Scene Five

FAT JORGE and the kids return from showing the two women to their rooms. The two kids go to the family’s room. FLACA and FAT JORGE stay in the lobby.

FAT JORGE:

It was a week ago today that you would have been executed.

FLACA:

Me and the nine others.

FAT JORGE:

Would they have given us your body?

FLACA:

Oh, I’m sure they would have buried us all in the desert—

FAT JORGE:

And I would have spent the rest of my life looking for you.

FLACA:

I wouldn’t have wanted that.

Pause.

FLACA:

I need you to know that I’m not sorry for any of it. Except for one thing: I’m sorry you were picked up.

FAT JORGE:

I’ve gotta ask you something.

FLACA:

Okay.

FAT JORGE:

When did you join the resistance?

FLACA:

Two years ago.

FAT JORGE:

Two years ago?!

FLACA:

At the university. You remember the day. My students had asked me to address the school on International Students’ Day.

FAT JORGE:

I remember that day.

FLACA:

We all marched downtown and there were thousands of students and teachers from all over the city and Allende and Victor Jara and the leader of the Chilean Students’ Federation were all there on the balcony of La Moneda Palace. Remember that we jumped so much and sang so loud we couldn’t move the next day?

FAT JORGE:

You pulled a muscle and I lost my voice.

FLACA:

My students approached me after my speech and told me I had what it takes to be a revolutionary. After the celebration downtown, I knew I was ready. I had been asked to enter a room and I could never leave again. There was something bigger than me, than you, than us, than our country on that day. I understood why people give their lives. It had been easy to support Allende as long as there was no risk to take. Those days were gone and I knew we’d have to fight tooth and nail for what we’d achieved so far. It was an honour to be asked and when you are asked to give your life for a better world, you don’t say no. You say yes. So I said yes. No matter what. Yes. But I couldn’t tell you because I took an oath.

The oath says that I will give my life to the cause. It says that I will not tell a soul. Not even my family. The oath talks about how if you are caught, you will not speak under torture. You will not give anyone away. Especially in the first twenty-four hours, when the torture is the worst. You will hang on to any information you have: a meeting point, an address, a licence plate number. You will not speak. And if they break you, only let them do so after enough time has passed to give your comrades the opportunity to run and hide. If you break and give people away easily, you agree to be executed by the leadership. Because you are a coward. A traitor.

FAT JORGE:

What about the kids? What about me?

FLACA:

Fat Jorge.

FAT JORGE:

Yes.

FLACA:

I’m not the same.

FAT JORGE:

But you still love me.

FLACA:

Fat Jorge.

FAT JORGE:

(reaching for her) What?—

FLACA:

(catching him before he pulls her close to him) They cut off my nipples.