The Iceman Cometh (28 page)

He pauses inquiringly
.
PARRITT
gives no sign of having heard him
.

ROCKY
asks impatiently
.

Well, what about it? What if dey do call yuh a pimp? What de hell do you care—any more’n I do.

PARRITT

Without looking at him
—
vindictively
.

I’m through with whores. I wish they were all in jail—or dead!

ROCKY

Ignores this
—
disappointedly
.

So yuh won’t touch it, huh? Aw right, stay a bum!

He turns to
LARRY
.

Jees, Larry, he’s sure one dumb boob, ain’t he? Dead from de neck up! He don’t know a good ting when he sees it.

Oily, even persuasive again
.

But how about you, Larry? You ain’t dumb. So why not, huh? Sure, yuh’re old, but dat don’t matter. All de hustlers tink yuh’re aces. Dey fall for yuh like yuh was deir uncle or old man or someting. Dey’d like takin’ care of yuh. And de cops ’round here, dey like yuh, too.

It’d be a pipe for yuh, ’specially wid me to help yuh and wise yuh up. Yuh wouldn’t have to worry where de next drink’s comin’ from, or wear doity clothes.

Hopefully
.

Well, don’t it look good to yuh?

LARRY

Glances at him
—
for a moment he is stirred to sardonic pity
. No, it doesn’t look good, Rocky. I mean, the peace Hickey’s brought you. It isn’t contented enough, if you have to make everyone else a pimp, too.

ROCKY

Stares at him stupidly
—
then pushes his chair back and gets up, grumbling
.

I’m a sap to waste time on yuh. A stew bum is a stew bum and yuh can’t change him.

He turns away
—
then turns back for an afterthought
. Like I was sayin’ to Chuck, yuh better keep away from Hickey. If anyone asks yuh, yuh don’t know nuttin’, get me? Yuh never even hoid he had a wife.
His face hardens
.

Jees, we all ought to git drunk and stage a celebration when dat bastard goes to de Chair.

LARRY

Vindictively
.

Be God, I’ll celebrate with you and drink long life to him in hell!

Then guiltily and pityingly
.

No! The poor mad devil—

Then with angry self contempt
.

Ah, pity again! The wrong kind! He’ll welcome the Chair!

PARRITT

Contemptuously
.

Yes, what are you so damned scared of death for? I don’t want your lousy pity.

ROCKY

Christ, I
HOPE
he don’t come back, Larry. We don’t know nuttin’ now. We’re on’y guessin’, see? But if de bastard keeps on talkin’—

LARRY

Grimly
.

He’ll come back. He’ll keep on talking. He’s got to. He’s lost his confidence that the peace he’s sold us is the real McCoy, and it’s made him uneasy about his own. He’ll have to prove to us—

As he is speaking
HICKEY
appears silently in the doorway at rear. He has lost his beaming salesman’s grin. His manner is no longer self-assured. His expression is uneasy, baffled and resentful. It has the stubborn set of an obsessed determination. His eyes are on
LARRY
as he comes in. As he speaks, there is a start from all the crowd, a shrinking away from him
.

HICKEY

Angrily
.

That’s a damned lie, Larry! I haven’t lost confidence a damned bit!

Why should I?

Boastfully
.

By God, whenever I made up my mind to sell someone something

I knew they ought to want, I’ve sold ’em!

He suddenly looks confused
—
haltingly
.

I mean—It isn’t kind of you, Larry, to make that kind of crack when

I’ve been doing my best to help—

ROCKY

Moving away from him toward right
—
sharply
.

Keep away from me! I don’t know nuttin’ about yuh, see?

His tone is threatening but his manner as he turns his back and ducks quickly across to the bar entrance is that of one in flight. In the bar he comes forward and slumps in a chair at the table, facing front
.

HICKEY

Comes to the table at right, rear, of
LARRY
’s
table and sits in the one chair there, facing front. He looks over the crowd at right, hopefully and then disappointedly. He speaks with a strained attempt at his old affectionate jollying manner
.

Well, well! How are you coming along, everybody? Sorry I had to leave you for a while, but there was something I had to get finally settled. It’s all fixed now.

HOPE

In the voice of one reiterating mechanically a hopeless complaint
.

When are you going to do something about this booze, Hickey? Bejees, we all know you did something to take the life out of it. It’s like drinking dishwater! We can’t pass out! And you promised us peace.

His group all join in in a dull, complaining chorus
, “
We can’t pass out! You promised us peace!
”

HICKEY

Bursts into resentful exasperation
.

For God’s sake, Harry, are you still harping on that damned nonsense! You’ve kept it up all afternoon and night! And you’ve got everybody else singing the same crazy tune! I’ve had about all I can stand—That’s why I phoned—

He controls himself
.

Excuse me, boys and girls. I don’t mean that. I’m just worried about you, when you play dead on me like this. I was hoping by the time I got back you’d be like you ought to be! I thought you were deliberately holding back, while I was around, because you didn’t want to give me the satisfaction of showing me I’d had the right dope. And I did have! I know from my own experience.
Exasperatedly
.

