Read The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes Online
Authors: Rashid Razaq,Hassan Blasim
INTERLUDE 3
22 August 2008
.
SAHAR
enters with a mobile phone to her ear
.
SAHAR:
(Phone.)
She had no breakfast. Nothing. I told her I said you have to eat. Eat something. If you don’t eat I won’t let you go to school.
(Beat.)
They told me not to look. The doctor. Advised me. Strongly. We strongly advise you not to look.
(Pause.)
She was wearing the white vest. The white one with the blue flowers. You remember? The one that you sent her. It was her favourite. She was wearing that under her clothes. What was left…it was all I could… the blue flower. Blue and white.
(Beat.)
And red. Blood. So much. Her…face was…metal… glass. Her eyes. Arms. Fingers. The blue flower. Look at the blue flower.
(Beat.)
She had no breakfast.
(Pause.)
Who kills a child on her way to school?
(Pause.)
Did you hear what I said?
(Pause.)
Salim?
(Beat.)
Yes.
(Beat.)
Yes.
(Beat.)
Yes.
(Pause.)
The funeral was this afternoon. I didn’t think you would come. So we didn’t wait.
Lights down slowly
.
SIX
April 2006
.
Baghdad. Street market.
KHALED
, in overalls, is cleaning up the aftermath of an explosion. He sweeps slowly and cautiously with a broom, on the lookout for body parts and valuables. There are two bin bags centre stage. One is black, the other is yellow
.
CARLOS:
(Off, in Arabic.)
Where’s my broom?
KHALED:
(Arabic.)
How should I know? Look in the van.
CARLOS:
(Off, Arabic.)
I’m looking in the van.
Pause
.
KHALED:
(English.)
Found it?
(Beat.)
Hey Camel-face!?
CARLOS:
(Off.)
What?
KHALED:
Did you find your broom?
CARLOS:
(Off.)
Yes.
CARLOS
, in overalls, enters with his broom
.
KHALED:
By the way, the next valuable we find is mine.
CARLOS:
The next valuable
I
find is mine.
KHALED:
What about the wallet
?
CARLOS:
The empty wallet?
KHALED:
A wallet is a wallet.
CARLOS:
Not if there’s nothing in it.
KHALED:
It’s still a valuable.
CARLOS:
How the fuck is it a valuable when there’s nothing valuable in it?
KHALED:
That’s the rule.
CARLOS:
What rule? I didn’t see that rule.
KHALED:
It’s an unwritten rule.
CARLOS:
Fuck off. You’re making it up. They don’t have rules about what valuables you can steal when you’re cleaning up body parts after a bomb goes off. They don’t ‘write’ rules for that kind of thing.
KHALED:
That’s why it’s an unwritten rule.
CARLOS:
Unwrite my balls.
KHALED:
You’d love that wouldn’t you? You filthy bastard.
CARLOS:
OK. I tell you what. Why don’t we trade the empty wallet for the gold chain?
KHALED:
Trade?
CARLOS:
Yeah. Y’know? The gold chain I found this morning that you took. And I’ll give you back the empty wallet that you found.
KHALED:
Nah. I’m…there’s no trading here. It’s an unwritten rule.
CARLOS:
Where’s this book of rules?
KHALED:
It’s not written.
CARLOS:
Oh fucking surprise, surprise.
KHALED:
This isn’t the United Nations Salim! We work for the Baghdad Municipal Street Cleaning Department. We do things by the book. And if you don’t like it, I suggest you take it up with George Bush. The next time you’re blowing him on his cowboy ranch in Texas.
CARLOS:
That’s disgusting. Me. Blowing the President of the United States. Do you really think I’d suck off George Bush?
(Beat.)
Bill Clinton maybe.
KHALED
laughs.
CARLOS
smiles. They go back to sweeping
.
CARLOS
walks over to the yellow bin bag to empty his dustpan
.
KHALED:
Hey!
CARLOS
stops
.
