GUS: All finished? That's fine.
A knock is heard on the door.
DAVID
goes to it, opens it.
PAT
enters. He is dressed in a pea jacket, a wool stocking cap on his head. He carries a duffle bag on his shoulder.
DAVID: Oh, hello, Dad.
PAT: The baby come yet?
DAVID: Not yet.
PAT: My train doesn't leave for a couple of hours. I thought I'd wait over here.
DAVID: Here, give me that. [
He takes the duffle bag from
PAT
, puts it out of the way.
]
SHORY: So you're really going, Pat?
PAT: I got my old job backâship's cook. I figure with a little studying, maybe in a year or so, I'll have my Third license. So . . .
DAVID: It's so foolish your leaving, Dad. Can't I change your mind?
PAT: It's better this way, David. Maybe if I'm not around Amos'll take hold of himself.
There is a knock on the door.
DAVID: That's probably Amos now.
He goes to the door, opens it.
AMOS
enters. He is smoking a cigarette.
Hello, Ame. All locked up? Come in.
AMOS: I got my motor running. Hello, Gus, Shory. [
He ignores
PAT
. There is a pause.
]
GUS: Working hard?
AMOS [
a tired, embittered chuckle
]: Yeh, pretty tough; pumpin' gas, ringin' the cash register . . . [
Giving
DAVID
a small envelope and a key.
] There's twenty-six bucks in there. I got the tally slip in with it.
DAVID [
as though anxious for his participation; strained
]: Twenty-six! We did all right today.
AMOS: Always do, don't ya? 'Night. [
Starts to go.
]
DAVID: Listen, Ame. [AMOS
turns.
] The mink'll be bearing in about a month. I was thinking you might like to take a shot at working with me, here . . . it's a great exercise. . . . Spring is coming, you know. You want to be in condition . . .
AMOS: For what?
DAVID: Well . . . maybe play some ball this summer.
AMOS [
glances at
PAT]: Who said I'm playing ball?
DAVID [
as carelessly as possible
]: What are you going to do with yourself?
AMOS: Pump your gas. . . . Bring you the money every night. Wait for something good to happen. [
A bitter little laugh.
] I mean the day they announced they're building the new main highway right past your gas station I knew
something
good had to happen to me. [
Laughing.
] I mean it just
had
to, Dave! [
Now with real feeling.
] Baby hasn't come yet? [DAVID
shakes his head, disturbed by his brother's bitterness.
] Overdue, ain't she? [
Takes a drag on his cigarette.
]
DAVID: A little.
AMOS: Well, if it's a boy . . . [
Glancing at
PAT
and defiantly blowing out smoke.
] Don't have him pitchin' down the cellar.
With a wink at
DAVID,
he goes out. After a moment
DAVID
goes to
PAT.
DAVID: Why must you go, Dad? Work with me here, I've plenty for everybody, I don't need it all.
PAT: Inhaling cigarettes in those glorious lungs. I couldn't bear to watch him destroying my work that way.
SHORY [
at the fireplace
]: Come on, Pat, pinochle.
DAVID [
beckoning
GUS
over to the right
]: Hey, Gus, I want to talk to you.
PAT [
going to
SHORY.
Without the old conviction
]: Fireplace heat is ruination to the arteries. PAT
takes
GUS
's place,
GUS
coming to the right.
SHORY [
mixing the deck
]: So you'll drop dead warm. Sit down. [
He deals.
]
DAVID
and
GUS
are at right.
J.B.
continues sleeping. The card game begins.
DAVID: I want you to do something for me, Gus. In a little more than thirty days I'll have four or five mink for every bitch in those cages. Four to one.
GUS: Well, don't count the chickens . . .
DAVID: No, about this I'm sure. I want to mortgage the shop. Before you answer . . . I'm not being an Indian giver. I signed sixty percent of the shop over to you because you're worth itâI didn't want what don't belong to me and I still don't. I just want you to sign so I can borrow some money on the shop. I need about twenty-five hundred dollars.
