My Linh Luu - The Hill School

My Linh Luu
The Zoo Story
CHARACTERS:
MY: A girl of 17, dressed in a rough-hewn school uniform in a stained white color. Her body is
slim and straight, without curve, boxed and static. Her moves are too rustic, inelegant.
Nevertheless, her smooth face, big eyes make her look young, as if she’s only 13.
DUC: A man in his early twenties with a tanned skin and long arms that seem to flutter from his
shoulders. At the same time his fingers are stiff, those of a worker. His small figure should not
suggest fragility but of a light-weight mechanic, efficient and practical. On the whole, this should
not show any reference to debauchery; his manners seem agreeable, and unpretentious.
THE SCENE:
It happens in a tiny old ruette of Hanoi; an early Saturday morning in the summer. There are brick
walls in the background, smirched with construction numbers, facing the audience. On the
stage: a row of garbage bags.
[At the beginning MY is riding her bike. As the curtain rises, MY slows down and stops her bike
by the wall. She clears the trash bags away. DUC enters from behind.]
DUC: Em oi, can you tell me directions to the zoo?
MY [startled]: What zoo?
DUC: Isn’t there a zoo with a big lake somewhere near here?
MY [annoyed]: You mean the National Zoo? If you go straight [pointing to her right], past three
or four red lights, you’ll see a big area of trees. That’s where it is.
DUC [disappointed]: Oh..ok.
MY [curious]: This is only near the railroad station, not the Zoo.
DUC [happy]: I think that’s where I’m going! The railroad station actually.
MY: Right…If you can excuse me, I need to go to school now [approaching the bike]
DUC: Want me to give you a ride?
MY [unnerved]: No thank you. My school is really not that far away.
DUC: Oh, where are you studying?
MY [uncomfortable]: About 5 minutes from here.
DUC: Why are you going so early then?
MY [still annoyed]: Because…I just want to.
DUC: Oh, you’re such a hardworking student. I mean this early!
MY [humbly]: No; many kids do the same thing too.
DUC [as if sighing]: Kids in the city.
MY [interested]: What about them?
DUC: No.. nothing.
MY: What?
DUC: It’s complicated.
MY : So it is really different than where you live? I mean… I need to go… but..
DUC [hand motions]: I will tell you why. Miss, have you ever watched “Love Story in Paris”?
MY [nodding]: Yes, yes. That Korean love story movie about a handsome chef and his girlfriend,
who’s a student at that le… le.. something university?
DUC: So I was staring at the screen, at the girl… what’s her name? Lee… Lee something. And
so the movie showed how this intelligent, gorgeous looking girl who’s like what? 23 and already
finishing her mas..ter or something degree? And I was amazed you know. And once, on the
episode the guy, the chef guy, has his cooking competition going on. At that same time you

know, the Lee girl has been kidnapped by her old, gangster boyfriend. The boyfriend who
cheated her in Korea, I mean.
MY [lost]: Yes? And…
DUC: Oh yes, sorry, that was not the right episode I thought about. So basically, in the movie,
Lee suddenly falls in love with that guy; that poor, wretched practically no-home guy. And uhm,
that day, a Tuesday, the day she always watches him working through the shop’s glass panel,
he suddenly comes out to her, with his bag of bread. In the bag of bread, of course, he has put
a ring in for her. She finds it, hugs him, and kisses him. She has beautiful lips, actually, you
know. What’s their color, again? Some short of pink. But very shiny. A shiny pink. It’s not you
know the kind of lipstick you’ll see everyday. It’s different, I tell you, different. It’s not just any girl
lip color I can tell. And her hair? Her hair is long. Really long, and almost brown… but lighter.
They look smooth too. And you know? While watching the movie, you know what I thought? I
thought maybe a girl like that will hug me too you know.
MY [thinks it’s funny]: It’s just a movie you know. I think the TV is just dumb sometimes. Nothing
it shows ever happens.
DUC [looking down]: I remember how Lee hugs him you know. I see it every now and then so
often. Her long, long hair…
MY: I wish many things myself.
DUC [insisting]: But the scene. The scene plays again and again in my head. I can’t even
control it. You know how sometimes you think the moon is a sphere of white dangling in the air?
You know that image? When you were a baby and when you reached out for it? [DUC talks
passionately] There’s like, how to say it, a camera in my head. Yes, exactly that: a camera.
Scenes roll in my head, you know. One second, I am the baby reaching my hands out at the
giant sphere. The next second, I see my ma hitting her cow really hard. [MY condenses her
eyebrows] Oh, I remember that, when my ma kept hitting the cow, saying “SHUT UP!
SHUUUUT UP!” I was 10 back then, I didn’t understand. But now I guess it has to do something
with the old times. She keeps telling me about the old time when she was a young girl. She says
“At 13, my ma told me I was a good girl. My pa too. The good old time, the good old time…”
That how she keeps mumbling, daydreaming “The good old times… the good old times…” and
the next time you know she’s shouting to the cow “SHUUUUUUT UP!!!!” Everything rolls.
Rolling… Rolling. The next morning I see myself with Lee by my side, holding my hand, and I
can almost smell her lips. Smell them you know. It’s strange. But I smell them. And what else?
Oh, she told me things she never did tell the baker. She told me she would love me even though
I am no big man’s son, even though I am no baker myself, even though I have no job, even
though I have nothing, even though I only have a mom who shouts at her cow, even though
nothing ever really happens in the end, even though… even though… you know that kind of
feeling?
MY: I guess so. Well..you have…uhm… such interesting stories.
DUC: What do you mean?
MY: What? I said that you have interesting stories.
DUC: Don’t use that voice with me. You sound like those… those… strange teachers at my old
school.
MY [nervous]: I’m sorry…I--
DUC: They always talked on and on about numbers, and wars, or whatever subjects we had
that day without stopping, like madmen. But right when the principal, or those rich helping
people from the city come, they would stand up and ask us, very slowly: “Do you want to hear
some very interesting stories children?” or “I have some very interesting stories to tell you today.”
No; no it’s much slower like “doooo youuuuu want to hear some verrrrryyy interestiiiiinnng
stories?” But nothing will go on you see. So I hate that word now. I can’t believe I just said it.
INTER. RES… you know what? Just forget about it.
MY [tired]: Ok. Uhm… Did you tell me you were going to the… zoo, no, railroad station?

