Read Three Plays: The Young Lady from Tacna, Kathie and the Hippopotamus, La Chunga for Free Online

catechism and make them say their rosaries along with the family. They would make sure that they always looked beautiful so that their husbands would remain in love with them and not be unfaithful to them. They would bring up their sons like gallant young men and their daughters like eligible young women. Grandmother was going to have four, Mamaé six, eight …
    ( He starts to write again. )
    MAMAE: He doesn’t even know I’m not going to marry him. He was going to Isaiah’s, the tailor, today, to collect his dress uniform for the wedding. He’s going to get quite a surprise when the servants tell him he can’t ever set foot inside this house again.
    GRANDMOTHER: ( Embarrassed ) Is it because you’re frightened, Elvirita? I mean, frightened of … of your wedding night?
    (MAMAE shakes her head .)
    Then why? Something dreadful must have happened for you to break off your engagement the day before your wedding …
    MAMAE: I’ve already told you. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to get married. Not to Joaquín or anyone else.
    GRANDMOTHER: Is it God then? Is that it? Are you going into the convent?
    MAMAE: No, I’ve no vocation to be a nun. I’m not getting married and I’m not going into the convent either. I’m going to carry on as I have done up to now. Single and unattached.
    GRANDMOTHER: You’re hiding something important from me, Elvira. Remain single indeed! But it’s the most dreadful thing that can happen to a girl. Look at Aunt Hilaria. You say yourself that she makes your hair stand on end, she’s so lonely. No husband, no home of her own, no children, and half mad. Do you really want to end up like her, and have to face old age like a soul in torment?
    MAMAE: Better to live alone than with the wrong person, Carmencita. The only thing I’m sorry about is the anxiety I’m going to cause Aunt Amelia and Uncle Menelao.
    (GRANDMOTHER nods. )
    Did they see the dress burning? They’re so sensitive and sweet. They haven’t even come to ask me why I set fire to it. And they went to such trouble so I could have a wedding to end all weddings. They’ve certainly earned their place in heaven, they’re so kind …
    GRANDMOTHER: ( Giving her a kiss on the cheek ) You’ll never be left alone like Aunt Hilaria. Because when I get married, that is if any gentleman cares to have me, you’ll come and live with us.
    MAMAE: You’re so good to me, my dear.
    ( They are both overcome with emotion and kiss each other . BELISARIO gets to his feet and walks across the stage with a pile of papers in his hand. He seems restless .)
    BELISARIO: Well, it won’t be a love story, but it’s certainly romantic. That much is clear. As far back as you can remember, and as far back as my mother could remember, you were both as thick as thieves. But all those years of living in the same house, wasn’t there ever any friction, any jealousy between them? They shared their lives, but didn’t they ever feel envious of each other? ( He looks sardonically at them both .) Well, I don’t suppose you actually shared Grandfather. But you certainly shared the children, didn’t you?
    ( He walks round GRANDMOTHER and MAMAE, looking at them carefully.
    That is to say, you produced them, Grandma, but it was you, Mamaé, who had all the anxiety and the sleepless
nights. You gave them their bottles and changed their nappies and watched over their cradles, and it was you who stayed at home so that Grandmother and Grandfather could go to the theatre or the cinema, or to parties, when they were still able to afford such luxuries.
    ( He goes towards the desk, where he leaves his papers and pencils. He rolls up his trousers, like a child about to wade across a stream, and suddenly starts to skip and jump about, as if he were spinning a top or playing hopscotch.)
    But there was someone else you were even more patient with, Mamaé – infinitely patient with in fact – and that was that budding little lawyer, over in Bolivia – yes, the