Steve Hellman

Pink Taquita: A Play in One Act

ACT I
SCENE 1

SETTING: We are outside a dance club, the AIRBORNE, one of several clubs along Folsom St. in San Francisco.
AT RISE: It is night. Street lights illuminate the stage. Leaning against the wall outside the AIRBORNE are a young woman, CECILIA, in a stretchy red top and shiny red pants, and FLACO, a young man in dark pendleton and khaki chinos. From the open doorway of the AIRBORNE lights flash and music thumps. Next to the club is a dark alleyway.

FLACO
You want it.

CECILIA
No way. Who says.

FLACO
I say. Flaco says you want it.

CECILIA
No I don’t want it.

(FLACO traps her against the wall.)

FLACO
I say, Flaco.

(CECILIA ducks FLACO.)

CECILIA
Leave me alone then. No, I say.

FLACO
Hey, don’t you forget who brought you to the dance.

CECILIA
Yeh, some dance. They’re playing disco, you dumbass, in case you didn’t notice. It’s not exactly Pink Taquita.

FLACO
Yeh, but I’m who brought you. Me, Flaco.

CECILIA
So, I want salsa, Flaco. If I wanted disco, I’d let some white boy invite me out. You know, I like all-girl punk salsa, man, like Pink Taquita.

FLACO
So you owe me big time.

CECILIA
I like Pink Taquita, punk salsa.

FLACO
Big time, Cecilia. Look at me, chiquita. What do you really want? The real me or what?

(Again FLACO traps CECILIA against the wall.)

CECILIA
Something romantic other than dumbass disco. What do you think?

FLACO
Hey, Richie Valens. How about it.

(FLACO kneels and turns her hands up. He sings into her hands)

FLACO
Come on, come on, let’s go, let’s go, little loca.

(From the club doorway the thumping sound of the music rises.)

CECILIA
Cool. You know, I never had someone sing into my hands before. Oh Flaco, sing to me like that again.

FLACO
Straight out of the heart, chiquita. You know the brown sound, the groove. I’m it for you.

CECILIA
Do it again, Flaco, sing into my hands.

FLACO
If you wish, I’ll sing into your hands all night. Just promise me one thing. You’ll do it.

CECILIA
Do what?

FLACO
Make love to me, Flaco, your cholo novio.

CECILIA
Maybe. Later.

FLACO
Just tell me you’ll do it.

(EDDIE appears from the dark alley. He is a gangster, sinister looking in a trenchcoat, wearing reflector sunglasses and a bandanna across his forehead. FLACO sees him.)

FLACO
Come on, you’ll do it.

CECILIA
Maybe.

FLACO
Look, stay right here. I’ll be right back.

(Lights down)

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SCENE 2
(FLACO appears across the alley with EDDIE. While the two men talk, CECILIA remains leaning outside the wall of the club, checking her fingernails, impatient.)

FLACO
I don’t know what gets into these chicas.

EDDIE
Hey man, you up for the gig or you just some skinny dude who can’t get any?

FLACO
I’m Flaco Jimenez, no one gets over on me, least of all some chica.

EDDIE
Your mistake is letting anyone control you or get over on you. You have to control them, let them know who’s boss. Hey, ese, it’s that simple.

FLACO
So listen, I get a little piece off her, isn’t that enough man?

EDDIE
(Lecturing)
No way, ese. What you do to get into the Locos, it’s time-honored. It’s what the whities call the Zeitgeist, know what I mean, the sign of the times, the final frontier, the us versus them, only you stand tall and triumph because you are the baddest brown ass around. You want to be in the 23rd street Locos, you got to do more than chase the babe, or else that’s all you get is managed.

FLACO
(Morosely)
So what, then?

EDDIE
You got the balls to do this, you do the little number like we discussed, then you can belong to the Locos.

FLACO
The little number?

(EDDIE hands Flaco a ski mask.)

EDDIE
The extra conditional number. You have to kill someone, ese. We don’t care who it is. You go in there, you do a little rampage, you prove yourself the baddest man around.

FLACO
You’re telling me I have to kill someone I don’t even know who it is.