KHALED:
What are you doing? The black one. Yellow for body parts. Black for general waste. How many times do I have to tell you?
CARLOS
empties the dustpan in the black bag
.
KHALED:
You need to listen. If you don’t listen, you don’t learn. And if you don’t learn, you don’t get ahead. Don’t you want to get ahead?
CARLOS:
As a road sweeper? Not really.
KHALED:
You’ve got no ambition have you? A road sweeper today. Yeah. But tomorrow a road sweeper supervisor. A road sweeper director. You could be overseeing the whole of Baghdad’s sweeping needs.
CARLOS:
I’m happy doing what I’m doing.
KHALED:
Cleaning up body parts and burnt vegetables?
CARLOS:
It’s steady work.
KHALED:
Look at me. I’m not going to be a road sweeper forever. No way Mohammed. As soon as I get the money for a visa I’m off. Goodbye. You’ll come into work one day and ask where’s Khaled? And they’ll say, oh haven’t you heard? Khaled got a visa. He’s gone to Amreeka.
(Waves.)
Bye-Bye motherfuckers.
CARLOS:
Amreeka?
KHALED:
Yes. Khaled al-Hamrani. American. US baby.
KHALED
makes the peace sign with his hand.
CARLOS
smiles
.
KHALED:
What?
CARLOS
chuckles to himself
.
KHALED:
What’s so funny?
CARLOS
tries to suppress a laugh and compose himself
.
CARLOS:
Oh, nothing. Nothing.
CARLOS
shakes his head
.
KHALED:
You’d rather stay here? Get blown up buying aubergines like the poor fuckers in this market?
CARLOS:
An American? Come on.
KHALED:
Better than being an Iraqi. How can you be an Iraqi when there is no Iraq? The best thing an ambitious young man can do is leave.
CARLOS:
If we all leave then who’s gonna build the country back up?
KHALED:
Who cares? This country is finished. There’s nothing here but death. You either die fast or you die slow. Either way you die.
CARLOS:
What about your family? You’d leave them behind?
KHALED:
I’m better off to them alive somewhere else sending money back than staying here and being dead. It’ll be our corpses somebody else is cleaning up. Oh. What’s this? What’s this teeny-weeny little thing that I can barely see that looks like a pickled vegetable? Oh that’s right. It’s Salim’s cock.
CARLOS
smirks and shakes his head.
KHALED
walks over to the black bag to empty his dustpan
.
CARLOS:
How would you go about getting a visa to America?
(Beat.)
Hypothetically.
KHALED
leans in conspiratorially
.
KHALED:
Between you and me?
CARLOS
nods
.
KHALED:
I know a guy. Who knows a guy. Who knows a guy. He. Is a Major-General in the US Army. He. Writes you a letter. That says you have courageously and honourably served the US Armed Forces in Iraq as an interpreter. And that as a result of your invaluable translation services for the American Government your life is now in danger. This letter then gets sent to the US State Department along with your application for a SIV.
CARLOS:
You’ve got a broom. Why do you want a sieve?
KHALED:
A SIV! An S-I-V. A Special Immigrant Visa.
(Beat.)
It’s a fucking green card for the USA.
CARLOS:
An interpreter?
KHALED:
Yeah.
CARLOS:
You?
KHALED:
Yeah. Why?
CARLOS:
Your English is shit.
KHALED:
Fuck off! My English is excellent.
CARLOS:
You learned English from watching Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.
KHALED:
So?
CARLOS:
You learned English from someone who can’t speak English. He’s Austrian!
KHALED:
No. He’s not. He
was
an Austrian.
Now
he’s an American. He’s The Governator! That’s the great thing about America. Anyone can be an American.
CARLOS:
Even you? And how much do one of these letters cost?
Beat
.
KHALED:
Twenty thousand dollars.
CARLOS:
Twenty grand! That’s a lot of money.
KHALED:
Yes. It is.
KHALED
ties up the black bag because it is full
.
KHALED:
Inshallah. (God willing.)
CARLOS:
Inshallah.
