"Remember the hat?" "Remember the hat he had?" "How did you ever decide when you were on the boat" "Who was the captain?" "Oh, well, we always knew that." "'cause charlie had the hat." "We had charlie, that's what we had." "Charlie." "He didn't even tell me until this morning" "That he had actually found a new office." "Just moved out!" ""if I need the files, can I get in touch with you?"" "I don't care for the new people he's taken up with," "The clients." "I know what's always gone on in the office," "I've done the tiresome work," "While charlie's put on his funny hats" "And knocked everybody dead with personal charm." "His whole act is consistent in denying" "That the law is anything but an ironic joke" "And that goes far with a lot of people." "He told me today that some of his clients were intimidated" "By the grandeur of our office." "One of his clients accused the receptionist" "Of being racist because she asked him to use an ashtray" "Instead of the rug." "If you don't tune in on the world" "You'll dry up and disappear." "It's back." "No." "I won't be seeing him and he can have the boat." "It's back!" "Then you shouldn't have fed it in the first place." "I suppose so." "We'll have to call the a.S.P.C.A." "You think?" "It does very well for itself." "All those cats do well." "Stop watching it." "Soph?" "Soph!" "Livers are good." "Perhaps their survival depends on people like me." "I don't see that it matters whether they survive or not." "Well, it looks half-starved." "Ignore it." "Do you want all the wild cats in brooklyn" "Holding a food vigil on our porch?" "I saw one catch a bird the other day." "They're not pussycats, you know, they're thugs." "The days are getting shorter." "Goody, no more locos with their goddamn bongos." "Maybe it'll snow early like last year." "Well, the weather is not on your side." "Yes, I guess." "I think I'll give the cat a little milk." "That goddamn woman" "Just dumped her evening load of garbage over there." "Why doesn't that cat go over there to eat?" "Hey, kitty." "Yes." "Here, kitty, come on." "What time are we due over the holstein's?" "Nine-ish." "Here, kitty." "Yes." "That's a kitty, yes." "Nice kitty." "Oh!" "All that melodrama." "Well, I can't live with that" "And he couldn't leave it alone." "If I wasn't with him, I was against him." "I'll be better all by myself." "What are you going to wear?" "I haven't decided yet." "Why'd it bite me?" "Bite ya?" "I thought you said it just scratched ya." "Well, whatever it did." "I was petting it." "Because it's savage." "Because all it wanted from you was food." "I know, charlie, he's using these people" "And their causes, he just doesn't wanna be left out." "Well, I wanna be left out!" "Kind of ended anyway." "We used each other up." "Truth is, I don't even like him anymore." "I wonder how he feels." "Like paul muni." "Paul muni!" "Oh, charlie is right," "You're barely in the right century." "That's right." "Charlie's not bad." "No, he's not bad." "He's vain and irresponsible and hysterical." "Bad hasn't anything to do with it." "Irresponsible?" "What do you mean, irresponsi" "Shut up." "Soph." "Don't." "Why not?" "My hand." "I don't wanna get blood on it." "No!" "Try the bathroom window." "Ok!" "Fire when ready." "I'd like to throw the door open and catch it empty." "Like being alive at your own funeral." "Not at all." "Two more houses sold over there." "What happens to the people in them now?" "I don't know." "What are they doing to that dog?" "Catholics believe that animals have no souls, you know?" "What are you talking about catholics?" "They all go to that pentecostal iglesia." "Watch out." "No dog ever did that." "I think maybe I'll just give the boat to charlie." "Where is he gonna sail it?" "The bowery?" "Why do they drop everything on the pavement?" "The packaging wrapping frenzy." "I saw a colored man kick a trash can over yesterday." "When it rolled out into the street" "He put his hands on his hips and he roared with laughter." "This morning I saw that white man," "The one who hangs his blanket out of the window," "Standing on the foot of his bed, pissing into the yard." "Yeah, there's good and bad in every race." "Ain't it the truth." "Ouch." "What's the matter?" "You bumped it, my hand." "Let me see that." "Well, hey, that's a real bite." "You shouldn't have fed it." "Why didn't you tell me it was a real bite?" "Because I didn't wanna hear you say," ""you shouldn't have fed it." well, that looks awful." "Well, it's just sensitive, it's nothing," "It's just sensitive." "You should at least get a tetanus shot." "What do you mean, "at least"?" "Even the psychoanalyst should know something about animal bites." "Please don't bring it up." "Just that I would like to leave early." "Looks like a sale." "Soph, darling." "Hello, otto." "Hello, mike." "Hey, you look marvelous." "Like some sad lovely girl out of the thirties." "Huh?" "And me?" "Just sad." "Ah." "Tell him." "Oh, something's happened and otto's making too much of it." "Tell me while I make you a drink." "Gin on the rocks?" "It was such a shock." "I'd been feeding the damn beast" "And it turned on me." "It ought to be looked at." "Oh, it's nothing." "I've been bitten by animals