Damned if you Do

                                                           

                                                            Damned if you Do
                                                            By Jacob Juntunen

Characters:
OLDER WOMAN
YOUNG WOMAN
MAN

Setting:
The women sit facing one another at a table. They speak, but seem unaware of each other.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
When my grandmother was young, Krakow was still part of the Habsburg Empire. But she could travel! My grandfather was a jeweler, so they took trips to Austria, Germany, even France. Now everyone needs passports—why should we need a piece of paper just to move about? It’s ridiculous. And of course the bastard Communists aren’t going to give us one.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
Now that Ryan Air has such cheap flights to Britain, it seems like all the young people are going. Just grab that EU passport and leave. But for what? To become a janitor? All our educated Poles are leaving and doing shit with their lives.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
And Martial Law? Because a bunch of unions want more independence? Are the Soviets so scared of us?

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
And it’s not like the British want us there. Are they scared too many shitty jobs are done by Poles?

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
Thousands of Poles imprisoned, hundreds dead, because of strike? Is the Soviet Union so fragile that poor, occupied Poland could crush it?

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
We crippled the Soviet Union, all of us on the front lines, men, women, children, all together, fighting—for this? For McDonald’s, British stag parties treating our women like whores, and a pension I can’t live on?

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
The Empires everyone fought to destroy in World War I—was that a mistake? If what replaced them was Communists and passport controls on the frontiers?

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
Was destroying the USSR a mistake if it just means these fucking Brits come here with their companies to get our cheap labor and treat our best and brightest like they’re fucking idiots?

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
But at least there’s 100% employment.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
But at least there’s a free press.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
And almost 100% literacy.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
And my children can travel.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
And anyone can see a doctor now.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
And no more censorship.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
And abortion is legal.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
And we’re finally making peace with Poland’s Jewish heritage.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
And we’re finally seeing women as equal. At least in the law.

                                                            OLDER WOMAN
But at the end of the month, when my pension runs out, I’ve had to beg! Me! Who worked with Solidarity to crush the Soviet Union! “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” my ass.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN
But my sister had to flee the country in the boot of a car just because she believes in Solidarity! My sister! You bet your ass I’m working for Solidarity now.

MAN enters.

                                                            MAN
Krystyna?

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN & OLDER WOMAN
What is it?

                                                            MAN
Please stop talking about the past?

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN & OLDER WOMAN
What else is there for me?

                                                            MAN
Well, right now, there’s bed.

MAN exits.

                                                            YOUNGER WOMAN & OLDER WOMAN
To bed, then, to dream of a better future.

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