The Old Neighborhood (6 page)

BOB
: About?

JOLLY
: About your life.
(Pause)

BOB
: I don’t know.

JOLLY
: You don’t know. Tell me. You gonna go back to her?

BOB
: I don’t know.

JOLLY
: ’Cause I wanted to tell you. If you
do
. No one’s going to think you foolish. I swear to you.

BOB
: I’m not going back to her.

JOLLY
: If you
do. (Pause)
I’m not saying you
should …

BOB
: I un …

JOLLY
: Or you should
not
. But if you
do
, always …

BOB
: … I know …

JOLLY
: You remember, Bob. Carl, Carl said it: He said it, baby. You, you can
Kill the Pope
, and you are wel …

BOB
: I’m not going to go back …

JOLLY
: … if you
should
. And I am not “plumping” for it.

BOB
: I know.
(Pause)

JOLLY
: I WANT ONE THING. And that is: The thing that is best for you. Period. Paragraph. And the rest of the world can go to hell. I don’t give a fuck. I’m too old.
(Pause)
And there you have it and that’s the story of it.
(Pause)
All I want to say … 
(Long pause) …
Fella comes up to me, I’m driving, fella comes up to me I’m drivin’ the girls somewhere, “Don’t you know,” No. “Did you know. This is a One-way Street …” I’m … never in my life, Bob. I’m sick. I’m a sick woman. I know that. I’m aware of that, how could I not be. My mind is racing “Did you know,” “Didn’t you know …” Did I drive down on PURPOSE? I did
not
know … IS YOUR QUESTION … what? The proper, I would say, response, is “One-way Street!” Smiles. One way. You, we would
assume
, did not know that you are, why
would
I, and even, I HAD, how
terrible
is that. Some piece of shit JUST LIKE ME. Whether or
not
I knew, your … 
your “rights” end with “this is a one-way street,” and what I MAY HAVE KNOWN is none of your
concern
, and FUCK YOU, and I’m SEETHING at this, this emasculated piece of shit who has to take out his
aggression
on some haggard, sexless, unattractive
housewife
, with her
kids
in her station wagon … 
(Pause)
and this is my fantasy life.
(Pause)
A rich, “full” life.
(Pause)

BOB
: You should go to bed.

JOLLY
: Why should I go to bed?

BOB
: Because you have a husband up there.
(Pause)

JOLLY
: I thought you gave up smoking.

BOB
: You know, some times I can’t … I can’t, it seems I can’t … 
(Pause)
Oh, God, I get so
sad
sometimes, Jol. I can’t, it seems, getting up from the
table … (Pause)
I wake up in the night. “Where am I?” Three times in a night. And I saw that I was waking up.

JOLLY
: To go pee the kids.

BOB
: To pee the kids. You get a Red apple.

JOLLY
: Your kids are going to be okay.

BOB
: No, they won’t. Of
course
they won’t.
We’re
not okay …

CARL
: How did you sleep?

BOB
: Like a rock or like a baby.
(Pause)

CARL
:
(To Bob)
You know, he
dumped
this stuff here.

BOB
: Jolly was telling me.
(Pause)
What was it?

CARL
: It was
trash
, you’d say. It was …

BOB
:
… my
stuff …

CARL
: Your stuff. Stuff you couldn’t want. Canceled
checks
. Twenty years old. It was nothing anyone could ever want to keep. Just some … “trash,” really … 
(Pause)
You know. There was so much stuff Jolly wanted. Some of your mother’s … When he sold the house.
(Pause)

BOB
: How can you put up with it?

CARL
: Well what “it,” then …?

BOB
: The misfortune of our family. Do I overstate the case …?

CARL
: Oh, I don’t … that’s a very personal question, isn’t it?

BOB
: Yes. It is.

CARL
:
(Pause)
Well, you know. I love Jolly.

BOB
: … are we that … are we that …

CARL
: That what?

BOB
: Are we … you know, I feel so
pathetic
sometimes, Carl.

CARL
: Well …

BOB
: No, what can you say about it?
(
JOLLY
enters.)

JOLLY
: Sleep well?

BOB
: Yes.

JOLLY
: How well?

BOB
: Very well.

JOLLY
: Why?

BOB
: ’Cause I feel “safe” here.

JOLLY
: How safe?

BOB
: Very safe.

JOLLY
: Safer than Other Places …?

BOB
: Yes.

JOLLY
: Safer than Anyplace Else in the World?

BOB
: Yes.

JOLLY
: Well, hell then.

