Title: “The chubby one”
Author: Manuel Martínez
6 characters:
- ALFREDO.- 14 years old, shy and reserved. He lives threatened by some schoolmates, who laugh at him for being fat.
- QUINO.- 17 years old, repeater, he is a bad student who abuses his classmates although he has a special fixation with Alfredo.
- JUAN GABRIEL.- 16 years old, friend and servant of Quino.
- ALFREDO’S MOTHER.- 36 years old, Alfredo’s mother, she has to raise him on her own.
- LIDIA.- 46 years old, Alfredo’s teacher. A woman concerned about her students.
- POLICE.
ACT I
Santo Tomás High School, five o’clock in the afternoon, a group of five children crowded in the corridor do not lose detail of the action.
Quino is holding Alfredo by the lapels of one of his shirts. Alfredo is shaking him from one side to the other while Alfredo pleads between sobs.
QUINO: Come on, do it and I’ll let you go.
ALFREDO: Please Quino, let me go now.
QUINO: Come on!!
ALFREDO: Please, I should have been home a while ago.
QUINO: If you don’t, you’re not going anywhere.
The other five children in the hallway can’t stop laughing at the situation.
JUAN GABRIEL: Quino, humiliate him for once.
Quino shakes Alfredo violently again.
QUINO (with a sly smile on his lips): Calm down, dear public, calm down. It seems I didn’t have the walrus tamed as well as I thought. But…
Quino gives Alfredo a slap that silences them all. Alfredo begins to cry inconsolably.
QUINO: You see, you force me to be mean to you, do you think it doesn’t hurt me to hit you, but of course you don’t obey me and I have to do it.
Everyone in the corridor remains silent.
QUINO: Come on Alfredo, I’m going to give you one last chance, otherwise….
Quino raises his hand in threat.
ALFREDO (still crying): All right, Quino, don’t hit me.
Alfredo drops to the floor, rises to his knees and begins to bump his arms in imitation of a seal as he mimics the sound. The hallway is again flooded with laughter.
JUAN GABRIEL: Hahaha, very good Quino, very good.
Teacher Lidia enters the hallway.
LIDIA: Hey, what are you doing?
The group of children and Quino run out and disappear. Alfredo awkwardly tries to get up and Lidia catches up with him.
LIDIA: Hey, Alfredo, what were you doing?
Lidia holds Alfredo’s face to take a closer look at the reddened mark of Quino’s hand on Alfredo’s face.
LIDIA: Who did that to you, Alfredo, tell me.
ALFREDO: Nothing, it was nobody. Please let me go, my mother is waiting for me.
Alfredo unhooks himself from Lidia and runs out of the school in tears.
ACT II
Alfredo’s house is a humble room where a small and lonely light bulb illuminates the room with difficulty.
Alfredo’s mother irons clothes while Alfredo plays with a dog in the living room. The doorbell rings. Mother goes out to answer the door and teacher Lidia enters the room.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Hello, I wasn’t expecting you. Alfredo, why didn’t you tell me your teacher was coming?
ALFREDO: I didn’t know.
LIDIA: Don’t worry, ma’am, Alfredo didn’t know. I came to talk to you. Alfredo could you leave your mother and me alone for a moment.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: You heard Alfredo, go to your room with Cobo and come when I call you.
ALFREDO: Yes, Mom.
Alfredo leaves the room with the dog following him.
LIDIA: Look, I came quickly after school because I saw something that really scared me.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER (with a surprised face): What is it?
LIDIA: Look, do you know if your son is doing well at school or if he has a problem with a classmate?
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Well, not really, as far as I know he’s fine.
LIDIA: So you haven’t noticed anything unusual about him?
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: No. Although, now that you mention it, the truth is that he’s a bit locked up in the house, I encourage him to go out and play, but there’s no one to get him out of here.
LIDIA: If it were another child, it wouldn’t be strange, you know, nowadays with consoles and computers, children don’t go out in the street, but I’m surprised about Alfredo.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Do you know if anything has happened to Alfredo at school?
LIDIA: Well, today I witnessed a strange situation at school. Classes were over, and there was a lot of noise in the hallway. At first I thought it was some kids who had been playing in the hallway after school, but then when I approached them they all ran away. Alfredo was getting up from the floor with red eyes as if he had been crying and had the mark of a slap on his face.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: My boy, who were the other kids? Maybe it was part of a game.
LIDIA: What do you say we call Alfredo and between the two of us we get some information from him?
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Yes, that would be best. Alfredo, come here!
Alfredo enters the room.
LIDIA: Alfredo, why don’t you tell your mother and me what happened to you this afternoon at school.
ALFREDO (with his head down): I’d better not.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Why do you say that? We’re not mad at you.
LIDIA: If you tell us it was all a game, nothing will happen, we won’t get angry, was it a game?
Alfredo shakes his head
ALFREDO: He’s going to get angry.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: Who?
ALFREDO: Quino and it’s going to be worse.
Alfredo’s mother approaches her son to put her hand on his shoulder, but he pushes her away in pain.
ALFREDO’S MOTHER: What’s wrong with you? Let’s see you, lift up your shirt.
Alfredo lifts up his shirt and his torso is covered in bruises. Alfredo’s mother and Lidia look on in horror.
ACT III
Entrance to the school. The children crowd around, the bell rings and everyone goes upstairs. Quino and his friend Juan Gabriel stop at the entrance. As they all go inside until they are left alone.
JUAN GABRIEL: Come on Quino, they’re going to close the door on us.
QUINO: What difference does it make? Well, we’ll go in later.
JUAN GABRIEL: That’s also true. By the way, what have you prepared for the little seal today, are you going to do a new number with him?
QUINO: I don’t know, maybe today I’ll just hit him and that’s it, I’m not motivated today.
Lidia is listening to them without being seen behind them.
LIDIA: How can you be such animals?
Quino and Juan Gabriel turn around surprised.
LIDIA: Now dare to deny it.
QUINO: What?
LIDIA: Everything you were talking about Alfredo.
QUINO: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
LIDIA: Oh, don’t you? Don’t worry, maybe these gentlemen will help you recover your memory.
QUINO: Go ahead.
A policeman comes out of the school door.
POLICEMAN: Quino?
QUINO (in a trembling voice): Yes?
POLICIA: You’re going to come with us.
LIDIA: You John Gabriel are off the hook for today, so leave before I regret it.
John Gabriel enters the school quickly.
POLICIA: So you like to hit your classmates.
Quino begins to cry inconsolably, and all the children start to look out of the school windows to see Quino being taken away.
LIDIA: I hope you’ll think twice before hitting a classmate for being different.
THE END