KHALED
carries the black bag off.
CARLOS
resumes sweeping. He bends down and picks up something from the floor
.
CARLOS
stands up to look at the object. It is a human finger with a large silver ring on it. It is set with a red stone that sparkles brightly.
CARLOS
removes the ring from the finger with some difficulty. He inspects the ring, holding it up to the sky
.
CARLOS
puts the ring on his own finger and admires it. He throws the finger into the yellow bag
.
KHALED:
(Off.)
SALIM!
CARLOS
tries to take the ring off. He can’t. He moves upstage and turns his back as he tries to pull the ring off
.
KHALED:
(Off.)
SALIM! SOMEONE HERE TO SEE YOU!
CARLOS
tries to yank the ring off. Footsteps.
KHALED
enters followed by
SAHAR
, she is dressed in an abaya and has her face covered by a niqab
.
CARLOS
has his back to them
.
KHALED:
Salim…
In that same moment
CARLOS
succeeds in yanking off the ring. He looks at it, without the other two seeing it, and smiles
.
KHALED:
Your wife is here to see you.
CARLOS
looks back over his shoulder. His smile evaporates.
CARLOS
pockets the ring and turns his body to face
SAHAR
.
CARLOS:
What are you doing here?
SAHAR
looks over at
KHALED
.
CARLOS:
(To
KHALED
.)
Can you……
KHALED
walks off
.
CARLOS:
You came here alone?
SAHAR
looks back over her shoulder
.
CARLOS:
He’s gone.
SAHAR
takes off her niqab to reveal her face
.
CARLOS:
You shouldn’t have come here alone.
SAHAR:
Don’t tell me what to do.
CARLOS:
It’s not safe for a woman.
SAHAR:
Where is safe?
Beat
.
CARLOS:
What happened?
SAHAR:
What they warned you would happen.
CARLOS:
What?… Did they?…
He touches her face
.
SAHAR:
No. My father was home.
CARLOS:
Who was it?
SAHAR:
I don’t know.
CARLOS:
What did they look like?
SAHAR:
I don’t know. They all look the same. Angry young men with guns.
CARLOS:
What did they do?
SAHAR:
They beat my father. I had to listen to them beat him. I was hiding on the roof with Lina. Trying to stop her from crying. An old man begging for mercy while they kicked him and punched him. Spat on him. Called him a dog. A traitor. My father. And I could do nothing to help him.
CARLOS:
How is he?
SAHAR:
Oh he’s great! Couldn’t be better. How do you think!?
CARLOS:
What about Lina? Where is she?
SAHAR:
She’s with my mother.
CARLOS:
And you? Are you OK?
SAHAR:
OK? NO! I’M NOT OK! I’m not OK at all. They told you to leave. They warned you a Sunni can not live in a Shia neighbourhood.
CARLOS:
This is my home! Why should I leave?
SAHAR:
A Sunni can not be married to a Shia.
CARLOS:
I am a Muslim and you are a Muslim. That is all that matters.
SAHAR:
Not anymore. Not since Saddam. Not to them. They warned you. They told you what they’d do. But you wouldn’t listen. This is your fault. This is all your fault.
SAHAR
starts to cry.
CARLOS
tries to comfort her, but she shrugs him off aggressively
.
SAHAR:
Don’t!
CARLOS:
It’s OK.
SAHAR:
It’s not OK.
CARLOS
touches her arm
.
CARLOS:
Please.
SAHAR:
Don’t touch me.
SAHAR
shrugs him off
.
SAHAR:
Don’t ever touch me!
CARLOS:
Please Sahar. I’m sorry. Forgive me.
We’ll go to another neighbourhood. Somewhere safe.
SAHAR:
There is nowhere safe for a Shia and a Sunni in Iraq.
CARLOS:
You’re my wife! I will not leave you. I will not leave my daughter. We are a family. If we have to leave Iraq, if we have to go to the ends of the earth, so that we can be safe. So that we can be together as a family, then that is what we must do.