CADAVER BY ALBERTO S.
FLORENTINO (SCRIPT) Carding: Maybe you didn’t go to the dispensary as I told
Characters: Torio, Marina, Carding
Time: Afternoon
Scene: The interior of a squalid dwelling located on the
edge of a cemetery in Manila. The walls and roof—made
of empty fruit boxes, tarpaulin, bamboo, and cardboard
patched together—threaten to collapse any minute. A
door, upstage left, leads to the outside and another, right,
to the kitchen. Upstage center is a small window. At right
corner is a cot placed diagonally across the room. Two
fruit boxes, standing on their sides, serves as seats, and
another, flat on ground, serves as a table where an oil
lamp gives off the only light in the semi-darkness.
(Torio is lying on the cot, a manta blanket covering him
to the waist. He is around 28 years old, with a square jaw
and well-developed body. He is sick, his eyes being closed
as if in sleep.)
(Carding, a frail-bodied, slow-moving man, in dirty pants
and T-shirt, enters. He crosses to taps him in the
shoulder.)
______________________________________________
Carding: (as Torio seems to wake up) Were you asleep,
Torio?
Torio: No, Carding, I was not…..sit down.
Carding: (still standing) So you’ve been sick. I didn’t
know it until Marina told me.
Torio: Where did you see her?
Carding: She passed by the house just a while ago.
Torio: Damn that woman! So she insisted on seeing you.
I told her not to bother you!
Carding: Oh….it isn’t any bother at all, Torio. I was even
chiding her for not letting me know right away. (Takes a
seat at foot of cot) She was so excited when she showed
up, at first I thought you were dead or dying!
Torio: Don’t you let that woman alarm you again! There’s
not a time when she doesn’t worry about something.
Sometimes, I even think she worries about what will
worry her next! tries to laugh but end up coughing)
Carding: But she has reason to be worried. You look very
sick.
Torio: I’m a just a bit feverish, that’s all.
Carding: (leans forward and feels Torio’s temperature)
Your whole body is on fire! How did you get that fever?
Torio: I don’t know. I guess it’s the tiny wound on my
foot. (exposes his right foot, bandaged in dirty rags)
you. It’s nothing serious. (pulls his foot under the blanket)
Carding: Nothing serious! If it can put a man of your size
and strength to bed, it is something serious! But you need
not worry. I sent Marina to the dispensary.
Torio: What for?
Carding: I told her to ask the doctor to come and look
you over. She should have thought that before.
Torio: Are you dreaming? Do you think the doctor will
come when we have no money to pay him?
Carding: But you don’t have to pay him anything. He’s
the public doctor. He’ll treat you for free.
Torio: Maybe if I got there. But do you think he’ll take
the trouble of coming to me? What do you think I am, a
congressman?
Carding: He must come. He’s paid to take care of the
sick…wherever they are.
Torio: But will he come? Hell, no! (Mumbles to himself)
Nobody comes to me… no body. Not even those
firemen…they did not come…
Carding: What firemen are you talking about?
Torio: (with bitterness) do you remember the house we
had before this that was burned to the ground?
Carding: I remember. I even helped you built this one.
Torio: When it was burning, did the firemen come to put
the fire out? No! Oh, yes, the came—but only up to there!
(points through the window) When they found out it was
only my house burning, they drove away, pretending it
was only a grass fire they saw…Now, why would they do
that? Don’t I deserve to be treated like any other citizen?
Carding: (jocosely) maybe they found out that you never
once brought a cedula! (Laughs; rises and paces about)
Oh, Torio….try to forget that. Thinking about it will not
make you feel any better.
Torio: Could you forget it if everything you had in the
world went up in flames? I can’t forget that. I’ll remember
that to my dying day.
Carding: (pauses at the door, looks out, and turns
around) Torio…why don’t you move out of this cemetery?
Maybe it’s the place that brings you bad luck. Why don’t
you out up a house somewhere else? Anywhere but
here… You live all alone here.. among all these dead…
Torio: (continues to mumble to himself) Maybe, just
because we live here with the dead, people think we’re as
good as dead…
Carding: (walks to foot of cot: tires to divert his
thoughts..) If the doctor does not come, Torio, we’ll move
you to the hospital.
Torio: To the hospital! To the free ward? Oh no!
Carding: So what if it’s a free ward? You know very well
we cannot afford to be choosy.
Torio: I was there once. Do you know how they treat you
there? They will neglect you until you’re on the brink of
death. Then they send young doctors to practice on you…
. Not for anything in the world would I go there again.
Carding: (sits down and leans forward) Look, don’t you
want some pretty nurses hovering about you like
butterflies? Oh, how I wish I would get sick just to be bear
them. I would hate to get well.
Torio: Don’t try that kind of talk to me; I won’t fall for it.
I won’t let those nurses or anybody else touch me…If I’ll
die, I’ll die in spite of all the doctors and pretty nurses in
the world.
Carding: (rises and walks a little) My God, you should be
in the hospital now…and not here, arguing with me.
Torio: You’ve got a chicken’s heart. You’re just like my
wife. I get a tiny wound and a little fever…and she thinks
I’m dying. Can you imagine me dying of a tiny wound like
this (puts out his foot)—at this age and with this body?
During the Japanese Occupation I had a bayonet wound
that deep. (demonstrates with his fingers) Does it look as
