One door, and a front
door.
Night: the lamp is lit;
live fire in the chimney. Rain and strong wind outside.
Scene I
RITA(always cooking): It’s closed night
already…
TERESA:
They’ll soon be here, mother of mine!
RITA(holding her task): My, dear name of God,
what a storm this one is!...
TERESA:
Well, it’s wintertime!...
RITA(while heading for the front door): It
is, but… this year’s worse! (Peeking
outside, through a crack she opened): Jesus, it keeps falling more and more
snow!...(stronger gust of wind) Eh,
devil’s soul! Claw out there at ease, evil thing! (Violently closes door. Going back to the center.) Darned wind!
Won’t God put a hand on your mouth, shut you up forever!...(Teresa, singing, runs by Rita with an armful of wild flowers.)
Out, donkey, witless! Won’t you see this then?! I nearly… Stop, Teresa, hold
that wackiness!...
TERESA(stopping, for a moment, decorating with
flowers a dull clay vase): Our João is coming, mother!!...(loud excited laughter).
RITA(suddenly losing all her aggressiveness;
tenderness): Oh, I wish he was here already!...(Louder wind; worried) Jesus, what wind, what snow storm, this
one! I hope it is God’s wish that nothing happens to them…
TERESA(interrupting, vibrant): It won’t! It
won’t happen a thing, mother!
RITA(always apprehensive; a few steps, again,
towards the door): The mountain is covered in ice, all covered up: whiter
than the clothes of our Lord.
TERESA:
Well, our João likes the snow! And so do I…
RITA: Yes,
I know, but still… (Sudden irritation,
turning to Teresa.) Girl, don’t you see that…?! Oh, these roads are a
danger, the devil’s mousetrap!(Anguished) At night, Teresa, at night!...
TERESA(burning conviction): What are you
talking about?! They’re coming. (Clapping,
fiery.) How I wish, how I wish to see them!... (Sudden shadows.) What if João changed, mother?... (Sudden change) Ih, what’s this burnt
smell?!...
RITA(who ran to the frying food):
There, nobody will ever set tooth on these!... (at once tender) Dearest son! We haven’t seen him for more than a
year…
TERESA: God
hopes he comes in a soldier uniform: the uniform must suit him well!...
Rita(who keeps frying pastries): Uniform…?!
He’d better not show up here like that: I hate the army… deep hate, inside me!
You raise a son for… First Fernando, now João… But the military life is over in
this house!...
TERESA:I’
m happier, mother! Happier!... Now, all the three of us will stay here: me,
Fernando and João. All our lives, all our lives: we’ll never break apart!
RITA(tender
mock): Right, all your lives! You’re greener and greener, Teresa: your thinking
is worth as much as… as a chestnut with bugs! Oh, all this life!... Girl,
you’re sixteen years old already!...
TERESA:
Mother, I can’t even believe it: is it certain that our João comes back once
and for all, that he won’t go back to the army?!
RITA: It’s
certain, child.
TERESA(suddenly
hugging Rita): Oh, mother?!...
RITA(tries
to balance the frying pan): Down, girl! You’ll spill the olive oil…
TERESA: Do
you know something?
RITA: Here
you come…
TERESA: I’m
scared… what do you want? I’m very scared…
RITA: Me
too, child: with a weather like this…
TERESA: Ah,
but it’s not that! Fernando is gone to wait for João: and those two, together,
are more brave than we are in here, in this kitchen!
(Stronger
wind)
RITA:
Jesus, what a storm!...(Again peeking at the door.) At least there’s moonlight…
TERESA(behind
Rita, watching too): Ih, what a small moon!... Look, mother, all cut up: I’ve
never seen such a thing!... All of it, in slices… (Shiver, closing the door.)
Leave it, mother, come inside!...
RITA(who returns to the fireplace, taking the frying pan out of the fire): There, I’m tired of frying!... (Nervous.) They should be here by now! A night like this… (Stronger wind.) Eh, wolf wind! Up a high hill… way up into the sky!, should your ride be broken, thorn you dancing!... (Both hands on her ear, agony.) I can’t, I can’t take this wind anymore: it comes in this way (shows an ear) and leaves this way… (shows the other one) leaves my head inside out, devastated!...
TERESA:
Don’t worry like that, mother of mine: not ten winds like this could harvest
them two!... (Somber.) That’s not
what worries me: my fright is something else…
RITA:
Something else?!...
TERESA: I’m
scared he’s changed, mother, that he’s not to me what he used to be…?!
RITA:
Really! And why should João return changed?
TERESA: I
don’t know!... So much time… Lisbon!…
RITA: Did
your brother Fernando happen to change, in the army? And he, poor thing, did
more five or six years than João! Se…
TERESA:
It’s not the same…
RITA: It’s
not the sa…?! They’re both my sons and…
TERESA (burning protest): Fernando and João
aren’t the same, mother: different, more different than night and day!...
