from The Afterlife Scene One Nightclub Lights come up on the entrance of a night club. Chuy enters in pure happiness. Chuy (To audience): If you’re a regular-looking dude, you got to do what you gotta do. Gotta dress nice, smell good, carry a few dollars in your pocket and don’t be too, too stupid. That is, if you wanna hook up with someone like Rachel, a girl in my English class. Known her since way back. Rachel enters with teenage swagger. She evaluates Chuy as if he’s an object for sale. She straightens out his hair, feels his biceps, and tugs at his shirt to make it right. Rachel: He’s OK. Chuy (disbelief): OK? Only OK? Look at these dimples. Rachel: He could be a little taller. Chuy tiptoes. Chuy: I got another year of growing. Rachel: Captain of a sports team—that would be nice. Chuy: Captain? How ‘bout co-captain of the ping-pong club? Rachel: He’s gotta be funny. Chuy: Funny? Girl, I invented funny. Let me tell you the joke about the bilingual parrot that, that . . . Rachel exits quickly. Chuy (To Rachel): Where you going? I ain’t got to the punch line! (Shouting) See you inside! Chuy shrugs his shoulders. Pounding dance music cuts in as stage revolves, revealing single bathroom stall, door closed but with someone seated on the toilet—we can see a pair of yellow shoes. Chuy enters the restroom; the dance music quiets to a rumble. The sound of a toilet flushing and water dripping from faucet. He waves a hand under his nose, but doesn’t say a word. He goes to the mirror over a basin. The dance music cuts out. Yellow Shoes flushes a second time, comes out of the stall, and looks around, sniffing. Dance music cuts out entirely. Yellow Shoes: This hellhole smells—is it you?
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