before." "No, I haven't." "Now, why did I say that?" "I don't think there's been any rabies around here in years." "Oh, no, not a chance, the cat was perfectly healthy." "You know me, I wanna be the saint" "Who tames wild creatures." "Mike, would you get the door, please?" "I shall return." "A very gentile party." "A very gentile party." "Well, I saw at least three jews." "Your parties are very educational." "It's not my party." "Yes, it is, it's your generation's thing." "Oh, for christ's sake." "She's a wicked one, isn't she?" "Mm." "You must be young mike's friends." "Let's go see lonnie up in st." "Luke's." "Ok." "The hospital?" "The visiting hours are over now." "The final line of final lines is from the roaring twenties." "Cagney, bogart, paul kelly, gladys george." "Now, cagney was top dog all the way through prohibition" "But now he's a bum." "And, well, for some reason that escapes me," "The mob guns him down." "He's dying on the steps of a church." "It's snowing." "Gladys george, who's been in love with him" "Throughout the entire picture," "But he was in love with someone else," "Is cradling him in her arms as he draws his last breath." "Now, a cop comes around and the cop says," ""who was he?"" "And gladys george says- now, brace yourselves" "Gladys george says, "he used to be a big shot."" "Man, that chokes me up." ""he used to be a big shot."" "That's a line." "Here come the tears." "I just can't help it." "Hello, sophie." "I didn't know you knew the holsteins." "I don't." "I came with friends of theirs, the eldwoods." "I don't know them." "Otto spotted me." "We chatted." "How've you been?" "Fine." "You?" "Fatigue," "Anemia, all the symptoms of irreversible loss." "Francis?" "Oh, dr." "Reed?" "Oh, I see." "No, never mind." "Another answering service." "There's no point in leaving this number." "Who reads these?" "What every analyst needs after a tough day." "Dr. Wexler?" "I see." "No, never mind." "Look, there's a hospital six blocks from here." "The emergency room's not bad." "Did you know that when cervantes wanted to come to the new world" "The king wrote across his application," ""no, tell him to find a job around here."" "Are you working on anything?" "I've been sent a new book to translate" "But I didn't understand it, not even in french." "It simply irritated me." "I hear otto and charlie are ending their partnership." "Which would change both of our lives and I feel nothing." "Charlie, the compulsive bleeding heart dying to be loved." "Otto, always straight." "The machine broke down." "What a lousy view of what happens between people." "A machine." "As bad as that?" "Worse." "Would you like me to send you to a friend of mine," "A first-rate man, member of the institute?" "Sophie?" "I was up here an hour ago." "The drapes muffled the sound." "Well, don't mention it to flo." "I'll clean it up myself." "Oh, well, it's nothing." "Trying to stop her from talking" "Is like trying to get a newspaper under a dog" "Before it pukes." "Oh, I hate it when you talk like that." "I'm tired of parties." "I don't care about fred astaire and he doesn't care about me." "Ditto fellini, truffaut and bergman." "You fell asleep." "Everyone knew you were asleep." "Mike asked me to take you home." "You know what's wrong with mike?" "Culture desperation, he can't stand his own trade." "He's like one of those movie starlets" "Who announces he's studying philosophy at u.C.L.A." "He called some doctors about the cat bite." "And?" "Nobody was in." "Don't you know this country is falling apart?" "It looks swollen." "Well, I'll soak it." "What are you sighing about?" "I don't know." "I'll get the alarm." "I resent it that someone we don't know" "Knows every time we go in or out." "I love it, makes me feel very important." "Hello?" "Hello?" "It's some degenerate." "Hang up." "A degenerate." "Hang up." "An american cretin." "What are you thinking about?" "Marriage." "I don't know what's the matter with you." "You could ask." "What's the matter with you?" "I think I've been poisoned by that cat." "Why didn't you answer the telephone?" "Never hear anything and I don't wanna hear anymore." "You're becoming an eccentric, you know that?" "Just like tanya." "Ha!" "I thought tanya lived her whole life on the telephone." "Tanya only answers the telephone" "When she's broken off a love affair." "I hate tanya." "You never told me that." "I never heard you say you hated anyone before." "I just realized it." "Well, what about claire?" "Oh, claire." "Claire's all right." "What do you care what I think about tanya?" "You don't like her yourself, you hardly ever see her." "I hardly ever see anybody." "Is that my fault?" "That phone call scared me." "Get out!" "Get out of here!" "You know you ought to throw that underwear out." "It's falling apart." "I like it when they get so soft." "Suppose you got hit by a car and had to go to the hospital?" "I'd say I was charlie russell, friend of the worker," "Knight of the oppressed." "Did tanya ever try to seduce you?" "What the hell kind of question is that?" "No." "Is that why you hate her?" "No." "Why do you hate her, then?" "I think it was that time she visited us in flanders" "And she used every single drawer in