Life In The Flesh (2)
ABE Your new apartment in downtown? ZEV A sublet and only for three months because -- ABE Move out of Rosalie’s tonight. ZEV I got another plan for us, Poppa. We’ll go to California -- there are new territories there. I’ll transfer. It’s over here, Poppa. You and me and Jake. Good colleges in California for Jake. What do you say? It’s always freezing here. Everything out there is sun and oranges. You like oranges. You want Los Angeles or San Francisco? Avocados -- artichokes – greens – yellows -- ABE You’d leave this? ZEV They got a couple of openings in different places out there. Mr. Anderson mentioned it to me last week. At the end of training. I’m going to be good at this job, Poppa. And you’d like it, it’s warm out there. ABE You’re so skinny. What about your Mama? ZEV She’s not my mama – stop it – stop it. (An overhead elevated subway roars by. They wait.) Won’t have these subways in your head. It’s so cold now, isn’t it, Poppa? Eats you – millions of holes – invisible – the black eats you, Poppa. ABE They got helicopters in Los Angeles – over the highways -- I’ve seen them on tv. Jake has tests for college. ZEV After -- it’s only a week, and I’ll tell Mr. Anderson. We all could go out after New Year’s. ABE They got Russians in California? From St. Petersburg? ZEV They got ‘em everywhere. Come on, I don’t want you in this freezing rain, I’ll walk you over to Aunt Ella’s, she wants to see you. Hey, you know what? I’ll bet she’s got friends out there. ABE You go visit her now, you eat there. Later, I see you later. Go, go, go now. (He pushes ZEV into the rain and then runs off stage the other way.) FADE TO BLACK
xii A cell telephone rings. Two silver mylar frames, ten feet high by eight feet wide, come on-stage. These giant frames meet at a right angle which moves to center stage and standing within these two reflecting screens is ARON ROIZIS, muscular, tall, 33 years old, dressed in loose fitting old boxer shorts and a loose fitting old sleeveless T-shirt. He is doing biceps curls with big dumbbells. Next to a old bench with towels is a worn red, white and blue changing bag with white stars. ARON lets the telephone ring four times, then goes to his changing bag, and takes out the phone. ARON Yeah, hello. Good. (ARON takes some keys from the bag and goes to the window.) Here, Abe, catch ‘em. (He throws the keys out the window.) Got ‘em? Great. (ARON puts the telephone back into the bag, crosses to the door to the gym, unlocks it, returns to center of the frames and continues doing his curls.) ABE enters and stands just outside the frame. ARON Abie, my Russian wolf, come on in. Sit down. ABE Nah. You heard? ARON Heard there was somethin’. Grisha said you’d tell me. Tonight, huh? ABE Yeah, Mikhail’s, eight o’clock outside we meet Grisha -- it’s mine -- this newspaper guy. Talkin’ too much, makes Grisha crazy, he’s freaked like shit the Chinese won’t deal with him. ARON (doing overhead pushups) He say that? ABE Nah, but that’s what I figured. ARON Probably right, Abe, yeah, this deal’s big, puts him – and us – in a different arena, you know? But the Chinese, you know, how’s Grisha goin’ get ‘em together? He doesn’t know the language, Abe, I don’t see it workin’ like that. ABE You thinkin’ Zev? ARON I’m lookin’ at it. ABE Don’t. Not you, Aron. Don’t. ARON I understand. And so do you. Grisha thinks he’s just starting to fly now what with the gasoline money and your connection to St. Petersburg and the Chinese wantin’ to deal. Grisha’s thinkin’ this is his time, that he’s hot-hot-hot. ABE Fuck you. ARON I mean he’s hot to do the nuclear deal, Abie, not – not Rosalie. ABE I know what you meant. Mr. Hot, fuckin’ with me – puh, puh -- and Jakie, he’ll be okay, he’s hers -- but Zev – he’s got Li Ying, you know that – I see her in him, don’t you see her, Aron? – not his look in the mirror – he’s Russian white like me – but behind his eyes – in his brain – you know? The way he moves sometimes. ARON Yeah, she’s there, I see it, it’s his blood, like she’s always clickin’ in him like the way she used to do that little clickin’ sound with her tongue when she got nervous – and when she got sick. But in Zev it’s silent so you don’t hear it, you feel it comin’ from him like when he gets real still and looks at you really direct. Like he’s seein’ through you with her eyes. ABE Makes me happy in here (points to his heart) – she’s there with him, you know, she’s protecting him. ARON He’ll do it – he’s got the stuff that kid does, boy, he’d be great with us. And you look here at your little cousin, Abie: I’m tellin’ you, don’t you be doin’ a Grisha on him – don’t you be tellin’ Zev who you think Zev is and where he should go and what he should do – lay it out on his table – this is America, we’re here now -- let him choose. ABE Choose? He’s got the new job sellin’ new medicines for that big company that’s worth maybe billions and billions of dollars, he did it, Aron – he don’t have to choose again! He did it! Who’s fuckin’ side are you on?
