A Free Man of Color (5 page)

DOÑA SMERALDA
Careful!

MORALES
Did you say something, Moon of Magnificence?

DOÑA SMERALDA
(
calling
)
Darlingest, Delight of My Dreams? I think I found it.

MORALES
The cipher machine? Let me come in!

DOÑA SMERALDA
Don’t let him see you.

Jacques opens the door a crack, passes the code breaker out to Morales who kisses Jacques’ hand, then slams the door.

MORALES
I will now decipher the cryptogram. The code is “Mississippi”.

Morales uses the chart of the code breaker as Pincepoussse prepares to take dictation. Letters of the alphabet appear overhead. Then letters beneath the alphabet spell out M.I.S.P., which take the first four slots. M is under A. I is under B. S is under C. P under D. M.I.S.P. becomes the first four letters of the alphabet. The coded alphabet continues. A is E. B is F.

DR. T
At the same time, in Washington D.C., spies in France have delivered the same secret message to Mr. Jefferson.

Jefferson enters followed by Meriwether who carries the cipher breaker.

JEFFERSON
The key is “Artichoke”.

MORALES
So A is M.

PINCEPOUSSE
B is I.

MORALES
C is S.

MERIWETHER
A is F.

R is A.

JEFFERSON
C is E.

MORALES
D is P.

PINCEPOUSSE
V is R.

JACQUES CORNET
Can you see what they’re doing?

JEFFERSON
L is A.

MERIWETHER
P is N.

The letters overhead spin madly until they form a message. “Spain has given Louisiana to France”.

DR. T
(
to us
)
But you knew that already.

JACQUES CORNET
What does it say! I can’t see it!

MORALES
The floor of the world trembles beneath my feet.

DOÑA POLISSENA
Good news?

CREUX
Good news died with the invention of the wheel.

PINCEPOUSSE
I’m having a delusion. I thought you said Spain has given Louisiana to a country now ruled by a Corsican dwarf!

JACQUES CORNET
Did he say Spain has given all of Louisiana to France?

JACQUES CORNET
Go out there! Learn what’s in that letter!

DOÑA SMERALDA
He’ll be suspicious. I’m not interested in anything.

JEFFERSON
Whatever power other than ourselves holds the country west of the Mississippi becomes our natural enemy. This is an act of war!

Jefferson exits, followed by Meriwether.

MORALES
I shall not be discarded like the skin of a mango! Yes! That day is here!

JACQUES CORNET
What day is here?

MORALES
(
whisper
)
Our plan.

PINCEPOUSSE
(
whisper
)
What plan?

JACQUES CORNET
What are they saying?

MORALES
(
whisper
)
The plan we had talked about pursuing one day.

PINCEPOUSSE
(
whisper
)
Which plan?

JACQUES CORNET
I cannot be excluded!

MORALES
(
smacking Pincepousse
)
You dunce! Our plan requires money!

Margery appears, dressed as a boy.

MARGERY
Are we going to the ball?

PINCEPOUSSE
Napoleon will want Margery! Napoleon will not have you!

Pincepousse drags Margery off.

MORALES
I have no money. Do you?

CREUX
I have no money!

Pincepousse returns.

PINCEPOUSSE
I have no money.

MORALES
Only Jacques Cornet has money.

CREUX
Finally to meet a good man. Is he on our side?

PINCEPOUSSE
He is a lecher! I loathe him! And there’s one other thing—

Jacques Cornet, now dressed, appears at the side of the stage, Murmur at his side.

JACQUES CORNET
Only one?

MORALES
(
to Pincepousse
)
Do not reveal Jacques’ racial background to this lunatic until we have Jacques’ money. . . . My dear cousin M. Pincepousse and I must attend to the power of my office. Prepare for the ball! I see you in a toga! The two of you will shine tonight!

Creux and Doña Polissena go.

MORALES
Come with me to the
Cabildo
!

DR. T
City Hall.

MORALES
And give Cornet no suspicion of needing money for revolution. He’ll attempt to intrude.

PINCEPOUSSE
How will we get money out of him?

JACQUES CORNET
Yes. How will you?

MORALES
What is Jacques’ weak point?

JACQUES CORNET
Fashion!

MORALES
Maps! We will create a new map to sell to Jacques Cornet!

JACQUES CORNET
As I have a new map of you, you swine. Murmur, go to the Cabildo. Follow these men. Find out their plans. I am not surrendering one ounce of my authority!

Doña Smerelda, half-dressed, runs to Jacques Cornet.

DOÑA SMERALDA
You love only me?

JACQUES CORNET
(
embracing her
)
I love only you. (
to us
) And you and you.

DOÑA SMERALDA
You’ll always protect my honor?

JACQUES CORNET
As I would protect my wardrobe.

He goes.

The street outside Morales’ home.

JACQUES CORNET
(
to Murmur
)
Any return of
le Code Noir
will surely not apply to me. I control the flow of money in this town. I am safe. Anxiety is a slave’s emotion.

MURMUR
Or so he thinks.

Doña Athena appears. Jacques Cornet and Murmur go. Doña Athena follows.

Morales and Pincepousse enter the Cabildo.

MORALES
Has anyone seen us?

PINCEPOUSSE
No one.

MORALES
Revolution makes me thirsty! I need a drink. Slave!

Murmur appears as an old man, carrying a tray of drinks.

MORALES
We will unite North and South America. One nation from Canada to Tierra del Fuego, ruled by me, no longer
Supreme,
but elevated to
Glorioso Intendante
. I am no longer El Cid. I am Jorge Washington of
Nova Spania.

PINCEPOUSSE
And I?

MORALES
You are vice-
Glorioso Intendante
. We must raise a militia.

