The Iceman Cometh (31 page)

You stand up for your rights, bejees, Hickey! Don’t let this smartaleck dick get funny with you. If he pulls any rubber-hose tricks, you let me know! I’ve still got friends at the Hall! Bejees, I’ll have him back in uniform pounding a beat where the only graft he’ll get will be stealing tin cans from the goats!

MORAN

Furiously
.

Listen, you cockeyed old bum, for a plugged nickel I’d—

Controlling himself, turns to
HICKEY
,
who is oblivious to all this, and yanks his arm
.

Come on, you!

HICKEY

With a strange mad earnestness
.

Oh, I want to go, Officer. I can hardly wait now. I should have phoned you from the house right afterwards. It was a waste of time coming here. I’ve got to explain to Evelyn. But I know she’s forgiven me. She knows I was insane. You’ve got me all wrong, Officer. I want to go to the Chair.

MORAN

Crap!

HICKEY

Exasperatedly
.

God, you’re a dumb dick! Do you suppose I give a damn about life now? Why, you bonehead, I haven’t got a single damned lying
HOPE
or pipe dream left!

MORAN

Jerks him around to face the door to the hall
. Get a move on!

HICKEY

As they start walking toward rear
—
insistently
.

All I want you to see is I was out of my mind afterwards, when I laughed at her! I was a raving rotten lunatic or I couldn’t have said—

Why, Evelyn was the only thing on God’s earth I ever loved! I’d have killed myself before I’d ever have hurt her!

They disappear in the hall
.
HICKEY
’s
voice keeps on protesting
.

HOPE

Calls after him
.

Don’t worry, Hickey! They can’t give you the Chair! We’ll testify you was crazy! Won’t we, fellers?

They all assent. Two or three echo
HOPE
’s “
Don’t worry, Hickey
.”
Then from the hall comes the slam of the street door
.
HOPE
’
s face falls
—
with genuine sorrow
.

He’s gone. Poor crazy son of a bitch!

All the group around him are sad and sympathetic, too
.
HOPE
reaches for his drink
. Bejees, I need a drink.
They grab their glasses
.
HOPE
says hopefully
. Bejees, maybe it’ll have the old kick, now he’s gone.
He drinks and they follow suit
.

ROCKY

Comes forward from where he has stood in the bar entrance
—
hopefully
. Yeah, Boss, maybe we can get drunk now.

He sits in the chair by
CHUCK
and pours a drink and tosses it down. Then they all sit still, waiting for the effect, as if this drink were a crucial test, so absorbed in hopeful expectancy that they remain oblivious to what happens at
LARRY
’s
table
.

LARRY

His eyes full of pain and pity
—
in a whisper, aloud to himself
. May the Chair bring him peace at last, the poor tortured bastard!

PARRITT

Leans toward him
—
in a strange low insistent voice
.

Yes, but he isn’t the only one who needs peace, Larry. I can’t feel sorry for him. He’s lucky. He’s through, now. It’s all decided for him. I wish it was decided for me. I’ve never been any good at deciding things. Even about selling out, it was the tart the detective agency got after me who put it in my mind. You remember what Mother’s like, Larry. She makes all the decisions. She’s always decided what I must do. She doesn’t like anyone to be free but herself.

He pauses, as if waiting for comment, but
LARRY
ignores him
.

I suppose you think I ought to have made those dicks take me away with Hickey. But how could I prove it, Larry? They’d think I was nutty. Because she’s still alive. You’re the only one who can understand how guilty I am. Because you know her and what I’ve done to her. You know I’m really much guiltier than he is. You know what I did is a much worse murder. Because she is dead and yet she has to live. For a while. But she can’t live long in jail. She loves freedom too much. And I can’t kid myself like Hickey, that she’s at peace. As long as she lives, she’ll never be able to forget what I’ve done to her even in her sleep. She’ll never have a second’s peace.

He pauses
—
then bursts out
.

Jesus, Larry, can’t you say something?

LARRY
is at the breaking point
.
PARRITT
goes on
.

And I’m not putting up any bluff, either, that I was crazy afterwards when I laughed to myself and thought, “You know what you can do with your freedom pipe dream now, don’t you, you damned old bitch!”

LARRY

Snaps and turns on him, his face convulsed with detestation. His quivering voice has a condemning command in it
.

Go! Get the hell out of life, God damn you, before I choke it out of you! Go up—!

PARRITT

His manner is at once transformed. He seems suddenly at peace with himself. He speaks simply and gratefully
.

Thanks, Larry. I just wanted to be sure. I can see now it’s the only possible way I can ever get free from her. I guess I’ve really known that all my life.

He pauses
—
then with a derisive smile
.

It ought to comfort Mother a little, too. It’ll give her the chance to play the great incorruptible Mother of the Revolution, whose only child is the Proletariat. She’ll be able to say: “Justice is done! So may all traitors die!” She’ll be able to say: “I am glad he’s dead! Long live the Revolution!”

He adds with a final implacable jeer
.

You know her, Larry! Always a ham!

LARRY

Pleads distractedly
.

Go, for the love of Christ, you mad tortured bastard, for your own sake!

HUGO
is
roused by this. He lifts his head and peers uncomprehendingly at
LARRY
.
Neither
LARRY
nor
PARRITT
notices him
.