ARON Ours. Look, Abie, this deal’s his gateway, you know that. So now figure Grisha’s playin’ us. Figure he thinks we can’t do it without him – he’s got his ice from gasoline money. Figure Grisha’s settin’ me up against you so he’ll knock us both off when the deal’s in place -- won’t have to split more pieces of his pie -- that way he’ll see a clear ocean between here and your cousin in that shipyard in St. Petersburg that’ll be just his -- he’ll be 100% -- that’s his biggest fuck. ABE Left face, right face -- maybe. But codes -- he needs codes. Got to move the diesel out of the harbor. Operational codes to launch missiles -- they’re like secrets -- Tetzik, he won’t let me down, Aron, I’m in those shipyards – still I’m in there, yes. ARON Unless, of course, Grisha figures you and me’ll talk and get on to his game and team up again like we first did when we got to Jersey fifteen years ago, when it was just you and me and Zev was real little, remember the early days? I know you do. Okay, figure it: he’s got reasons to knock us both over -- up his own take, bring in some new Russian blood he can control – bring in some other families and solidify his own, right? But figure it: he’s got some problems now. First: he doesn’t speak Cantonese and second: how’s he gonna get them the codes? The Chinese ain’t dumb – they’re not gonna buy a bunch a metal that sits in the water and does nothin’. Yeah, okay, so Grisha may want us out but, right now, he needs you – and I go with you so he needs me, too. Because – now listen, Wolfie -- in your heart, you know that’s why he’s levering you but not dicin’ you up and out – not yet. He’s hot-hot-hot – but only up to a point. You’re the key whether he likes it or not, you got the connections. So: how do you want to look at it, Abie the Wolf? ABE Money, just money, Aron. Hey, hey: what about the Bambiccis? ARON Yeah, the Bambiccis. They got the front money. You wanna make the connection with them first? You want us to drive this deal? ABE Unless Grisha’s there already talking to them about outting us after he gets the codes from me -- cutting them pieces from our pieces.
ARON Could be. But then there’s still sellin’ the sub to the Chinese and you know they’d walk if they think their gettin’ fucked. First walk, then come back and "talk." Either way, Grisha loses. Yeah, Abie, the Jersey Bambiccis, good idea, Wolfie, yeah, I’ll talk to Tony. Tell him some changes being made and we want the future smooth between us with you and me the new team. I saved his boy from shooting stuff – Tony’s kid was a mess -- pulled him out of that Newark furnace and connected with Hong Kong Donny so the family could send him to L.A. and clean him up. He’s okay, now, you know. In the movie business, I hear, with Hong Kong chop-socky stuff – big grosses. Tony loves me. Then, Abie, we’re back to our original deal before we even shipped out from Vladivostok, remember? You and me – I’m tellin’ you, Wolfie, we’ll be lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills – remember? ABE Like I always told you. Still in my mind is Li Ying -- huggin’ the baby – huggin’ Zev – us sittin’ on the floor in that little back room – Hong Kong – talkin’ and dreamin’ – always, even before Zevie was born – you was such a little kid -- I always told you. Let’s do it. ARON And we’ll be modern like high-tech satellites, Grisha could never figure this way – he’s still the peasant -- we’ll set up banks everywhere -- just electronics speedin’ through fiber optics -- even in Vladivostok, huh? We’ll be just like real Jews. And Maeve’ll help. She’s got that bank trainin’ so she’s good at advising and planning -- ABE You plan this already? You talk this over with her, Aron? Hey, she’s not us, she’s a lady with a college diploma, right? Her building has a doorman, you tell Maeve nothing. ARON Yeah, nothing, different worlds. She’s cashmere, I’m cement, but uhh, what fire! Been some time now just me waitin’ and figurin’ and here it is. Grisha plans, but I figure. I’ll make the deal with Tony Bambicci – he’s owes me – we wire the money as down payment for the retrofitted kilo sub from that ex-KGB guy. Your cousin’ll handle the details in St. Petersburg. Then Hong Kong Donny from Chinatown steps in and brokers the deal with the Chinese, we do it, you and me and Tony split the profit 50-50 to make him happy with us as kings and simple as apple pie and ice cream we wire it into my account – no, a new account, in both our names – you as trustee or something. I’ll set it up at Maeve’s bank. ABE Sixty for me from our half so I can quit Grisha. Then I’ll open his mouth and piss in him. If when I’m finished I can find his mouth.