PINCEPOUSSE
Margery will love me then. (
seeing Murmur
) Who is he?

MURMUR
I’s jest cleanin’ up.

MORALES
There’s a dustball in that corner.

PINCEPOUSSE
Can he understand?

MURMUR
I never hears nothin’. The way everything is suits me fine.

MORALES
I will restore to you all that Jacques Cornet has wrongfully taken from you.

PINCEPOUSSE
My house? My money? Everything my father left him?

MORALES
Everything! And Margery shall be our queen!

PINCEPOUSSE
To
Nova Spania!

They go. Murmur runs to Jacques Cornet with the news.

JACQUES CORNET
Nova Spania
? Surely if there’s a new nation, I must hold a high rank in it. But wait! The Frenchman? The Englishman? Have they received their own coded message? Murmur, the keys.

DOÑA ATHENE
appears. Jacques Cornet sees her and flees.

DOÑA ATHENE
Was not the world a vast prison, and women born slaves? Come back. Come back!

Doña Athene pursues Murmur and Jacques Cornet.

The docks. Margery appears, dressed as a boy.

MARGERY
(
to us
)
I love this free port—walking along the docks and piers, seeing ships from all over the world depositing their goods. I hear every language known to man. I just met an Egyptian. I love the colors of all the skin that I see. The browns, the blacks, the yellows, the pinks, the white, quadroons, mulattoes, samboes, mestizos, Indians, and other commixtures not yet classified. Listen! Hear bagpipes on one ship and Italian mandolins on another. Breathe! The scent of the food. No city on this planet can be more varied, more
motley, more multifarious. Is there another place where no barriers exist between people? A world where people join, meet, all equals. Oh, there are slaves but if you’re a slave you can work to buy your freedom because the more people that are free, the better we all will be. If the presence of Pincepousse is the price I must pay for being in this paradise, I’ll pay! Perfection.

Pincepousse appears. She sees him and flees.

Mardi Gras! New Orleans is a riot of drumming and dancing and lots of badoum. Floats! Carnival! Joy!

Jacques Cornet appears, making his way through the ecstatic throng.

JACQUES CORNET
As a bee invades its body into combs, so must I now penetrate their homes. The home of the Yankee Sparks.

Jacques whistles that whistle.
MRS. SPARKS
appears behind a wrought iron gate.

MRS. SPARKS
Oh Jacques, it’s not the right time.

JACQUES CORNET
Oh Blessed damozel, with you I always know the time. I think of you, the clock within my body sweeps to high noon.

MRS. SPARKS
But my husband is home.

JACQUES CORNET
Is he my rival?

MRS. SPARKS
Never. Mr. Sparks just says trifling things like Barbary pirates declared war on the United States.

JACQUES CORNET
War? Why would your husband know this?

MRS. SPARKS
Mr. Sparks relays information to the State Department for the new president.

JACQUES CORNET
The United States has a new president? What happened to the old one?

MRS. SPARKS
We elect a new one every four years.

JACQUES CORNET
What a ridiculous system. This new president will need a man to oversee deliveries to the port of New Orleans. Could your husband get a message to—

Sparks enters. Mrs. Sparks retreats.

SPARKS
Cornet! What brings you here?

JACQUES CORNET
Oh. What’s new on the Rialto?

SPARKS
Is anything ever truly new?

JACQUES CORNET
Sometimes the world wears a new cloak?

SPARKS
Is everything fashion with you?

JACQUES CORNET
Well, yes.

MRS. SPARKS
(
appearing
)
Who is this man, dear?

SPARKS
No one. (
to us
) Cornet is trying to get into my house for a spot of fornication with my wife.—Sorry, Cornet. We’re off to the ball. Then I forego all social calls for Lent.

Mr. and Mrs. Sparks go. Mardi Gras swirls around him.

JACQUES CORNET
I freed him from his debt. How dare he disregard me? But what does Great Britain know? The home of Lord and Lady Harcourt.

Jacques Cornet whistles that whistle.
LADY HARCOURT
appears behind a wrought iron gate.

LADY HARCOURT
Jacques! It’s been days!

JACQUES CORNET
But now I’m here. I’ve come to clasp you naked in my longing arms, to taste your nimble tongue—We’ll explore all nooks and crannies with a detour to our fannies.

LADY HARCOURT
I’m free! With the news my husband got today he won’t notice I’m away.

JACQUES CORNET
What news?

LADY HARCOURT
I was shocked. Aghast. It seems that France—the plan is vast!

JACQUES CORNET
Why would your husband have privileged information?

LADY HARCOURT
My husband spies for the crown. Can we meet after the ball?

JACQUES CORNET
(
to us
)
Harcourt spies for England? I can work with England. I’m more British than they. Could your husband send a message from me to the king?

Lord Harcourt appears. Lady Harcourt goes.

HARCOURT
You? Pay a social call?

JACQUES CORNET
Harcourt! It was an enchantment seeing you earlier today. Hypothetical question. What would England do if, say, Napoleon took, say, Louisiana away from, say, Spain?

HARCOURT
Spain give up this paradise? I don’t think you need worry your bewigged little perfumed head about that. I’d ask you in but my wife is very ugly.

JACQUES CORNET
Harcourt! Could we meet man to man?

HARCOURT
(
to us
)
He just wants my wife.—Meet man to man? No!

Lord Harcourt goes. Jacques Cornet goes through the merrymakers looking for the men who were at his house earlier. Dorilante, Pythagore, Sparks, Harcourt, Alcibiade, appear, ignoring him.

JACQUES CORNET
Dorliante, it’s me! Alcibiade! I just need one moment. Just one minute. Just one moment. Just one minute.

THE MEN
So sorry. Must run. So sorry. Can’t stop. So sorry. Godbye.

They shun him and go.