Two Sisters and a Piano and Other Plays

Maybe something will happen here, too.

Last night I heard a group of men talking about Russia. Something big has happened there, María Celia. They said the Soviet Union has broken apart, that it’s over . . . Can you believe it! Thousands of people in the squares . . . That’s what I heard . . . All over Moscow celebrating . . . statues tumbling down . .

One man was even talking about the new maps . . . He was saying the world is going to seem bigger with all the changes. Can you imagine? Someone is out there sketching new maps of the world.

I’ve lost a whole life of stitches in this house. A whole life. That’s what gets to me. So many days, gone . . . I could knit a bedspread for this whole island with all the lost days. I can’t even remember where I left off living my own life. My own place in this mess! I’ll never forget that day when Papi left the country. When he kissed us on the forehead and told us not to fall in love, not to get married, because he was going to send for us . . . as if love was a car one could stop with the touch of the brakes. For me time stopped. I felt my feet stop growing, my bones, my breasts, as if I had frozen in time, because I was saving myself for North America. It just feels like all my life I’ve been waiting and I haven’t lived. You got to travel with your books. You got married, when you got tired of waiting. But me, stuck here. Stuck, piano lessons, a few students, taking care of Mamá. Stuck . . . stuck . . . stuck . . . and now stuck even more

No. Can’t you see what you are doing?! Can’t you see what you’re getting yourself into with that man? He’s not going to make it better for us. I’ve watched him . . . He got rid of all the inspectors who used to come to this house. He’s the only one who comes here. Can’t you see it spelled out on his forehead. Ownership! Everything about him screams out zookeeper.