ARON Sixty for you, okay, okay, not a big difference but you deserve the edge. What do you figure? Hong Kong Donny, we can trust him, huh? You can follow that talk, can’t you, Wolf? ABE That’s the problem. ARON Yeah? ABE Two gangs from Hong Kong – does not mean they will talk to each other. ARON Hmmm, yeah. So? So? You don’t want to say it but all roads lead to – ABE Fuck me. ARON Once. He’ll do it once – the money’ll be so big he can split – go to – go to – ABE California? ARON Yeah, if he wants. (PAUSE.) Who else can we trust? (PAUSE.) Or Grisha’ll dick us for dummies and then fuck us final when he’s finished, you know he will, he’s already doin’ you with Rosalie, sorry, but you know. (PAUSE.) Once, then we’ll all go to California, the money’ll be so big. I got it figured, we need him only once. Jakie’s good, she’ll watch him, you’ll have money for his college, we leave her -- you, me and Zevi – like how we started – and if he wants a legit business, we got plenty of money for him. Or – well, Wolfie, where else we goin’? ABE Okay. Let’s then do it – you and me – like how we started in the mother country. ARON The Russian Wolf! ABE You walked me to this, didn’t you, Aron? ARON You got me out. I’ll get you in. ABE Okay. Good. Okay. Come, Aronofsky – come. (He starts to exit.)
BLACKOUT.
xiii
Doctor’s office same as Scene ii. The lights are low, the office is empty. From off-stage we hear the sound of a glass breaking. We hear an old man crying. Then we hear a knock on the office door. ZEV (behind the office door) Ester? Ester? It’s me, Zev, you there? I know it’s late but the light’s on and – hey, Ester? The street door was open and the card says visiting hours tonight until 8:30 – you there, Ester? It’s me, Zev. (PAUSE. He knocks again.) Ester? Ester? I just wanted to talk. Okay, well, okay. Then I’ll lock the street door? Yeah, I’ll lock it. Okay. Well, I hope everything’s okay. Goodnight. (PAUSE. Still behind the door, ZEV tries to open the office door and, surprisingly, the doorknob turns and the door opens. Slowly, he enters. He is carrying a bouquet of brightly colored flowers. He stands in the doorway for a moment. He enters the room and crosses very quietly to ESTER’S desk. We hear the old man crying again, a mournful, deeply pained cry that’s filled with anguish and alcohol. ZEV stands listening to the old man’s cries. Then he places the bouquet on ESTER’S desk and goes to the door. He pushes the latch button on the door to make sure the door will now be locked, looks around once more, then leaves. He closes the door behind him and tries it to makes sure the door is locked. It is.) Okay, it’s locked – okay, bye. (The old man cries again. PAUSE.) Fade to BLACK.
