SCENE 2: REMEMBERING

NAOMI in a spotlight. NARRATORS in the shadows.)
NAOMI: I've seen you on the sidewalks …
NARRATORS: I've seen you on the walls ...
NAOMI: In the silhouettes that remember you,
between the paint and the bricks
I've found you multiplied a thousandfold,
filling the streets, in the voices.
NARRATORS: (Together) In the thousands of voices.
NAOMI: Gerardo!
NAOMI and NARRATORS: Gerardito!
NAOMI: They left me in the street. Alone. Hurting. (Faint
screams heard Off-stage.) Eyes blind with tears, ears deaf
from the sound of your voice. It was you, wasn't it? Wasn't
it? It smelled like you. Blue like you, Gerardo. I drown in
the memories.
NARRATORS: (Swapping tales like gossips, trying to cheer
NAOMI) Gerardo competes in the relay race in first grade.
"On your mark, get set... go!" He is one of the fastest.
Suddenly he stops short and turns his head 90 degrees; he
smiles, he waves!
His mama is there.
Then he runs again, as fast as he can.
But Gerardo is the last to cross the finish line; he cries.
Gerardo is in high school but still doesn't wear long pants.
Gerardito wants to be an orchestra conductor.
Bu1 his parents convinced him otherwise.
Gerardo makes mischief and always gets caught.
He is smart but does not apply himself.
He has to change schools after being expelled, more
demerits than hairs on his head.
Gerardo has knee surgery to avoid the draft.
Gerardo talks too much about politics.
He speaks out at those damn political rallies at the
university.
Gerardito has a girlfriend he sneaks into the house to
spend the night.
Gerardo draws up political pamphlets using his papa's
typewriter.
He is clever, he is daring.
No, he is loco.
Gerardito is smart. (To NAOMI:) You remember when
he wrote about the music, yes?
GERARDO'S VOICE: (Amplified) We have in our country an
orchestra composed of: The Great Orchestrator, Señor
Bourgeois; the Conductor, John D. Repressive; the
Musicians, field and factory workers; and the Music,
composed in Buenos Aires, in 3 movements: economic
(imperialism vivace), social (jailhouse andante with molto
state of siege), and political (fugue in fraud major). Music
so lovely it hurts to listen to.
NARRATORS: Brilliant, no?
Dangerous, that's what.
Gerardo is under surveillance; he does not sleep at home.
Even his love letters are written in code. (To NAOMI:) You
have one, yes?
Read it.
NAOMI: Dear Miss Isabel, I regret to inform you that our firm
requires, in lieu of payment for your entrance to the
cinema last evening, the following services:
Quotations from Marx and Hegel... 4
Caresses ... 8
Smiles ... 16
Kisses ... 3
Total... 31
Please be good enough to remit this amount immediately.
NARRATORS: Romantic, no?
He writes too much.
He lives in fear because he's being followed.
GERARDO'S VOICE: Like becoming conscious, seeing oneself
as suddenly not indestructible, as if they had stolen a
chunk of you, as if, craftily, patronizingly, they had told
you, "Watch it, kid," implying that in the end, whether you
know it or not, they will continue to steal bits of you, little
by little, until there's nothing but ashes left.
NARRATORS: Gerardo certainly never killed or kidnappedanyone.
But Gerardo will be kidnapped. (Pause.)
And almost certainly killed.
NAOMI: I never saw you again. Gerardito!
NARRATORS: (Whispering) They came looking several times,
closing in gradually until one dawn ...
Were there warnings, signs, hints of what was to come?
When the hooded men came to your workplace ...
Friends had been kidnapped ...
You persist in believing it can't happen to you.
Even as they beat you ...
Clubs ...
Fists ...
Even then ...
NAOMI: It must be a mistake. I cried out
NARRATORS: We all cried out
ALL: Gerardo! (Silence. Slowly, GERARDO appears Upstage,
ghostlike. He wears a black mask or blindfold. His voice is
amplified, unreal, perhaps on tape. He speaks slowly,
dispassionately.)
GERARDO: When they stole my name
I was one ... I was hundreds ... I was thousands ...
and I was no one.
My face stripped of gesture ...
of look ... of sound
(The NARRATORS don identical black masks and move
slowly in a line across stage, compelling NAOMI to move
with them.)
My numbered nakedness
walked in line ... without eyes ...
with them ... alone.
My alphabet bled dry
by guttural chains ...
by the moans of citizens in a country
without initials
(The NARRATORS tie a bright red blindfold over NAOMI's
eyes, tie her hands behind her back, and silence her by using
their hands as gags. Her muffled moans are heard as the
NARRATORS drag her Downstage to face the audience.)
Eyelid and blindfold
my horizon
all silence and echo
all iron grid ... all nightness
all wall without mirror
wherein to copy a wrinkle
a grimace ... a perhaps
(NAOMI stops moaning, submits to her fate.)
All dead end.
(One by one the NARRATORS remove their hands and exit,
leaving NAOMI alone Downstage. GERARDO exits Upstage,
but his amplified voice continues.)
Silence and echo
Wall without mirror
A grimace
A perhaps
All dead end.
(Silence. NAOMI tries to look around, to see through or
above the blindfold, but she cannot. She turns, listening,
hearing nothing. Then she hears the sound of military boots
marching, softly at first, rising in volume until they threaten
to deafen the audience. Most of NAOMI's following speech
can hardly be heard above the noise, except her name, which
the audience must hear clearly ringing above the bootfalls.)
NAOMI: No, wait! Stop! I'm not the one! It's not me! you're
mistaken, please! We've already done this part. (To
audience:) Oh my god, they're taking me. Me! Naomi!
Remember me! Naomi! Remember!
(The sound of the boots overwhelms her voice. MILICOS enter
marching doubletime, much faster than the sound of boots. In
great haste, looking over their shoulders as if they fear being
observed, they grab NAOMI and carry her to the Ford Falcon,
where they leave her alone, inside the shell ofthe car. ONE OF
THE MILICOS, armed with an automatic weapon, remains
momentarily behind, brandishing the weapon at the audience,
securing their silence and complicity. Exit as the sound of
marching boots fades with the lights.)

SCENE 3: RECAPTURED