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Standing Above Pajaro
A One-Act Drama
by conrad a. panganiban
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Melissa Anne Crawley: 40s. Female. Owner of the Watsonville General Store. Intelligent, strong-willed single mother in an abusive relationship with her son.
Celestino Tobera: 20s. Male. Filipino migrant field worker. Well-read dreamer disillusioned with his vision of the American Dream.
Bobby Crawley: Late teens. Male. The son of Melissa Anne Crawley. Takes after his late father’s short-temper trying to defend his town and Country against outsiders.
TIME
The play takes place in “real time” between 4:10am and 4:30am on January 20, 1930.
PLACE
The play takes place inside the Watsonville General Store.
SCENE 1
Lights up to dimly light up the interior of the Watsonville General Store. A calendar with a picture of a bright red Ford Truck is on the back wall reading January 1930. A wooden rolling pin is hanging next to the calendar. Several cans of all shapes and sizes line the shelves. A working clock is on the back wall saying that it’s 4:10 a.m. A round table and two chairs are placed near the door. In front of the main counter are three round bushel baskets with three kinds of fruit – one of them being apples.
On one of the sides of the stage, we see a window that is left slightly ajar. A hand is seen pushing the window open. CELESTINO TOBERA, a Filipino farm worker in his early 20s, slowly struggles to get through the window. After one last push, he lands on the store’s wooden floor. He is obviously tired and very hurt as he clutches his leg. He turns toward one of the baskets of fruit and takes one of the apples and devours it. After hearing some voices come from the outside, he quickly closes the window, and scurries behind a counter. After a beat of silence, he goes to the window to check if the coast is clear. Realizing that it is, he takes a breath of relief and backs into a display of cans causing some of them to fall.
END OF SCENE
SCENE 2
A light from upstage is turned on and CELESTINO searches for a place to hide. MELISSA ANNE CRAWLEY, a woman in her 40s and the owner of the Watsonville General Store, enters wearing a nightgown. Her hair is up in a loosely made bun, and she is holding a rifle. She reaches over to one of the walls and flips on a light switch to fully reveal the store. MELISSA scans the store cautiously to see if anyone else is inside. She sees a can on the floor, picks it up and places it on a counter. She still doesn’t see Celestino but as she gets closer to finding him, CELESTINO deftly moves around in the opposite direction. As he moves behind another counter, a box accidentally falls – he ducks, she raises her rifle.
MELISSA
Get up! I saw you!
CELESTINO slowly rises from behind the counter with his hands raised. He’s dressed in a McIntosh suit, which is usually pristine, but on this morning, his slacks are dirty, a sleeve is torn and his face is bruised and bloodied.
MELISSA
Good God.
CELESTINO
Not tonight.
MELISSA
What do you…? Get out.
(Pause.)
GET OUT!
CELESTINO shakes his head saying, “No.”
MELISSA (CONT.)
Can’t you speak English?
CELESTINO shakes his head to say, “Yes.”
MELISSA
Then you can understand that when I say Get Out, I meant, GET! OUT!
CELESTINO
I can’t. My feet are frozen, mam.
MELISSA
They weren’t frozen when you… how did you get in here?
CELELSTINO points to the window.
MELISSA
Impossible. It’s closed.
CELELSTINO
That’s because I closed it.
MELISSA
Don’t get smart with me!
CELELSTINO
No, mam. I was just trying to tell you that the window was–
MELISSA
I don’t care.
CELELSTINO
But I didn’t have anywhere to go.
MELISSA
And you still don’t have anywhere to go.
CELELSTINO
Mam, please. People are trying to kill me.
MELISSA
Why should I care?
CELESTINO
It’s happening all over Watsonville. Your men are trying to kill us!
MELISSA whirls her rifle around the store.
MELISSA
Us? There’s more of you in here?
CELESTINO
No. No. Just me, mam.
MELISSA spins back pointing the rifle at Celestino.
CELESTINO (CONT.)
I came inside because there are people trying to–
MELISSA
I said, I don’t care.
Bobby! Bobby Jr.! Get down here!
CELESTINO
Shhh… Mam. Shh… Please. I will pay you. Mam. My money.
CELESTINO digs into his pockets and pulls out a few dollars and some dance tickets and throws them on the table.
MELISSA
Get your hands out of your pockets!
