|
ACT IV: Eddie's Gone! Scene 1 Early morning, the Palmira is quiet, most people are still asleep. A Dutch girl stands at the reception counter next to the stairs ascending to the roof where she is staying. Marcos is behind the counter. He looks very tired.
Dutch Girl: Marcos, do you haff some scissor I can use? (Marcos pulls out a few drawers and hands her a pair)
Dutch Girl: Thanks. (she takes a leather sandal in one hand and the scissors in the other... begins to cut strap of shoe)
Marcos: Why you doing that?
Dutch Girl: I haff only one shoo. This bad dog ate my other shoo, right? (she glances down at the puppy, looking up at her expectantly, eyes innocent. She found it two days ago, dying, and is nursing it back to health) Did you eat my shoo, you naughty puppy?
Dutch girl finishes cutting off the back strap and tosses the sandal on the floor. It makes a slapping sound. The puppy runs over to it, ears perked, and looks at it curiously. Jimmy is lying lazily on the couch, only his eyes shifting as he watches the puppy. Dutch girl goes back up to roof.
Musa barges into the common room from his bedroom. He has a few bags in one hand, and a mobile phone in another. His girlfriend, Fifi, follows behind, emptying out a few ash trays on the coffee tables along the way.
Musa: Marcos, you have my mobile number, yes? I be back late, maybe tomorrow. Something happen, call.
Musa turns to Fifi, as though remembering something, and they talk in Arabic. Fifi nods and answers yes, yes, and bids him goodbye at the top of the stairs of the hostel. Mauri is dragging a wet mop across the floor. There is someone asleep on the far mattress in the common room...he is facing the wall. A small grey kitten peers out from under the mattress. It is watching vigilantly for sign of dogs. Jimmy doesn't move; the puppy has wandered over to the foot of the stairs leading to the roof, waiting for its new master. A third dog, Lady, is not around. The kitten, sensing no danger, slinks out from under the mattress and scrambles up the steps to the kitchen lounge, hungry. Helen has poured some milk into its dish.
Scene 2 Late afternoon. The kitchen lounge is fully occupied by travellers, tired after a long day on the hostel-arranged tour to Masada and the Dead Sea. In the common room, there is some commotion. Musa is speaking animatedly, raising his shoulders defiantly, talking in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Marcos, Fifi and Mauri are standing around him, looking concerned but helpless.
Musa: Everyone know only me have key (pulls key chain out of pocket) Why only me? Because Musa no trust no one. Too much experience, know better. Nothing anyone ever give me its lost. But you give key to him or him (points randomly at others in the room), I don't know. Maybe problem...
As Musa carries on, two young men, from Slovakia, sit on the couch next to him, looking despondent. The American couple are sitting on a mattress-couch on the opposite end of the room. The girl is listening in, trying to figure out what is going on.
Slovakian: So will please someone tell me what do I do?
Musa: I tell you again, we looking for him. I not even here when it happened. Marcos call me on phone says Musa, big problem. I in Kibbutz visit people, you know, and come back to this catastrophe. We looking for him. (turns to Marcos and Mauri) When he run away, Eddie?
American Girl (to Slovakian): How much money did you lose?
Slovakian: Lose? No, stole. $1000 American dollars, some in sheikels.
Amer Girl: You gave it to someone at the hostel?
Slovakian: I want to put it in safe place. I saw a sign, behind the desk, about a safe. I ask this...this guy...behind the desk, 'can put something in the safe', he says he will do it for me. I gave him my envelop, like this (holds up the envelop in front of him on a table) and hand it to him. He takes it without giving me receipt or to take down my name. This was my mistake. Stupid.
Both Americans are starting to get involved now. |
ISRAEL
