Title of the work: Understood!
Author: Ángeles Spinoza
3 Characters:
- Xavier
- George
- Philip
Part one
Two men are waiting sitting on the floor outside a store. They are having a banal conversation.
Xavier: And then?
George: What?
Xavier: What happens next?
George: Nothing, that’s the end of the story.
Xavier: It makes no sense.
George: What?
Xavier: The story!
George: It doesn’t have to make sense, it’s just an anecdote.
Xavier: Normally anecdotes are funny, aren’t they? Or at least interesting, what you told me doesn’t make sense.
George: whatever (pause) mmm, better tomorrow
Xavier: Tomorrow what?
George: How? (pause) No, it’s not you…
Another man enters, visibly in a hurry.
Felipe: Hi, I’m sorry, I’m late.
Xavier: (mumbling) clearly
Philip: Excuse me?
Xavier: no, nothing, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.
Philip opens the door and enters the store. George is still sitting on the floor; he hasn’t even noticed that Philip is there.
Xavier: (to George) are you coming in or are you staying there to see if anyone is coming?
George: What?
Xavier: they already opened the door, Philip has arrived.
George: (jumping to his feet. It is the first time he takes his eyes off his cell phone) and why don’t you let me know!
Xavier: I thought you had seen him
They both enter the store
George: How, if I was busy (goes back to the cell phone)?
Xavier: you weren’t doing anything…
Jorge is still on the phone and Xavier gets ready to make himself a coffee, while Philip prepares the things on the counter and starts giving instructions. Neither George nor Xavier seem to pay much attention to him.
Philip: you are going to see a change in the registration of the products in the system…
George: …
Xavier: OK
Philip: … it seems that there are errors with the orders…
George and Xavier completely ignore Philip, who continues to arrange things without caring if they hear him or not…
Xavier: (to George) Stop that.
George: Wait, they are telling me something that you will find funny or at least interesting.
Xavier: Yeah sure, coming from you all stories are good, right?
George: shhh
Philip: …so they left the system half open or something like that and you have to be doing it all the time?
George: hey, do you have a car again?
Xavier: Why?
Philip: … if they don’t…
George: to see if we go out tomorrow; the cab is very expensive.
Xavier: no, it will be delivered next week, but we can still do something at home.
George: at yours, mine is too small.
Xavier: What are you thinking of inviting a lot of people?
George: enough …. (reading the cell phone) I don’t believe it!
Philip: … if you do it this way there won’t be a problem; it may be tedious, but apparently it will only be today, according to what the owner told me there will be tomorrow?
George: (incredulous, to Xavier) read this…
Xavier: (reads. Also surprised) no, then there will be nothing tomorrow…
Philip: Is that clear?
George and Xavier turn to look at Philip in surprise
George and Xavier: Of course!
Part two
The store has closed. Xavier is closing the door and George picks up some things from the counter.
George: You can tell when it’s a fortnight.
Xavier: And that there are also sales: it looks like they were giving away the store for free.
George: (starting to check the notes) yes, yes… (pause) so? how do you see? do you think anything will be done this weekend?
Xavier: (picking up some things) I see it complicated, between the fact that I don’t have a car and Sebastian broke his arm.
George: well, but we can go ourselves… or we can’t take him one-armed (laughs) it doesn’t matter.
Xavier: he is going to break his other arm!
Xavier continues cleaning while George tries to make the box cut. A few moments pass
George: hey, nothing is coming out
Xavier: nothing at all
George: nothing at all
Xavier: Nothing where?
George: (desperate) here, at the cash register. There is nothing from the sales
Xavier: look carefully, you must be doing something wrong.
George: no, I am doing the usual and nothing is showing up. I have tried three times already
Xavier: (approaching) let’s see, let me (pause) hey yes, it’s true (intrigued) today’s sales do not appear. I am going to get Philip
George: no, wait, what if he gets mad?
Xavier: why? it wasn’t you; it’s the machine…
Xavier leaves and George remains thoughtful. Xavier returns followed by Philip
Philip: What’s wrong?
Xavier: the logs don’t show up
Philip checks the machine
Philip: It is because they did not save it
Xavier: Why not? We were doing it all day long
Philip: Every time you passed an item, did you save it twice?
George: Why would we do that? It would be very tedious and impractical. We would save it at the end as usual
Philip: (exalted) because I told them that they had to save twice every time they passed an item, otherwise, the purchase would not be registered.
Xavier: When did you tell us that?
Philip: today in the morning, when we opened ….
Xavier: (very embarrassed) I don’t remember…
George: I was busy…
Xavier: and now?
Philip: to count what is missing and record it by hand. On Monday there is inventory (pause) They close when they finish.
Philip leaves the keys on the counter and goes out.
Dark end