CELESTINO
Here. Please take it-
MELISSA
I don’t want your money.
CELESTINO
-so I can stay here. Just until morning.
MELISSA
This isn’t a hotel.
CELESTINO
Then until the sun rises. Please.
MELISSA
I heard what you people do to our women.
CELESTINO
What we’re doing? You’re the one holding the gun!
Please, take this. This is all I have left.
MELISSA
A couple of dollars and… what are those?
CELESTINO
They’re dance tickets.
MELISSA
I’m not aimin’ to dance with you!
CELESTINO
No. That’s not what I meant. Those tickets are from the Palm Beach Club.
MELISSA
That’s where you dance with our girls, ain’t it?
CELESTINO
We’re just using the few hours we have off from the fields for for for companionship. To to dance… To feel… To be human.
MELISSA
Then you should go home for that.
CELESTINO
This is our home.
MELISSA
No. Home is where everyone around you looks the same. You people are the ones invading our land.
CELESTINO
Invading? My brother and I were hired to come to here because we are hard workers.
Something you Americans aren’t able to do.
MELISSA raises her rifle at CELESTINO.
MELISSA
Watch your mouth, boy!
CELESTINO
Celestino Tobera. That is my name. Not boy.
MELISSA
Dead. That’ll be your name if you keep talking like that.
CELESTINO
No offense, mam. But I was just trying to tell you my story.
MELISSA
“No offense, mam.” I know you didn’t learn that from picking the Strawberries.
CELESTINO
Mr. Hartendorp.
Before we came here. In Manila. I learned English from the books he assigned us to read.
MELISSA
What? Mary had a little lamb? Or somethin’ like Humpty Dumpty?
CELESTINO
Hamlet. Moby Dick. The Tempest.
MELISSA
“Is this a rifle which I see before me,
The handle in my hand?”
CELESTINO
Ah. The Scottish Play. One of my favorites.
MELISSA
I’m not up at four in the morning to talk about Shakespeare.
CELESTINO
Then what about poetry?
MELISSA
You gotta be kiddin’ me.
CELESTINO
AMERICAN mouth-songs!
Those of mechanics — each one singing his, as it
should be, blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,
The wood-cutter’s song — the ploughboy’s, on his way
in the morning, or at noon intermission, or at sundown.
The day what belongs to the day — At night, the
party of young fellows, robust, friendly, clean-blooded, singing with melodious
voices, melodious thoughts.
Come! some of you! Still be flooding The States
with hundreds and thousands of mouth-songs,
fit for The States only.
That poem kept me afloat as our ship left from Manila Bay to Hawaii. From there to
California’s San Joaquin Valley to Alaska and back to Stockton and finally to here…
Watsonville. I chased after the meaning of that song which Walt Whitman writes about.
But now. Now, I wonder if that version of his American had ever existed.
MELISSA
It does exist but only for those who inherited this country for themselves and their offspring could live. For those who put in the work for the American Dream.
CELESTINO
Look at my hands.
(CELESTINO takes a step towards Melissa.)
LOOK AT THEM!
These are the hands of a person who has worked to be a part of that dream!
CELESTINO moves in an attempt to take Melissa’s rifle. But in one step, he falls and cries out in pain.
MELISSA holds the rifle at Celestino.
MELISSA
That’s the last time you try anything like that.
CELESTINO
Go ahead and shoot!
(He tries to get up and falls.)
What are you waiting for! Shoot! Me!
Why don’t you kill me. Put me out of my misery already! You’re just as bad as your son!
MELISSA
Bobby Jr.?
CELESTINO
Who do you think did this to my leg? You don’t remember me, huh? I come in here with Mr. Murphy I see your Bobby Jr. behind the counter looking at me like I shouldn’t even be in here and…
MELISSA
He did that to you?
CELESTINO
Not only him. Five other people too. Taking turns punching… kicking… and laughing.
You don’t know what it’s like.
MELISSA
(to herself)
I wish I didn’t.
CELESTINO
And I still can see that bat.
MELISSA
Well, I’m sorry that happened to you, Celestino.
CELESTINO
Thank you, Mrs…?
MELISSA
Crawley. Melissa Crawley.
CELESTINO
Thank you, Mrs. Crawley. And if you’re really sorry, could you please find it in your heart to let me stay here. Just until morning.
