Frog

Chen Bi and his dog are curled on the ground beneath a thick column in a corner of the Fertility Goddess Temple. The dog can be played by an actor. A few paper notes and some coins lie in a chipped begging bowl in front of Chen and alongside a pair of crutches.

Chen Mei, all in black and wearing a black gauzy veil, drifts onto the stage.

Two men in black, also wearing black gauzy veils, follow her onto the stage.

CHEN MEI: (howls) Baby… my baby… where are you… my baby… where are you…

The two men in black draw close to her.

CHEN MEI: Who are you? Why are you all in black and why have you covered your faces? Oh, I get it, you are also victims of the terrible fire.

FIRST MAN: Yes, we too are victims.

CHEN MEI: (alert) No. The victims of the fire were all women, and you are unmistakably men.

SECOND MAN: We are victims of another fire.

CHEN MEI: I’m sorry to hear that.

FIRST MAN: Yes, you can be sorry.

CHEN MEI: Are you in pain?

SECOND MAN: Yes, we are.

CHEN MEI: Have you had skin grafts?

FIRST MAN: (puzzled) Skin grafts, what’s that?

CHEN MEI: They take unburned skin from your buttocks, your thighs, and other spots and graft it onto the burned areas. Did you really not have any?

SECOND MAN: Yes, yes, we have. Skin from our buttocks has been grafted onto our faces.

CHEN MEI: Did they graft eyebrows?

FIRST MAN: Yes, yes they did.

CHEN MEI: Did they use hair from your head or pubic hair?

SECOND MAN: What? Pubic hair can become eyebrows?

CHEN MEI: If the scalp has been burned, they have to use pubic hair. It’s better than nothing, but if you don’t even have that, then you must go without, like frogs.

FIRST MAN: Yes, that’s it, we must go without, like frogs.

CHEN MEI: Have you seen yourselves in a mirror?

SECOND MAN: Never.

CHEN MEI: We burn victims fear nothing more than mirrors, and hate nothing more as well.

FIRST MAN: That’s right. We smash every mirror we see.

CHEN MEI: That’s a waste of time. You can smash mirrors, but you can’t smash storefront windows, or marble surfaces, or reflecting pools; most of all, you can’t smash the eyes that see us. Those eyes react with fear and avoidance; children cry, people call us monsters and demons. Their eyes are our mirrors, so you can never smash all the mirrors, and our best strategy is to hide our faces.

SECOND MAN: Right, so right, and that’s why we cover our faces with gauzy veils.

CHEN MEI: Have you ever thought of killing yourselves?

SECOND MAN: We…

CHEN MEI: From what I know, five of the girls who were injured in the fire have committed suicide. They killed themselves after looking in a mirror.

FIRST MAN: Mirrors killed them.

SECOND MAN: That’s why we smash every mirror we see.

CHEN MEI: I considered killing myself, but I changed my mind.

FIRST MAN: Always choose life. A demeaned life is better than the best death.

CHEN MEI: I stopped thinking about dying once I became pregnant, when I felt a new life moving inside me. I considered myself to be an ugly cocoon with a beautiful life growing inside, and that when it emerged, I would become an empty cocoon.

SECOND MAN: Well spoken.

CHEN MEI: But the baby was born, and I did not become an empty cocoon and die. I discovered that I was in love with life. I wasn’t dried up, I wasn’t withering. No, I was fresh and radiant. There seemed to be a moist quality to the tight skin of my face, my breasts filled with milk… the birth of my baby gave me a new life… but then they took my baby from me…

FIRST MAN: Come with us. We know where your baby is.

CHEN MEI: You know where he is?

SECOND MAN: We came looking for you for one reason — to help you go to your baby.

CHEN MEI: (excitedly) Thank the heavens. Take me there now, take me to see my baby.

The men in black try to spirit Chen Mei off the stage.

Like an arrow off the bow, Chen Bi’s dog jumps up and attacks First Man, biting him on the left leg.