xiv MIKHAIL’S BAR: same as in scene iii but the bar is now placed center stage, Section B. Billie Holiday begins to sing, "God Bless the Child" from the jukebox. The stage is empty until WILLIAM WESTON PATTERSON, 27, preppy, blond, lean, glasses, white shirt and tie pulled down, enters from the Men’s Room, crosses to bar, and sits facing front. WILLIAM Hey, Mikhail, another Baltika, okay? And how you got Billie here is another in the great mysteries of Brighton Beach, Mikhail, I’ll tell you that. (Begins to eat from the bowl of potato chips.) They have potato chips in Russia? (A bottle of beer and then a glass mug slide along the bar to WILLIAM.) Thanks. Hate the kind that’s perfectly extruded, you know, potato chips shouldn’t be perfect. (The door opens silently and GRISHA, followed by ARON and ABE, silently enter. ARON and ABE stand in the shadows on either side of the door. GRISHA watches WILLIAM.) I like to open the bag with my teeth – my incisors – rip it open and look inside for ‘perfect’ but with a little bit of bump. Some extra salt. Something a little different. I tell you, these sure are sure addictive. Now Jessica she’s perfect and with a little bit of bump. I love that bump. Mostly. Addictive, I tell you! So, Mikhail, who’s coming in tonight? GRISHA Mikhail, another beer for the lad. How ‘bout a Tzar-pushka, or a Vlas? I know: a Rock-n-Roll – now that’s perfect. Hi, I’m in tonight. WILLIAM Hi, thanks, but -- GRISHA No "buts." Mikhail, he looks like Rock-n-Roll, am I right? WILLIAM I’m William, thanks, but -- GRISHA William Weston Patterson, the newspaper writer? WILLIAM Yeah – but how did you -- ? GRISHA Well – well – real pleased to meet you. Been reading your series in The Weekly Hawk. WILLIAM Yeah? Wow. You mean, The Owl, but, hey, that’s great. GRISHA Although, Will, some of your facts are – you know -- fuzzy. WILLIAM I’ve got two more installments.
GRISHA Yeah? You write good. To the point, kid. You know your banking. And you know your beer. WILLIAM Thanks. GRISHA (sits at the bar) Mind if I sit? Thanks. (Offers his hand.) I’m kind of a local here although I got history elsewhere, too. Not the Mayflower but – we can’t all come from the Mayflower, hey? WILLIAM But we’re all American. Where’d you start from? GRISHA Yup, yup. (Grisha picks up a bottle of beer: ) Now, lookie here, Bill, let’s say this is Mother Russian and let’s say -- just for discussion’s sake – let’s say, William Weston Patterson, let’s say it’s three or four days after they brew it there -- the traditional Russian way, of course – always the traditions, hey? So you be lookin’ here, Bill. Now: little colonies start forming right here inside the bottle, you lookin’? WILLIAM Oh, yeah, I see what you’re saying – I mean, I see that it could happen not that it actually is happening right in this exact moment in that bottle. Theoretically. I don’t see it right now but – yeah, please, sorry, go on, I’m very interested. GRISHA Good. Good. Colonies of life – ain’t that poetic, Mr. Patterson? -- unless the beer is – now listen to this – unless they do this thing to it called, ‘flash pasteurized.’ Kills the little colony life. Flash! You’re pasteurized! WILLIAM Yeah, wow, I get it. GRISHA Good – good. But this Rock-n-Roll beer from Russia is the good old fashioned kind. Comes from low alpha acid hops so colonies grow and these colonies – these colonies of life -- spring out of the low alpha hops from Eastern Europe – ain’t that what old American family types with money call that place – Eastern Europe? WILLIAM I guess, yeah, yeah. It’s all perspective – geographical – political – emotional –