if I died of it? Is this a dead man’s ghost you’re talking
to?
Carding: (looking out the window) We’re never sure of
our fate, Torio. Strange things happen to us when we
least expect them.
Torio: I’ll bet you, in a few days I’ll be well and strong.
Then we will continue our work. We’ll make up for the
time we lost since I got sick. You haven’t tried doing it
alone have you?
Carding: (turns to him) No, I—
Torio: It’s all right. I know you couldn’t do it. Not alone.
You need me…But don’t get impatient. I’ll get well sooner
than you expect.
Carding: You don’t get what I mean, Torio….I’m giving
it up.
Torio: (surprised) What? You’re giving it up? You’re
joking!
Carding: I’m not joking, Torio.
Torio: But why? Have you found an easier way of making
a living?
Carding: I’m frightened, Torio. See what happened to
you. Suppose it happened to me? I’m not even half as
healthy as you are.
Torio: Oh! So this little wound had you really scared huh?
Why, it’s only a scratch! It did not even bleed a drop.
Carding: You know what old folks say about those
accidents!
Torio: What do they say?
Carding: They say…if one gets wounded—or even only
scratched—by the bones of the dead….he will die.
Torio: And you believe that?
Carding: Of course!
Torio: (laughs) You’re just a child. Besides, it was an
accident! A corpse did not rise from his tomb to plunge
one of his ribs into my foot! Nothing like that
happened….so there’s nothing to be scared of!
Carding: Even then. You got that wound in a
cemetery…(leans toward him) Torio. Let’s not offend the
dead any more. It’s so frightening. You’ll never know what
they’ll do to punish us.
Torio: What can they do except haunt us? And who is
scared of ghosts?
Carding: (straightens up)I’d rather offend living people—
Torio: And if they catch you, what do they do? They
throw you in jail. The dead are more kind Carding.
Carding: I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since we
started that thing. It’s seems so mean and ugly—just like
stealing candy from an innocent baby.
Torio: Carding, if you start being sentimental in this
world, you’ll starve to death.
Carding: Oh…here comes Marina.
(Marina enters, a plain woman of 25 or 26, sloppily
dressed in a formless, tunic-like gray dress.)
Carding: Where is the doctor Marina? (looks outside)
Marina: He’s not with me.
Torio: (with a cynical triumph) See! I told you so I would
have died in surprise if he came!
Carding: (to Marina) Why couldn’t he come? Was he
busy?
Marina: No, he was not. (feels Torio’s temperature) Your
temperature is still rising.
Carding: (to Marina) What did he say?
Marina: He wants us to take Torio to the dispensary.
Carding: How? He couldn’t even sit up.
Torio: Who says I can’t even sit up? I can! (tries to sit up
as Marina cries out: “Don’t!” but he fails.) I know I can…
if I really try.
Carding: That doctor must be crazy.
Torio: The doctor’s afraid that, instead of paying him, I
would beg from him. If he came, I would have really
begged from him. (laughs)
Carding: Are you sure you tried to make him come?
Marina: Of course I did! Now, what shall we do?
Torio: You’re both afraid I might die. For all you know, I
might outlive both of you. (smiles and starts murmuring
to himself)
Marina: (crosses to Carding downstage; speaks low)
Listen to him. I’m afraid the fever has touched his brain.
Carding: Let’s take him to the hospital.
Marina: It’s not as easy as that Carding. He hates
hospitals.
Carding: We’ll drag him to it…if we have to.
Marina: We can’t make him do anything that he hates.
Carding: (touches his arm) But we just can’t leave him
alone, Marina. He’s really more sick than he appears to
be. It is only his will to live that keeps him going. He’ll
break down soon and it may be too late then.
Torio: (notices them conversing) Hey! What are you two
doing there…whispering like two lovebirds?
Carding: (loud enough for Torio to hear) You’d better go
down to the street and get a jeep.
Marina: We haven’t even a centavo to pay for the driver.
Carding: I’ll take care of that.
Torio: What do you want a jeep for? (sarcastic) Are you
two eloping? Can’t you wait ‘till I’m dead?
Carding: Torio, we’re taking you to the hospital.
Torio: You’re not taking me anywhere!
Carding: Torio, we don’t have to ask you.
Torio: Oh, no? You speak as if you own my body!
Carding: Because I know it’s for your own good.
Torio: But I don’t want it, I don’t need it! Don’t tell me I
can’t refuse anything for myself.
Carding: Torio, listen to me. Be reasonable. You’re sick.
If you refuse to go, we’ll drag you if we have to.
Torio: Just try, Carding….just try! I’ll fight you with my
last strength!
Carding: Torio—
Torio: Carding: you’re my friend. Don’t do anything I
hate. And don’t worry, I’m in my right senses.
Carding: (irked) All right, all right, I won’t insist! (Sits
down)
Marina: Torio please….listen to us..
Torio: Why are you so worried about me?
Marina: What a silly question!
Torio: That’s not a silly question! Why should you worry
that I might die? Haven’t you always wanted me to die?
Marina: Torio!
Torio: You were never really happy with me, were you?
I know you’ve grown tired of me.
Marina; No, Torio!—
Torio: Don’t be ashamed to admit it. I wouldn’t mind. I
confess I also get bored sometimes. But where I could
always seek change, you cannot. I can imagine how you
must feel inside…
Marina: Torio, whatever gave you those ideas?
Torio: So if you think I’m going to die, don’t take this all
trouble of pretending you don’t want it to happen. Just let
me alone to die. This could be your chance to get rid of
me and take another man. Carding, for instance—