that enormous bureau." "She put her scarf in one drawer," "She put her stockings in another drawer," "She put her girdle in another drawer." "What kind of a woman is it who uses every single drawer" "In a bureau just because they're there?" "Did you notice mike junior tonight" "With that hungarian ribbon around his head" "Or whatever it was?" "Yeah." "Wonder if he tries to get a job with that." "That won't be necessary, mike senior will fund him." "Water babies..." "Come out of faucets not out of people." "Wish I knew what they were up to." "I think it's worse." "We'll call noel." "First thing in the morning, we'll drive up to pelham" "If we have to, drag him to the office." "Funny, running into francis early." "Yes." "Did you get a chance to speak with him?" "Mm-hm, briefly." "He's back with his wife again." "He's something of a phony." "I thought you liked him." "I do." "He's very appealing, but he's a phony." "He can't help himself." "Otto!" "Charlie." "I have to talk to otto." "Otto's asleep." "Well, I have to see him." "I'm in a terrible state, I-I just have to see him." "Now?" "You're crazy." "Well, I couldn't see him before now," "It's taken me all this time since this morning" "To get to the point I'm at." "I don't care what time it is." "I won't wake him." "Well, I will." "What's the matter?" "A cat bit me." "I just feel murdered." "I don't wanna see that bastard." "Let's go out and get a cup of coffee." "Does ruth know where you are?" "Ruth who?" "Oh, I hate wife jokes." "Don't make wife jokes." "Maybe we better give up." "Oh, there must be something open." "You say a cat bit you?" "Yes." "I didn't know you had a cat." "What was it?" "One of those oriental genetic freaks that costs $700?" "You sound like a corkscrew." "It was a stray." "Come on." "You been to a doctor?" "The cat wasn't sick." "Oh, it takes five years for rabies to incubate sometimes." "The cat wasn't sick." "That's family court." "Half my clients spend most of their time" "In those urine-scented chambers." "Your husband won't even set foot in the place." "We were together in columbia, together in the army," "We spent most of our lives together," "And this morning when I walk out of the office" "He says, "lots of luck, fella."" "I felt like my first day in camp when I was eight." "Peed in my pants." "Some little sadist wrapped a milk snake around my neck." ""lots of luck, fella."" "What's the point of seeing otto?" "There's a place." "I just want him to acknowledge" "That something important has happened." "I went to a movie." "The man sitting nearby told me I was talking to myself." "I told him not to interrupt." "He told me I was fucking up his one night out," "So I left and went to an automat" "Which was full of people talking to themselves." "Foundations of privilege under total assault" "And otto keeps fiddling with his navel," "He won't survive." "You mean if you don't tune in on the world" "You'll dry up and disappear?" "He told you?" "Mm." "Ruth and I never discuss anything." "I try, but she's not interested" "Unless it relates to the new liberation." "She's taken up yoga, chopped off her hair," "She wants to get ahold of some hashish." "She's like a demented sherlock holmes" "Trying to track down the ultimate clue, sex." "Sex is at the heart of everything." "She talks about sexual modalities," "The world of pornography." "You know the funniest part, we stopped making love." "I'm not so different from otto, I want the past too." "I hate planes and cars and rocket ships but, I don't dare." "Bobby is 16, he's gonna be drafted in a few years." "I don't dare." "I've had two miscarriages." "I've got a uterus like a pinball machine." "How come you never adopted?" "Well, we put it off and put it off." "Now we're settled." "When I was ten, I realized he was drunk most of the time." "My mother constructed her social life" "Around the idea that he had a slight speech impediment." "How did he die?" "He shot himself with a pistol he'd bought in rome" "Just before he married her." "What will ruth think if she wakes up" "And finds you gone?" "She'll assume I'm with a pale, young, beautiful girl," "Which is where I ought to be at my age." "How would she feel if she really thought that?" "She doesn't feel anything these days." "They are hostages to fortune." "I love them and they suffocate me" "And it's a business like everything else these days." "Having children business, the radical business," "The culture business," "The decline of old values business," "The militant business, the failure business." "The self-sacrificing lawyer business." "You know what kind of a lawyer I wanted to be?" "Like mr." "Jarndyce in bleak house." "That scene where esther summerson" "Is weeping in the coach," "And old jarndyce whips out a plum pie and a cake" "From beneath his cloak" "And he offers her both of them and when she refuses," "He flings them both out the window" "And says, "floored again."" "What style." "He flings them both out the window." "What did he throw out of the window?" "The pie and the cake or the people?" "Plum cake, or the plum pie, whatever that is." "I think I've got rabies." "Have a plum pie." "Would you like me to tell you about my love affair?" "A recent