The Iceman Cometh (27 page)

Truculently
.

What’s it to yuh?

ROCKY

Not a damn ting. But dis is someting to me. I’m out on my feet holdin’ down your job. Yuh said if I’d take your day, yuh’d relieve me at six, and here it’s half past one a.m. Well, yuh’re takin’ over now, get me, no matter how plastered yuh are!

CHUCK

Plastered, hell! I wisht I was. I’ve lapped up a gallon, but it don’t hit me right. And to hell wid de job. I’m goin’ to tell Harry I’m quittin’.

ROCKY

Yeah? Well, I’m quittin’, too.

CHUCK

I’ve played sucker for dat crummy blonde long enough, lettin’ her kid me into woikin’. From now on I take it easy.

ROCKY

I’m glad yuh’re gettin’ some sense.

CHUCK

And I
HOPE
yuh’re gettin’ some. What a prize sap you been, tendin’ bar when yuh got two good hustlers in your stable!

ROCKY

Yea, but I ain’t no sap now. I’ll loin dem, when dey get back from Coney.

Sneeringly
.

Jees, dat Cora sure played you for a dope, feedin’ yuh dat marriage-on-de-farm hop!

CHUCK

Dully
.

Yeah. Hickey got it right. A lousy pipe dream. It was her pulling sherry flips on me woke me up. All de way walkin’ to de ferry, every ginmill we come to she’d drag me in to blow her. I got tinkin’, Christ, what won’t she want when she gets de ring on her finger and I’m hooked? So I tells her at de ferry, “Kiddo, yuh can go to Joisey, or to hell, but count me out.”

ROCKY

She says it was her told you to go to hell, because yuh’d started hittin’ de booze.

CHUCK

Ignoring this
.

I got tinkin’, too, Jees, won’t I look sweet wid a wife dat if yuh put all de guys she’s stayed wid side by side, dey’d reach to Chicago.

He sighs gloomily
.

Dat kind of dame, yuh can’t trust ’em. De minute your back is toined, dey’re cheatin’ wid de iceman or someone. Hickey done me a favor, makin’ me wake up.

He pauses
—
then adds pathetically
.

On’y it was fun, kinda, me and Cora kiddin’ ourselves—

Suddenly his face hardens with hatred
.

Where is dat son of a bitch, Hickey? I want one good sock at dat guy—just one!—and de next buttin’ in he’ll do will be in de morgue!

I’ll take a chance on goin’ to de Chair—!

ROCKY

Starts
—
in a low warning voice
.

Piano! Keep away from him, Chuck! He ain’t here now, anyway. He went out to phone, he said. He wouldn’t call from here. I got a hunch he’s beat it. But if he does come back, yuh don’t know him, if anyone asks yuh, get me?

As
CHUCK
lo
oks at him with dull surprise he lowers his voice to a whisper
.

De Chair, maybe dat’s where he’s goin’. I don’t know nuttin’, see, but it looks like he croaked his wife.

CHUCK

With a flash of interest
.

Yuh mean she really was cheatin’ on him? Den I don’t blame de guy—

ROCKY

Who’s blamin’ him? When a dame asks for it—But I don’t know nuttin’ about it, see?

CHUCK

Is any of de gang wise?

ROCKY

Larry is. And de boss ought to be. I tried to wise de rest of dem up to stay clear of him, but dey’re all so licked, I don’t know if dey got it.
He pauses
—
vindictively
.

I don’t give a damn what he done to his wife, but if he gets de Hot Seat I won’t go into no mournin’!

CHUCK

Me, neider!

ROCKY

Not after his trowin’ it in my face I’m a pimp. What if I am? Why de hell not? And what he’s done to Harry. Jees, de poor old slob is so licked he can’t even get drunk. And all de gang. Dey’re all licked. I couldn’t help feelin’ sorry for de poor bums when dey showed up tonight, one by one, lookin’ like pooches wid deir tails between deir legs, dat everyone’d been kickin’ till dey was too punch-drunk to feel it no more. Jimmy Tomorrow was de last. Schwartz, de copper, brung him in. Seen him sittin’ on de dock on West Street, lookin’ at de water and cryin’! Schwartz thought he was drunk and I let him tink it. But he was cold sober. He was tryin’ to jump in and didn’t have de noive, I figgered it. Noive! Jees, dere ain’t enough guts left in de whole gang to battle a mosquito!

CHUCK

Aw, to hell wid ’em! Who cares? Gimme a drink.
ROCKY
pushes the bottle toward him apathetically
. I see you been hittin’ de redeye, too.

ROCKY

Yeah. But it don’t do no good. I can’t get drunk right.
CHUCK
drinks
.
JOE
mumbles in his sleep
.
CHUCK
regards him resentfully
.

Dis doity dinge was able to get his snootful and pass out. Jees, even Hickey can’t faze a nigger! Yuh’d tink he was fazed if yuh’d seen him come in. Stinko, and he pulled a gat and said he’d plug Hickey for insultin’ him. Den he dropped it and begun to cry and said he wasn’t a gamblin’ man or a tough guy no more; he was yellow. He’d borrowed de gat to stick up someone, and den didn’t have de guts. He got drunk panhandlin’ drinks in nigger joints, I s’pose. I guess dey felt sorry for him.

CHUCK

He ain’t got no business in de bar after hours. Why don’t yuh
CHUCK
him out?

ROCKY

Apathetically
.

Aw, to hell wid it. Who cares?

CHUCK

Lapsing into the same mood
. Yeah. I don’t.

JOE

Suddenly lunges to his feet dazedly
—
mumbles in humbled apology
.

Scuse me, White Boys. Scuse me for livin’. I don’t want to be where

I’s not wanted.

