CHARACTERS
SABA, early 30s. She is tough and unsentimental.
ISSAM, mid-20s. SABA’s brother.
SETTING
Simultaneously in a Bodega in Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit, or San Francisco, and an apartment in Sana’a, Yemen.
TIME
Any time between 2015 and 2018.
NOTE
The conversation takes place over a bad connection with delays. It should reflect this with overlapping dialogue, as represented with “/” and/or “-” signs. Arabic words or phrases are italicized. When ISSAM speaks “out” he is speaking to unseen customers.
ISSAM, sits on a stool behind counter. He is in a bodega. He has a Bluetooth earpiece in one ear. From time to time he bags something up and hands it to unseen customers.
Somewhere else sits SABA, cross-legged. She is about the same age (a bit older), head uncovered. She has one headphone in her ear connected to her phone on the floor beside her.
ISSAM
(out)
Swisher?
SABA
What?
ISSAM
(out)
Swisher Sweets. Anything else?
SABA
You know I hate when you call me sweetie, Issam.
ISSAM
(out)
Take care, man.
SABA
It’s mad 1950s.
ISSAM
(out)
Take care of yourself.
SABA
Some Ricky Ricardo type shit. You’re too young for/ that.
ISSAM
What?
SABA
Never mind.
ISSAM
Oh, you know I love me some I Love Lucy./ Luuuucy I’m-
SABA
Doesn’t mean you have to/
ISSAM
Hold up.
SABA
What? / Delay
ISSAM
(out)
Milk’s right there. End of the aisle.
SABA
Ugh, I despise Skype, Su.
ISSAM
(out)
Yeah, it’s organic. . . . No Sabra Hummus, miss, sorry. Don’t carry it.
SABA
And WhatsApp . . .
ISSAM
(out)
’Cause we don’t. Pulled it. Stopped selling the stuff.
SABA
Hate Google phone and Zoom and FaceTime and Messenger and-
ISSAM
(out)
’Cause we don’t support apartheid, that’s why. Cedar is better / anyway.
SABA
Feels like every long-distance conversation I have was written by Samuel /Beckett.
ISSAM
(to Saba)
Fucking hell, man.
SABA
What?
ISSAM
What?
SABA
Dude, I’m going. / Line sucks
ISSAM
What’s that?
SABA
Can you hear/ me?
ISSAM
What was it/ you asked?
SABA
Who are you/ talking to?
ISSAM
Stop interrupting, Saba.
SABA
Me or the customer?
ISSAM
If we both speak at once we’ll never/ get
SABA
Issam?
ISSAM
They wanted Sabra.
SABA
Can you just . . . Ahh, yes. Couple right? I can see them /now.
ISSAM
What was I /saying?
SABA
Pale. Off white, really. Skinny. Both of ’em.
ISSAM
Right and right again.
(whispering through his teeth, smiling)
Shhh, they’re coming/ to the /counter.
SABA
With jeans even skinnier than they are, all black, head to toe, and those fucking big glasses, the type babba wore in the ’60s.
ISSAM
(out)
Bag?
SABA
Kind of glasses we used to make fun/ of.
ISSAM
(out)
Your change. Thanks. /Take care.
SABA
Coke bottle joints, the poor man’s-third world-Peter Sellers model he got in Sana’a before going to the States.
ISSAM
(back to Saba)
He just paid me in a two-dollar bill. Wallet full of ’em. Walahi.
SABA
And they rock ’em now cause/ it’s “like, ironic.”
ISSAM
Must be “like ironic” or/ something.
SABA
What?/
ISSAM
What?
SABA
How’s school by the way?
ISSAM
(out)
Hey. Yeah we’re open ’til eleven.
SABA
Listen, I should go/ li’l bro. I gotta get to . . . /hello?
ISSAM
(to Saba)
No. hold on, let’s talk. . . . Fine. School’s fine. Only taking one course this semester. Wait, I can talk now. Store’s empty. Streets too.
SABA
OK, five minutes max.
ISSAM
Most of ’em go indoors at dark, anyway. “Close the gates, pull up the/ drawbridge.”
SABA
Line might cut. /What?
ISSAM
Native to settler ratio is still not in their favor, you know. Wait, holla at me, sis. Shu al wad3a?/ How’s Sana’a?
SABA
I don’t know how long the electricity will hold /out.
ISSAM
I said how’s everything/ over there?
SABA
And you know the bombers mostly come out at dark.
ISSAM
I heard they hit Zabid and Mokha. Crazy. Hey, did you get the money we/ wired for babba’s cousin in Aden?
SABA
Yeah. Rubble. Totally fucked. I was down on the coast last week with a convoy. You wouldn’t believe what it . . . no. It didn’t come through.
ISSAM
Why would they hit Zabid? . . . What? Shit.
SABA
Who knows? Fucking Wahabi assholes and their friends in DC /trying out their new toys . . .
ISSAM
We sent it before/ yesterday.
SABA
Destroying anything older than the / House of Saud.
ISSAM
You should go and get it/, Sa.
SABA
I’ll go tomorrow/ if I can.
ISSAM
You see the op-ed Lulu wrote in the/ Times?
SABA
To pick it up. . . . No, I haven’t had a chance to read it. But I talked to her when she/ was writing it.