one?" "The only one." "Shocked?" "Yes." "Because I've had one or because I've had any?" "Both." "It lasted six months." "So it's over?" "He put me in a taxi." "When I turned around to wave," "I saw him peering in the window of a bookshop." "That's how it ended." "There's a good hospital on the other side of the bridge." "Oh, I wouldn't go to a hospital for anything as foolish as this." "You're afraid?" "Yes." "Well, the other is worse." "No." "Nothing frightens me more than pain." "It frightens me more than dying." "What's the matter with him?" "Three guesses." "He looks dead." "He's drunk." "But maybe he's ill." "He's drunk." "How do you know?" "I know." "Well, he could have had a fit or a heart attack or anything." "Try a bad case of whisky." "Ah, the american form of wisdom, no room for doubt." "Do you hate your country?" "No, I hate you." "A lot?" "No." "That's good." "Come on." "Not with that man lying out there." "Don't flatter yourself." "What are you going to do today?" "Lunch with claire." "You?" "The office." "Charlie's departure makes problems." "How's the bite?" "Sore, but it looks better." "Mm." "Call noel." "Well, he's not in on saturdays." "He has an answering service." "Well, you know what answering services are for." "No." "What are answering services for?" "Answering services are for muffling the screams" "Of the dying." "these are the jokes." "Well, I" "Why did you say, "lots of luck, fella"?" "How'd you know that?" "Charlie came here last night, in the middle of the night" "To see you." "Why didn't you wake me?" "The state he was in, I didn't think it was too wise." "We went for a walk." "Why'd you wait until now to tell me?" "He's hurt." "He thinks you're not giving this thing its proper weight," "The end of the partnership." "Don't tell me anything else." "Otto?" "What?" "You care about him." "Yes." "Then why is this happening?" "He wants a new life." "Even charlie wants that." "Why wouldn't he?" "What's that again?" "I see." "I-I said I see." "Bellamy?" "Are you serious?" "oh, no, I-I think it's an excellent idea." "Well, it is a bit of a surprise, bellamy." "Or several others." "Lunch?" "Tomorrow?" "Now, let me-let me think." "No, I'm afraid I can't tomorrow." "Monday?" "Yes, Monday seems all right." "Yes, Monday it is." "Anywhere you like." "Fine." "Bellamy." "I'm sure, I think it's an excellent choice." "Well, it is a bit of a surprise, bellamy." "Ruth?" "Ruth?" "Ruth!" "How are you?" "Hello, sophie." "I wanted to call you about the trouble." "Trouble?" "Charlie and otto." "I wouldn't call it trouble." "How are the children?" "The children are fabulous." "Stewart sounds so grown-up on the telephone." "He is grown-up." "He's going to that tennis camp this summer." "It's incredible how his self-image improved." "The director really knows what tennis is all about." "Three hours on the court and then an hour" "Of constructive criticism." "And bobby and linda?" "Bobby's going through a little phase of kleptomania." "Linda's marvelous." "She certainly knows who she is." "I really feel terrible about the breakup, ruth." "Oh, I always thought there was something odd about" "Their dependency on each other." "Odd?" "They're big boys now, mustn't keep them babied." "It castrates men." "Can we have lunch?" "I don't eat lunch anymore." "I'm on a diet." "Well, I'll call you, then." "What did she say?" "Did she say, "go away"?" "It doesn't matter, I'm just curious." "Claire?" "In here, the kitchen." "Cornmeal on top, clams on the bottom." "When they come up for it, they, uh..." "Clean the sand from their craws." "Did you say hello to leon?" "I didn't know he was here." "He's probably lying down upstairs." "I think his wife's driving him into the ground." "Is he married again?" "Last spring, some dull graduate student" "Who's convinced she's a creature of lust." "That's what he tells me anyhow." "Gin or whisky?" "Gin." "He tells me a great deal more than I wanna hear" "About that side of things," "Like I was his charlady instead of his first bride." "Why don't you tell him to just keep it to himself?" "That'd hurt his feelings." "He says she fooled him by writing a good thesis" "On henry james," "Some cockeyed angle on his relationship with his brother." "He always was a brain lover." "She's dippy," "She waits for him behind the door every night stark naked." "calls herself his beast." "He hates to go home." "Vermouth, tonic or what?" "Tonic." "You look elegant." "How are you?" "Fine." "Not so fine." "Look at those shoes." "Made by some european slave for a lira, right?" "What multitudes we all recline on." "I thought my vanity would subside by the time I was 40" "But it's worse, that's why I dress this way." "Better a middle-class frump than an aging go-go girl." "You know, there used to be a tribe in africa" "That flung women who were 40 over a cliff?" "How's otto?" "Charlie's leaving the firm." "Why?" "They weren't getting along." "Frankly, I don't see how otto stood him this long." "Oh, you only met charlie once." "All that good liberal stuff spread out so impeccably." "No holy fools enter paradise." "I knocked over a box full of horrible little instruments" "Like bugs on your dresser." "I started to pick them up but