GUS: I can ask why?
DAVID: Sure. I want to buy some more breeders.
GUS: Oh. Well, why not use the money you have?
DAVID: Frankly, Gus . . . [
Laughs confidently.
] . . . I don't have any other money.
GUS: Ah, go on now, don't start kidding me . . .
DAVID: No, it's the truth. I've damn near as many mink out there as Dan Dibble. That costs big money. What do you say? PAT
and
SHORY
look up now and listen while playing their hands.
GUS [
thinks a moment
]: Why do you pick on the shop to mortgage? You could get twenty-five hundred on the gas station, or the quarry, or the farm . . . [
Slight pause.
]
DAVID: I did. I've got everything mortgaged. Everything but the shop.
GUS [
shocked
]: Dave, I can't believe this!
DAVID [
indicates out of the right window
]: Well, look at them out there. I've got a
ranch.
You didn't think I had enough cash to buy that many, did you?
GUS [
gets up trying to shake off his alarm
]: But, Dave, this is mink. Who knows what can happen to them? I don't understand how you can take everything you own and sink it in . . .
DAVID: Four for one, Gus. If prices stay up I can make sixty thousand dollars this year.
GUS: But how can you be sure; you can't . . .
DAVID: I'm sure.
GUS: But how can you be . . . ?
DAVID [
more nervously now, wanting to end this tack
]: I'm sure. Isn't it possible? To be sure?
GUS: Yes, but why? [
Pause.
] Why are you sure?
J.B. [
suddenly erupting on the couch
]: Good Good and . . . ! [
He sits up rubbing himself.
] What happened to those radiators you were going to put into this house? [
He gets up, goes to the fire, frozen.
] You could hang meat in this room.
DAVID [
to
J.B.]: You're always hanging meat.
GUS: I don't know how to answer you. I have worked very hard in the shop . . . I . . . [
His reasonableness breaks.
] You stand there and don't seem to realize you'll be wiped out if those mink go, and now you want more yet!
DAVID:
I said they're not going to die!
J.B. [
to
PAT
and
SHORY]: Who's going to die? What're they talking about?
DAVID: Nothin'. [
He looks out of the window.
J.B.
watches him, mystified.
]
PAT: I think Amos would smoke a pipe instead of those cigarettes, if you told him, Shory.
J.B.: Dave, you want a baby carriage y'know.
DAVID [
half turns
]: Heh? . . . Yeh, sure.
J.B.: I figured you forgot to ask me so I ordered a baby carriage for you.
DAVID
turns back to the window as. . . .
Matter of fact, it's in the store. [
With great enthusiasm.
] Pearl grey! Nice soft rubber tires too . . . boy, one thing I love to see . . .
DAVID [
turns to him, restraining
]: All right, will you stop talking?
J.B.
is shocked. In a moment he turns and goes to the rack, starts getting into his coat.
DAVID
crosses quickly to him.
John, what the hell! [
He takes
J.B.
's arm.
]
J.B.: You unnerve me, Dave! You unnerve me! A man acts a certain way when he's going to be a father, and by Jesus I want him to act that way.
SHORY: Another moviegoer! Why should he worry about something he can't change?
DAVID: I've got a million things to think of, John. I want to ask you.
J.B.: What?
DAVID [
hangs
J.B.
's coat up
]: I want to get a buy on a new Buick; maybe you can help me swindle that dealer you know in Burley. I'm taking Hester to California in about a month. Sit down.
J.B. [
suddenly pointing at him
]: That's what unnerves me! You don't seem to realize what's happening. You can't take a month-old baby in a car to California.
DAVID [
a blank, shocked look
]: Well, I meant . . .
J.B. [
laughs, slaps his back relieved at this obvious truth
]: The trouble with you is, you don't realize that she didn't swell up because she swallowed an olive! [GUS
and he laugh;
DAVID
tries to.
] You're a poppa, boy! You're the guy he's going to call Pop!
There is a commotion of footsteps upstairs.
