[first draught of The Holo Magi]
Act Two Scene Seven
[Bernardo chirps, snorting a little airline whisky
bottle of whisky-cocaine.]
Eduardo - Out of the Dead see I now bounce,
As Mossad ready their big pounce.
I couldn't give two shakes of a salt pig for
that number. It goes straight for the thyroid
or jugular. Iodine, salt. Cocaine, whiskey.
Bernardo - We couldn't get anything for Albinio in the
circus freak show - he's ropey as a lanyard.
Eduardo - You'd only get middle billing. We'd have
to line your cage with rupees and bhats
to save face, distract with plenty of nought. $10
Bernardo - You'd be a house of cards next to the rubber
faced man or the sword swallowing midget.
Eduardo - The begging bowl of white beggars always
goes begging. You can't refinance enough
loans against cheap labour from Africa.
Bernardo - Come this way, come this way, I'll show
you where flying carp leap into your frypan
ahead of tastier sea platter unspoiled be men,
where seasnakes sunbathe in the autumn and
spring. Come this way. Come this way, o please. $20
[Act Two Scene Eight]
[Enter chubby Francesca, in gymn leotards,
vacuum sportsbra
and trainers, with weights strapped to her
ankles and wrists, one kilo barbells in her fists,
puffing, sweating and heaving.]
Fran - I suppose there's pleasure in pain. But it'll be
worth the effort. By making the Magi's clone
fall in love with me, I'll get the secrets to
gene therapy for baldness in men, re
colourisation of hair in older women and
noncalorie all that you can eat food. We'll make
honest people of us yet. Senor, buenos dias.
Junior - Senorita, Buenos dias in kind. Don't stop.
If you go cold you might get the hamstring cramps.
Fran - I'm not sure that you'd mind me getting $10
a cardiac arrest doing cardiovascular exercise.
My approach is always the same - me want, me take.
Still, less is more, more compact muscle,
less loose fat and cellulite, hands of time spinning.
Junior - I wish that I could help you. If you slow down.
Fran - Cramps in the thighs trump cellulite, amigo.
Fran - Can't I get a swig of your brain booster shake?
Junior - You may, you're an emerald in the rough.
Fran - I don't know that I can take this bootcamp.
I change my mind in sheer agony. Know what you're $20
getting into, clone, I'm a tomboy. In Caruca I made my
living moneychanging gringos and gringas - I'd
take some pesos out of their bundle to be caught,
fake surprise, put them back, offering a recount,
and slip out the big notes at the back after they
kindly forwent the recount. That's me, senor.
I'm going to marry you and take half of everything.
Junior - Let me do some of your weight stretches.
Fran - No. It's no chore for you, you're just your father's
son, a chip off the old pipette or tort. $30
Junior - Let me do a few tai ch'i postures for you.
Fran - You're a sight for sore eyes. What shall I call you?
Junior - Junior Junior the second, first among clones.
Fran - Junior, I love the way you are, unspoiled by
the rotten world. When I think of all the bastards
and dastards I've been through - bullying experts,
three timing two timers. I believe a marriage
to an older woman, in her twenties, would be
perfect for you in this extremely lonely place.
Junior - I'm afraid that I've only seen composite $40
women apart from you. The Holo Magi has
piled a thousand female faces on top of one
another to form the the perfect average
witching face to which I'm drawn. You are
not unlike the One. You are something like her.
I've read of puppy love, before serious love.
I think that I can do that, if you lead the way.
Fran - I've pistol whipped many idiots who bought
cocaine on credit from me, I'll play minder
for a trillion dollar mountain or two. $50
Junior - I have read that love is a great healer.
Fran - My stepfather is a governor, but
I hardly know him, I believe it is a great omen.
We'll find a city out of style in the third world
and lie low, printing cash as need be, creating
tools and machines as need be off an emulator.
Can you cleave away from Senor Magi?
Junior - He has various time machines on the drawing board-
his photographic mind is easily distracted.
I think the one with ice and nanorobots is his $60
biggest project. A parallel universe might be of more
interest to him, than nannying us through
an Asian language. He has grown tired of
invisibility and body regeneration.
[Enter, the Holo Magi.]
Holo Magi - You can have the hand of my young clone
here in marriage on one condition - that you
are in harmony, and to produce that harmony
you must show me factory aptitude.
Fran - I can bring one industry to the table to prove
my instant love for Holo Magi junior - $70
Cacao-Coca, chocolate and cocaine frappes.
Magi - Done. I've always approved of arranged
marriages. Love is for children, and so are
broken hearts. I was in hospital throughout
the La Violenza with malaria and know that
passion is dangerous. But mark this: my clone
will keep you on a winding leash.
Junior - I shall. To strengthen and test her legs.
Fran - Holo Magi, I've always been a tomboy
and taken my lovers wearing their baseball $80
caps back to front. I'm sick of bitches who
drag me back from the glass ceiling, I know
there's a man at the top of the heap and at
the bottom of the heap, that I can roam whorish.
Magi - How can you not love her? While she huffs and
puffs jogging on the spot I can see the woman
that you could love arching back in orgasm or
puffing the birth of your precious child.
Junior - Indeed, you might, Magi, eyes all round.
[End of Act Two Scene Eight.]