RODOLPHO: I know, butâ
CATHERINE: You don't know; nobody knows! I'm not a baby, I know a lot more than people think I know. Beatrice says to be a woman, butâ
RODOLPHO: Yes.
CATHERINE: Then why don't she be a woman? If I was a wife I would make a man happy instead of goin' at him all the time. I can tell a block away when he's blue in his mind and just wants to talk to somebody quiet and nice.... I can tell when he's hungry or wants a beer before he even says anything. I know when his feet hurt him, I mean I know him and now I'm supposed to turn around and make a stranger out of him? I don't know why I have to do that, I mean. RODOLPHO: Catherine. If I take in my hands a little bird. And she grows and wishes to fly. But I will not let her out of my hands because I love her so much, is that right for me to do? I don't say you must hate him; but anyway you must go, mustn't you? Catherine?
CATHERINE,
softly:
Hold me.
RODOLPHO,
clasping her to him: Oh, my little girl.
CATHERINE: Teach me.
She is weeping.
I don't know anything, teach me, Rodolpho, hold me.
RODOLPHO: There's nobody here now. Come inside. Come.
He is leading her toward the bedrooms.
And don't cry any more.
Light rises on the street. In a moment Eddie appears. He is unsteady, drunk. He mounts the stairs. He enters the apartment, looks around, takes out a bottle from one pocket, puts it on the table. Then another bottle from another pocket, and a third from an inside pocket. He sees the pattern and cloth, goes over to it and touches it, and turns toward upstage.
EDDIE: Beatrice?
He goes to the open kitchen door and looks in.
Beatrice? Beatrice?
Catherine enters from bedroom; under his gaze she adjusts her dress.
CATHERINE: You got home early.
EDDIE: Knocked off for Christmas early. Indicating
the pattern:
Rodolpho makin' you a dress?
CATHERINE: No. I'm makin' a blouse.
Rodolpho appears in the bedroom doorway. Eddie sees him and his arm jerks slightly in shock. Rodolpho nods to him testingly.
RODOLPHO: Beatrice went to buy presents for her mother.
Pause.
EDDIE: Pack it up. Go ahead. Get your stuff and get outa here.
Catherine instantly turns and walks toward the bedroom, and Eddie grabs her arm.
Where you goin'?
CATHERINE,
trembling with fright:
I think I have to get out of here, Eddie.
EDDIE: No, you ain't goin' nowheres, he's the one.
CATHERINE: I think I can't stay here no more.
She frees her arm, steps back toward the bedroom.
I'm sorry, Eddie.
She sees the tears in his eyes.
Well, don't cry. I'll be around the neighborhood; I'll see you. I just can't stay here no more. You know I can't.
Her sobs of pity and love for him break her composure.
Don't you know I can't? You know that, don't you? She goes to him. Wish me luck.
She clasps her hands prayerfully.
Oh, Eddie, don't be like that!
EDDIE: You ain't goin' nowheres.
CATHERINE: Eddie, I'm not gonna be a baby any more! Youâ
He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth.
RODOLPHO: Don't!
He pulls on Eddie's arm.
Stop that! Have respect for her!
EDDIE,
spun round by Rodolpho:
You want something?
RODOLPHO: Yes! She'll be my wife. That is what I want. My wife!
EDDIE: But what're you gonna be?
RODOLPHO: I show you what I be!
CATHERINE: Wait outside; don't argue with him!
EDDIE: Come on, show me! What're you gonna be? Show me!
RODOLPHO,
with tears of rage:
Don't say that to me!
Rodolpho
flies at him in attack. Eddie pins his arms, laughing, and suddenly kisses him.
CATHERINE: Eddie! Let go, ya hear me! I'll kill you! Leggo of him!
She tears at Eddie's face and Eddie releases Rodolpho. Eddie stands there with tears rolling down his face as he laughs mockingly at Rodolpho. She is staring at him in horror. Rodolpho is rigid. They are like animals that have torn at one another and broken up without a decision, each waiting for the other's mood,
EDDIE,
to Catherine:
You see?