GRISHA Yeah. Or hops from China -- China’s not too bad neither, they got cheap hops, oh, yeah, they got much more than chow mein there, Billy -- low quality alpha like a lot of scum from the streets who multiply – don’t it fuckin’ drive you crazy? – although you write good – out of control, like we’ve been sayin’, Billy, unless they’ve all been flash pasteurized. You’re kind of young for someone who’s so smart, aren’t you? You go to Yale? WILLIAM Actually, yes, I did, yes. What’s your name? GRISHA But Jessica -- she went where? Brown? WILLIAM How did you -- ? GRISHA I overheard you talking to Mikhail, just before. WILLIAM But I didn’t -- Who are you? GRISHA Hey, no problem. It’s okay if I call you Billy -- ain’t it? Sorry: isn’t it? She calls you Billy, doesn’t she? WILLIAM Who? GRISHA When she’s coming. Although you got a kinda small dick. Whoever. WILLIAM (gets up) I gotta -- GRISHA (grabs him) Sit down. WILLIAM (sees ARON and ABE) Who are they? GRISHA Some pals. You always got to watch your back, right, Abe? Abe! ABE Right. GRISHA Aron? ARON Always watch your back, kid. GRISHA They’re locals, too, although they’ve traveled. You don’t always know where they’re going but you watch. And they sure are ambitious, which is good. Like you, Billy America. You ambitious, Abe? ABE You bet. GRISHA Yep, Abe’s he’s a bettin’ man – horses and things. Now, Aron, now he’s really ambitious, right, Aron? ARON Ambitious, that’s me, Billy. GRISHA But most of all, it’s Zev – Zev Biryuk, smarter than he knows – he’s the most ambitious, right, Abie? (ABE nods.) Okay, Billy, cards on the table, then, huh? Ha! Hey, I’m first generation, you can label me scum, me and Abe and Aron, right, boys? Beggin’ your indulgence, we are, all us scum to all them multi-generationed Americans with all their constitutional constitutions, right, boys? ARON and ABE Right. GRISHA Scum, Billy -- scum -- isn’t that what you’re implying in your ‘heavily researched feature stories’? I love English – love to read it and speak it -- so hapharzardous, you know, like nuclear subs bursting out of control – like atomic dolphins blowing up right in front of you, right, boys? ARON and ABE Right.
GRISHA Good boys, they are. Heavily into nuclear – I’m watchin’ their backs – that’s my gig. Say, hey: been meaning to ask: So, Bill, did you get some last night? Did it come really good? Send you straight to heaven with all her female flesh? Sure do hope so. My boys need some of that, too, don’t you, boys? Or was it, Kid Billy America – William -- a quickie sittin’ alone on your cold toilet seat and it sure is cold in the winter. Use the tissue paper – then go stuff it up your nose and smell yourself real deep – ain’t you got a great smell, Billy? And I sure do hope my boys ain’t smellin’ themselves too much. I’m outta line – sorry. WILLIAM Ah – well – what is it that -- ? Is there something you want to say to me? GRISHA Yeah, you learn your research at the Yale library from microfilm, Billy? Or are you real modern and surf the net? Or you go to the 42nd Street lions? New Reading Room and all those computer hook-ups. I been there, too, bet your little life on it, Kid Billy Fuckless Fuck-Your-Hand, that why you wear glasses – goin’ blind? Jessica not puttin’ out? For you, I mean. I’m tellin’ you it can fit in there real good, right, Abe? Huh? Abe? Hey, no offense meant, Kid Billy, mind you, not if you mindin’ me, and you ain’t mindin’ me, is you? Nah – nah -- you’re not minding Grisha -- yet. WILLIAM You’re Grisha Moysif. GRISHA Wow. So be straight with me like my boys gotta be straight with me, yeah, lay your cards on the table, Kid Billy America: Am I in your last two ‘feature articles’? WILLIAM Maybe. Is this a shake-down? GRISHA Don’t be fucking coy with me, pigeon. (GRISHA suddenly wacks WILLIAM who falls off his stool to the floor behind the bar where we can’t see him.) Get up. Get up, you’re not finished with your Russian beer, hop head, blowin’ to everyone in the fuckin’ sky. WILLIAM I’ve got to get to the bathroom, please. GRISHA Hold it. Or piss in your beer, cheap Russian beer before say 1991-1992 used to taste like piss but today -- well, today, we’re going international. That in your article?
