Characters:

The American man

The girl (Jig)
The woman who works at the bar
People waiting for the train (sitting in the bar room) (2 members)

Script:
Setting: A railway station in a hot, dry area of Spain....

Props:
A table.
Chairs.
Two glasses of beer. (show glass ?)
Two glasses of Anis del Toro with water (show glass ?)
Suitcases or bags with hotel labels.
A bead curtain for the bar.

Costumes:
The American: Casual attire suitable for travel in a hot climate.
The girl (Jig): A dress and hat.
The woman: Bartender attire. (pag all black lang if walay ing ani)
People waiting for the train (Casual attire suitable for travel in a hot climat)

Narrator: The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side, there
was no shade, no trees, and the station sat between two lines of rails in the sun. Close
against the station was the warm shadow of the building. A curtain of bamboo beads
hung across the open door into the bar to keep out flies. The American and the girl sat
at a table in the shade outside the building. It was very hot, and the express from
Barcelona would arrive in forty minutes....
Girl: What should we drink?
Man: It's pretty hot.
Girl: Let's drink beer.
Man: Dos cervezas.
Woman (from doorway): Big ones?
Man: Yes. Two big ones

(The woman brings two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She puts them on the table
and looks at the man and the girl.)...

Narrator: The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun, and the
country was brown and dry.
Girl: They look like white elephants.
Man: I've never seen one.

(The man drinks his beer.)

Girl: No, you wouldn't have.

Man: I might have. Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything.

(The girl looks at the bead curtain.)

Girl: They've painted something on it. What does it say?

Man: Anis del Toro. It's a drink.
Girl: Could we try it?
(The man calls through the curtain.)

Man: Listen.

(The woman comes out from the bar.)

Woman: Four reales.

Man: We want two Anis del Toro.
Woman: With water?
Man: Do you want it with water?
Girl: I don't know. Is it good with water?
Man: It's all right.
Woman: You want them with water?
Man: Yes, with water.

(The woman brings the drinks.)

Girl: It tastes like licorice.

(The girl puts the glass down.)

Man: That's the way with everything.

Girl: Yes. Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long
for, like absinthe.
Man: Oh, cut it out.
Girl: You started it. I was being amused. I was having a fine time.
Man: Well, let's try and have a fine time.
Girl: All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that
bright?
Man: That was bright.
Girl: I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it—look at things and try new
drinks?
Man: I guess so.

(The girl looks across at the hills.)

Girl: They're lovely hills. They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the
coloring of their skin through the trees.
Man: Should we have another drink?
Girl: All right.

(The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.)

Man: The beer's nice and cool.

Girl: It's lovely.
Man: It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig. It's not really an operation at all.

(The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.)

Man: I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in.

(The girl did not say anything.)

Man: I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's
all perfectly natural....
Girl: Then what will we do afterward?
Man: We'll be fine afterward. Just like we were before.
Girl: What makes you think so?
Man: That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.

(The girl looks at the bead curtain and takes hold of two of the strings of beads.)

Girl: And you think then we'll be all right and be happy.
Man: I know we will. You don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have
done it.
Girl: So have I. And afterward they were all so happy.
Man: Well, if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't
want to. But I know it's perfectly simple.
Girl: And you really want to?
Man: I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want
to.
Girl: And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?
Man: I love you now. You know I love you.
Girl: I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white
elephants, and you'll like it?
Man: I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I
worry.
Girl: If I do it you won't ever worry?
Man: I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple.
Girl: Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me.
Man: What do you mean?
Girl: I don't care about me.
Man: Well, I care about you.
Girl: Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And I'll do it and then everything will be fine.
Man: I don't want you to do it if you feel that way.

(The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were
fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were
mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain, and she saw the
river through the trees.)...

*Tension*
Girl: And we could have all this. And we could have everything and every day we make
it more impossible.
Man: What did you say?
Girl: I said we could have everything.
Man: We can have everything.
Girl: No, we can't.
Man: We can have the whole world.
Girl: No, we can't.
Man: We can go everywhere.
Girl: No, we can't. It isn't ours any more.
Man: It's ours.
Girl: No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back.
Man: But they haven't taken it away.
Girl: We'll wait and see.
Man: Come on back in the shade. You mustn't feel that way.
Girl: I don't feel any way. I just know things.
Man: I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do—
Girl: Nor that isn't good for me. I know. Could we have another beer?
Man: All right. But you've got to realize—
Girl: I realize. Can't we maybe stop talking? *sarcastic tone*

(They sat down at the table, and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the
valley, and the man looked at her and at the table.)
*tension starts to go down*

Man: You've got to realize that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly
willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.
Girl: Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along. *nihibong ang tone*
Man: Of course, it does. But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else.
And I know it's perfectly simple.
Girl: Yes, you know it's perfectly simple.
Man: It's all right for you to say that, but I do know it.
Girl: Would you do something for me now?
Man: I'd do anything for you.
Girl: Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?
(He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There
were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.)

Man: But I don't want you to. I don't care anything about it.

Girl: I'll scream.

(The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down
on the damp felt pads.)...

Woman: The train comes in five minutes.

Girl: What did she say?
Man: That the train is coming in five minutes.

(The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.)*nod at each other*

Man: I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station.

(She smiled at him.)

Girl: All right. Then come back and we'll finish the beer.

(He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other
tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked
through the barroom, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis
at the bar and looked at the li . They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went
out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at
Wqwqvmegmb.)...
It
Man: Do you feel better?
Girl: I feel fine. idfooofll nothing wrong with me. I feel [Link]