(Tóino, sleepy, yawns)
JOÃO (sad smile): Your Tóino, aunt
Guilhermina, cried too and now he’s sleepy!
(Everyone laughs)
GUILHERMINA:
O Rita, I always tell you that these young folks!?... With sixteen I already… (noticed her children) Shut up, mouth!
(Rita sits down next to her and they chat)
JOÃO (to Tóino): One more?
TÓINO: Not
really.
JOÃO: Don’t
be so dazed, Tóino Genista. It’s when you laugh that you’re prettier! Come, sit
here…
(Tóino sits)
GUILHERMINA:
It’s late…
JOÃO: I’m
in charge here today, aunt Guilermina. Have another glass, come on… And you
Tóino, drink this…
TÓINO (holding the glass): I’ll get dizzy,
João…?!
JOÃO (bending over Tóino, a strange expression,
almost anger, almost cruel): Cheer up, man, Teresa likes you.
TÓINO (shy): She doesn’t, João…
JOÃO (annoyed): She really does, Tóino
Genista!
MARIA
GENISTA: Are you a witch, João Agony?
JOÃO (nervous intensity): Come on, drink,
Tóino!...
(He does)
MARIA
GENISTA (laughing): Do you want to
get the lad drunk, João?!
JOÃO (suddenly stiff, scared eyes, rigid face)
No…!?
FERNANDO (mock): Don’t touch him, Maria Genista:
put some powder on your hands first!
MARIA
GENISTA (provocking): Are you a
witch, João Agony? Come on, answer me! Can you read somebody else’s heart?...
JOÃO: Sometimes…
MARIA
GENISTA: How do you do it? Teach me…
JOÃO (stiff irony): I’ve been told no so many
times that I…
RITA (restless): Leave him, Maria Genista: Go
to bed, João, you’re tired…
MARIA
GENISTA: You what, João?...
JOÃO: I
know when others, even without talking, have the yes in their heart.
MARIA
GEINSTA (malicious): Tell me then
what Fernando feels about me, deep down, in the darkness of his chest? Yes or
no?...
JOÃO: Yes.
FERNANDO (joy): And her, João?
JOÃO (to
Maria Genista, smiling): Yes and… no.
TÓINO (childish): And I, João?
JOÃO (after brief silence in which he beholds
Tóino, dismay): No.
TÓINO (who
gets up) No?!...
JOÃO: I’m kidding, Tóino Genista! (nervous) For Teresa? Your heart says (mimicks
a bell) yes! yes! Yes!... (everyone laughs) How tall are you! I think like you,
Maria Genista: if Teresa isn’t careful the others will take him! (comes closer
to him) Cologne on your hair… linen shirt… a genista on your coat…!?
GUILHERMINA
(satisfied laughter): Not even my Maria likes to doll herself up that much! I
don’t know who he’s after: his father, God have him, wasn’t a man who…!?
JOÃO
(interrupts almost at once): Of course, he knows what he’s worth!...
GUILHERMINA
(to Rita): What time is it? I came to pray the rosary…
MARIA
GENISTA: I’ve never seen anyone who prays that much!...
GUILHERMINA:
I pray for me and for you, you wormy head!
RITA: It’s
nine o’clock, more, not less… But I haven’t heard it ring!?
FERNANDO:
It’s good that your pray for your daughter, aunt Guilhermina: she’s not short
of sins!...
MARIA
GENISTA (malicious): Those you don’t know about, Fernando?
FERNANDO
(joking): The it’s not just with me?!
GUILHERMINA:
Watch out, watch out: I’ll tear your eyes out!...
TÓINO (now
relaxed, joy): Some kiss!... (smirking)
MARIA
GENISTA: What are you saying, soul of the devil?
TÓINO: I
peeked… I saw… I saw everything!
MARIA
GENISTA: What?! I’ll kill this devil!
JOÃO
(protecting Tóino with his body): Leave the lad be, Maria Genista: Tóino saw
it… did you want him to close his eyes?...
MARIA
GENISTA (pretending to fight with João): See? What did he see?! Wait and I’ll
tell him!...
FERNANDO
(sleepy): So what if the lad saw…?!
(Everyone
laughs)
JOÃO
(light, pure greeting): Well I always tell you, Maria Genista, that kissing a
mouth as lovely as yours is no sin!