was overwhelmed by the dust." "Don't you ever clean up around here?" "Come down and see sophie." "I can see her from here." "Come down anyway." "When leon and I were married, centuries ago," "We went to lots of meetings that turned into parties." "I sat at leon's feet and listened to the men talk." "Ha." "And how they talked." "All that civilized babble." "And the only thing I could remember were their wives," "Especially the older ones," "Waiting like pensioners for a personal word or two." "You hated intellectuals" "Because they made you feel like a gentile poop." "Intellectuals?" "Those dilettantes, fops?" "Don't talk like that." "They were serious people." "I'm sorry." "You never did pay attention to me." "You're wrong." "I always paid attention." "I just didn't listen." "Why didn't you ever marry again?" "I didn't feel like it." "Ah, the truth at last." "Behind all that frantic energy I found so admirable" "Is nothing but sloth." "It takes energy to live with someone else." "I should be home, reading a grim m.A. Thesis" "By a teacher who wants to advance herself" "And hates the subject which she chose." "Don't let me keep you." "Why do you dress that way?" "Mother garbage." "You should have seen her in the old days, margaret." "Sophie." "Sophie." "What a beauty." "And moved like lightning." "Fixed leaking toilet tanks and electric plugs," "Painted walls like a pro." "Kem-tone." "I painted everything with it." "Time to reheat the potage." "You couldn't cook then." "We lived on canned macaroni, bacon," "Whatever I could steal from my mother." "What has become of us all?" "Age." "And so many already dead." "No one wants to talk about age, do they?" "Humiliations of the bowels." "My own body has turned against me." "Refill?" "Who is the holy fool?" ""no holy fools enter paradise." who's the fool?" "My son by my second wife, 20, with the mind of a newborn." "I got this letter from him yesterday," "He must have found the stamp in the gutter," "Which I made the error of reading before my first class, 19th-century american fiction." "It was supposed to be a poem" "About the great wonders of everything." "It is his belief that the world began in 1950," "The year of his birth." "I have tried to dissuade him of this delusion," "But my knowledge is no match for his ignorance." "At the very hint of an idea from me," "He smiles gently as if I were eternally damned." "He wears a rubber band around his hair" "To keep it out of eyes when he studies the wall" "In front of him, where his visions arise." "Lives in a horrible slum house in east orange." "If only he wanted to save something." "The world, for example." "But he is stupid, stupid." "The only basis of his privilege, me," "Has to lecture forever on william dean howells" "Who bores me sick." "Is that justice?" "In 1938, you handed out leaflets on 6th avenue." "There wasn't a question you didn't have an answer for." "You and I lived together." "We never talked about love." "Wasn't necessary." "On fridays you went to the bronx" "And lit candles for your mother." "Reading on the subway." "No one paid for us." "You worked for the bajerskis." "They paid me next to nothing" "But sometimes asked my advice because I was a college boy." "They drank tea all day long." "Knew all their employees by first name." "Played pinochle with the man who ran the turret lathe." "On fridays, they closed early" "So you could all get home before sunset." "Once, I cut a slice of salami in front of them" "With the same knife I had just used for cheese." "They screamed with horror." "I have been told by a colleague ten years older than myself," "As if it were possible for anybody" "To be ten years older than I am," "That salvation comes from" "Staring at the pubic region of strangers" "And freedom from inducing in myself by the use of a chemical" "The kind of ecstatic lunacy in which I spent" "Most of my adolescence," "A condition I attribute solely to the strength of my body" "At the time," "And the conviction that I would live to see socialism" "In the United States." "Now that my bones are weak, my brain is stronger." "I don't expect anything." "It's edible." "Be still, my heart." "He's in a state of innocence." "He's scared." "He thinks one of his students might try to drug him." "He says they harangue him about drugs all the time." "He's afraid to have coffee in the cafeteria." "Even thinks the faculty dining room might be dangerous." "He says he now knows how scared old ladies are of being raped." "Are you ever afraid around here?" "Not of anything like that." "Nothing at all?" "I'd rather be shot than wait in the operating room" "For somebody to walk down the corridor with a dirty nose" "And a piece of glass." "What's that?" "Cat bit me." "Someone you know, I hope?" "A stray." "Have you had it looked at?" "It's nothing." "A llama bit me once." "I took benny to the children's zoo" "When he was small." "It was supposed to be the thing to do." "A dirty, demented llama reached over the fence" "And clamped its jaws on my hand." "It was like being bitten by dirty laundry." "Don't touch them." "He always does them." "It's part of the agreement." "Are you back with that man again?" "Funny you should ask that." "I ran