AMY sits at a table. She sips tea and checks her watch or
cell phone. A few beats. DANI arrives.
DANI
I'm late. I know. Sorry.
AMY
You're always late.
DANI
It's my thing, isn't it. But oh my
god, it's been what, six months?
AMY
Yes. You look great. How was
Singapore?
DANI
Very very clean. Too clean. I
preferred Hong Kong. Hong Kong was
busy and messy and brilliant. But
the best was Peru.
AMY
Peru? You went from Asia to Peru?
You must be exhausted from the air
travel.
DANI
Peru is like this mystical place
with mountains covered in carpets
of green and misty clouds hanging
low enough that you can touch them.
AMY
The furthest I've been from New
York is the Jersey shore.
DANI
The best thing about Peru tough is
the men.
AMY
The men? I thought you were
traveling with Darren.
DANI
I was. But thank god he went home
before I got to Peru.
AMY
Geeez. I thought you wewre in love
with Darren.
DANI
I didn't know what love was until I
met Paco.
AMY
Paco?
DANI
Peruvian. Paco is a Peruvian man.
Doesn't that just sound loaded with
possibility.
AMY
I guess.
DANI
Paco's face.. His face was like
carved by god. And his body, oh my
god, I cannot even tell you. Every
square inch was perfection.
AMY
Do you have a photo?
DANI
Absolutely not. Paco would not let
me take his photo. He insisted
that I remember him by experiencing
him, not by a photo.
AMY
OK.
DANI
And boy did I experience him. We
made love under a thousand stars
and every night the moon looked
different, one night it was blue,
another yellow, another red. And
then in the afterglow where we were
exhausted with pleasure, he would
tell me a poem.
AMY
A poem.
DANI
Paco is a poet. And he would say
these really pithy beautiful
things, and I would fall all over
him and then, and then guess what
happened?
AMY
What?
DANI
We made love again. It was
amazing.
AMY
Do you recall I gave you a book of
poems and you made fun of me,
saying you'd never read it.
DANI
Amy, I am still not into reading
poems. But having Paco whisper
them in my ear, that is a whole
different universe.
AMY
I have some big news too.
DANI
Wait, I haven't finished. Being
with Paco has changed my life. I
have had a sexual revelation.
AMY
It sounds religious.
DANI
Jesus Christ cannot come close to
Paco.
AMY
Well, let me tell you my big
news...
DANI
Wait. I'm not finished. To be
perfectly honest, I am sure the
poems Paco whispered to me were
crappy, but that is not the point.
It was the physical connection, the
way we communicated with our
bodies. I learned that words mean
nothing.
It is how our physical selves with
each other that really matter.
Bottom line, words are just fake
news. The body is where the truth
of the universe resides.
AMY
I assume Paco remains in Peru.
DANI
Yes, that is a nice thought, but
you know how it is, no one can get
a visa today. So no, Paco is
probably history. But that's OK
because Paco is wrapped around my
heart and now I know.
AMY
You know what?
DANI
That all those men I had sex with
here in New York, from Darren and
James and Marcus and Aidan and
Jeremy and god knows who else...
those men, well, they are not even
men. Not really. I mean if you
put my life on a graph, it would
show a dinky little line in the pre
Paco years, and then a big bold
line that goes straight up in the
post-Paco years.
AMY
Aidan?
DANI
Excuse me?
AMY
You mentioned Aidan.
DANI
Did I?
AMY
So you only know one Aidan. Yes?
DANI
Amy...
AMY
Just tell me, Dani, did you mean to
imply, when you so glibly listed
your many sexual encounters, that
you and Aidan, the only Aidan you
and I know, that you and Aidan made
love?
DANI
Well you see, no. It was not
making love. This is what I
learned in Peru. This is what Paco
taught me. Aidan was pre-Paco.
AMY
Pre-Paco?
DANI
Look, I understand how you might be
a tad upset by this.
AMY
A tad? Aidan was the news, by the
way. The big news I wanted to tell
you. We are getting married.
DANI
Married?
AMY
Yes, and now I have to hear this.
I have to hear that my very close
friend has...
Amy is getting emotional and cannot finish her sentence.
DANI
Listen to me Amy... Aidan and I did
not make love. OK. There was no
love manufactured during our
interaction. As Paco would say,
Aidan and I just used our bodies as
tools, not as a language.
AMY
Stop.
DANI
We had sex, for sure, but we did
not use our bodies to communicate
with each other.
AMY
(louder)
Stop.
DANI
There was no poetry in our sex,
therefore there was no making of
love.
AMY
(very loud)
Stop.
Dani freezes. Amy is sitting on rage. After several
beats...
AMY (CONT'D)
No amount of poetry, spoken or not,
can justify betrayal.
Amy rises. She grabs her bag.
AMY (CONT'D)
Goodbye... Dani.
Ami walks away. Dani sits, motionless, staring off into
nothing.
CUT TO BLACK.
THE END.
