Thick as Thieves (Part One)

THICK AS THIEVES

HAJNAL: A Roma woman.

AKOS: A Hungarian hunter.

Night.

Snowfall in a dense forest.

AKOS with a rifle, back flat against a tree.

HAJNAL enters, running.

Then gun-shot shatters the silence of the stage.

HAJNAL screams. AKOS cries out.

HAJNAL is untouched. She searches for the source of the fire.

AKOS conceals himself behind the tree.

HAJNAL

Hello? Is there someone--

Turns in a full circle. Still panicked.

Anyone?

To self:

There must be someone. There’s someone here. There’s--

Urgent, now. Shouting.

Hello?

Her voice echos, then fades.

Silence.

HAJNAL stands still, listening. Nothing in the forest breaths. At length, a slight breeze, and the smallest stirring of the leaves. HAJNAL begins to walk quiet as a wolf between the trees.

At AKOS’s tree, she stops and leans her back against the bark. She has not yet seen-- or not betrayed having seen-- AKOS.

You have to be still. Still as death, they say. But I don’t think that’s it. It’s more... a river in the winter. When the water turns from vein to bone. Still. As. Ice.

Tilts her cheek ever so slightly in AKOS’s direction.

Isn’t that right?

No answer.

You’re a hunter. Don’t you know?

She rolls against the trunk towards AKOS. AKOS rolls away.

HAJNAL laughs.

Oh, I see. You want to dance? You flatter me.

Suddenly, HAJNAL leaps around the tree and grabs AKOS. She pins him against the trunk and locks her forearm under his chin.

AKOS

Choking.

I’ll shoot.

HAJNAL

So I’ve seen.

AKOS

Let me go.

HAJNAL

Drop it.

AKOS lets the rifle fall to the ground. HAJNAL holds him a moment longer, then nods and releases him. They both lunge for the rifle, but HAJNAL is quicker.

Ah ah ah, that’s not playing fair.

AKOS

Not in the mood to play.

He holds a hand to his throat.

You attacked me.

HAJNAL

You tried to shoot me!

AKOS

You’re pointing a rifle in my face! My rifle. In my face.

HAJNAL

You. Tried. To. Shoot. Me.

AKOS

I didn’t! I never!

HAJNAL

What was that, then? Thunder? Where’s the storm?

She touches the muzzle of the rifle.

Hot.

Brings her fingers to her lips.

Like skin.

Beat.

You shot.

AKOS

But not you.

HAJNAL

You missed.

AKOS

I startled. I’m sorry. I thought you were--

HAJNAL

What?

AKOS

A wolf. I thought you were a wolf.

HAJNAL

You hid.

AKOS

I--

I did. But--

HAJNAL

Do I look like a wolf to you now?

AKOS

No. A girl.

HAJNAL

A girl?

AKOS

A woman. Look--

HAJNAL

Don’t make a lick of sense. Hunter shoots. Says he’s trying for a wolf. But there isn’t any wolf, there’s just this...

A note of disdain.

Girl.

Hunter sees and what does hunter do? Does he run to her? Check her skin for blooming blood? No. Hunter hides. Don’t add up.

AKOS

I’m sorry.

HAJNAL

What are you afraid of?

AKOS

...You’re pointing my rifle in my face.

HAJNAL

I mean before.

AKOS

You’re not hurt.

HAJNAL

No. So?

AKOS

So you didn’t need me to run to you.

HAJNAL

It’s a matter of common courtesy, hunter. Your mother never teach you your manners?

AKOS

I’m sorry. I thought you’d think I’d shot you.

HAJNAL

Would of felt it. Would of known.

AKOS

That I’d meant to shoot you, I mean.

HAJNAL

That’s why you hid? You thought I’d think you’d tried to shoot me?

AKOS

Yes.

HAJNAL

Well guess what?

Beat.

I think you did.

She peers through the sight.

AKOS stiffens in alarm.

HAJNAL laughs. Steps away from AKOS and lays the rifle on the ground. She sees AKOS’s eyes cling to his weapon.

Don’t touch it. I mean it. I’m still your wolf, you hear?

AKOS

I won’t.

HAJNAL

Good. Now tell me again. From the top.

AKOS

Wolf stole our chickens. Stole our eggs. Made a rag doll of my sister’s son. Wolf’s somewhere here; I have a gun. I’m waiting. Want this done.

HAJNAL

You’re not allowed.

AKOS

Don’t care. Fucker has it coming.

HAJNAL

How do you know it was the wolf?

AKOS

Seen ‘im.

Big brute of a thing. Eyes that make a man’s heart go still as your river of bone. Girl like you should know better than to run through the forest at night. Hunter like me is the least of your concerns.

HAJNAL

I’m not scared of any wolf.

AKOS

Doesn’t matter if you’re scared. He’ll rend you just the same.

HAJNAL

You’re wrong. They smell it. The fear. Me, I don’t have that fear. I smell clean as one of their own. They howl and I just howl right back. I can run wherever I like.

AKOS

You sound like they raised you.

HAJNAL

No. We only grew up side by side. They’re from my home, if you like.