RITA:
Humbug! Fernando is more cheerful, João is more into himself… What about it?!
TERESA (annoyed): A lot, mother! And you know
it… But, I don’t understand why?, lately all you ever feel like is crossing my
roads, spiting words at me… do you think I’m a fool
RITA (rude tiredness): Well, well, what do I
care what you…! (Annoyed, gesturing) Look
here, look here, do you want a ladyship’s treatment!? (one step towards Teresa, pointing at her.) You sing like a
rooster, girl!, and you’re nothing but a little chicken… a badly roasted bird! (heading towards the door, sudden change.)
Jesus, Jesus! Won’t those boys ever arrive!?...
TERESA (hurt, angry.) You know I’m right: Even
last week, when the white goat gave birth to those two little goats… Do you think
I didn’t hear what you told father?!...
RITA (halting and turning to Teresa): So you
were in the shed?!...
TERESA: Yes
ma’am! And I saw and heard everything very well. When father found out one of
the cubs was blind…
RITA: I
don’t know how he could understand such a thing right away: the goat was just
the same as the other one…!?
TERESA (always aggressive): But it was bind!
That’s when you burst into tears…
RITA (tough): So what?! I was sorry!...
TERESA (some steps towards Rita): You cried
because the little blind goat reminded you of our João: you told father, I
heard it well!...
RITA (forced mock): Now I just start to
believe that you… Ah, Teresa, see that João has, thank God, two eyes as
beautiful as two suns!?...
Teresa (instantly apprehensive): He does, but…
RITA (with her hands on her waist, exaggerating):
But what? Have you ever seen such singing?!...
TERESA (explosion): He’s not like Fernando! (Silence, almost crying.) In João’s soul
it’s always dark… (nervous.) Go on,
laugh at me as long as you like: I don’t care!... (Again sadness, hurt tenderness.) He’s blind… on the inside,
mother!...
RITA (impressed): Yes… our João is sad… drawn
to daydreaming… But he’ll change, you’ll see: let him get married, have
children…!
TERESA (admired, not malicious): Marry?!...
Children…?
RITA: Yes!
So what?! What did you expect? One day or another, João will get married,
you’ll se! Oh, we’ll have little time to enjoy them, Teresa! Fernando, this
year…
TERESA (rude, hostile): She’s greedy, Mary
Genista!...
RITA: That’s
life…
TERESA: Marry,
marry! Dear name of God, but that’s no bleeding!...
RITA: Good
lass, Mary Genista, that’s what she is!
TERESA (fast.) Well I don’t like her.
RITA (sad.): And after that it’s our João…
TERESA (impetuous):
No, ma’am!
RITA: No ma’am? Why not, Teresa?
TERESA: I
don’t want our João to marry!
RITA: Well
he will. And it might happen that even before João you…
TERESA:
Don’t make fun of me, Mrs. Mother!
RITA (playful): Well lately I’ve been
suspicious…!?
TERESA (angry): Do you want me to leave?...
RITA (malicious): Tóino Genista won’t leave
you alone!...
TERESA (high-pitched laugh): What?! Tóino,
little Tóino? Oh, let me laugh!...
RITA: Eh,
Teresa, what sort of laughter is this? Scared of rusting your teeth, huh?
Naturally, Tóino Genista can’t be a nice lad, fleet and with no flaws, good
looking as they come…!
TERESA (comical rage): But he’s… he’s still a
little boy, don’t speak me Genista, mother!
RITA (laughing): He’s sixteen… like you,
Teresa!?
TERESA (stomping her feet): I don’t want to!
(Stronger gust of wind)
RITA (worried at once): Do you hear it? Do
you hear it? Jesus, and they won’t arrive!...
TERESA:
They won’t take much longer, just a thread of olive oil…
(She nods towards the lamp. Outside, very
close, a prolonged and strange howl: half dog, half wolf.)
RITA (nervous, drops a bowl): Darned dog! (She goes to the front door, opens it, and
shouts.) Quiet, Ruço! (Again,
stronger, the same howl) Ah, demon!... shut up, shut up at once! I’ll hit
you, Ruço!... (closes the door.) I
can’t hear that dog, I can’t!...
TERESA:
It’s creepy, yes…
RITA: Well
your father brings him in your heart; there’s no beast he likes that much!
Jesus, will you dare telling him of getting rid of it! An animal like this, a
beast of hell, that looks more like a wolf than a…
TERESA: And
it is, pup of dog and wolf.
RITA: But
he’s more of a wolf… more wolf than dog. Do you hear these howls?!...
TERESA: Ih,
it even bristles our guts!...
RITA: He
calls the wolves, instead of shooing them away, he calls them here, dates them!...
(Another howl; she blesses herself.)