MELISSA
I…. I can’t. I’m sorry.
CELESTINO
You can’t… or won’t.
BOBBY JR. (O.S.)
I TOLD YOU THAT I HAVE TO GET SOMETHING FIRST!
WHAT?
MELISSA
That’s him.
With great effort, CELESTINO gets up and grimaces as he starts to make his way back up the hall.
CELESTINO
There’s a back door, right? Right?
With no response, CELESTINO leaves up the hall with MELISSA pointing the rifle at him, but doesn’t shoot. The sound of a door shutting is heard.
END OF SCENE
SCENE 3
Suddenly, the sound of the front door unlocking causes MELISSA to spin around towards the door with her rifle raised. BOBBY, a young man in his late Teens enters holding a baseball bat stained with blood.
MELISSA
Bobby?
Bobby! Where did you go? I called down for you earlier.
BOBBY
You’re supposed to be asleep, Ma.
MELISSA
I heard some rustlin’ outside.
(Noticing his bat)
Is that blood?
BOBBY
Could be.
BOBBY walks past Melissa and goes over to a shelf to open a bottle of whiskey. He gets a glass, pours the liquor and takes a drink.
MELISSA
You said that you’d be back before nightfall.
BOBBY
Just a little huntin’ with the boys.
MELISSA
Sounds like a little more than hunting.
BOBBY
Why do you have to be such a nag, ma?!
MELISSA
I told you, I heard some rustlin’ out there.
BOBBY
We’re taking back our town from them goo-goos.
MELISSA
What did the Filipinos do now?
BOBBY
Mel told me that Regina was dancing with this Filipino boy –
MELISSA
What does this have to do with Regina?
BOBBY
She told me that she wasn’t gonna be there!
MELISSA
Where?
BOBBY
At that place out in Palm Beach. So, a bunch of us went over there to get her, and the Locke-Paddon boys and even Sheriff Sinott start pointin’ their guns at us.
MELISSA
I told you she was trouble.
BOBBY
No! Them goo-goos are the trouble and those brothers and the Sheriff are protectin’ them.
MELISSA
They’re just tryin’ to protect their land.
BOBBY
This is our land and I can’t believe that they’re defending those savages.
MELISSA
Savages?
BOBBY
Luckily, we spotted a couple of them on San Juan Road and chased ’em to the bridge. But when they got there they just they just stood there. Right above the Pajaro looking for a fight or something. We got in some licks, threw a couple of ’em into the river and a couple of ran off.
MELISSA
I guess that explains the blood.
BOBBY holds up the bat to glorify the blood stains on it.
BOBBY
The great American pastime.
BOBBY takes a look at the clock, finishes his drink, and goes to one of the shelves, pulls out a gun, and begins to exit.
MELISSA
Where do you think you’re goin’?
BOBBY
We ain’t done yet.
MELISSA
Maybe they ain’t, but you are.
BOBBY disregards Melissa’s words and moves to exit. MELISSA places her hand on his chest to stop him.
MELISSA
You can’t go around shooting all of them, Bobby. No matter what country you’re in, it’s wrong and if you’re caught… I just don’t want to lose you too.
BOBBY
It’s called self-defense.
MELISSA
But you’re the one chasing after them.
BOBBY
Are you on our side or theirs?
(BOBBY lets out a sigh and pulls out a chair.)
Sit.
MELISSA sits in the chair.
BOBBY
Mama. Can’t you see that all we’re doin’ is defendin’ our land. Our families. Our way of life. Remember when Daddy was alive and we had no troubles with anyone in the valley? It was because everyone respected us and our store. We kept everyone fed. We kept everyone in the light at night from the oil they bought from us. Everyone in this town needed us. We provided goods and a service. We gave this town balance. And ever since those foreigners started to cause a ruckus about wanting to get paid what they think they deserve or breaking the law by trying to marry our women or spreading their diseases. Don’t you see that this town needs us more than ever to keep that balance? Ma, what we’re doing is the right thing. I promise. Everything will be balanced come morning.
BOBBY moves towards the door to exit, a creak on a wooden floor and knocking is heard.
BOBBY
What was that?
Pause.
MELISSA
Mice.
More of them coming in from the field.
BOBBY
No. That was more than a mouse.