ISSAM
Talked about how they are wiping out archaeological sites.
SABA
Su, I should hang up, gotta be back at the hospital in a couple/ hours.
ISSAM
All over the country, from the air. On purpose./ What?
SABA
Though a hospital without medicine, without electricity isn’t much of a /hospital.
ISSAM
Sis, you gotta sleep./ I know how you get.
SABA
The number of kids. Like Tareq’s age, you know. And smaller. I/ can’t even . . .
ISSAM
You can’t keep pulling night shifts and day shifts back/to back.
SABA
The babies are the worst. Today one came in. Girl. Baby Nur’s age, man. Smaller. Must have been a year old. /Tiny little thing.
ISSAM
Fucking horrible . . .
SABA
Like a bird, skeletal. We can’t/ keep up. Malnutrition is just picking them off, bro, and there’s no food coming in./ No fuel.
ISSAM
Are you safe?
SABA
Diarrhea too. I swear there was a piece of shrapnel bigger than this kid’s torso. Right through. . . . I’m Fine. I’m fine. Don’t/ worry about me.
ISSAM
You gotta take care of yourself. I know, I know./ I heard there’s cholera.
SABA
I thought working the emergency room in Chicago last year was bad but this, bro. It’s fucking. . . . Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man, cholera.
ISSAM
How is that . . . like . . . still a thing?
SABA
His name was/ Ahmed.
ISSAM
What fucking century are we in? . . . Whose name was /Ahmad?
SABA
Tell me about it. Wasn’t something we spent a lot of time on in med school, you know, not like a top /priority.
ISSAM
Ahmad. You said his name-
SABA
Cause we’re not in the Paris in eighteen thirty fucking two anymore. . . . What? . . . The kid. The one with the shrapnel wound. Ahmed. Nine and/a half.
ISSAM
Oh.
SABA
His uncle fainted when he /brought him in.
ISSAM
One sec.
SABA
He had driven him all the way from Dhamar in the back of a / pickup.
ISSAM
Hold on, sis.
(out)
Sorry, boss, what did you say?
SABA
Yeah, sure. . . . What? Issam?
ISSAM
(out)
No. No Sabra. . . . Yeah, Cedar is better. Two for five bucks.
SABA
Fucking Sabra . . . Issam? Yo, Issam./
ISSAM
(out)
No problem.
(back to Saba)
You still there?
SABA
Lost another one yesterday, bro. Named Issam. Big eyes. Curly hair. Just like you. Had a toy in his hand. Wouldn’t let go, even after her . . . Ninja turtle. Donatello I think. Couldn’t bear to pull it away/ when he . . .
ISSAM
I can’t hear / you.
SABA
Left the the room. Had a nice cry in the broom / closet.
ISSAM
Why? What? . . . Did you say/ Donatello?
SABA
Cause all I could think of was you. When you were little, and if that had happened to you when/ . . . What?
Silence.
SABA
Same age as you /were in that picture mamma has on the/ fridge. . .
ISSAM
A little /delay.
SABA
at Tiger stadium. . . .
A beat.
Yeah, /I know.
ISSAM
Against the Yankees. I remember. When the Tigers were/ garbage.
SABA
Two front teeth missing. With that shit-eating grin of yours. You were a clown.
ISSAM
That’s the game babba spit out the hot dog when he realized it/ wasn’t halal.
SABA
Oh God, I remember / Same game.
ISSAM
Some say I still have a shit-eating grin./
SABA
Fuck. Hold on.
Bombing. Lights flicker on and off on Saba.
ISSAM
What was that? Saba?/ Saba?
SABA
It started. I told you. They love to drop their bombs at night. I think it was / the old city.
ISSAM
Saba? Are / you there?
SABA
Call ’em Vampire bombs.
ISSAM
You OK? That was loud.
(out)
Aisle three, near the /coconut water.
SABA
Yeah. They just hit the old city. I’m/fine.
ISSAM
Where are you?
SABA
I’m/ fine.
ISSAM
Good./
SABA
I should/ go.
ISSAM
Man, the shit some of those mud bricks must have seen over the past thousand /years.
SABA
I’m at my/ place.
ISSAM
You should read the coverage here. No one gives a/ flying fuck, Sis.
SABA
Didn’t I teach you anything, bro? Sana’a is 2,500 years old.
ISSAM
(out)
Pull, man. Pull, the sign says pull.
SABA
I’m going. I’ll call as soon as I can.
ISSAM
Sa, you still there?
SABA
Love you/ bro.
ISSAM
Hey, Sa?
SABA
Give a kiss to the folks.
ISSAM
Saba!/
SABA
What? /Hello?
Beat.
ISSAM
Take care of those kids, Sa. Make them feel . . . safe. Even if you can see they aren’t gonna make it. Just let ’em know they’re loved. Be their big sis. When the moment comes.
Silence. Saba is choked with grief, can’t speak.
ISSAM
Saba? You there? You hear me?
Another silence. More bombing in the distance. Saba looks toward the sound.
SABA
And you, li’l bro. You let ’em know what’s up.
ISSAM
I got you. I will, Sa, I-.
Silence.
SABA
Hello?
ISSAM
Hello?
They both look at their phones. The line is cut.
ISSAM
(out)
Pull. Don’t push. It’s written right there, friend. Says pull.
END