MARIA
GENISTA (blessing herself, exaggerated, smiling): Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Oh come and hear this!... Remember him, mother? A slug, a string of olive oil…
And now?! Was it the winds of Lisbon, João Agony?
(Tóino,
happy, sits by the fireplace)
JOÃO
(laughing): You’d be some show there, Maria Genista!
MARIA
GENISTA (delighted): Lies!
JOÃO: I
swear by my mother«s salvation!...
RITA: My,
lad!
MARIA
GENISTA: Leave it, aunt Rita, don’t be scared: inside he’s saying “don’t
listen, Lord, this a joke, crazy words!”…
FERNANDO
(laughing): Do you want to steal my bride, João?
JOÃO
(idem): Didn’t I tell you so already?
MARIA
GENISTA: And I win with the switch, olaré!
FERNANDO (playful, petting Maria Genista): Evil woman!
(takes
Maria Genista to a corner, holding hands, tender)
GUILHERMINA:
Did your husband go to the fair, Rita?
RITA: He’ll
turn up tomorrow, after mid-day.
(Three
groups: Guilhermina and Rita, Maria and Fernando, João and Fernando.)
FERNANDO:
Shall we get married in April, Maria Genista?
MARIA
GENISTA (trying to get away, he holds her hands): This April already? I don’t
want to. Only April next year…
GUILHERMINA:
Did your husband know João was to arrive today? He’ll be sorry he’s not here to
greet him…
RITA:
Sorry? Maybe if Fernando… That man is dryer and dryer inside!
TÓINO: But
I want to be in the army: I’d like to see the world!...
JOÃO:
There’s nothing like the mountain, Tóino!
TÓINO: I
wish I could go to Lisbon, João!... (takes a handkerchief from his pocket, a
green one, and wipes his forehead with it.
JOÃO: Show
me that handkerchief, Tóino!...
TÓINO: I
bought it in St.Miguel… Is it pretty? Do you like it?
JOÃO: I do.
I don’t know why, but…? Look, Tóino, I have a crush on the color green. (he
sings)
Green eyes… oh,
green eyes…
Green are the
eyes of the little boy!...
TÓINO: Well
I’ll give it to you, here!
JOÃO (half
joking half serious): Handkerchief is apartment…
TÓINO
(laughing): Well! That’s for valentines…
JOÃO (at
once harsh): It’s for anyone, valentines or not.
TÓINO
(admired): Are you sure you don’t want it? Just because of that saying?!...
JOÃO: No.
TÓINO
(putting the handkerchief in his pocket): I had good intentions…
JOÃO (kind
again): Do you still run the cattle, Tóino Genista?
TÓINO: Yes,
I’m still a shepherd. I’m so tired of that life!
JOÃO: One
of these days I’ll come with you…
TÓINO: I
leave early: even before sunrise…
JOÃO: I’ll
go!...
TÓINO: Do
you mean it, João?
JOÃO: Can I
come tomorrow?...
TÓINO
(squeezing João’s hand): You can, João! (childish) I’ve got two brand new cane
flutes, you’ll hear them!
JOÃO
(heat): Are you still my friend, Tóino Genista?...
TÓINO
(simple): I was dying for your to return, João Agony!
JOÃO
(disturbed, lowering his voice): You’re very changed, Tóino!...
TÓINO
(happy): Well, it’s the suit: I put it on on purpose, for you to see!...
JOÃO: No,
it’s not the suit: you, you’re different…
TÓINO
(laughing, shrugging): Well am I: you find me worse, even thicker, right? You came
from Lisbon!...
JOÃO: What,
Tóino!? You’re better. (Restless silence) Much better-looking…
(Outside
the dog begins to howl again. The three groups fall apart: every character
blends in the center)
RITA:
Darned dog!
GUILHERMINA
(blessing): My, sounds like the cries of a lost soul!...
MARIA
GENISTA: Just hearing the creature is back luck!...
FERNANDO:
Well I like my Ruço!
JOÃO: Me
too (brief deep silence) He’s the cub of a wolf and a dog…
TÓINO:
Can’t he bark?
JOÃO
(somber): If dogs bite him, the wolves won’t fall behind: neither wolves nor
dogs want him, he sickens them, everyone shoos him away…
TÓINO
(contracted): Poor Ruço…
JOÃO: Never
met company: neither dog nor wolf. He’s been living alone, always… (Ardent
pause) despised…!