MELISSA
Well, Bobby, if you were here more often, instead of…
BOBBY
What?
MELISSA
Nothing.
BOBBY
Instead of WHAT?!
MELISSA
Instead going off with your friends and getting DRUNK all the time like your father!
BOBBY strikes MELISSA causing her to fall.
BOBBY then takes out his gun and points it at MELISSA and pulls its hammer down.
BOBBY
I swear. If you weren’t my…
After a beat, BOBBY uncocks the gun and holsters it. Then he helps MELISSA get back up and puts her into a chair.
BOBBY
Everything will be back to normal, Ma. When we’re done, I’ll be back to get rid of the mice. I promise.
BOBBY exits.
END OF SCENE
SCENE 4
CELESTINO, still in pain, re-enters the General Store from the hallway limping.
CELESTINO
Is he gone?
Noticing MELISSA slumped in the chair, CELESTINO goes to her.
CELESTINO (CONT.)
What happened, mam? You’re bleeding.
MELISSA quickly gets out of her chair, gets the rifle and points it back at CELESTINO.
MELISSA
What did you do to my son?
CELESTINO
What did I do? Your son was the one who tried to kill me.
MELISSA
Then you must’ve done something–
CELESTINO
I swear–
MELISSA
Regina Bell Halsey.
CELESTINO
Regina?
MELISSA
Short girl. Brunette. Always wears a pink bow in her hair.
CELESTINO
What about her?
MELISSA
So it was you who was trying to steal her from Bobby?
CELESTINO
She’s the one who didn’t want to leave me.
MELISSA
Then that’s why he hates you so much.
CELESTINO
Then the feeling is mutual. She told me about him and about the bad things he did to her.
Maybe you should be asking him why he hates women. Does he hit you too?
MELISSA uses the butt of the rifle to knock CELESTINO down to the ground. MELISSA then cocks the rifle and points the barrel of it at his head.
MELISSA
I do all I can to raise Bobby on my own. You don’t know what it’s like.
CELESTINO
I don’t. But my mother does. She raised me and my brother alone too.
MELISSA
And where is she?
CELESTINO
She’s passed away.
MELISSA
Then you can join her.
CELESTINO closes his eyes and begins to pray.
CELESTINO
Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with Thee
Blessed art thou amongst women,
And Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb Jesus.
MELISSA lowers her rifle.
CELESTINO (CONT.)
Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners.
MELISSA AND CELESTINO
Now and at the hour of our death.
CELESTINO
Amen.
Pause.
MELISSA
So much for being savages.
CELESTINO
My brother, Fermin, taught me that. And he learned it from my Inay. My mother. One of the only things I have left from her.
MELISSA
I was left on the front steps of this store with that Prayer pinned to the torn blanket I was
wrapped in. The only thing I have left from my mother too.
(Pause)
Get out of here before the light comes up.
CELESTINO nods his head in understanding. He begins to head over to the door and stops to make sure the coast is clear and exits.
MELISSA sits down in a chair to recover from everything that’s happened that night. And just when things begin to feel “normal”…
END OF SCENE
SCENE 5
BOBBY (O.S.)
Get in there!
The store’s door opens with BOBBY JR. pushing CELESTINO inside. MELISSA stands up.
BOBBY (CONT.)
Stand over there!
BOBBY goes over to the window to check if someone saw them. Turns back, draws out his gun and aims it at CELESTINO.
BOBBY (CONT.)
You really think that you can run from me again, boy? Remember my bat?
CELESTINO
Hail Mary, Full of Grace…
BOBBY
Blah blah blah blah blah.
MELISSA
Don’t do it, Bobby.
BOBBY
Do what? I’m shooting the person who’s breaking into our store. Self-defense.
MELISSA
But he didn’t break in. You pushed him in.
BOBBY
That’s not what I saw. And that’s not what you saw.
MELISSA
Let the Sheriff handle this.
BOBBY
The Sheriff’s not interested in helping us. I told you that already!
CELESTINO
Mam, help me! Please! Mrs. Crawley?
BOBBY
What? How’d you know…?
BOBBY turns and points the gun at MELISSA.
BOBBY (CONT.)
How do you know him?!
MELISSA
Put the gun down, Bobby!
CELESTINO
I was in here earlier.
BOBBY spins back to pointing the gun at CELESTINO.
