knife, ring the bell, when you
die you'll go to hell.
Step on a crack! (A sudden, loud, jarring noise. Blackout.)

SCENE 2: REMEMBERING