Cuban American Theater

CARLOS: If you never wear high heels, and I wear them, and if you tie your hair up close to your scalp, you'll only be a little taller than me. (They kiss. Blackout.)

That same day in the evening. At FRANCES' apartment. CARLOS and CLAUDIA search for his identification papers in the closet and in the drawers. The TV is on as well as the cassette player.

CARLOS: Like every Friday evening, with her friends from the neighborhood, she goes to Atlantic City to play seven and a half and roulette.

CLAUDIA: She's due any moment now, it's eleven.

CARLOS: Where the hell has she hidden my papers? We can't get married without them.

CLAUDIA: Did you look on all the shelves?

CARLOS: You were next to me. Didn't you see the way I looked and looked everywhere? Look after me. You'll find nothing.

CLAUDIA: I wish she had a lover, so she would stop depending on us.

CARLOS: When I came to live with her, she had an old crazy man who soon left her. According to her, that poor devil died in the Bower, drunk, lying on the sidewalk. But she's not to be trusted in anything she says. She lies for the pleasure of lying. (FRANCES enters. She is drunk.)

FRANCES: What are you looking for?

CARLOS: For my papers!

FRANCES: Stop that noise. I don't like to bother my neighbors. Stop this fucking around that has been going on for a while. I don't want to be responsible for a pregnancy. I'm too young to become a great-grandmother.

CARLOS: Don't worry about it. Claudia and I are getting married.

CLAUDIA: You are right, grandmother spider. I think I'm pregnant.

CARLOS: And the baby is going to be as tall as his mother. Maybe even taller.

FRANCES: How old is the girl.

CARLOS: Old enough to do what pleases her.

FRANCES: We will talk about that later. Carlos, fix me a drink. I'm depressed. I lost ten thousand dollars, my baby.

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