Frog

GUGU: I didn’t say I wanted to die, not as long as I’m in good health, have a good appetite, and can sleep at night. Who would? But sleep has become a problem. Everyone else is sound asleep in the middle of the night, everyone but me and that owl in the tree. The owl stays awake to hunt mice. What about me?

TADPOLE: You can take a sleeping pill. Lots of important people are troubled by insomnia, and that’s how they deal with it.

GUGU: Sleeping pills don’t work with me any more.

TADPOLE: Try Chinese herbs.

GUGU: I’m a doctor, and I’m telling you, this isn’t physical. The day of reckoning has arrived. All those avenging ghosts have come to settle accounts. At night, when all around is quiet and the owl begins to hoot in the tree, they come. Coated in blood, they wail and moan, accompanied by those frogs with missing legs and claws. Cries and croaks swirl together and cannot be distinguished, one from the other. They chase me around the yard. I’m not afraid of being bitten, what frightens me is their slimy skin and the cold stench they produce. Tell me, what things have frightened me at any time in my life? Tigers? Panthers? Wolves? Foxes? I have never been afraid of animals that frighten others. But the ghosts of those frogs petrify me.

TADPOLE: (to Hao Dashou) Should we invite a Daoist priest to do an exorcism?

HAO DASHOU: She’s giving you an actor’s lines.

GUGU: When I can’t sleep, I think back over my life, starting with the first child I delivered all the way to the last. They all play in my head, like a movie. I don’t think I’ve done an evil thing ever in my life… but those… was that evil?

TADPOLE: That’s hard to say, Gugu, but even if they were, you were not responsible. Don’t blame yourself, Gugu, and don’t feel guilty. You’re a hero, not a sinner.

GUGU: I’m not? Really?

TADPOLE: If the township residents voted for the best person, you would get the most votes.

GUGU: Are my hands clean?

TADPOLE: Not just clean, but sacred.

GUGU: When I can’t sleep, I think of how Zhang Quan’s wife died, and Wang Renmei, and Wang Dan…

TADPOLE: You didn’t kill them, it wasn’t you.

GUGU: Did you know that Zhang Quan’s wife uttered some last words?

TADPOLE: I didn’t know that.

GUGU: ‘Wan Xin,’ she said, ‘you will die a terrible death.’

TADPOLE: That bitch had no right to say that.

GUGU: Did you know that Renmei uttered last words as well?

TADPOLE: What did she say?

GUGU: She said, ‘I’m cold, Gugu.’

TADPOLE: (agonisingly) I’m cold, too, Renmei.

GUGU: Did you know that Wang Dan said something to me before she died?

TADPOLE: No.

GUGU: Do you want to know?

TADPOLE: Of course… but…

GUGU: (in high spirits) She said, ‘Thank you for saving my baby’s life, Gugu.’ Did I really save her baby’s life?

TADPOLE: Of course you did.

GUGU: Then I can die in peace, right?

TADPOLE: Don’t say that, Gugu. What you should say is you can sleep in peace and keep living well.

GUGU: A sinner cannot and has no right to die. She must live on, to suffer torment, to be like a fish frying in a pan, like medicine boiling in a pot of water, all for the sake of atonement. Only when that is complete, is she free to die.

A large black noose drops from above the stage. Gugu goes up, stands on a stool, sticks her head through the noose, and kicks the stool over.

Hao Dashou and Qin He do not look up from their doll making.

Tadpole picks up a knife, rights the stool, jumps up onto it, and cuts the rope in two.

Gugu drops to the stage floor.

TADPOLE: (props up Gugu) Gugu! Gugu!

GUGU: Am I dead?

TADPOLE: I guess you could say that. But people like you don’t really die.

GUGU: Then I’ve been reborn.

TADPOLE: Yes, you can say that.

GUGU: Are you all okay?

TADPOLE: We’re fine.

GUGU: The baby too?

TADPOLE: He’s doing beautifully.

GUGU: Has Little Lion begun to lactate?

TADPOLE: Yes.

GUGU: Lots of milk?

TADPOLE: Lots and lots of it.

GUGU: What does it look like?

TADPOLE: Like a fountain.

Curtain

(Finis)