DAVID
goes quickly to the landing.
BELLE
hurries down. She is sniffling, sobbing.
DAVID: What happened?
BELLE
touches his shoulder kindly but brushes right past him to the fireplace where she picks up a wood basket.
[DAVID
continues going to her.
] What happened, Belle!
BELLE [
standing with the wood
]: She's having it, she's having it. [
She hurries to the landing,
DAVID
behind her.
]
DAVID: What does the doctor say? Belle! How is she? [
He catches her arm.
]
BELLE: I don't know. She shouldn't have fallen that time. She shouldn't have fallen, Davey. Oh dear . . .
She bursts into a sob and rushes upstairs.
DAVID
stands gaping upward. But
GUS
is staring at
DAVID.
After a long moment . . .
GUS [
quietly
]: Hester fell down?
DAVID [
turns slowly to him after an instant of his own
]: What?
GUS: Hester had a fall?
DAVID: Yeh, some time ago.
GUS: You had her to the doctor?
DAVID: Yeh.
GUS: He told you the baby would be possibly dead? [
Pause.
]
DAVID: What're you talking about?
GUS [
quavering
]: I think you know what I'm talking about.
DAVID
is speechless. Walks to a chair and sits on the arm as though, at the price of terrible awkwardness, to simulate ease. Always glancing at
GUS,
he gets up unaccountably, and in a broken, uncontrolled voice . . .
DAVID: What are you talking about?
GUS: I understand why you were so sure about the mink. But I sign no mortgage on the shop. I do not bet on dead children. DAVID
is horrified at the revelation. He stands rigidly, his fists clenched. He might sit down or spring at
GUS
or weep.
J.B.: He couldn't think a thing like that. He . . .
He looks to
DAVID
for reinforcement, but
DAVID
is standing there hurt and silent and self-horrified.
J.B.
goes to
DAVID.
Dave, you wouldn't want a thing like that. [
He shakes him.
] Dave!
DAVID [
glaring at
GUS]: I'd cut my throat!
He walks downstage from
J.B.,
looking at
GUS.
His movements are wayward, restless, like one caught in a strange cul-de-sac.
GUS
is silent.
Why do you look at me that way? [
Glances at
J.B.
then slowly back to
GUS.] Why do you look that way? I'm only telling you what happened. A person has to look at facts, doesn't he? I heard something at the door and I opened it . . . and there she was lying on the step. A fact is a fact, isn't it? [
They don't reply. Bursting out.
] Well, for Jesus' sake, if you . . . !
GUS [
a shout
]: What fact! She fell! So the baby is dead because she fell? Is this a fact?!!
DAVID [
moves away from
GUS
's direction, in high tension
]: I didn't say dead. It doesn't have to be dead to be . . . to . . . [
Breaks off.
]
GUS: To be what?
Pause.
DAVID: To be a curse on us. It can come wrong . . . A fall can make them that way. The doctor told me. [GUS
looks unconvinced.
] The trouble with you is that you think I got a special angel watching over me.
SHORY [
pointing at Gus
]: He said it that time, brother!
GUS [
to
SHORY
too
]: A man needs a special angel to have a live child?
DAVID [
furiously
]: Who said he was going to be dead?!
GUS: What are you excited about? [
Takes his arm.
] Take it easy, sit . . .
DAVID [
freeing his aim
]: Stop humoring me, will you? Dan Dibble'll have my new mink here tonight. I got all the papers ready . . . [
Goes to a drawer, takes out papers.
] All you do is sign and . . .
GUS [
suddenly he rushes to David, pulls the papers out of his hand, throws them down
]: Are you mad! [
He frightens
DAVID
into immobility.
] There is no catastrophe upstairs, there is no guarantee up there for your mink. [
He grasps
DAVID
's arm, pleadingly.
] Dave . . .
DAVID: If you say that again I'm going to throw you out of this house!
J.B. [
nervously
]: Oh, come on now, come on now.
From above a scream of pain is heard.
DAVID
freezes.
GUS
looks up.