The World Is An Apple

The World is an Apple by Alberto S. Florentino By: Alberto S.
Florentino
Characters:
Gloria, Mario, Pablo, Tita
Scene:
An improvised home behind a portion of the Intramuros walls. Two wooden boxes
flank the doorway. At left is an acacia tree with a wooden bench under it.)
MARIO enters from the street on the left. He is in his late twenties, shabbily dressed
and with hair that seems to have been uncut for weeks. He puts his lunch bag on
the bench, sits down, removes his shoes and puts them beside his lunch bag.
GLORIA: (Calls from inside) Mario! Is that you, Mario?
MARIO: Yes…
GLORIA: (A small woman about Mario’s age, with long hair, comes out wiping her
hands on her dress.) I’m glad you’re home early.
MARIO: How is Tita?
(Without waiting for an answer, he enters the dwelling).
GLORIA: (Crosses to the bench)-
Don’t wake her up, Mario. She’s tired. She cried the whole day.
MARIO: (reappears and crosses to the bench and sits on one end) Has she been
eating well?
GLORIA: She wouldn’t eat even a mouthful of lugao. But I’ll buy her some biscuits.
Maybe she’ll eat them. (She slips her fingers into his breast pocket) I’ll take some of
the Money!
MARIO: (Rises, annoyed)
Gloria! Can’t you wait a minute?
GLORIA:(Taken aback)- Hey, what’s the matter? Why are you suddenly so touchy?
MARIO: Who wouldn’t be? I’m talking to you about the child, and you bother me by
ransacking my pockets. I wish you’d think more of our daughter.
GLORIA: (Crosses at the Center) My God! Wasn’t I thinking of her? Why do you think
I need some
money? To buy me a pretty dress? Or see a movie?
MARIO: Tone down your voice. You’ll wake the child up.
GLORIA: (Low but intense) – All I want is a little money to buy her something to eat!!
She hasn’t
eaten anything all day! That was why I was “bothering” you!
MARIO: (Repentant)- I’m sorry, Gloria… (Grips her arm)
GLORIA: It’s all right, Mario. Now, may I have some of the money?
MARIO: (Turns to her)-Money? I … don’t have any… not now.
GLORIA: Today is payday, Mario.
MARIO: Yes … but…
GLORIA: But what? Where’s your pay for the week?
MARIO: I don’t … have it.
GLORIA: What? I waited for you the whole day and you tell me...
MARIO:(Angry)- that I have nothing! Nothing! What do you want me to do- steal?
GLORIA: I’m not asking you to do a thing like that! All I want to know is what you did
with your money.
MARIO: (Sits on the bench)-Nothing is left of it.
GLORIA: Nothing? What happened?
MARIO: Oh, I had a few drinks with my friends. Before I knew it, I had spent every
centavo of it.
GLORIA: (Eyeing him intently)-Mario, do you think you can make a fool of me?
Haven’t I seen you drunk before: crawling home like a wounded snake and reeking
of alcohol like a hospital? You don’t
smell or look drunk.
MARIO: All right, so I didn’t go drinking.
GLORIA: But your pay- what happened to it?
MARIO: It’s better if you don’t know, Gloria
GLORIA: Look, Mario I’m your wife. I have the right to half of everything you get. If I
can’t have my share, I have the right to know at least where it went!
MARIO: All right. (Rises.) I spent it all on another woman.
GLORIA: Another woman? I don’t believe it. I know you wouldn’t do such a thing.
MARIO: I didn’t know you had so much faith in me.
GLORIA: No, Mario, what I mean is- you wouldn’t spend all your money when you
know your daughter may need some of it. You love her too much to do that.
(Mario sits down and buries his head in his hands. Gloria crosses to him and lays a
hand on his shoulder.)
GLORIA: What’s wrong, Mario?
MARIO: (Turns his face away)- Nothing, Gloria, nothing.
GLORIA: (Sits beside him) I know something is wrong,
Mario. I can feel it. Tell me what it is.
MARIO: (Stares at the ground) – Gloria, I’ve lost my job.
GLORIA: (Rises, shocked) Oh, No!
MARIO: (Looks up at her) It’s true, Gloria
GLORIA: What about your pay for the whole week?
MARIO: I lost my job a week ago.
GLORIA: And you never even told me!
MARIO: I thought I could get another, without making you worry.
GLORIA: Do you think you can get another in five months? It took you that long to
get the last one.
MARIO: It won’t take me as long to get another.
GLORIA: But how did you lose it? Mario! Have your sinful fingers brought you trouble
again?
MARIO: Now, now, Gloria! Don’t try to accuse me, as they did!
GLORIA: What did they accuse you of?
MARIO: Just what you meant to say, Pilfering, they call it.
GLORIA: What else would you call it? (Pause.) What, according to them, did you
steal?
MARIO: (Low) It was nothing much, really nothing at all.
GLORIA: What was it?
MARIO: It was an apple.
GLORIA: An apple! You mean-
MARIO: An apple! Don’t you know what an apple is?
GLORIA: You mean, you took one apple.
MARIO: Yes, and they kicked me out for it: for taking one, single apple. Not a dozen,
not a crate.

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The World is an Apple by Alberto S. Florentino By: Alberto S.

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