DUC: Yeah. Yeah. I did.
MY: Aren’t you supposed to go? Like now?
DUC: I guess so. But the scene is not really made up in my mind yet. It’s still working.
MY [uneasy]: What?
DUC: I thought about the zoo because.. How to say it? I thought about it because… I think I
need to tell you something about Lee. So you know how some city girls scream at dogs, at
mean at the killing of dog, well I’ve always thought of them as stupid. I mean dog meat is my
life, well not really, but you know how most dogs have that strange reek about them when they
live? Well… the odor actually… stays… like STAYS there in the meat! I mean I could hold the
dog, and I could hold the dog’s MEAT and both smell the same.. both are like the SAME!! And
you know what’s even funnier? [MY reluctantly shakes her head.] At the market, which I rarely
go to, but that one day I went and I saw… I saw some dog meat stall right next to the dog
shop... And you know what? You know what? The dogs for sale are all 10 thousand dongs
CHEAPER than the dog meat. I thought about that for a while because it’s funny how the living
are sometimes CHEAPER than the dead. But they’re not that cheap though… I mean 10
thousand dong is something but not that much… right? I don’t know. I don’t understand a lot of
stuff… Both are the same you know… There’s not much difference…
MY: I don’t understand… what’s the Lee girl doing in your zoo story?
DUC: Well… I thought about the smell of the living and their meat… and there’s not much
difference.. And then you know… I can remember the smell of Lee girl’s lips and I wonder… I
wonder if her meat stays the same... I mean if the living and the dead are the same then… then
what? I have to make something out of it right? [MY winces] Wait, listen Miss, I haven’t finished.
So I thought about a place that reek a lot, like the zoo, or somewhere dirty…like the city
perhaps… to see how animals actually smell… Do you really know how they smell? I mean I
can smell my ma and the cow alright, but can I smell other people as well? Like, how do people
smell? Like blood, or do they smell like scraped potatoes? Or like some kind of living
vegetables? Do people smell like chimpanzees? Or whatever caged animals? And then since I
got here, I realized that people smell of nothing, NOTHING I tell you… else than… than
MONEY! Yes, money. Especially like those old bills that used to tear up easily, you know what I
mean? You and I are just another money bill… We actually make up 2 dong, out of the billions
of dong in this country! Well, actually, some people make up a lot of dongs I think… like those
men in suits? Even some women too… Like one person can even make up 100 or 10 millions
dongs if they want to! Which is strange if you think about it… I mean what’s the difference? 2
dongs or 10 million dongs if everything smells the same? If the meat and the person smell the
same, what’s the difference, you know? What’s the difference if my meat and my living smell
the same? I ask myself these things a lot you see… and I realized that… I realized that… well
actually it makes a difference! Because NO Lee girl is going to fall in love with me now! And so
when I’ll be old, and grumpy, and always yelling like my ma to her cow, my camera will roll…
and what will I see? WHAT WILL I SEE? Nothing. No Lee girl. Maybe I won’t make it even…
Maybe one dong is too easily lost you know… there’s no difference… there’s no… no
difference…
MY [hypnotized]: I didn’t see this… before.
DUC: It’s normal, how old are you? Say 13 th [MY shakes her head]… 15? [MY shakes her head
again] Ok.. what, 17? [MY nods] oh, so maybe you’ll see it soon too. I think it happens to
everybody at some point in their lives… but usually later… like my ma and her cow…
MY [formally]: I think you need some help. But I can’t help you now. I’m late for school. Will you
be okay?
DUC: You see it too, don’t you? You see yourself rolling too, don’t you? You see yourself an old
white-haired lady shouting to your cow… no your kids, your husbands, whatever they are… your
books… your house, your smell, your life, don’t you? Hahaha… You see it too? You see it don’t
you? You see yourself shouting at your cow now? Do you SEE IT? Hahaha..