To Rodolpho:
I give you till tomorrow, kid. Get outa here. Alone. You hear me? Alone.
CATHERINE: I'm going with him, Eddie.
She starts toward Rodolpho.
EDDIE,
indicating Rodolpho with his head:
Not with that.
She halts, frightened. He sits, still panting for breath, and they watch him helplessly as he leans toward them over the table.
Don't make me do nuttin', Catherine. Watch your step, submarine. By rights they oughta throw you back in the water. But I got pity for you.
He moves unsteadily toward the door, always facing Rodolpho.
Just get outa here and don't lay another hand on her unless you wanna go out feet first.
He goes out of the apartment.
The lights go down, as they rise on Alfieri.
ALFIERI: On December twenty-seventh I saw him next. I normally go home well before six, but that day I sat around looking out my window at the bay, and when I saw him walking through my doorway, I knew why I had waited. And if I seem to tell this like a dream, it was that way. Several moments arrived in the course of the two talks we had when it occurred to me howâalmost transfixed I had come to feel. I had lost my strength somewhere.
Eddie enters, removing his cap, sits in the chair, looks thoughtfully
out. I looked in his eyes more than I listenedâin fact, I can hardly remember the conversation. But I will never forget how dark the room became when he looked at me; his eyes were like tunnels. I kept wanting to call the police, but nothing had happened. Nothing at all had really happened.
He breaks off and looks down at the desk. Then he turns to Eddie.
So in other words, he won't leave?
EDDIE: My wife is talkin' about renting a room upstairs for them. An old lady on the top floor is got an empty room.
ALFIERI: What does Marco say?
EDDIE: He just sits there. Marco don't say much.
ALFIERI: I guess they didn't tell him, heh? What happened?
EDDIE: I don't know; Marco don't say much.
ALFIERI: What does your wife say?
EDDIE,
unwilling to pursue this:
Nobody's talkin' much in the house. So what about that?
ALFIERI: But you didn't prove anything about him. It sounds like he just wasn't strong enough to break your grip.
EDDIE: I'm tellin' you I knowâhe ain't right. Somebody that don't want it can break it. Even a mouse, if you catch a teeny mouse and you hold it in your hand, that mouse can give you the right kind of fight. He didn't give me the right kind of fight, I know it, Mr. Alfieri, the guy ain't right.
ALFIERI: What did you do that for, Eddie?
EDDIE: To show her what he is! So she would see, once and for all! Her mother'll turn over in the grave!
He gathers himself almost peremptorily.
So what do I gotta do now? Tell me what to do.
ALFIERI: She actually said she's marrying him?
EDDIE: She told me, yeah. So what do I do?
Slight pause.
ALFIERI: This is my last word, Eddie, take it or not, that's your business. Morally and legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it; she is a free agent.
EDDIE, angering: Didn't you hear what I told you?
ALFIERI,
with
a tougher tone: I heard what you told me, and I'm telling you what the answer is. I'm not only telling you now, I'm warning youâthe law is nature. The law is only a word for what has a right to happen. When the law is wrong it's because it's unnatural, but in this case it is natural and a river will drown you if you buck it now. Let her go. And bless her.
A phone booth begins to glow on the opposite side of the stage; a faint, lonely blue. Eddie stands up, jaws clenched.
Somebody had to come for her, Eddie, sooner or later.
Eddie starts turning to go and Alfieri rises with new anxiety.
You won't have a friend in the world, Eddie! Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you!
Eddie moves off.
Put it out of your mind! Eddie!
He follows into the darkness, calling desperately.
Eddie is gone. The phone is glowing in light now. Light is out on Alfieri. Eddie has at the same time appeared beside the phone.
EDDIE: Give me the number of the Immigration Bureau. Thanks.
He dials.
I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them. That's right. Four-forty-one Saxon Street, Brooklyn, yeah. Ground floor. Heh?
With greater difficulty:
I'm just around the neighborhood, that's all. Heh?
Evidently he is being questioned further, and he slowly hangs up. He leaves the phone just as Louis and Mike come down the street.
LOUIS: Go bowlin', Eddie?