TERESA: And
father won’t come from the fair…
RITA (annoyed): What, your father!?... Do you
think he’d come through these paths, with the weather like this?!
TERESA: God
hopes he didn’t sell the cow, I’d be so sorry!...
RITA: There
you go again! We need the money, girl: Fernando’s marriage…
(The dog, again.)
Teresa (scared): Is that… Ruço, or a real
wolf?...
RITA (nervous): It’s the dog, the darned
dog!...
ROSA (who
had a senile decency, wakes up, yawns, stretches out: then, quickly, she takes
a pastry from the dish, and puts it greedily in her mouth): I’m hungry…
RITA (hiting Rosa’ hand): Down, mama! Wait
for the others…
ROSA (shouting, high-pitched crying, messy.):
Help, help! Here, my king! Help!
TERESA: Be
quiet, grandma!
ROSA: Here,
my king! They’ll kill me, they’ll kill me!... (She runs, on her knees: Teresa e Rita hold her. Suddenly, she stands
up by the fireplace, upright, wearing black, messy.) Rita, Rita! Snake
skin, frog hands, owl eyes! Rita, Rita! May the ants eat your sight, nibble
your guts!... Rita, Rita! Snake skin, frog hands, owl eyes!...
TERESA (offering Rosa a pastry): Here, grandma:
sit down and eat. (She obeys, eating
greedily.)
RITA (sorrowful, sad.) The rage she has in
me, Rita…
TERESA:
She’s innocent, poor thing…
RITA (violence): She could never set eyes on
me, never! Ever since the day I married your father! She didn’t want me to, she
wanted more for her son!... She was not always like she is today. This thing
she’s got, she’s only got it for half a dozen years… She always hated me! Rita,
Rita!... One day I’ll crack the eggshell, you’ll see the chick that comes out;
I am no saint, no… (sudden change.)
Let me see that olive oil, Teresa!?...
TERESA:
Here, that string is thicker, it drinks more…
RITA (pouring the olive oil in the lamp):
Jesus, Jesus, they’re taking so long! Your brothers should be here by now. God
hopes they didn’t…
TERESA:
They’ll be here, mother. The wind is weaker… Bets what you wish: they’ll burst
in here like two fireworks in no time!
RITA (after filling the lamp, thoughtful, the
light on her face.) I’m not one to forget such a song…! (points to Rosa.) Every time she reminds
me, I feel my spine all curled up… Even today, today!...
TERESA:
What song?!... (she remembers.) Ah, I
know, the one…? Oh mother, don’t let yourself crumble with stones of wind.
What’s in a song!?... (Singing, mimics
Rosa.):
Green the air,
Green the rose,
Green the song
That the birds
shall sing…
(laughter.) Look here! Not even Zé Bonecreio can make up
songs like that!...
RITA: (like a monologue, her voice ominous.): And
the air turned green…!
TERESA (singing, dancing around Rosa):
Green the blood,
Green the crying,
Green the sweat
That the pregnant
mother sweats!...
RITA: It
was green, my sweat…!
TERESA (still laughing, hugging Rita):
Green eyes… oh,
green eyes…
Green are the
eyes of my little boy!...
RITA (finishes the stanzas, reciting, full of
fright and hate):
Cry, Rita, ugly
Rita:
Green eyes… green
fate!...
(with a shiver) And… João came to the world with green eyes,
darn her!... I’m so scared of her… I’m scared of this had, Teresa!...
TERESA: Oh
ma’am, then you think…!?
RITA: When
João was born, the air in that room was green… Green were the tears of my
affliction and the sweat from the aching that shredded me (her hands on her belly) And the water on which they washed
him!?... What more do you want Teresa, what more do you want?! It’s the truth,
this I’m telling you! Ask… ask Quitéria, the nurse, to Lúcia Rosemary…!?
TERESA:
Father is tired of saying he never saw such things!?
RITA: Your
father… Your father?!
TERESA: He
was there, he’s got eyes on his face like everyone else… He says you were
bleeding terribly, that you were paler than reed, you lost your wits…!
RITA: Your
father is her son (she points at Rosa) hers
and the other one’s… the old Agony, that the devil keeps in the deepest of
hells: son of hard stone and spikey thistle!... In the eve of João’s birth, she
set a plague on me… an evil plague, like I never heard before: “May the bad
moon make a nest on the heart of your child! May his eyes be green, and greener
his fate!”…
ROSA (who is sleeping again): Rita, Rita…?
TERESA (impressed): Was she already ill!?...
RITA (her face closer to the lamp): It’s just
that… João was born with green eyes!
TERESA (forced joy): Beautiful, they are!
RITA (shadow, mystery): Not I, not your
father, nor anyone of our kin that I know of has eyes of that color… Nobody,
Teresa, dead or alive! Not you… not Fernando… (again the impressive howl of the dog) Darned dog! One day I’ll put
something on his food: explode, explode, it’ll be a treat! You’ll see, Teresa,
you’ll see!... (goes back to the main
theme) This is why… I don’t know… but… look, I was always scared for your
brother!