MY [disturbed]: Sorry, can you please move away? My bike, please!
DUC [louder and louder]: I was right! I was right you see… I took the bus to the city to smell the
strange animals in the zoo… And I thought they all smell the same and… they smell like us
too… And I tried to roll my camera, and get the smell all in my head… so I won’t forget but… I
realized that after all I can NEVER get all the SMELLS in!
MY [frantic]: My bike! Can you move to the side. Please!
DUC [slowly]: Rolling… Rolling…
MY [angry]: Can you please move away! NOW!
DUC [as if daydreaming]: Rolling...The pink lipstick… Rolling… Ma hitting her son… Rolling… A
young 17 year old girl shouting at her fears…
MY [boldly]: SHUT UP!
DUC [immobile]: Rolling… My life… the dongs… Rolling… Rolling… The reek of dog meat…
The smell of a young 17 year old… Rolling
MY: I need to go TO SCHOOL! GET AWAY!
DUC: You need to go TO SCHOOL? Then go. I won’t stop you. I mean it. [DUC takes out a
knife]
MY: Please. Don’t.
DUC: Why do you want to go? Why Lee? Are you even real? I can’t smell your scent? Are you
dead?
MY: WHAT are you talking about?
DUC: I tell you Lee, we can elope together! Both of us. To Paris? Yes, there? Or wherever it is
because all I can smell is the reek of money. I need to go away! It’s killing me darling.
MY [calmly]: Hey, I know you are a good guy. It’s ok to be angry sometimes—
DUC: Ah, ha, ha. A good guy? Oh, oh, my god. A good guy? There’s no, oh, hee hee, ha, haa…
There’s no… hee hee.. ha.. good guy.. Ha-ha, there’s ONLY the roll of life you see… rolling…
oh my god… he hee hee.. ha haa haa…
MY: Please listen. I’ve already listened to your story. Now it’s your turn to listen…
DUC: What? Do you want me to tell you some INTERESTING stories? DO YOU WANT TO?
Because I have a lot of INTERESTING stories you know! Wanna hear about my ma shouting to
her cow “SHUT UUUP” the day before she died? Wanna hear about those stupid dumb
SCHOOLS that reek of money? Wanna hear it all? Because I don’t think you can; you and your
good guys....
MY [calmly]: Shut up. [DUC laughs] And stop laughing! Listen to me. Listen to me. I know you
are a good guy. You don’t have to do this. You can go home and start over again.. Or you can
stay here of course. Find a job. Have you even tried it before? A job, a life… Maybe even a
wife…hmm.. a Lee girl?
DUC [mumbling]: Rolling… The smell of love… Rolling… The smell of money… Rolling… The
smell of dog meat… Rolling… Pink lipstick… Rolling… Rolling…
MY: Stop mumbling! Listen to me? Please… Please listen! I know it’s hard but..
DUC [blank stare]: Rolling… Myself… The living… Rolling… The dead… Rolling…
MY [approaching DUC]: Please, please listen to me. You are not alone. We can find a solution.
Please…
DUC: Myself rolling… Rolling around… Reeking of the city, the zoo… A living dog smells its
dead meat… Rolling… WHY BOTHER?... Rolling… The scent of humans.. Rolling… Lee girl
and her happy ending… Rolling… Why? Why?... Rolling… There’s no difference… Rolling… no;
there’s no difference…
MY: That’s enough. Stop. I can help you. I can help you. Please.
DUC: SHUT UP! Shuuut your grandmother’s mouth!...Rolling… Rolling
MY [really near DUC]: Give me your hand. Come on. Give me your hand. I can help you.
DUC: Rolling… dead…rolling…the end…
MY [afraid]: Give me your hand. PLEASE give me your hand!

DUC: Rolling… the end… the end.. the end… Rolling… [DUC moves backwards a few steps
and then impales the knife the knife into his ribs] ROLLING!
[DUC falls down, breathing heavily, as if sighing at every breath]
DUC: Miss… There’s your bike, go take it. [MY is paralyzed] It’s ok miss… The dead never
wake up… go miss [My stands still]… Nice talk… Rolling… Rolling… I thought about the
smells… And about saving… saving somebody… And I saw you little miss… I think you should
know about the smells… and the zoo…
MY [crying]: No, please! No, please don’t die. Please don’t die!
DUC: Miss… you are even more beautiful than Lee girl… Rolling… Miss you should go…
MY [shouting and crying]: HELP! HELP! ANYBODY come help this man! [My kneels by DUC’s
body and hold his head in her palms]
DUC: Hush… Miss… you should know… there’s… nobody but you… there’s no… help… you
should know…Rolling…ROLLING… ROLLING…
MY [shouting]: NO, no, no, no… NO, no, no…
DUC [grasping]: I smell your lipstick… Miss… Rolling… The end… [DUC sighs and dies]
[MY is speechless. She stares at the silent dead man whose name she does not know. She
brushes his hair. After a few minutes, still nobody appears. A haunting silence prevails. MY gets
up slowly, languidly, as if regretting something. She walks toward her bike, but before leaving,
she runs back to the man, DUC, and kisses him with her pink lips. MY leaves the scene where
DUC lies, with pink lipstick on his cheeks.]
CURTAIN.