The Man Who Had All the Luck (5 page)

PAT [
with a cry
]: I don't like everybody's attitude! [
Silence an instant.
ALL
staring at him.
] It's still winter! Can he play in the winter?

SHORY: Who are you talking about?

DAVID [
going away—toward the right—bored and disgusted
]: Dad, he didn't say . . .

PAT: He doesn't have to say it. You people seem to think he's going to go through life pitching Sundays in the sand lots. [
To
ALL.] Pitching's his business; it's a regular business like . . . like running a store, or being a mechanic or anything else. And it happens that in the winter there is nothing to do in his business but sit home and wait!

J.B.: Well, yeh, Pat, that's just what he ought to be doing.

PAT: Then why does everybody look at him as though . . . ?

DAVID [
unable to bear it, he goes to
PAT]: Sit down, Dad. Sit down. [
He gets a barrel under
PAT,
who sits, staring, exhausted.
]

PAT: I can't understand it. Every paper in the county calls him a phenomenon.

As he speaks,
DAVID
, feeling
PAT
's pain, goes right a few yards and stands looking away.

Undefeated. He's ready for the big leagues. Been ready for three years. Who can explain a thing like that? Why don't they send a scout?

DAVID: I been thinking about that, Dad. Maybe you ought to call the Detroit Tigers again.

AMOS [
peevishly. This has been in him a long time
]: He never called them in the first place.

PAT: Now, Amos . . .

DAVID [
reprimanding
]: Dad . . .

AMOS: He didn't. He didn't call them. [
To
PAT.] I want him to know!

DAVID [
to
PAT]: But last summer you said . . .

PAT: I've picked up the phone a lot of times . . . but I . . . I wanted it to happen . . . naturally. It ought to happen naturally, Dave.

SHORY: You mean you don't want to hear them say no.

PAT: Well . . . yes, I admit that. [
To
DAVID.] If I call now and demand an answer, maybe they'll have to say no. I don't want to put that word in their head in relation to Amos. It's a great psychological thing there. Once they refuse it's twice as hard to get them to accept.

DAVID: But, Dad, maybe . . . maybe they forgot to send a scout. Maybe they even thought they'd sent one and didn't, and when you call they'll thank you for reminding them. [
To
ALL.] I mean . . . can you
just wait for something to happen?

SHORY [
claps
]: Pinochle? Let's go. Come on, John! Pat!
They start for the store door.

J.B. [
glancing at his watch
]: My wife'll murder me.

SHORY: Why? Pinochle leaves no odor on the breath.

PAT [
turning at ramp
]: I want you to watch us, Amos. Pinochle is very good for the figuring sense. Help you on base play. Open your coat.

PAT
follows
SHORY
and
J.B.
into the store.
AMOS
dutifully starts to follow, hesitates at the door, then closes it behind them and comes to
DAVID
.

AMOS: Dave, I want to ask you something. [
He glances toward the door, then quietly.
] Take me over, will ya? [DAVE
just looks at him.
] Do something for me. I'm standing still. I'm not going anywhere. I swear I'm gettin' ashamed.

DAVID: Ah, don't, don't, Ame.

AMOS: No, I am. Since I started to play everybody's been saying, [
Mimics.
] “Amos is goin' someplace, Amos is goin' someplace.” I been out of high school five years and I'm still taking spending money. I want to find a girl. I want to get married. I want to start doing things. You're movin' like a daisy cutter, Dave, you know how to
do.
Take me over.

DAVID: But I don't know half what Pop knows about baseball . . . about training or . . .

AMOS: I don't care, you didn't know anything about cars either, and look what you made here.

DAVID: What'd I make? I got nothin'. I still don't know anything about cars.

AMOS: But you do. Everybody knows you know . . .

DAVID: Everybody's crazy. Don't envy me, Ame. If every car I ever fixed came rolling in here tomorrow morning and the guys said I did it wrong I wouldn't be surprised. I started on Shory's Ford and I got another one and another, and before I knew what was happening they called me a mechanic. But I ain't a trained man. You are. You
got
something . . . [
Takes his arm, with deepest feeling.
] and you're going to be great. Because you deserve it. You know something perfect. Don't look to me, I could be out on that street tomorrow morning, and then I wouldn't look so smart. . . . Don't laugh at Pop. You're his whole life, Ame. You hear me? You stay with him.