WILLIAM My father’s a State Senator. What do you want? Why don’t you speak a little more clearly about what you want from me? I’ll work with you. GRISHA You ought to put in that Russian beer is going international -- add a little color -- like that stuff you did about the nuclear sub in St. Petersburg and someone wanting to sell it to the Chinese. That’s real good stuff, isn’t it, cowboy Billy? Yeah, I’ve seen all of what you wrote. You quote Mr. Anonymous real good. And in return, I got your editor, Charlie What’s-his-name from Prospect Park, a car. A hot little red BMW, that’s what he wanted, can’t really blame him, good choice, I thought, and real easy for me – for us – to pick up, right, boys? ARON and ABE Right. GRISHA He’s older than you, not so many bullets left in his gun -- you know what I mean, don’t you, stud? See, Charlie’s got his kids, he’s smart. And, in return, he saved his life, his wife, but, well, Kid Billy, we still got you as a problem. Charlie says you’re thinking you might win some prize with these expose stories -- like the Mulitzer or the Blitzkrieg -- or maybe some other fuckin’ prize, huh? Might even write a book, huh, Billy? Opposites attract? Well, you got one story in print, anyway. WILLIAM It’s -- it’s just -- you know, a bit of hypothesizing, I’m just a guy hypothesizing. I didn’t ever actually say anything – I don’t know that anything ever really happened – or know for sure who did it – it was all just – suggesting. GRISHA Hypothesizing -- ha! -- you’re a hot cock like my two boys here, yeah. But you never did answer me, Kid Billy America Fuck, did Jessica put it out last night for you to lap in? Were you comfy last night at her highly decorated West 87th Street place, huh? Or was her new guy – the stock broker – there last night? WILLIAM tries to run but ABE grabs him and throws him back to the stool behind the bar.
GRISHA Thanks, Abe. He’s a good man that Abe. We’ve come the long way – we’re stickin’ the course, the three of us are not like some spoiled rich kids from Short Hills, New Jersey. You wearing those bright red designer undershorts? Boxer types with the blue stars she bought you? ‘Cause we’re betting you got a real cute weenie, Billy America. And, yep, we sure do hope you got laid last night. WILLIAM I’m not dangerous, Mr. Moysif, it’s just a local – it’s all just words – speculation. And I’m just starting out. You want to offer me another perspective – for – for – for background? GRISHA Is he, Abe? Dangerous? ABE Absolutely. GRISHA Aron? ARON He’s a little prick – a little bump in the road -- now. Yeah, too much salt. WILLIAM We all have protected rights here – it is the Constitution – it is guaranteed. You tell me parts of the story from your perspective that I missed and I’ll incorporate that information – it’s not all printed yet. I want the best story – the truest story. That’s all I want, Mr. Moysif -- Grisha. I respect your rights. I don’t want to hurt anyone. GRISHA May be. Smart kid, huh, Abe, all that American education? But he doesn’t have what Zev’s got, doesn’t have starvation in his belly, doesn’t have the foreign beast twistin’ in his throat. Hey, you was born here, Billy, drink your beer, look at your gold mommy-watch, check the time, Billy, take a look around -- take a look around, Yale-boy. WILLIAM It’s the nuclear proliferation that concerns me. Those old subs leak and they pollute and, you know, atomic waste never really disappears. Look at Chernobyl. I was just trying to help. I didn’t mean to mess things up for you, Grisha, it’s just a local weekly. So what do you want? GRISHA Every thing, Billy, Kid Billy, Kid Billy America, Kid Billy America Fuck. One leg here, one leg there, my big balls swinging from the biggest golden arch -- me -- since Peter the Great. You know Peter? WILLIAM Oh, yeah, sure, I’ve been studying the language – the history, too -- I’ve been reading Russian newspapers -- just downloaded one from St. Petersburg couple of nights ago. What part of Russia are you from?