MARIA
GENISTA: Yes, he’s uglier than the devil!...
JOÃO
(shadow and fire): And his soul is even fouler, I’m telling you!...
GUILHERMINA:
My, God help you, man! You speak of the creature’s soul like… as if it was a
Christian creature!? I don’t know if…
JOÃO
(interrupting, violence that he fights to contain): The soul is worse, aunt
Guilhermina, much worse: more bitter than gall, shrinking with wounds and
stitches…!
TÓINO
(shiver): He’s scary, that dog…
JOÃO: His
soul is darker than…
RITA
(upset): I don’t like to hear you saying such things, João!
JOÃO (who
continues): All spat up… gnawed by hate and crimes…!
RITA: I
can’t, this animal, I can’t see it! One day I’ll…
FERNANDO:
Get rid of doing such a thing, mother! You’d have to deal with me and
father!...
MARIA
GENISTA: It’s not the poor creature’s fault he’s got that snout, that fur… (the
dog howls again) There he goes again!...
JOÃO: One
day he’ll kill himself…!
GUILHERMINA
(laughter): Who? The dog?! Jesus, the things a person hears around here! Then
you…
FERNANDO
(mock): Yeah he’ll hang himself in uncle Manel Pita’s olive tree!
MARIA
GENISTA: Hear that, aunt Rita?
TÓINO
(scared): Is it true, João? Aren’t you making fun of us?...
JOÃO: You
have no idea the times I found him up there, right on the edge of the Hollow…
FERNANDO:
Yeah! Waiting for a rabbit!...
JOAO
(anxious): Without being able to take his eyes off the depths of that hell
hole, with his legs shaking…
FERNANDO
(laugh): Waiting the see the wee rabbit hop…!
TÓINO
(impatient): Shut up, let me hear it, Fernando!...
RITA (to
João, restless and tender): Oh, son, the things you’ve got in that head: each
tale, each story of perdition!...
MARIA GENISTA
(admiring João, almost sensuality): You’re always burning in fever, João.
JOÃO: I’m
sure… I can swear it right here!, that the dog would throw himself to the pit
if by any chance I shouted or threw a stone or ran… (notices the mocking look
in some faces) Oh no?!... (silence. Bitter) Ruço can’t find company… always in
these hills, alone… (facing the other, tense, ferocious) And there’s nothing
worse than a fado like that, nothing!...
(We can
hear the church bells, calling for the rosary)
GUILHERMINA
(who gets up): Look, the rosary: it starts at good hours, praise the Lord!
FERNANDO:
The priest went to preach in St.Bento’s party: a chat here… a drink there…
MARIA
GENISTA: Thank god he’s here: aunt Rita, did you see the priest’s mule?! One
eye’s blind, two legs lame!...
(laughter)
GUILHERMINA:
Shall we pray, Rita?
RITA: Not
today, my João’s here.
GUILHERMINA:
That’s why, woman: won’t you thank our Lord?
MARIA
GENISTA: It’s so late, mother!...
RITA: It’s
not raining, the weather is much better.
MARIA
GENISTA (looking at Fernando, malicious): Well you go, mother, I’ll wait for
you here…
GUILHERMINA:
What?! Move those legs, you…! (adjusting her shawl over her head). Beware,
girl, don’t burn your stew: pepper pulls wine, and wine makes you drunk!...
(pretending to hit Tóino) And you?! What are you waiting for?! Get up! I’ll…!
(goes for him, and Tóino walks back suddenly against the fireplace so he hits
Rosa, half asleep in the darkness).
ROSA (who
falls down, scared): Oh, Jesus!
TÓINO
(scared, trying to lift Rosa): I didn’t mean to, aunt Rosa!... Come on, hold on
to my arm…!
ROSA
(brushing Tóino aways, who she hits with both hands. The others laugh): Let
go!.. Let go!... Here, my king, they’ll kill me!... Get off… get off!...
(cat-like, grabs an ember and brandishes it against Tóino, burning one of his
hands)
TÓINO
(shout, pain, running to the center of the scene): Ouch, my hand!...
(He’s
surrounded by everyone, they’re surprised and worried)
GUILHERMINA:
Oh my dear son!...
FERNANDO:
Let me see it…?!
JOÃO (who’s
holding Tóino’s hand between his own hands, examining it): It’s nothing…
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