into him last night." "And?" "Nothing." "You thought I was bad to do that, didn't you?" "Yes." "But it's easy for me to say." "I never had anything like that." "The nearest I ever came was him." "And not when we were married, but now." "Sometimes he sleeps here." "We lie together all night long with our arms around each other." "No sex." "I guess I never really liked sex." "We just lie there." "Sometimes I wake up in the night and I'm happy." "It is a kind of loving, isn't it?" "We can just be the way we are with each other." "Oh, if he didn't come to see me I think I'd blow away" "Like milkweed." "Sometimes in the afternoon, I sit here for hours." "When it gets dark, I make myself a little supper," "Chops and frozen beans." "If he's here, I have to be a gourmet." "Days like paper chains." "All I got is that old man I dumped 20 years ago" "When he knocked up some trotskyite lady named carla." "Look at this sponge." "It's filthy." "Use your shirt." "What are you gonna do with those clams you're torturing?" "Edgar and his new friend, some hairdresser, are coming." "Can I stay?" "No." "Women that hang out with homosexuals are spiders." "Back to work." "No wonder men weep." "I haven't seen any men weeping." "Because you're not observant." "Take me." "No, thanks." "Is this age" "Of generalized cock the revelation toward which" "My life has been directed?" "This age of baby shit." "What I've admired and thought all my life" "Has been debased, and I weep." "Finish the dishes." "Why do you wear your hair that way?" "You're repeating yourself, a sure sign of age." "You lie in your teeth." "I put it to sophie." "It's the last one this size." "Thank you very much." "It's exactly the size I want." "We-we have them larger." "No, no, this will be just fine." "You've got to season this one." "Yes." "What-what happened to your hand?" "It's bleeding." "No." "Yes." "Here, see?" "You-you must have banged it on something." "It's only a drop." "Well, we have so little space here." "Um, all these new shipments." "I didn't do it in here." "People have to watch where they're going." "I'm not blaming you for this." "What?" "You look like an orphan." "After dinner, we'll go to the hospital." "We'll go now." "No, after we've eaten." "What are you reading?" "Oliver wendell holmes, common law." "There's a note here in your handwriting in the margin." "Limitation of liability by statute." "Reminded me how serious you are." "I wanna know what you were really talking about with him last night." "He was drunk and foolish and talked about himself." "How did we arrive at such place?" "We agreed that it would be best to dissolve the partnership," "We had a meeting, we were reasonable." "The next day it began, as though he were punishing me." "It was his idea to end the thing, not mine." "I realize there were difficulties" "And I know that it's a failure in me" "That I can't feel more about what preoccupies him," "But I think about it." "I care." "Sit." "He says I have contempt for his clients." "I don't." "It's charlie I have contempt for." "Why?" "Because he doesn't mean it." "Because he wants to be caught up by something," "He wants to be swallowed by something" "So he doesn't have to think." "And the giveaway is what he's trying to do to me." "What is he trying to do to you?" "He informs clients about the break." "The way he behaves toward me in front of the office staff." "A man called me last week," "Someone I had represented for years." "I had given some of his business to charlie" "Because there was too much on my own desk." "Anyway, the man told me that charlie told him" "That I was putting my time in on the money clients" "Where the big fees are." "And that he suspected I was having personal problems" "Because I was neglecting so much routine in the office." "He even implied it..." "Might be something medical." "Well, you just should have gone and knocked him down." "I'm too old to pretend that changes anything." "Aren't you angry?" "I don't know." "All I know is I can't live like this," "Suspecting everyone." "You mean me?" "He shit on our friendship." "He shit on our hard work." "You mean you suspect me?" "What did you talk about with him last night?" "He said you were cold." "He said he loved you" "And you treated him like a delivery boy." "I didn't defend you the way I should have." "I don't know why I didn't, but I didn't." "I'd like to come in and talk to you a second, if I might." "Oh, all right." "I just wanna use your phone." "Everybody around here seems to think" "That black men are killers." "My god, you know," "They've been pushing me down the stoops." "I got a telegram this morning" "And I tried to explain to people," "And my roommate and I, we got no telephone." "You see, my mother has had a stroke." "She lives in upstate new york and I just got to get up there." "I got to phone that station and find out what time" "The next train leaves." "There's a phone right behind you," "You can use the phone there." "Go on, you can use the phone." "It's all right." "God bless you." "Uh, six, nine," "Six, five," "Nine, six, zero." "Oh, that's the new haven, you know?" "Uh, what time's the next train to albany?" "Uh-huh, and after that?" "Ah." "What's the