TERESA:
Lovely João: he’s good… good like clean bread!
RITA: Yes.
He has been. And I’m very fond of him… so much that sometimes it seems I forget
about you and Fernando! (frenetic agony)
I wish… I wish I had him with me always, tiny, in these arms… (quick change, with hate, towards Rosa.) Darned
hag!...
TERESA (blaming): Mother!?... Grandma is that
simple, she doesn’t know what she says…
RITA (turning, after brief hesitation, towards
the domestic duties): That’s right. You’re right, daughter, you’re right!... (Suddenly impatient) Oh Lord, why
are they so late?!...
TERESA:
It’s not raining, and the wind is nothing anymore…
RITA: What
if I came to them? By chance…
TERESA: Why
not, that would be double trouble! Do you think that there’s mountain, or wind,
or… wolves capable of drowning our Fernando?
RITA: But João…?
TERESA (brave): Or João, mother, or João?
RITA (returning to the table): You’re right,
daughter, but… Oh, the bitterness of the soul that I’ve been suffering, always
thinking, leaning over our João…! Only God, only God knows!... I won’t relax,
I’m scared. (Silence) I’m still
scared. Do you want me to tell you? I’ve never told anyone this before… When
mister Sousa, years ago, came here, meaning to pick one of your brothers, to
live with him in the city…
TERESA (aggressive): Mister Sousa! If he wants
children, get them from his own wife! Coming here to steal the other’s…
RITA:
Mister Sousa is single, Teresa, very rich and godfather of both your brothers…
TERESA (blame): And you gave him João!...
RITA: He
was fourteen then and Fernando was sixteen. Why? Why did I part with João? It
wasn’t because of lack of love, Teresa. Otherwise if I had followed the flights
of my heart, it would have been Fernando!... It was because of fear, daughter:
I remembered the curse of the old hag… I don’t know…
TERESA (rude): Strong madness! Because of a… (nods towards Rosa).
RITA: I was
scared, Teresa: I thought that, setting away from this house, I was capable of
unmaking the hag’s cruse… And then Sousa wanted to give him studies, make him a
gentleman, make him a doctor. What were I to do, Teresa?! We were very poor in
those days…
TERESA: But
we were never short of broa and two or three blankets on our beds, mother!
RITA: Oh
what it took me to part with João! It was a shadow… a shadow of led that fell
here on my chest, when I saw him walking out that door: he’d be a doctor or
whatever, but I’d never see him again!...
TERESA: The
hell with doctors! And after all, our João wasn’t with Sousa for too long…
RITA: A
year and a half, maybe more…
TERESA (clapping):
João escaped?
RITA (happy): Yes, Teresa, won’t you believe
it!
TERESA: I’m
glad, I’m glad! Doctor? I’d rather wear a shirt of nails than seeing one of
those in front of me!
RITA: Your
father was about to fall over: he wanted to make him go back to his godfather’s
house, make him see what he was losing, threatened him, even hit him…
TERESA: And
João?
RITA: Of
stone. No, he wouldn’t go back, he’d rather throw himself in the river… And I
was happier and happier, Teresa!...
TERESA (great laughter): And there, here he
stayed!?... And I must guess, godfather Sousa…?
RITA (mocking): Sulked. And never met us
again, so upset he was!
TERESA (like Rita): What royalty he is! Blessed
João!...
RITA: You
don’t remember this, you were a little lass… It’s true that I never found out
what happened with our João, at mister Sousa’s house…?! (shrugs) I don’t care, I don’t wan’t to know! (sigh) Who says it wasn’t better like this?... (to Rosa, who sleeps) I don’t care about silly words, dirt of a
bad witch… God doesn’t sleep! (One step
towards Rosa, who doesn’t heard her, aggressive) Listen, ma’am, listen
well: my João is a beauty of a lad, sane and clean as star… Look, look what
your curses are worth (nervous laughter)
Every time I remember I was scared of your… Well, you’re the one who’s right,
Teresa. You! He’s good, good for me and for this people. Say it! Say it, ma’am:
do you know of a better lad in this land? Sweeter heart, loveliest manners?
Everybody’s fond of him and only you…! He can entertain everyone, during the
evening… He knows prayers and tales and rhymes that could fill a book bigger
than the one in the old church! His voice is a river of honey and his hands
look like the wings of a swallow!...
(The dog starts barking, always strangely, but
now excited, cheerful)
TERESA (running to the door): It’s them… oh, it’s
them!... (she opens the door, calling
out): João? Eh, Fernando?!
FERNANDO (outside): Teresa!...
(Teresa goes out quickly, returning with
Fernando and João. She shuts the door.)
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