EDDIE
That’s it.

(CECILIA looks over at the two men. It’s not apparent if she’s hearing all that they say.)

FLACO
I’ll be in then, I’ll belong.

EDDIE
(Whispering loudly)
That’s it. You got it going on. You go into that club, you prove yourself in there, you’re the man.

FLACO
What if she just gives it up to me, isn’t that’s enough?

EDDIE
Yeh, let the little lady run your little number and then what, come back with the panties off her, ese. That’s no way to prove yourself.

FLACO
I’ll prove it some way.

EDDIE
(Laughing)
Only one way, ese. It’s waiting for you if you got the huevos for it.

(Lights down)

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SCENE 3
(FLACO has rejoined CECILIA in front of the club. He holds the ski mask. EDDIE remains standing at the alley.)

FLACO
Look, I’m very sorry for keeping you waiting.

CECILIA
Yeh, I saw who you’ve talking to, that gangster.

FLACO
Hey look, I’m your cholo novio from the 23rd Street Locos. You know what it means. I need this. Do it for me, do it for Flaco.

CECILIA
Do what?

FLACO
Make love to your Loco.

CECILIA
Yeh, my gangster boyfriend. What use is that? You ever going to amount to anything, Flaco, besides some wannabe gangster?

FLACO
Yeh, you’re the girl who works at the cleaners?

CECILIA
Yeh, I’m standing outside this freaky disco.

FLACO
No, I’m bringing you out. I’m making you feel what it is to be real, to hang with me, to be one of the true Locos. You’re not working in that cleaners forever.

CECILIA
You’re making it into something to be in the Locos.

(FLACO steps away from CECILIA, addresses his vision.)

FLACO
You know, I want to be down with the Locos, so I can be something. And that’s it.

CECILIA
No way, Flaco. You don’t have to prove anything to me about being no gangster. Just be kind to me, romantic.

FLACO
That’s it. I have to stay true to my Locos, I have to do this one thing.

CECILIA
No way.

FLACO
To be the man, soy hombre, I have to do it.

CECILIA
What for, because you got that stupid pinto in the glasses telling you what to do?

FLACO
They expect it of me.

CECILIA
What for Flaco? Ask yourself, what good are these crazy Locos to you?

FLACO
Hey, the Locos, they’re everything. Without them I’m nothing.

CECILIA
So I’m gonna be out here with a nothing, because they got something they need you to do?

(CECILIA grabs at FLACO, but he pulls away the ski mask. CECILIA appears thoughtful, looking past FLACO to EDDIE who stands at the alley, arms crossed, staring upward in his sunglasses.)

CECILIA
What is it exactly he needs you to do?

FLACO
Hey look, that’s Eddie Lunquist. You know Eddie.

CECILIA
Yeh, I heard he did time in the big house.

FLACO
Yeh, how about we take us a ride in Eddie’s Impala, have us a good time, plowing up some pavement, tunes, you know, like real cool.

CECILIA
Yes. And?

FLACO
You know, the extra conditional.

CECILIA
What that’s supposed to mean?

FLACO
Extra special, okay. Eddie’s driving, he promised me we’ll go for a ride.

CECILIA
Oh the gangster, huh, the one I heard did time in Soledad on armed robbery? The one who tried robbing a Wells, going in there with a toy gun?

FLACO
Yeh, what about it?

CECILIA
He’s stupid, Flaco. He’s not so bright is what he is.

FLACO
No, no, Eddie’s a veterano. Don’t you get it. The dude’s got it going on, believe me. He knows what it takes. He’s been around.

CECILIA
Yeh then what else, besides you, me and the guy who’s been around?

FLACO
I can get PeeVee and his Chola, Dulcita 96 Tears, you know, we can all take us a ride. We can make it a party.

CECILIA
And?

FLACO
It’s the one thing we can do. I promise you.

CECILIA
What if I don’t want no part of it.

FLACO
What then?

CECILIA
I don’t want no part of anything with no gangster in it.

(CECILIA stalks off stage left.)

(Lights down)

top

SCENE 4
(FLACO stands with EDDIE at the mouth of the alley.)