fare?" "Round trip?" "Uh, how about one way?" "Whew, wicked." "You got a decent man there, lady." "It's nice to know that there are some people in this world" "That's not crazy." "I wanna thank you both." "Seems they've raised the fare since the last time" "I went up there." "Yeah, they're always" "Do you realize that it used to be very cheap," "And now they tell me it's $22 one way." "You know, I got $12." "A service like that" "I have $12, and as soon as I get up to albany" "I can get some more money." "I don't know what I'm gonna be able to do." "Well, I do have" "Awful nice of you." "I'll tell you what?" "Let me-let me write down my name and address." "Let me just write this down here." "Ok." "Ah, right." "Right." "Oh, that's yours." "And thank you very much, you gonna get this money back." "As soon as I get back in town." "Ok, have a nice trip." "Bless you, brother." "I gave him $10." "He said he'd return it when he got back from albany." "Arthur weinstein." "Weinstein?" "That's his roommate's name." "I guess he didn't wanna write his own." "Maybe he thought his own wouldn't count." "I wouldn't say that, I'd say he's extremely resourceful." "Well, his story might be true." "And so what if it isn't?" "What's $10?" "You mean they are not to be held accountable?" "I mean when you give something, you give it." "He couldn't have done better with a gun." "Yes, he could have." "A lot better." "Why'd you open the door?" "Smell became color and color became smell." "What?" "That's the way I would describe this place in a book." "I wish it was." "What?" "I wish it was a book." "I can see noel on Monday." "It won't make any difference now," "Let's go." "Put up with it." "Everyone else does." "You're the one got bit by the cat, honey?" "Yes." "Well, let's have a look." "I'm not gonna take that hand away from you." "I see." "It'll have to be reported." "Reported?" "To the police." "All animal bites have to be." "When did it happen?" "Yesterday." "Yesterday?" "Why didn't you come in then?" "Well, I didn't think it was necessary." "You were wrong." "Roll up your sleeve, honey." "What for?" "A little tetanus." "Just roll up your sleeve," "We'll take care of it" "That a girl." "I had no resources, I'm absolutely gutless." "It's a medical procedure, it's an incident." "You don't draw enough lines." "You'll have to have the shots." "You get them at the board of health." "The cat isn't sick, I know the cat isn't sick." "You can't tell by looking." "Relax, honey, those shots ain't so bad." "Shots in the stomach aren't bad?" "Where you been?" "They give them in the arm now." "Well, suppose we caught the cat?" "Then you're clean, just take it to the a.S.P.C.A," "They examine it and let the police know." "They'll have to kill the cat, won't they?" "I think so." "They have to look at its brain." "I killed a cat." "We haven't caught it yet." "I think we've frightened it away for good." "Soph?" "Hey, soph, look, chicken livers." "We have a box somewhere?" "A good, strong carton." "Something with flaps." "This is absurd." "Imperative." "Some other cat will eat them." "Uh-uh, no, not a chance." "I'm gonna be watching them." "Get the box, go on." "It won't be back." "It'll be back." "It will." "For god's sake, be a little uncertain." "Get the box." "Soph, get the box." "Go on." "What time?" "Half past." "Must have dined elsewhere." "Giving up?" "It'll be here in the morning." "Well?" "All right." "It'll be here in the morning." "Do you think it's true what he said," "They don't give them in the belly anymore?" "It'll be here in the morning." "No, it's here now." "All right, put on your jacket." "Hurry up." "Go on, move." "Come on." "Get that-hm." "Uh" "Get the box." "here, kitty, kitty." "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty." "Here you go, nice chicken livers." "There you go." "Here." "Here." "Yeah, you like that?" "Come on." "Come on, pussycat." "Come on" "Come on, come on." "Got the box?" "Put it down, put it down." "Come on, come on." "Zip up your jacket, for god's sake." "Here." "Good pussycat." "Come on." "Here, puss, puss, puss." "Come on, puss, puss, puss." "Come on." "Get the rest." "Good pussycat." "Yeah, get the rest of those livers." "Come on." "No, no, no." "Here, puss." "Come on." "Ah, good pussycat." "Oh, my, my, my, those are good, aren't they?" "All right." "Come on, pussycat." "Ok." "all right!" "Get the rope." "You hold the flaps while I tie it." "Come on!" "Hold the flaps!" "Sophie!" "Get the- sophie!" "God damn it!" "oh!" "all right" "I got him!" "Open the box." "All right, come on." "Come on, now, you hold the flaps while I tie it." "god damn it, sophie." "Damn it." "I'll do it, I'll do it." "Sophie, go make some tea." "Can't count on you for a goddamn thing." "Got you, you son of a bitch." "Soph?" "Sophie?" "Sophie?" "The night man at the a.S.P.C.A says there hasn't been" "A case of rabies around here for 30 years." "When will they know?" "Monday." "Not till Monday?" "The doctor who does the examination" "Doesn't come in till then." "If there's anything..." "There won't be anything, sophie." "They'll call you before noon on Monday." "And what about the cat?" "They don't have to kill them anymore." "But?" "But?" "But