PARRITT

Stares at
LARRY
.
His face begins to crumble as if he were going to break down and sob. He turns his head away, but reaches out fumblingly and pats
LARRY
’s arm
and stammers
.

Jesus, Larry, thanks. That’s kind. I knew you were the only one who could understand my side of it.

He gets to his feet and turns toward the door
.

HUGO

Looks at
PARRITT
and bursts into his silly giggle
.

Hello, leedle Don, leedle monkey-face! Don’t be a fool! Buy me a trink!

PARRITT

Puts on an act of dramatic bravado
—
forcing a grin
.

Sure, I will, Hugo! Tomorrow! Beneath the willow trees!

He walks to the door with a careless swagger and disappears in the hall
.

From now on
,
LARRY
waits, listening for the sound he knows is coming from the backyard outside the window, but trying not to listen, in an agony of horror and cracking nerve
.

HUGO

Stares after
PARRITT
stupidly
.

Stupid fool! Hickey make you crazy, too.

He turns to the oblivious
LARRY
—
with a timid eagerness
.

I’m glad, Larry, they take that crazy Hickey avay to asylum. He makes me have bad dreams. He makes me tell lies about myself. He makes me want to spit on all I have ever dreamed. Yes, I am glad they take him to asylum. I don’t feel I am dying now. He vas selling death to me, that crazy salesman. I think I have a trink now, Larry.

He pours a drink and gulps it down
.

HOPE

Jubilantly
.

Bejees, fellers, I’m feeling the old kick, or I’m a liar! It’s putting life back in me! Bejees, if all I’ve lapped up begins to hit me, I’ll be paralyzed before I know it! It was Hickey kept it from—Bejees, I know that sounds crazy, but he was crazy, and he’d got all of us as bughouse as he was. Bejees, it does queer things to you, having to listen day and night to a lunatic’s pipe dreams—pretending you believe them, to kid him along and doing any crazy thing he wants to humor him. It’s dangerous, too. Look at me pretending to start for a walk just to keep him quiet. I knew damned well it wasn’t the right day for it. The sun was broiling and the streets full of automobiles. Bejees, I could feel myself getting sunstroke, and an automobile damn near ran over me.

He appeals to
ROCKY
,
afraid of the results, but daring it
. Ask Rocky. He was watching. Didn’t it, Rocky?

ROCKY

A bit tipsily
.

What’s dat, Boss? Jees, all de booze I’ve mopped up is beginning to get to me.

Earnestly
.

De automobile, Boss? Sure, I seen it! Just missed yuh! I thought yuh was a goner.

He pauses
—
then looks around at the others, and assumes the old kidding tone of the inmates, but hesitantly, as if still a little afraid
.

On de woid of a honest bartender!

He tries a wink at the others. They all respond with smiles that are still a little forced and uneasy
.

HOPE

Flashes him a suspicious glance. Then he understands
—
with his natural testy manner
.

You’re a bartender, all right. No one can say different.
ROCKY
looks grateful
.

But, bejees, don’t pull that honest junk! You and Chuck ought to have cards in the Burglars’ Union!

This time there is an eager laugh from the group
.
HOPE
is delighted
. Bejees, it’s good to hear someone laugh again! All the time that bas—poor old Hickey was here, I didn’t have the heart—Bejees, I’m getting drunk and glad of it!

He cackles and reaches for the bottle
.

Come on, fellers. It’s on the house.

They pour drinks. They begin rapidly to get drunk now
.
HOPE
becomes sentimental
.

Poor old Hickey! We mustn’t hold him responsible for anything he’s done. We’ll forget that and only remember him the way we’ve always known him before—the kindest, biggest-hearted guy ever wore shoe leather.

They all chorus hearty sentimental assent:
“
That’s right, Harry!
” “
That
’s
all!
” “
Finest fellow!
” “
Bestscout!
”
etc
.
HOPE
goes
on
.

Good luck to him in Matteawan! Come on, bottoms up!

They all drink. At the table by the window
LARRY
’s
hands grip the edge of the table. Unconsciously his head is inclined toward the window as he listens
.

LARRY

Cannot hold back an anguished exclamation
.

Christ! Why don’t he—!

HUGO

Beginning to be drunk again
—
peers at him
.

Vhy don’t he what? Don’t be a fool! Hickey’s gone. He vas crazy.

Have a trink.

Then as he receives no reply
—
with vague uneasiness
.

What’s matter vith you, Larry? You look funny. What you listen to out in backyard, Larry?

CORA
begins to talk in the group at right
.

CORA

Tipsily
.

Well, I thank Gawd now me and Chuck did all we could to humor de poor nut. Jees, imagine us goin’ off like we really meant to git married, when we ain’t even picked out a farm yet!

CHUCK

Eagerly
.

Sure ting, Baby. We kidded him we was serious.

JIMMY

Confidently
—
with a gentle, drunken unction
.

I may as well say I detected his condition almost at once. All that talk of his about tomorrow, for example. He had the fixed idea of the insane. It only makes them worse to cross them.

WILLIE

Eagerly
.

Same with me, Jimmy. Only I spent the day in the park. I wasn’t such a damned fool as to—

LEWIS

Getting jauntily drunk
.

Picture my predicament if I
had
gone to the Consulate. The pal of mine there is a humorous blighter. He would have got me a job out of pure spite. So I strolled about and finally came to roost in the park.