AMOS: Gee, Dave . . . you always make me feel so good. [
Suddenly like
PAT
, ecstatic.
] When I'm in the Leagues I'm gonna buy you . . . a . . . a whole goddam garage!

Enter
HESTER
from the right. She is a full-grown girl, a heartily developed girl. She can run fast, swim hard, and lift heavy things—not stylishly—with the most economical and direct way to run, swim and lift. She has a loud, throaty laugh. Her femininity dwells in one fact—she loves
DAVID
with all her might, always has, and she doesn't feel she's doing anything when he's not around. The pallor of tragedy is nowhere near her. She enters breathless, not from running but from expectation.

HESTER: David, he's home. [
Goes to
DAVID
and cups his face in her hands.
] He just came back! You ready? [
Looks around
DAVID
's shoulder at
AMOS.] Hullo, Ame, how's the arm?

AMOS: Good as ever.

HESTER: You do that long division I gave you?

AMOS: Well, I been working at it.

HESTER: There's nothing better'n arithmetic to sharpen you up. You'll see, when you get on the diamond again, you'll be quicker on base play. We better go, David.

AMOS [
awkwardly
]: Well . . . good luck to ya. [
He goes to the store door.
]

DAVID: Thanks, Ame. AMOS
waves, goes through the door and closes it behind him.

HESTER: What're you looking so pruney about? Don't you want to go?

DAVID: I'm scared, Hess. I don't mind tellin' you. I'm scared.

HESTER: Of a beatin'?

DAVID: You know I was never scared of a beatin'.

HESTER: We always knew we'd have to tell him, didn't we?

DAVID: Yeh, but I always thought that by the time we had to, I'd be somebody. You know . . .

HESTER: But you are somebody . . .

DAVID: But just think of it from his side. He's a big farmer, a hundred and ten of the best acres in the county. Supposing he asks me—I only got three hundred and ninety-four dollars, counting today . . .

HESTER: But we always said, when you had three fifty we'd ask him.

DAVID: God, if I was a lawyer, or a doctor, or even a bookkeeper . . .

HESTER: A mechanic's good as a bookkeeper!

DAVID: Yeh . . . but I don't know if I am a mechanic. [
Takes her hand.
] Hess, listen, in a year maybe I could build up some kind of a real business, something he could look at and see.

HESTER: A year! Davey, don't . . . don't you . . . ?

DAVID: I mean . . . let's get married now, without asking him.

HESTER: I told you, I can't . . .

DAVID: If we went away . . . far, far away . . .

HESTER: Wherever we went, I'd always be afraid he'd knock on the door. You don't know what he can do when he's mad. He roared my mother to her grave. . . . We have to face him with it, Davey. It seems now that I've known it since we were babies. When I used to talk to you at night through the kitchen window, when I'd meet you to ride around the quarry in Shory's car; even as far back as
The Last of the Mohicans
in 6B. I always knew we'd have to sit in the house together and listen to him roaring at us. We have to, Davey. [
She steps away, as though to give him a choice.
]

DAVID [
he smiles, a laugh escapes him
]: You know, Hess, I don't only love you. You're my best friend.

HESTER
springs at him and kisses him. They are locked in the embrace when a figure enters from the right. It is
DAN DIBBLE
, a little sun-dried farmer, stolidly dressed—a mackinaw, felt hat. He hesitates a moment, then . . .

DIBBLE: Excuse me . . . J.B. Feller . . . is J.B. Feller in here?

DAVID: J.B.? Sure. [
Points at back door.
] Go through there . . . he's in the store.

DIBBLE: Much obliged.

DAVID: That's all right, sir.

DIBBLE
tips his hat slightly to
HESTER
, goes a few yards toward the door, turns.

DIBBLE: You . . . you Dave Beeves? Mechanic?

DAVID: Yes, sir, that's me.

DIBBLE
nods, turns, goes up the ramp and into the store, closing door behind him.
DAVID
looks after him.

HESTER: Come, Davey.