FLACO
Okay, man, so I told her what’s up. We’re doing it.

EDDIE
You ain’t got nothing going on yet, ese.

FLACO
The time comes, it always does, for every dude worth his salt to prove his metal, right?

EDDIE
Who are you fooling? This is the metal.

(EDDIE lifts out a gun from inside his long coat.)

FLACO
Yeh hey, like I need to play this out. It always works, right?

EDDIE
Fate itself, ese. A sure thing. You should know, nothing’s a sure think until you make it a sure thing. It’s that simple in life. You know how I did my time, it was no big deal. I only survived because I had my smarts about me and I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in wishful thinking.

FLACO
Yeh, who wishes anymore when you make it the real deal.

EDDIE
The real deal, ese. This is the real deal.

FLACO
I’ll be the dude who did it, big time.

EDDIE
You know in prison, it’s something you have to understand, what draws the fly to the web, because in the buzzing of the little fly all around the dizzy little spider in the web, the fly comes to know, what’s lost in a second can never be regained. Either you get what you want or you don’t. Now you want to be in the Locos, you want to remain, you got to prove yourself. You’re not some skinny little fig who can’t get his nutsack off the orange shag rug to see if he’s even got the nuts. You’re no longer a fig, Flaco, the grease mechanic. You’re the man who’s doing the job.

FLACO
Yeh, the real dude now?

(EDDIE hands FLACO the gun.)

EDDIE
Just figure to go inside, nothing less, and teach them a lesson who’s boss around here. I’ll be waiting at the car, once you do the number.

(THE GUN comes up in FLACO’s hand, big and dark.)

(Lights down)

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SCENE 5
(Enter FLACO as he swaggers up to the club entrance, the ski mask in his pocket, the gun pinched in the back of his waistband. Eddie stands off stage right, waiting.)

(To himself)

FLACO
Okay, carnal. The time’s come.

(Enter CECILIA, hurrying to catch FLACO before he enters the club.)

CECILIA
No way, what are you doing?

FLACO
You left me.

CECILIA
I had to come back. I was worried about you.

FLACO
Chica, the time’s come for the real thing to go down.

CECILIA
No way, Flaco. Let’s get out of here. We’ll go find some salsa like we planned.

FLACO
De corazón, chica, from the heart. It ain’t no time to back off.

CECILIA
(Beseeching)
For what?

(CECILIA hugs FLACO and feels the gun in the back of his waistband.)

CECILIA
What is this?

FLACO
Nothing.

CECILIA
No, don’t you dare do anything with that.

FLACO
(As if in ultimatum)
Come on. It’s time to belong, to make history.

CECILIA
No, no. What is your problem? I see what you’re doing. I know what you’re doing, Flaco.

FLACO
This is it, the last chance, before I lose out.

CECILIA
Something’s already lost. Can’t you see, Flaco. Something so precious, that if you give it up, don’t you see, it’s something you’ll never get back. Never. It’s something you have to hold onto.

FLACO
Chale, now or forever.

CECILIA
No, you understand me. Don’t do what they want. Forget what they want.

FLACO
Now. I’m going in.

CECILIA
Flaco, please. I’ll give it to you. Whatever you want. Here, here it is, all of me. Please, please.
(CECILIA holds out her hands for him to take her as he has wanted. FLACO pushes her aside and steps up to the doorway into the AIRBORNE.)

CECILIA
Please, sweetheart. I’ll give you whatever you want. All of me, all of me. Sing to me, whatever you like. Sing to me.

FLACO
Too late. I’m going in.

(FLACO pulls on the ski mask.)

CECILIA
(Pleadingly)
Flaco, sing to me.

FLACO
Man, I am me and nothing is ever going to stop that.

(FLACO disappears into the AIRBORNE, as a frightened CECILIA runs off stage left and EDDIE slips away stage right. From inside the AIRBORNE comes the sound of gunshots and then shouts and screams. After a moment, FLACO runs out from the club doorway, going right, then stops, as if confused, not seeing EDDIE, and then looks left, and runs off stage left.)

(Lights down. Blackout.)

END

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