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• The Widow of Apablaza : ACT TWO

The Widow of Apablaza, translated by William Gregory

ACT TWO

Context:

This is the end of Act Two when the Widow forbids Ñico to marry Florita, and pleads with him to instead become her husband and master.

Sample text

The WIDOW fills the glasses and hands one to ÑICO

ÑICO:

I’m embarrassed to drink in front of you, Ma’am …

WIDOW:

I’m giving it to you, Ñico …!

ÑICO:

I’ll pay you for it, then …

WIDOW:

Wine lubricates trust, Ñico …

ÑICO:

I’ve been wanting to talk to you too about something I’ve had on my mind, keeping

me awake at night …

WIDOW:

I already know everything …! What do you think …? That in my house I don’t

keep track even of the cat’s footsteps? I’m always one step ahead of you … I’m not older and

slyer than you for nothing …!

ÑICO:

It’s not about work; I haven’t done anything wrong … The thing I’m worried about

has to do with Florita …

WIDOW:

Be quiet, Ñico …! That’s exactly what I’ve come for …

ÑICO:

I want your consent for me to marry her … We love each other and it all depends on

You …

WIDOW:

Well I’ve already decided … You’re not marrying her.

ÑICO:

Why not? If everything stays in the family … She is your niece, after all … And I’ll

carry on working for you, following your orders …

WIDOW:

I have to talk to you man to man … You know me well enough; I don’t beat about

the bush …

ÑICO:

Say what you have to say, then …

WIDOW:

Sit down here, beside me … (Pause. ÑICO nervously turns his hat over in his

hands.) When my husband died … Nobody wanted to take you in because they said you were

a lost cause, a stray … They rejected you because you didn’t have a name. You went from

shack to shack, naked to the wind, begging for scraps of bread … And then, then I took you

in; I gave you a wash and some clothes … Here, in this house, you learned to be a man … I

sent you to school … And, now that you’re 20 years old, you thank the widow by

wanting to marry Flora and abandon me … After I fed you and gave you a roof …! Now you

reject me …! You leave me, the poor widow, to be tormented and driven mad by the

farmhands from dawn to dusk …! ‘Oh, she’s rich, she’s ferocious, she can cope with

anything …!’

ÑICO:

What can I say? I don’t know how to tell you how grateful I am … Everything I do I

owe to you. If you hadn’t taken me in, who knows what would have become of me …?!

WIDOW:

You’re just like your dead father … You’ve the same bearing as him; the same

eyes as when he was young and we were in love … (Takes a deep breath.) Don’t marry her,

Ñico …! All of this land and money is for you … But you have to stay with me … Just when

I’ve saved up all this money for you, you want to get into debt with a woman …!

ÑICO:

I gave her my word …

WIDOW:

Then take it back, Ñico …! Lovers change like the wind from the Andes blowing

down an alleyway … If you take my advice, everything will turn out so well for you …

ÑICO:

How can I explain …? It’s just that a man starts needing a woman … He needs

money to live, but … A woman, too …

WIDOW:

(Getting up.) And you’d rather be with just any woman, with no money, who’ll be

a burden to you and bleed you dry …?

ÑICO:

It’s what I want …

WIDOW:

Well, here it’s what I want that matters … I’m my own woman. I’m the one who

brought you up and that counts for something! From now on, you’ll take my dead husband’s

place …! It’s all yours:

the land, the money … And the widow. I’ll let you be in charge

here … Because I had to see you loving another woman to realise that I love you more than

anyone, more than anyone could believe … (Hugs him tightly.) My darling stray! My

beautiful little stray!

Copyright

The above sample taken from the translation The Widow of Apablaza by William Gregory is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 23 November 2011.

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