BOB
: Hey.

JOLLY
: That’s what I’m telling you.
(Pause)
. The girls say good-bye.

BOB
: Good-bye to
them. (Pause)

JOLLY
: Um. Call me when you get where you’re going.

BOB
: Why?

JOLLY
: So I’ll know you got there.
(Pause)
You okay?

BOB
: Yeah.

JOLLY
: Thanks for coming.

BOB
: Oh, hell.

JOLLY
: No, no. Thank you. We …

CARL
: Jol, he wanted to come.

JOLLY
: Was I talking to you …?

CARL
: No. Good-bye, Bob.

BOB
: Good-bye, Carl.

JOLLY
: Did you know, this stupid shmuck. Drove two hours to Hillcrest to pick up three boxes of, turned out to be, drafts of your
term
papers, something, junior high.
(Pause)
Carl …?

CARL
: Bye, Hon.

JOLLY
: … canceled
checks
. Something. Cocksucker: He calls up: “We have some stuff of Bob’s …” Carl drives there to pick it up. Like fools. We, he goes over there. It’s garbage. That they saved. We’re s’posed to take it.
(Sighs)

CARL
: Bye, Hon.

JOLLY
: See you at six.

CARL
: Yes.

JOLLY
: The girls at gymnastics.

CARL
: Yes, I know. Bye, Buub.

BOB
: I’ll see you, Carl.

CARL
: You hang on.

BOB
: All right.

CARL
: Thank you for coming.

BOB
: It was good to come.

JOLLY
: He was glad to come. He was glad to come. One time in nnnnnnn years, you
should
be glad to come. A house full of folks who love you.

CARL
: Good-bye, Bob.
(To
JOLLY
)
Bye, Sweetheart.
(He exits.)

JOLLY
: Don’t go.
(Pause)
We could go back. To Seventy-first Street is where we could go. To the Jeffrey Theatre. And Saturday kiddie shows. Twenty-five cartoons and a western. For a quarter. And the Chocolate Phosphate at J. Leslie Rosenblum’s,
“Every Inch a Drugstore.” Do you remember? Dad, he used to take us there?

BOB
: Yes. I do.

JOLLY
: Do you remember how it smelled?

BOB
: Yes.

JOLLY
: And we’d go to the Peter Pan Restaurant. On the corner of Jeffrey, and get a Francheezie, and the french fries, and a cherry Coke. And we would go to the South Shore Country Club, where they wouldn’t let us in. And we would sit in the window in the den, and Dad would come home every night, and we would light the candles on Friday, and we would do all those things, and all those things would be true and that’s how we would grow up. And the old men, who said that they remembered Nana. Back in Poland. And, oh. Fuck it. Oh the hell with it.

BOB
: I never came to see you.

JOLLY
:
I don’t care …

BOB
: … I never came …

JOLLY
: No. I don’t care … 
(Pause)
Oh, Bobby.
(Pause)
Oh, God …

CARL
: Well … 
(Exits)

JOLLY
: And I’m having this dream. How’s
this
for dreams …? They’re knocking on my door. All of them. “Let me in,” and I know that they want to kill me.
Mother: Mother’s
voice, from just beyond the door: “Julia, Let Me In.” “I will not let them hurt you …” the sweetest voice. “You are my
child …
” and it goes on. “I won’t let them hurt you, darling … you are my
child
. You are my
child
. Open the door. Oh.
Julia
. I will not let them Hurt You. OH. My Dear …” I open the door, this sweetest voice, and there is
Mom
, with this
expression
on her face … 
(Pause)
And she wants to kill me.
(Pause)

BOB
: Well.

JOLLY
: … and I knew that she did. So why did I open the door …?
(Pause)
Isn’t that the thing of it.

BOB
: “Thank God it was only a dream …”

JOLLY
: Yes.
(Pause)
Isn’t that a mercy …?
(Carl reenters. Pause. Picks up sheet of paper.)
The address of the gymnastics.

CARL
: Mm.

JOLLY
: What a good man.

CARL
: What are you doing?

JOLLY
: We’re being bad. We’ve been bad. We’re being punished. And we’re going to go to our rooms. And cannot come out until we’re prepared to make, a … what is it …?

BOB
: A Complete and Contrite …

JOLLY
: A Complete and Contrite Apology.
(Pause)

CARL
: Do you want me to stay home?

JOLLY
: No. Thank you. Bobby will be here a while, you see. And he’s the only one who knows.
(Pause)
’Cause he was
there …

CHARACTERS

SCENE

A restaurant

DEENY
:
(Pause)
They say there’s going to be a frost tonight.

