ACT TWO
       
       

      Scene 1


      It is exactly the same gypsy camp that we saw at the beginning of the musical, and it is the same GROUP OF GYPSIES doing exactly the same dance with the same shouts of "Hey!" and "Ho!" And we have the same main characters that we saw at the outset who are all doing what they were doing before except for ANGELU, who sits quietly by the gypsy wagon. But whereas they all spoke in Act One with heavy middle-European accents, now they speak very clear and correct English.


      NIKKO

      We are going now into the village to read palms and steal books.

      STEFANA

      I am dying for a first edition of Kirkegaard's Philosophical Fragments.

      JOAKU

      We can't go yet. We are waiting for Vasily.

      TAPIA

      That's right. Today he is coming home from University.

      JOAKU

      Lena and Vladina have already gone over the hill to await his arrival.

      TAPIA

      It is so exciting.

      STEFANA

      To be able to go to University and have access to all those books instead of having to steal them.

      JOAKU

      But we return them when we're finished.

      NIKKO

      Some of them.

      TAPIA

      Most of them.

      STEFANA

      But these little villages, what kind of books do they have? Silly little romances. How to Sheer Sheep, Everything You Wanted to Know About Montavia, and Strudel Made Easy. Ah, but at University…

      TAPIA

      Wait! I hear singing. It is he, our Vasily!
        (A long operatic note is heard, and behind it comes VASILY with LENA on one arm and VLADINA on the other. He is now dressed as a University student rather than as a gypsy. The OTHERS gather around him, the WOMEN hugging and kissing him and the MEN slapping him on the back and shaking his hand.)


      JOAKU

      Our favorite gypsy!

      VASILY

      Gypsy, Joaku? You mean Son of Freedom.

      JOAKU

      Of course, Vasily. I forgot. We are all Sons of Freedom.

      STEFANA

      We are not all Sons of Freedom. Some of us are Daughters of Freedom.
        (ALL FEMALE GYPSIES applaud.)


      VASILY

      Forgive me, Stefana. Although a chauvinistic lapse like that is virtually unforgivable.

      STEFANA

      But you are forgiven. Now tell us all about University.

      VASILY

      There's nothing like a seat of learning
      To interrogate your intuition.
      Your senses reel, your brain is burning
      For every ounce of erudition.
      Friends and neighbors, gather round,
      And let me tell you what I've found.

      I studied pollens
      And I studied spores,
      And I learned the causes
      Of the Punic wars---
      But more important than the facts I filed,
      I got in touch with my inner child.


       GYPSIES

      But more important than the facts he filed,
      He got in touch with his inner child.
                                                         VASILY I learned to calculate,
      I learned to draw,
      I learned to fool around
      With Mendel's law.
      But even better than the tests I tried,
      I got in touch with the child inside.


        GYPSIES

      But even better than the tests he tried,
      He got in touch with the child inside.


      VASILY

      Don't you
      Cover the real you!
      You've got to feel you
      Are an infant at heart.
      You must induce in you
      To release the papoose in you!

      I learned the waterways
      Through all of France,
      I learned to classify
      A thousand plants,
      I took such pride in all that I'd compiled,
      Till I got in touch with my inner child.


       GYPSIES

      He took such pride in all that he'd compiled
      Till he got in touch with his inner child.


      VASILY

      Till I got in touch with my inner child!
        (THEY do a similar dance as the one they did in the previous act, although now it is more contemporary and, as a result, farmore complex with VASILY joining in. Once again, the moon slowly fades on the backdrop and the stage is gradually lit by soft pink and amber lights. The number ends, and BETAMO dashes on.)


      BETAMO

      Brothers! King Gustavo is leaving the castle at this very moment.

      TAPIA

      Gustavo, that fascist prick!

      BETAMO

      I overheard the guards. He is on his way to Paris to see his whore.

      STEFANA

      Which one?

      JOAKU

      If we hurry, we can spit at him.

      TAPIA

      And throw stones.

      VLADINA

      Come on, Vasily!

      VASILY

      You go ahead. I spit at enough royalty at University.
        (GYPSIES rush offstage right leaving only VASILY, NIKKO and ANGELU.)


      VASILY

      You're not joining them, Nikko?

      NIKKO

      I'm having a bad hemorrhoid attack.

      VASILY

      Still taking it up the rear?

      NIKKO

      On occasion.

      ANGELU

      Obviously the wrong occasion.

      VASILY

      What about you, Angelu?

      ANGELU

      Not during Ramadan.

      VASILY

      I'm not talking about taking it up the rear. I'm talking about going to spit at King Gustavo.

      ANGELU

      I'm not up to it.

      NIKKO

              You might as well tell him, Angelu.
       

      ANGELU

      He just got home. Why upset him?

      VASILY

      Upset me?

      NIKKO

      Angelu has a terminal illness.

      VASILY

      My God! Angelu! My poor darling! Cancer? AIDS?

      ANGELU

      I don't know.

      VASILY

      You don't know what terminal illness you have yet you know you have a terminal illness?!

      ANGELU

      Yes.

      VASILY

      But what do the doctors say?

      NIKKO

      She hasn't been to a doctor.

      VASILY

      Then who…?

      ANGELU

      Joaku told me.

      VASILY

      Joaku is a palm reader!

      ANGELU

      Joaku isn't just a palm-reader. He is the best palm-reader.

      VASILY

      I don't care if he's Cassandra on top of the walls of Troy!

      NIKKO

      Please, Vasily. You're forgetting your inner child.

      VASILY

      Fuck my inner child!

      NIKKO

      Look, my brother. You can be as logical as you wish to be. Angelu is convinced she is dying of a terminal illness, and nothing you or anyone else can say will convince her otherwise.

      ANGELU

      Why me, God,
      When I continue to pray?
      Why me, God,
      Why give me life
      Then take it away?
      I've always tried to do my best,
      I've always worshipped at your shrine.
      I wear a cross upon my chest,
      I eat the wafers, drink the wine.
      Why me, God?
      Why should this be fated?
      You put this head upon these shoulders,
      Now you want to decapitate it.
      Why me, God?
      When never once did I doubt.
      Why me, God?
      Why give me life then snuff it out?
      So don't you see, God,
      I'm on my knee, God,
      To ask: why me, God?
      Why me?
      Why me?
        (Tears of self-pity are flowing from her eyes as VASILY and NIKKO observe her---NIKO with a shrug, and VASILY with disbelief.)
       
      LIGHTS SLOWLY DIM