CELESTINO (CONT.)
I was looking for / help
BOBBY
SHUT UP! I wasn’t talking to you! Ma, was he in here earlier?
MELISSA
No.
BOBBY
This is what you get for lying, boy!
MELISSA
Stop! He was in here! He was in here!
BOBBY
Don’t lie for him!
MELISSA
Celestino came in a bloody mess and I couldn’t turn him away.
BOBBY
Celestino?! When?
MELISSA
Just before you came in for that gun. But he left right when you–
BOBBY
And you didn’t do anything–
CELESTINO
I didn’t want to cause her any trouble–
BOBBY gives CELESTINO a whack in the back of the head. CELESTINO falls.
BOBBY
I wasn’t talking to you!
(to MELISSA)
And you! How could you lie to me like that? You had him in here?! Do you know what he could have done to you?
MELISSA
Nothing. Nothing happened. He just needed a place–
BOBBY hits MELISSA, but she doesn’t fall.
BOBBY
Get out. I’ll deal with you after I’m done with Celestino here. GET OUT!
MELISSA doesn’t move.
BOBBY (CONT.)
GO!!!
MELISSA starts to make her way up the hallway where Celestino went earlier to go to the bathroom. BOBBY stands over CELESTINO pointing the gun down at him ready to pull the trigger. Just as he’s about to fire, MELISSA re-enters the scene, grabs a rolling pin and hits BOBBY in the back of the head stunning him and causing him to fall.
MELISSA
Get up! Get out of here!
CELESTINO
Come with me. He will kill you if you stay here.
MELISSA
He won’t. I know him.
In mad mixture of confusion and fear, CELESTINO runs out the door.
BOBBY regains some of his senses and starts after CELESTINO out the door.
BOBBY (O.S.)
Get back here!
Almost without thinking, MELISSA grabs the rifle, and standing in the open doorway, takes aim and fires a shot! And then another one! In a daze, she backs away from the door and slowly points the rifle down.
Silence.
CELESTINO runs from off-stage to the door and immediately stops and slowly enters with his hands raised in the air.
CELESTINO
Mrs. Crawley, he’s…
MELISSA is still in a daze as CELESTINO moves towards her. After taking her rifle and placing it on a counter, he pulls out a chair for her to sit in.
CELESTINO
Sit here. Everything will be… Thank you for… Is there anything I can get you, Mrs. Crawley?
MELISSA finally makes eye contact with CELESTINO and rises from the chair and goes to the counter, takes out a box and the money inside it.
She goes back to him and gives him all the money.
MELISSA
Take this. Get your brother and get out of Watsonville.
CELESTINO
I can’t take this.
MELISSA
Yes you can and you will. You have to.
CELESTINO
What about you? And what about…?
MELISSA
This doesn’t concern you now.
CELESTINO
I can’t leave you like this. Come with us.
MELISSA
No. It’s best I stay here. It would only raise suspicion about Bobby if I went with you.
CELESTINO
I don’t know what to say.
MELISSA
Say, “Goodbye”.
CELESTINO
I’m so sorry things had to end like this.
MELISSA
The sun is starting to come up. You don’t have much time.
CELESTINO moves to exit out the door.
MELISSA (CONT.)
Celestino.
I…
I’m not going to pretend to know what you and your friends have gone through, but I do know what it feels like to be misunderstood…
to feel less than…
to be invisible.
I wish I could remember how to stop swallowing my words…
to cut my nerves from flinching at raised hands and voices…
to believe that the only way to survive was to no longer…
be.
And then you came in through that window bruised… bloodied… hurt…
but unbroken.
There was never a break in your eyes, in your will, or spirit.
Something I’ve needed, wanted, and even dreamed of having.
You had the kind of freedom that could only be born from fighting for one’s own value while constantly being drowned in an ocean of hate. The kind of freedom that was powerful enough to ride the royal blue waves of hope, opportunity, and courage to these unknown shores of amber grain and purple mountains bathed in golden sunsets.
I know that America isn’t everything that Walt Whitman wrote about, but I need you to not lose hope. You know what this country is supposed to be like… more than some of the ones who were even born here. We need more people like you.
CELESTINO
“I can no other answer make but thanks;
And thanks.”
Goodbye, Melissa.
CELESTINO exits.
Lights fade out.
END OF PLAY