BOB
: Do they?

DEENY
: Yes.

BOB
: Y’always liked that.

DEENY
: Yes. I did. It made me wish I had a garden.
(Pause)

BOB
: Uh hmm.

DEENY
: You know?

BOB
: Yes.

DEENY
: And you could go out to it, the morning; and see, well, you could go out to it the night before, and “cover” things … cover things, or “bring them in.”
(Pause)
You could, certain spots, they put smudge—is that the word? Smudge pots, you know, not a very pretty word, is it?

BOB
: No.

DEENY
: To keep the plants warm.
(Pause)
But I was saying, in the morning. You would go out, do you know, even, well, I was going to say To Get Up Early, but I think that if you were a gardener you probably
would
be up early. Do you think?

BOB
: Yes.

DEENY
: … out of
love. (Pause)
Rather than what? Rather than … what?

BOB
: Rather than a sense of duty.

DEENY
: Yes.

BOB
: … or the two would be one.

DEENY
: Well, that is the thing I’m
saying. Isn’t
it?

BOB
: I know.

DEENY
: That would be love.

BOB
: Indeed it would.

DEENY
: And I had a vision of
coffee
. Coffee, certainly … I
thought
, you see, I
thought
that the unfortunate thing about it was that it closed us off. And that
coffee …

BOB
: … yes.

DEENY
:
Coffee
, or
cigarettes
tended to …

BOB
: … to …

DEENY
: … 
paralyze
.

BOB
: Yes.

DEENY
: … natural functions, you see, in that the one, with the digestion, or the other, with the lungs, cut down our …

BOB
: … our …

DEENY
: … abilities … to … to … 
(Pause)
you know, to
use
the world, I think—those things of the world we could take in: food, or air, you know, and
use
them. Perhaps. So we say, “It’s too much.” I had a vision of a frosty morning. Myself with a cigarette. And with a cup of coffee. Smoking. As I look out of my window. And I see a garden. In this garden there are plants that I have planted and perhaps I have raised them from seeds or cuttings, do you know? The way they do …?

BOB
: Tell me.

DEENY
: To raise them inside, you know, from the year before. They call it “forcing.” Or they call something
else forcing, and they call this something else.
(Pause)
But that’s a nice word, isn’t it?

BOB
: What?

DEENY
: Forcing.

BOB
: Forcing. Yes.

DEENY
: If you talk about it. As, you know, as “bringing out.” These little green cups. Seeds that you have put in by the radiator. In the most … 
(Pause)
Wait a moment.
(Pause)
In the most safe and in the most protected of all settings in the world.
Otherwise
, they would not be born,
(Pause)
you see; and that is what I saw when I looked out the window.
(Pause)
I think about sex sometimes, and I think about all the times you think of a thing and vary between thinking that “it is a mystery,” and “it is a convenience.” And many times, you do not know which of the two it is. Do you think of that?

BOB
: I think that of various things.

DEENY
: Of what?

BOB
: Of life, of work. Of sex, of success.

DEENY
: Of
all
things.

BOB
: I think.

DEENY
: You go back and forth.

BOB
: Yes.

DEENY
: Without a certainty.

BOB
: Or with one which changes.

DEENY
: … and I think about the stupid
molecules
. Whatever the smallest unit is. They always tell us, in the newspapers, every day, some new unit, and you think, “surely
this
is, the thing you tell us now, must be the smallest unit.” Or, “you should,” you think, “you should confess that there
is
no end to it. That there
is
no smallest unit, and it is your
science
that is lacking,” do you know? “…  either the
instruments
or the humility to say, ‘There is no end to it.’ ” And oriental faiths, you know, posit a
pathway
, or say there is an extra
nerve
in the spine, science cannot find, the “third eye,” they’re talking about. Or, or an “aura,” and I think: “Yes, well, of course, you can approach it through
spiritual
practice,” you know, what, what, I suppose that you would call it “faith”; it isn’t that much different from believing something we see in the newspaper.

BOB
: Faith.

DEENY
: Not much, really. Or believing some, some spiritual thing. It’s just something that someone says is true. And you say, “Yes. I’ll believe that that’s true.”
(Pause)
But having lost the feeling that things will right themselves.
(Pause)
What? It becomes harder. Because I never, more importantly, nor, will I. I never
planted
a garden, nor
will
I plant a garden, and when I
question
myself as to
why
, I have no answer.