Marina: Torio!
Torio: Carding hasn’t taken a wife yet. And he’s quite a
man too. Even before I’m dead and gone, he has started
to lay his hands on you—
Marina: Torio! He’s our only friend and you dare speak
of him like that! (to Carding) Carding, you must forgive
him. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.
Carding: Don’t worry. I understand very well.
Torio: See? I’m not yet dead and you have taken his side
against me!
Marina: Torio—
Torio: Do you think he can take care of you as I have
been doing? He cannot even earn enough money to
support himself. He cannot take over our business when
I get sick—
Marina: What business—?
Torio: how much more if he had you take care of? He’d
starve you to death.
Marina: What business does he mean Carding?
Carding: Don’t mind him. He’s gone mad!
Torio: So I’m mad huh? (to Marina) I’ll tell you what kind
of business we have.
Carding; Torio!
Torio: It’s a business that requires no capital. All you
need is a good, strong stomach—
Carding: (shaking him) Torio, stop it!
Torio: (pushing him off) Why? Are you ashamed to let
others know that the dead have been supporting you all
along?
Marina: What does he mean, Carding?
Carding: Don’t listen to him. He’s out of his mind.
Torio: really? (to Marina) Do you want to know where
the money I bought home came from? Do you believe I
really earned it by breaking my back at the waterfront?
I’ve fooled you so well you never suspected, did you?
Marina: What did you do?
Torio: To put it plainly—
Carding: Torio! Don’t—
Torio: I robbed the dead people around us… (Carding,
exasperated, sites at doorway and looks out) -
Marina: (shocked) What! You mean—
Torio: I was one of those who force open the graves in
the cemetery.
Marina: (hardly able to speak) And you stole from them?
And you…sold what you found?
Torio: Yes! Why not? Rich people are always being
buried with something valuable on them. Rings, earrings,
necklaces—even gold teeth! Why let such treasures rot
under the ground…while above that ground people like us
are starving!
Marina: Torio…you didn’t do that!
Torio: But I did! You can ask Carding. He was with me
all the time. At first he was scared to death.—He would
tremble and perspire—but later on—
Carding: (turns to them) I didn’t want to—
Torio: But he had to—because he had to eat—even from
a dead man’s hand. When he tries to rob the living, he
always get caught. He’s too slow for them. But with the
dead, once he got used to it, it was so easy. The dead do
not report to the police, they don’t fight back, they don’t
even scream!
Marina: Stop it! How horrible! I can’t stand it! (sits down)
Oh…the poor sacred dead…
Torio: What so sacred about them? They’re dead!
Marina: (almost crying) Torio…we had nowhere to go,
we moved into their place. We erected this house on their
land. They did not complain, they did not call us
“squatters”, they did not drive us away. And what did you
do in return, what!
Torio: I hate them! That’s why I robbed them! I hate
them!
Marina: Hate them? What did they do to you? Did they
ever try to harm you?
Torio: (pointing through the window) Look at them!
Doesn’t that sight infuriate you? Look! Nothing worries
them. They lie there day and night, sleeping like babies,
mocking our sufferings…
Carding: (at doorway) Marina, stop listening to him…if
you want to keep sane. He used to tell me that over and
over again. Maybe that’s why he made me do what he
did. Marina: Torio…are you all right?