He makes his way swayingly to the opening in the curtain at rear and tacks down to the middle table of the three at right, front. He feels his way around it to the table at its left and gets to the chair in back of
CAPTAIN LEWIS
.

CHUCK

Gets up
—
in a callous, brutal tone
.

My pig’s in de back room, ain’t she? I wanna collect de dough I wouldn’t take dis mornin’, like a sucker, before she blows it.
He goes rear
.

ROCKY

Getting up
.

I’m comin’, too. I’m trough woikin. I ain’t no lousy bartender.
CHUCK
comes through the curtain and looks for
CORA
as
JOE
flops down in the chair in back
of
CAPTAIN LEWIS
.

JOE

Taps
LEWIS
on the shoulder
—
servilely apologetic
.

If you objects to my sittin’ here, Captain, just tell me and I pulls my freight.

LEWIS

No apology required, old chap. Anybody could tell you I should feel honored a bloody Kaffir would lower himself to sit beside me.

JOE
stares at him with sodden perplexity
—
then closes his eyes
.
CHUCK
comes forward to take the chair behind
CORA
’s, as
ROCKY
enters the back room and starts over toward
LARRY
’s
table
.

CHUCK

His voice hard
.

I’m waitin’, Baby. Dig!

CORA

With apathetic obedience
.

Sure. I been expectin’ yuh. I got it all ready. Here.
She passes a small roll of bills she has in her hand over her shoulder, without looking at him. He takes it, glances at it suspiciously, then shoves it in his pocket without a word of acknowledgment
.
CORA
speaks with a tired wonder at herself rather than resentment toward him
. Jees, imagine me kiddin’ myself I wanted to marry a drunken pimp.

CHUCK

Dat’s nuttin’, Baby. Imagine de sap I’da been, when I can get your dough just as easy widout it!

ROCKY

Takes the chair on
PARRITT
’
s left, facing
LARRY
—
dully
.

Hello, Old Cemetery.

LARRY
doesn’t seem to hear. To
PARRITT
.

Hello, Tightwad. You still around?

PARRITT

Keeps his eyes on
LARRY
—
in a jeeringly challenging tone
.

Ask Larry! He knows I’m here, all right, although he’s pretending not to! He’d like to forget I’m alive! He’s trying to kid himself with that grandstand philosopher stuff! But he knows he can’t get away with it now! He kept himself locked in his room until a while ago, alone with a bottle of booze, but he couldn’t make it work! He couldn’t even get drunk! He had to come out! There must have been something there he was even more scared to face than he is Hickey and me! I guess he got looking at the fire escape and thinking how handy it was, if he was really sick of life and only had the nerve to die!

He pauses sneeringly
.
LARRY
’s
face has tautened, but he pretends he doesn’t hear
.
ROCKY
pays no attention. His head has sunk forward, and he stares at the table top, sunk in the same stupor as the other occupants of the room
.
PARRITT
goes on, his tone becoming more insistent
. He’s been thinking of me, too, Rocky. Trying to figure a way to get out of helping me! He doesn’t want to be bothered understanding. But he does understand all right! He used to love her, too. So he thinks I ought to take a hop off the fire escape!

He pauses
.
LARRY
’s
hands on the table have clinched into fists, as his nails dig into his palms, but he remains silent
.
PARRITT
breaks and starts pleading
.

For God’s sake, Larry, can’t you say something? Hickey’s got me all balled up. Thinking of what he must have done has got me so I don’t know any more what I did or why. I can’t go on like this! I’ve got to know what I ought to do—

LARRY

In a stifled tone
.

God damn you! Are you trying to make me your executioner?

PARRITT

Starts frightenedly
.

Execution? then you do think—?

LARRY

I don’t think anything!

PARRITT

With forced jeering
.

I suppose you think I ought to die because I sold out a lot of loudmouthed fakers, who were cheating suckers with a phony pipe dream, and put them where they ought to be, in jail?

He forces a laugh
.

Don’t make me laugh! I ought to get a medal! What a damned old sap you are! You must still believe in the Movement!
He nudges
ROCKY
with his elbow
.

Hickey’s right about him, isn’t he, Rocky? An old no-good drunken tramp, as dumb as he is, ought to take a hop off the fire escape!

ROCKY

Dully
.

Sure. Why don’t he? Or you? Or me? What de hell’s de difference? Who cares?

There is a faint stir from all the crowd, as if this sentiment struck a responsive chord in their numbed minds. They mumble almost in chorus as one voice, like sleepers talking out of a dully irritating dream
, “
The hell with it!
” “
Who cares?
”
Then the sodden silence descends again on the room
.
ROCKY
looks from
PARRITT
to
LARRY
puzzledly. He mutters
. What am I doin’ here wid youse two? I remember I had someting on my mind to tell yuh. What—? Oh, I got it now.
He looks from one to the other of their oblivious faces with a strange, sly, calculating look
—
ingratiatingly
.

I was tinking how you was bot’ reg’lar guys. I tinks, ain’t two guys like dem saps to be hangin’ round like a coupla stew bums and wastin’ demselves. Not dat I blame yuh for not woikin’. On’y suckers woik. But dere’s no percentage in bein’ broke when yuh can grab good jack for yourself and make someone else woik for yuh, is dere? I mean, like I do. So I tinks, Dey’re my pals and I ought to wise up two good guys like dem to play my system, and not be lousy barflies, no good to demselves or nobody else.

He addresses
PARRITT
now
—
persuasively
.

What yuh tink, Parritt? Ain’t I right? Sure, I am. So don’t be a sucker, see? Yuh ain’t a bad-lookin’ guy. Yuh could easy make some gal who’s a good hustler, an’ start a stable. I’d help yuh and wise yuh up to de inside dope on de game.