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think I need somebody new to fall in love with. Maybe this weekend. Any parties going on?
    FRASQUITA
    Whoa, Carmen. What happened to José? I thought you were all hot and bothered over him. All the pain in his eyes and everything? I thought you went for that big-time?
    CARMEN
    Frasquita, I don’t know if I was really seeing his pain or just seeing the place where it should have been. Sometimes I look at him and I see that shining knight I was talking about. Then I look again and there’s a shadow across his face. I think you can hold some things in you too long and they go bad. It’s as if your soul gets dark. Then it gets to be dangerous. I’m a little bit afraid of him. Maybe I let my heart get away from me. It won’t happen again.
    FRASQUITA
    I told you that, girlfriend. I’ve been there once or twice myself. Yeah, me, Frasquita Margarita Ortiz. I’ve been head-over-heels in love before. Or was it heels over head? Anyway… I’ve been there! But I’m not sure about you, Carmen. You’re, like, really messed around over that dude. I can even hear it in your voice.
    CARMEN
    I’m over him. Love knows how to die.
    DANCAIRO enters with RAMI and YOSHIRO. RAMI is a slightly built Indian, and YOSHIRO is stocky and Japanese.
    DANCAIRO
    Here’s my crew! Lay it out for them, guys.
    RAMI
    This marketing company in Pittsburgh is buying a list of credit-card users. It’s a one-time deal; they’re going to try to sell audio equipment over the Internet to everyone on the list. But instead of just sending the names and e-mail addresses, the card company sent the numbers, too. They have a good security system, but one computer—
    YOSHIRO
    On the third floor.
    RAMI
    It monitors everything. We’ve hacked the password and can download all the numbers onto a flash drive in—
    YOSHIRO
    Forty-two seconds.
    RAMI
    We need three minutes to go up the back elevator, into the office, get in, and download the numbers, and we’re out of there!
    DANCAIRO
    The building is empty on weekends except for a rent-a cop who guards the entrance on the first floor. We get a girl in there who needs directions because she’s lost. Then she sees how handsome the guard is. The other two girls are lookouts. Any cops passing by won’t be suspicious of two girls standing on the corner.
    FRASQUITA
    Sounds good to me.
    MERCEDES
    And when do we get paid?
    DANCAIRO
    We’ll do the caper Saturday morning, sell the numbers in the afternoon, and you get paid on Sunday morning. Right after Mass!
    There are high fives all around, and DANCAIRO leads RAMI and YOSHIRO out. JOSÉ gets up and approaches the girls’ table.
    FRASQUITA
    Here comes José. You need us to stay?
    CARMEN
    No, I’ll be okay.
    MERCEDES
    We’ll be in the corner. You need us, mami, just whistle.
    FRASQUITA and MERCEDES retreat to a corner table.
    CARMEN
    José, you look like shit, man.
    JOSÉ
    I feel out of place. What’s inside me, what’s really me deep inside, is different from what’s inside these people watching the world go by.
    CARMEN
    We all think we’re different, but when it comes around, we end up needing the same things. Somebody to love us. Somebody to respect us.
    JOSÉ
    Zuniga screwed up my career big-time. All the time I was on traffic duty, I thought about how he was trying to bring me down. I made myself think about you to keep him off my mind. He’s trying to destroy me. You’re my flower, my promise of life and hope.
    CARMEN
    José, I’m not a flower. I’m not a promise. I’m Carmen.
    JOSÉ
    That’s not how I thought of you during those hard days.
    CARMEN
    José, you’re making my head spin. What else were you thinking about?
    JOSÉ
    About my mother, and how much I miss the life I had with her. Does that sound weak to you? That a grown man should be thinking of his mother?
    CARMEN
    Of course not. I admire a man who thinks of his mother.
    JOSÉ
    She doesn’t know about all the changes in my life. I know that what she wants is for me to settle down with some nice