Torio: One night, as I was coming home, A strong rain
overtook me. I ran for shelter to the nearest tomb, that
one near the road, belonging to a dead millionaire. It was
so beautiful. It looked more like a palace than a place for
a dead. It had thick marble walls and a roof and festive
lights. Inside it was a dead body in a coffin. It was dry in
the rain and comfortable even in death. Why should that
dead merchant have marble walls and a roof to protect
him from the rain, while I was outside, soaked to the bone
and shivering, waiting to go home, to a dark, dank place,
with a cardboard roof that leaks even in the lightest rain!
Why? He’s dead and I’m alive! I have more right to the
things wasted on him, don’t you think so? Don’t you think
we need thick walls more than the dead?
Marina: He must have seen you…
Torio: (he comes to, sees Marina and speaks between
gasps) I’m all right…They cannot take me…I’m not willing
to go yet. (looks around blindly) Where’s Carding? Has he
gone?
Carding: (comes to his view) I’m still here.
Torio: I thought…. you had left… You are not mad at
me…are you?
Carding: No, I’m not, Torio.
Torio: I didn’t mean it…what I said about you. I had a
drunken feeling…I just said anything„,
Carding: You don’t have to explain. I understand very
well. Try not to talk…you need rest.

Torio: Who could’ve seen us? We used to work after
midnight…when everyone was asleep.
Marina: it was God who saw you Torio. He keeps eternal
watch over the dead.
Torio: Yes, I feel tired…You two talk together…I’ll take a
short nap… (to Marina) Wake me up when he’s ready to
leave, Marina…
Marina: Yes, Torio.

Torio: Why should God keep watch over the dead? Why (Torio closes his eyes; suddenly his head and his arm fall
not you and me who are still alive? over the edge of the cot)

Marina: Oh…what you did is a horrible sacrilege! If you
die, heaven will surely not receive your soul…Yes, if you
die, even hell would refuse your damned soul!
Torio: (mad) Why do you always say “if you die” “if you
die”? Do you really want me to die?
Marina: (screams, shaking him) Torio! Wake up, Torio!
Wake up! (flings her body on him and cries over the body
for a time; later, Carding pulls her away and covers the
body as Marina, now calmed, watches.)
-CURTAIN-

Marina: No, why should I?

Torio: (vehemently) You really want to get rid of me,

don’t you? (Marina, throughout, tries to interrupt—in
vain) Now I see that you two have been waiting for me
to die so you could live together! Maybe a little wound like
this can put me into bed. You’re praying—praying that I
will die. But I’ll disappoint you both! I will live on and on
if only to punish you by denying you the chance to live
together! I’m still young! I have hundred years before me!
Not all the dead in the world can drag me to the grave!
(his raving rises in pitch) I dare them! Yes, I dare all the
dead whom I offended to take me! (raving mad, shouts
through the window) Take me if you can! I despise all of
you! Oh, that you were all alive now and suffering in life!
(suddenly collapses).

Marina: (rushing to him) Torio! What happened?

Carding!

Carding: (at Torio’s side) Torio! (to Marina) Get some

water quick! (Marina gets water as Carding tries to revive
him. Then makes him drink.)