AKOS

Thought your kind didn’t have a home.

HAJNAL

Just cause we roam don’t mean we don’t know home. All the world is our country. Just like all forests are the wolves'.

AKOS

Something mean in his voice.

Liken yourself to the wolves, then?

HAJNAL

What’s that supposed to mean?

AKOS

You tell me.

HAJNAL

Our muscles should be honed and horrible. Our bodies lithe and lustful. Our minds relentless and restless and rash. In all these ways we should be wolves. Should be lucky to be wolves.

AKOS

In muscle, body, mind?

HAJNAL

In all of those.

AKOS

And somewhere else.

AKOS lightly touches HAJNAL’s breast.

Your heart.

HAJNAL

My heart?

AKOS

With vile bile.

A wolf’s.

HAJNAL

No. Not there. A woman’s, there.

AKOS

She-wolf.

HAJNAL

And why?

AKOS

Out stealing chickens. Out stealing eggs. Out--

HAJNAL

Not this again.

AKOS

Again?

HAJNAL

Say it.

AKOS

What?

HAJNAL

Call me by my name.

AKOS

We’ve hardly met. I haven’t asked your name.

HAJNAL

The name you know me by, I mean.

AKOS

Oh.

Beat.

This?

He steps near.

HAJNAL closes her eyes.

AKOS’s next word is a lover’s whisper in her ear.

Gypsy.

HAJNAL

Yes, that.

AKOS

You’re a gypsy girl. A swarthy thief. You roam like the wolves and you steal like them too.

HAJNAL

Again. Say it again.

AKOS

Savoring and slow. It is both slander and seduction.

Gyppsssyyy.

HAJNAL

HAJNAL opens her eyes. Turns to face AKOS.

There is a dangerous wolf-wild in her stare.

And you we call Gadjo. But you wouldn’t know that word. So you... I call a fool.

HAJNAL spits. AKOS startles backward. Then tries for the rifle. HAJNAL bars his way. They entangle; they fall to the ground. HAJNAL on top. She leans in very close to say:

I said don’t touch it.

AKOS

Hey!

Beat. AKOS stops struggling.

I know you!

HAJNAL

You don’t. I never forget a face.

AKOS

Never?

HAJNAL

I wouldn’t forget yours.

AKOS

It was years ago.

HAJNAL

Years ago was in Turkey. Or Romania. Not Hungary. Not here.

AKOS

Well then it was a different years ago then you’re thinking of, but I know you. I do. You were tiny a little thing. No room in your skull to hold your pleading eyes. Nothing to you but sinew. All your threads about to come undone. You came up to me and told a story, something sad. About your mother, who was dying. Or so you said. Meanwhile your mother, who wasn’t dying, came up behind and took my bags. I lost everything. It was you. I know you.

HAJNAL

You’re wrong.

AKOS

I’m not. Your big brown eyes, the hunger there. Your dark skin. Long hair. I know you.

HAJNAL

You’d describe us all that way.

AKOS

I know you.

HAJNAL

You only think you do. It was someone else.

AKOS

No.

HAJNAL

Another girl. A thief.

AKOS

Laughing. (Which isn’t necessarily the brightest idea, considering his predicament.)

Don’t try to tell me you’re not a thief.

HAJNAL

You don’t know.

AKOS

You see a hunter by his muzzle, no?

He indicates the muzzle of his rifle.

Well I see a gypsy by her flank.

HAJNAL slams AKOS’s head back down into the dirt. Flattens her weight over him.

HAJNAL

I didn’t say you could say it then.

AKOS

What else am I to call you?

HAJNAL

I have a name.

AKOS

Which is?

HAJNAL

Won’t give it away for free.

AKOS

Then a trade? I’m Akos.

HAJNAL

Huh.

AKOS

What?

HAJNAL

White falcon. That’s a hunter-bird. It fits.

AKOS

I didn’t give you that for free.

Beat. HAJNAL studies AKOS intently. At length, climbs off of him and sits nearby in the snow, still watching. AKOS pushes himself onto his elbows, moves a hand almost imperceptibly toward the rifle. Immediately, HAJNAL stomps down on this errant hand. AKOS screams.

HAJNAL

Don’t touch it. I said don’t touch it.

AKOS

I said tell me your name.

HAJNAL

Don’t trust you. How will I know that I can trust you?

AKOS

You’re a gypsy. No one trusts you. Isn’t that enough?

HAJNAL

I don’t follow you.

AKOS

I gave you my name anyway.

HAJNAL

I’m not a thief.

AKOS

But you’re as good as one. If you don’t keep your end of the deal.

HAJNAL

I never agreed.

AKOS

It’s just a name.

Beat.

Or should I call you gypsy then?

HAJNAL

Hajnal. It’s Hajnal.

AKOS

Dawn.

HAJNAL

Yes.

AKOS

Not sure it fits.

HAJNAL grinds her heel into his hand. AKOS flinches.

It’s perfect.

HAJNAL

Yes.

And then.

The wolf.

Enters the same way HAJNAL did.

Once again, the forest hold its breath...