Act 1.2 (day 6)

Scene 2

It would be useful if the set were a turntable, so different elements could be swung to CS, thus scene 1 would have the outdoor tables DC, while this scene would have the bar DC and in the background the tables and the sea.

It is evening, the bar is busy, but not hyper. Monsieur sits at his table, now USR, while USL a guitarist and accordianist/bongo player alternate between French folk songs and Caribbean beat insturmentals. Steve and Celeste converse at the bar.

Celeste: Vraiment? Gil has the cancer?

Steve: Oui. He's pretty shaken. Goes between bravado and doom—mostly doom.

Celeste: When not doom, he will beat it?

Steve: No, when not doom, he says it doesn't matter; “You just live with the hand your dealt” and “everyone dies” that sort of thing.

Celeste: That sounds like doom too.

Steve (shrugs): For Gil that's the up side. (He departs with drinks to take to customers out front.)

(Monsieur raises a hand)

Celeste: Un moment, Monsieur. (He pours a glass of red wine and takes it to Monsieur, there is a brief conversation. He returns.)

Jeanette (entering and stands at the bar): Allo, Celeste. Dos Equis. (He opens a bottle and pours it into a glass). Mostly tourists tonight?

Celeste: It's always mostly tourists, except when there's a hurricane.

Jeanette: (laughing) Wimps. You going to the launch?

Celeste: Can't miss it from here. Can't see much more up there.

Jeanette: I suppose, but there's a certain rush when you're in a crowd that's in one place for a purpose—there's an energy...

Celeste: I guess I don't like crowd energy.

Jeanette: And you tend bar?

Celeste: I run the bar. If I don't like the mob, I can do something about it.

Jeanette: Really? You just run out and get a different clientele?

Celeste: You're argumentative tonight.

Jeanette: (shrugs) May be. I'm on the prowl.

Celeste: Ah...some Languedocs out there comparing the Caribbean and Mediterranean—you could give them a baseline.

Jeanette: (smiles) C'est possible. (she wanders off).

Steve (returning): How's Jeanette?

Celeste: She is Jeanette.

Steve: What else does one need to be? (Celeste smiles)

Gil (approaching bar, just noticeably drunk): Celeste, Steve, ça va?

Celeste: It goes. You?

Gil: Not heard? I'm a dead man.

Celeste: You are here. You are talking. I have never talked to the dead before.

Gil: You are like a beast. You know only the present, so you mistake it for the continuum of life.

Steve: I've got customers (departs).

Celeste: You underestimate beasts. Maybe the beast it does not know the consequences, but it does not ignore its wound. And if in its ignorance it does not mistake its current condition for some other possible condition then it is wiser than you.

Gil: Oh, very wise. We'll see how wise you are when you're world is turned inside out.

Celeste: (somewhat testily) You see Monsieur over there? (we see just a bare reaction from Monsieur—enough to let us know he hears—as he does all things in the bar--Celeste catches himself on the edge of saying more than he wishes and stops.)

Gil: Yes, I see him. So?

Celeste: Nothing. You want something, or you had enough?

Gil: What? Does he have cancer?

Celeste: No. Drop it. I was going to give an example of people who know better than to mistake one circumstance for another.

Gil (turns and looks at Monsieur's back): Really? Because he seems to be permanently in that circumstance. I can't imagine how he stands it. The same thing every day. Does he ever move?

Celeste: He would tell you it is never the same.

He pours Gil a glass of wine and shoves it to him. Gil continues to look at Monsieur.