GRISHA Well, hey, ain’t you pasteurized heavy cream? Downloaded? We’re proud of you, Kid Billy. Of course, Peter treated me as scum when I was a kid -- just a little fucker of about five out on the streets looking for his mom but, hey -- (grabs WILLIAM behind his neck) nothing personal, huh? And listen to me: talk with no accent today. Just like a real American – ain’t television amazin’? Worked hard, I did. Hey, you got a chicken neck, Bill, something like those piss-poor beer bottles they used to have in my homeland when I was kid -- my homeland when I was a kid -- wasn’t like you, of course, never as clean as you, Billy, maids and gardeners. Now, sure as bullets can bite, they don’t use those old Soviet shit glass bottles anymore, those ugly green and brown brittle things that crack real easy into sharp edges and kept you running from doorway to doorway when it’s gray all over and raining and you’re five. Yeah, that nasty liquid hops stuff just bursting spontaneously inside those ugly bottles and wanting to get out. Open the bottle and whoosh! all over your face and in your eyes and sopping your skinny shirt, burning and eating you like it was alive and you were its food. Oh, yeah, well, sure I drank that stuff when I was a kid, when I had to. I’m telling you a lot, you know why, Billy? Because even though you’re American pretty, you remind me of an ugly old bottle, Billy. Ugly Billy, Kid Billy America, all fuzzy inside but thinking your shit is made of gold. WILLIAM No, no, we’re just on different roads but we’re all travelling to the same place. I didn’t mean to do anything to you personally. I just wanted to help. GRISHA Help who?, you stupid fuck. Ooops, look at the time, Abe. ABE It’s getting late. Real late. WILLIAM What did Charlie say? He’s not going to print the last two installments? GRISHA Right. Tough for you, Kid Billy, ‘cause it’s just too late now for you to check out who’s got that sub sub, glub glub. GRISHA raises his arm as if conducting an orchestra. ABE pulls out a gun and aims it at WILLIAM. WILLIAM Huh? Aw – come on – come on – aw – hey, I’m only a kid -- ! GRISHA So is Zev. Aron, Abie, and me, oh, yeah, we know Zev, he’s pumpernickel, he’s one of us. But you, hey, you, white bread, you’re no Zev. WILLIAM I didn’t mean to offend – I’m sorry – I’m sorry -- I really am – GRISHA You can’t even compete, you’re a leach. So, hey, hey, Billy, boogie-boogie – boogie-boogie: Flash. Pasteurized! WILLIAM begins to turn around to ARON and ABE just as GRISHA cocks his wrist and ABE pulls the trigger but there’s only a "Click." He pulls the trigger again, but, "Click." WILLIAM starts to scream. ARON takes out his gun and shoots WILLIAM who slumps over the bar. ABE grabs the gun from ARON and shoots WILLIAM again and again and the body falls to the floor behind the bar with a thud. Suddenly, from the jukebox, Billie Holiday begins singing, "God Bless the Child" again. GRISHA (To ABE: ) You didn’t check it, old man, you always got to check your piece. (Looking down at WILLIAM: ) Hey, Mikhail, do this guy and then turn off that whiny bitch.
GRISHA exits, followed by ARON and ABE. They go out the door and then ABE comes back in, goes to WILLIAM, kneels over him, and takes WILLIAM’S wallet. He counts the money, pockets it, and exits. The door closes again, the music stops, and the stage is empty.
BLACKOUT
xv
In her living room, in Section B, ROSALIE sits next to a sewing machine hand-sewing silk flowers on one of her wide brimmed hats. From the city streets, we hear the sound of a police siren and ROSALIE stops, looks up, waits, the siren fades, she returns to sewing the brightly colored silk flowers. It is 11:00 that night. She is drinking some wine and we see the bottle and her glass. ZEV enters dressed in his coat. ROSALIE Hi, you okay? (ZEV nods.) Cold tonight, yes? (ZEV nods and takes off his coat.) Shshshsh, your brother’s sleeping. ZEV He’s got the test tomorrow, huh? ROSALIE The S. A. T.’s – that’s for college. ZEV Yeah, I know. (He exits to hang up his coat, then returns and sits in a chair next to a window and stares out.) I’m leaving tomorrow. Got this sub-let from a friend at work. A studio apartment – I can see out the window there – I can see the water – you’d like it. ROSALIE Near Battery Park – all new, yes? (ZEV nods.) Jakie will miss you. (ZEV nods.) You like my new hat? ZEV Ain’t my style. Yeah, yeah, it’s nice, I mean. Rosalie – Rosalie, you ever love my father? (ROSALIE nods.) Never seen that with you two. ROSALIE I thought I could help – your mama had just died here – you were very skinny, Zevie, skinny malink – skinny malink like I was – big eyes you had – hungry always hungry and going zoom zoom zoom! -- only five years old and I, too -- I, too, Zev, I was very young and my mama’s apartment was very small and we had just come off that boat. John Wayne says you take your best shot -- I – I – I mean –
Copyright © 1999 Fred Jay Gordon |