EDDIE: No, I'm due home.
LOUIS: Well, take it easy.
EDDIE: I'll see yiz.
They leave him, exiting right, and he watches them go. He glances about, then goes up into the house. The lights go on in the apartment. Beatrice is taking down Christmas decorations and packing them in a box.
EDDIE: Where is everybody?
Beatrice does not answer.
I says where is everybody?
BEATRICE,
looking up at him, wearied with it, and concealing a fear of him:
I decided to move them upstairs with Mrs. Dondero.
EDDIE: Oh, they're all moved up there already?
BEATRICE: Yeah.
EDDIE: Where's Catherine? She up there?
BEATRICE: Only to bring pillow cases.
EDDIE: She ain't movin' in with them.
BEATRICE: Look, I'm sick and tired of it. I'm sick and tired of it!
EDDIE: All right, all right, take it easy.
BEATRICE: I don't wanna hear no more about it, you understand? Nothin'!
EDDIE: What're you blowin' off about? Who brought them in here?
BEATRICE: All right, I'm sorry; I wish I'd a drop dead before I told them to come. In the ground I wish I was.
EDDIE: Don't drop dead, just keep in mind who brought them in here, that's all.
He moves about restlessly
. I mean I got a couple of rights here.
He moves, wanting to beat down her evident disapproval of him.
This is my house here not their house.
BEATRICE: What do you want from me? They're moved out; what do you want now?
EDDIE: I want my respect!
BEATRICE: So I moved them out, what more do you want? You got your house now, you got your respect.
EDDIEâ
he moves about biting his lip:
I don't like the way you talk to me, Beatrice.
BEATRICE: I'm just tellin' you I done what you want!
EDDIE: I don't like it! The way you talk to me and the way you look at me. This is my house. And she is my niece and I'm responsible for her.
BEATRICE: So that's why you done that to him?
EDDIE: I done what to him?
BEATRICE: What you done to him in front of her; you know what I'm talkin' about. She goes around shakin' all the time, she can't go to sleep! That's what you call responsible for her?
EDDIE,
quietly:
The guy ain't right, Beatrice.
She is silent.
Did you hear what I said?
BEATRICE: Look, I'm finished with it. That's all.
She resumes her work.
EDDIE,
helping her to pack the tinsel:
I'm gonna have it out with you one of these days, Beatrice.
BEATRICE: Nothin' to have out with me, it's all settled. Now we gonna be like it never happened, that's all.
EDDIE: I want my respect, Beatrice, and you know what I'm talkin' about.
BEATRICE: What?
Pause.
EDDIEâ
finally his resolution hardens:
What I feel like doin' in the bed and what I don't feel like doin'. I don't want noâ
BEATRICE: When'd I say anything about that?
EDDIE: You said, you said, I ain't deaf. I don't want no more conversations about that, Beatrice. I do what I feel like doin' or what I don't feel like doin'.
BEATRICE: Okay.
Pause.
EDDIE: You used to be different, Beatrice. You had a whole different way.
BEATRICE:
I'm
no different.
EDDIE : You didn't used to jump me all the time about everything. The last year or two I come in the house I don't know what's gonna hit me. It's a shootin' gallery in here and I'm the pigeon.
BEATRICE: Okay, okay.
EDDIE: Don't tell me okay, okay, I'm tellin' you the truth. A wife is supposed to believe the husband. If I tell you that guy ain't right don't tell me he is right.
BEATRICE: But how do you know?
EDDIE: Because I know. I don't go around makin' accusations. He give me the heeby-jeebies the first minute I seen him. And I don't like you sayin' I don't want her marryin' anybody. I broke my back payin' her stenography lessons so she could go out and meet a better class of people. Would I do that if I didn't want her to get married? Sometimes you talk like I was a crazy man or sump'm.
BEATRICE: But she likes him.
EDDIE: Beatrice, she's a baby, how is she gonna know what she likes?
BEATRICE: Well, you kept her a baby, you wouldn't let her go out. I told you a hundred times.
Pause.
EDDIE: All right. Let her go out, then.