DAVID: Yeh. I'll get my coat. [
He goes to rail at back where it hangs, starts to put it on.
] Gosh, I better change my shirt. Shory grabbed my clean one before. I guess he took it into the store with him.

HESTER [
knowingly
]: He doesn't think you ought to go.

DAVID: Well . . . he was just kiddin' around. I'll only be a minute. DAVE
starts for the store door when it opens and J.B. surges out full of excitement.
DIBBLE
follows him, then
AMOS
, then
PAT
, and finally
SHORY
who looks on from his wheelchair above the ramp.

J.B.: Hey, Dave! Dave, come here. [
To
DAN.] You won't regret it, Dan . . . Dave . . . want you to meet my brother-in-law from up in Burley. Dan Dibble.

DAVID: Yes, sir, how de do.

J.B.: Dan's got a brand new Marmon . . . he's down here for a funeral, see, and he's staying at my house . . .

DAVID [
to
J.B.
A note of faltering
]: Marmon, did you say?

J.B.: Yeh, Marmon. [
Imperatively.
] You know the Marmon, Dave.

DAVID: Sure, ya . . . [
To
DAN.] Well, bring it around. I'll be glad to work on her. I've got to go right now . . .

J.B.: Dan, will you wait in my car? Just want to explain a few things. I'll be right out and we'll go.

DIBBLE: Hurry up. It's cold out there. I'd like him to get it fixed up by tomorrow. It's shakin' me up so, I think I'm gettin' my appendix back.

J.B. [
jollying him to the door
]: I don't think they grow back once they're cut out . . .

DIBBLE: Well it feels like it. Be damned if I'll ever buy a Marmon again. [DIBBLE
goes out.
]

J.B. [
he comes back to
DAVE]: This idiot is one of the richest farmers in the Burley district. . . . He's got that mink ranch I was tellin' you about.

DAVID: Say, I don't know anything about a Marmon . . .

J.B.: Neither does he. He's got two vacuum cleaners in his house and never uses nothin' but a broom. Now listen. He claims she ain't hitting right. I been tryin' the past two weeks to get him to bring her down here to you. Now get this. Besides the mink ranch he's got a wheat farm with five tractors.

HESTER: Five tractors!

J.B.: He's an idiot, but he's made a fortune out of mink. Now you clean up this Marmon for him and you'll open your door to the biggest tractor farms in the state. There's big money in tractor work, you know that. He's got a thousand friends and they follow him. They'll follow him here.

DAVID: Uh, huh. But I don't know anything about tractors.

HESTER: Oh, heck, you'll learn!

DAVID: Yeah, but I can't learn on his tractors.

HESTER: Yeah, but . . .

J.B.: Listen! This could be the biggest thing that ever happened to you. The Marmon's over at my house. He's afraid to drive her any further on the snow. I'll bring her over and you'll go to work. All right?

DAVID: Yeah, but look, John, I . . .

J.B.: You better get in early and start on her first thing in the morning. All right?

HESTER [
with a loud bubble of laughter
]: David, that's wonderful!

DAVID [
quickly
]: See, if we waited, Hess. In six months, maybe less, I'd have something to show!

HESTER: But I'm going to Normal in a week if we don't do it now!

SHORY: You're pushing him, Hester.

HESTER [
a sudden outburst at
SHORY]: Stop talking to him! A person isn't a frog, to wait and wait for something to happen!

SHORY: He'll fight your father if you drag him there tonight! And your father can kill him!

DAVID [
takes her hand. Evenly
]: Come on, Hess. We'll go. [
To
J.B.] Bring the car over, I'll be back later . . .

But
J.B.
is staring off right, down the driveway.
DAVE
turns, with
HESTER
and all to follow his stare. She steps a foot away from him. Enter
ANDREW FALK
, a tall, old man, hard as iron, nearsighted, slightly stooped. Sound of idling motor outside.

J.B. [
after a moment
]: I'll bring the car, Dave. Five minutes.

DAVID [
affecting a businesslike, careless flair
]: Right, J.B., I'll fix him up. [
as
J.B.
goes out.
] And thanks loads, John! FALK
has been looking at
HESTER
, who dares every other moment to look up from the floor at him.
DAVID
turns to
FALK,
desperately controlling his voice.
PAT
enters from
SHORY
's store.