the man asked me if I wanted it back later," "I said no, he said they would dispose of it." "Dispose of it?" "Enough, sophie." "I'm taking you to flanders tomorrow." "It's going to be a nice day." "We'll start out early," "We'll have a picnic lunch by the fireplace," "Go for a nice long walk, think about different things." "It'll do you good." "Did it make any noise in the car?" "No." "Till I handed it over to the man." "Then what?" "It screamed." "How's the hand?" "It stopped hurting but I'm high as a kite" "Thinking about that phone call tomorrow." "You can't be worried about that." "There is a possibility." "It's a formality, not a possibility." "Wish there was some other way we could go." "Don't look." "You know what charlie would say if he heard that?" "He'd say that was an example of my lack of social conscience." "I want charlie to be gone." "Silent, vanished." "What exactly did he say the other night?" "I told you." "One morning I found him staring at something he'd printed" "In black letters on a piece of paper." "It was that thoreau quotation," ""most men live lives of quiet desperation."" "I asked him in what I thought was a light tone" "Whether his life was quietly desperate." "He stared at me with absolute hatred." "Buzzed his secretary, told her to send in his next appointment." "Could we please declare a moratorium on charlie?" "You're right." "No more charlie." "Who says you can't run away from your troubles?" "I'll bite." "Who?" "One of those things you're brought up to believe" "So you'll always face up." "Pure bullshit." "He said demurely." "I'm just taking charlie's advice." "I'm tuning in on the world." "It sounds out of place when you talk like that." "All I need is a little practice, that's all." "Bullshit." "Bullshit, I say, sir." "That was pure bullshit!" "Thanks for suggesting this." "Let's never go back." "You can actually see the sun." "There's a car there, there's a car there." "I couldn't see him." "You dumb" "Bastard." "I couldn't see him." "Bunny." "¶ then let me own I'm an aesthetic sham ¶" "Name the operetta." "The operetta quiz is on the air." "Trial by jury." "Trial by jury?" "Wrong." "Patience, or bunthorne's bride." "I will never make you a g.  s." "Fan, and that is that, I guess." "That's what I get for marrying beneath me station." "That's what you get for marrying." "Look at those birds." "Yep." "Boy, I'd love to have some of those rail fences" "Around the place." "Wouldn't you?" "She felt a wave of pure happiness." "Good for her." "Otto!" "What" "Oh." "What is this?" "Damn, look at this." "Oh." "Here's how they got in." "Wouldn't you think haynes would know?" "Mr. Bentwood and mrs." "Don't tell me it's summer." "Mr. Haynes" "Come in, come in!" "We've got a nice little crowd" "But you know how we country folks love the kitchen." "Turn that, uh- turn that thing off." "That's dwayne and warren," "You met them when we fixed your porch." "That's connie, our glamour girl." "Of course you know mrs." "Haynes." "Mr. Haynes, someone broke into our house." "Tom's supposed to do a weekly check on summer places." "You know tom." "Who doesn't know good old tom?" "Otto." "Did they steal any valuables?" "We don't think so." "All them nice things, you're lucky." "That's the word I was looking for-lucky." "I'll call tom." "It could be worse." "So we've been told." "Might be kids after liquor." "You summer people keep all this liquor lying around," "It's more than some young people can take." "Right?" "Right." "We've checked, there's nothing missing." "I said might be." "How often do you check?" "Every week." "This house was checked last week?" "Yes, and everything looked fine." "No broken windows or anything." "There's a dead bird in the bathtub." "It's been there for quite a while." "We were out here last week." "Otto?" "They're gone." "I wish someone would tell me how I can live." "Oh, it's only furniture." "Well, maybe we should move away." "It's only furniture." "I wouldn't mind being shot at in a revolution," "Having my house burnt, but this is meaningless." "Maybe it's just a language you don't understand." "Are you defending pigs who shit in your fireplace?" "Otto." "Soph." "sophie, sophie, I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Don't!" "I don't want to!" "Sophie, don't." "I don't want to!" "Sophie." "It's ok." "It's ok." "Don't." "Don't." "Sophie!" "Soph." "Soph." "Soph." "No." "I don't want any of that." "Soph." "I wonder if those haynes bastards" "Had anything to do with it." "They hate us." "Maybe we ought to" "Maybe we ought to think about adopting a child again." "All right." "All right?" "Is that how you feel about it?" "I exhausted feeling about that subject some time ago." "When I wanted to do it you made me feel as though" "I'd asked you to get me a tractor." "I'm thinking about it differently now." "If I thought you were serious" "Then?" "I don't know." "Take my hand." "When will they kill the cat?" "After they've examined it." "Can you stay home tomorrow until noon?" "They're not going to call." "There's always a chance." "Do you want to be rabid?" "If I was, I'd be equal to what's outside." "Are you coming?" "Sophie?" "Suppose they've been here too." "Not yet." "Come on."