But I’ve explained that a million times! And you’ve all done what you needed to do! By rights you should be contented now, without a single damned
HOPE
or lying dream left to torment you! But here you are, acting like a lot of stiffs cheating the undertaker!
He looks around accusingly
.

I can’t figure it—unless it’s just your damned pigheaded stubbornness!

He breaks
—
miserably
.

Hell, you oughtn’t to act this way with me! You’re my old pals, the only friends I’ve got. You know the one thing I want is to see you all happy before I go—

Rousing himself to his old brisk, master-of ceremonies manner
. And there’s damned little time left now. I’ve made a date for two o’clock. We’ve got to get busy right away and find out what’s wrong.
There is a sodden silence. He goes on exasperatedly
. Can’t you appreciate what you’ve got, for God’s sake? Don’t you know you’re free now to be yourselves, without having to feel remorse or guilt, or lie to yourselves about reforming tomorrow? Can’t you see there is no tomorrow now? You’re rid of it forever! You’ve killed it! You don’t have to care a damn about anything any more! You’ve finally got the game of life licked, don’t you see that?
Angrily exhorting
.

Then why the hell don’t you get pie-eyed and celebrate? Why don’t you laugh and sing “Sweet Adeline”?
With bitterly hurt accusation
.

The only reason I can think of is, you’re putting on this rotten half-dead act just to get back at me! Because you hate my guts!

He breaks again
.

God, don’t do that, gang! It makes me feel like hell to think you hate me. It makes me feel you suspect I must have hated you. But that’s a lie! Oh, I know I used to hate everyone in the world who wasn’t as rotten a bastard as I was! But that was when I was still living in hell—before I faced the truth and saw the one possible way to free poor Evelyn and give her the peace she’d always dreamed about.
He pauses. Everyone in the group stirs with awakening dread and they all begin to grow tense on their chairs
.

CHUCK

Without looking at
HICKEY
—
with dull, resentful viciousness
.

Aw, put a bag over it! To hell wid Evelyn! What if she was cheatin’?

And who cares what yuh did to her? Dat’s your funeral. We don’t give a damn, see?

There is a dull, resentful chorus of assent
, “
We don’t give a damn
.”

CHUCK
adds dully
.

All we want outa you is keep de hell away from us and give us a rest.

A muttered chorus of assent
.

HICKEY

As if he hadn’t heard this
—
an obsessed look on his face
.

The one possible way to make up to her for all I’d made her go through, and get her rid of me so I couldn’t make her suffer any more, and she wouldn’t have to forgive me again! I saw I couldn’t do it by killing myself, like I wanted to for a long time. That would have been the last straw for her. She’d have died of a broken heart to think I could do that to her. She’d have blamed herself for it, too.

Or I couldn’t just run away from her. She’d have died of grief and humiliation if I’d done that to her. She’d have thought I’d stopped loving her.

He adds with a strange impressive simplicity
.

You see, Evelyn loved me. And I loved her. That was the trouble. It would have been easy to find a way out if she hadn’t loved me so much. Or if I hadn’t loved her. But as it was, there was only one possible way.

He pauses
—
then adds simply
.

I had to kill her.

There is a second’s dead silence as he finishes
—
then a tense indrawn breath like a gasp from the crowd, and a general shrinking movement
.

LARRY

Bursts out
.

You mad fool, can’t you keep your mouth shut! We may hate you for what you’ve done here this time, but we remember the old times, too, when you brought kindness and laughter with you instead of death! We don’t want to know things that will make us help send you to the Chair!

PARRITT

With angry scorn
.

Ah, shut up, you yellow faker! Can’t you face anything? Wouldn’t I deserve the Chair, too, if I’d—It’s worse if you kill someone and they have to go on living. I’d be glad of the Chair! It’d wipe it out! It’d square me with myself!

HICKEY

Disturbed
—
with a movement of repulsion
.

I wish you’d get rid of that bastard, Larry. I can’t have him pretending there’s something in common between him and me. It’s what’s in your heart that counts. There was love in my heart, not hate.

PARRITT

Glares at him in angry terror
.

You’re a liar! I don’t hate her! I couldn’t! And it had nothing to do with her, anyway! You ask Larry!

LARRY

Grabs his shoulder and shakes him furiously
.

God damn you, stop shoving your rotten soul in my lap!

PARRITT
subsides, hiding his face in his hands and shuddering
.

HICKEY

Goes on quietly now
.

Don’t worry about the Chair, Larry. I know it’s still hard for you not to be terrified by death, but when you’ve made peace with yourself, like I have, you won’t give a damn.

He addresses the group at right again
—
earnestly
.

Listen, everybody. I’ve made up my mind the only way I can clear things up for you, so you’ll realize how contented and carefree you ought to feel, now I’ve made you get rid of your pipe dreams, is to show you what a pipe dream did to me and Evelyn. I’m certain if I tell you about it from the beginning, you’ll appreciate what I’ve done for you and why I did it, and how damned grateful you ought to be—instead of hating me.

He begins eagerly in a strange running narrative manner
.

You see, even when we were kids, Evelyn and me—

HOPE

Bursts out, pounding with his glass on the table
. No! Who the hell cares? We don’t want to hear it. All we want is to pass out and get drunk and a little peace!

They are all, except
LARRY
and
PARRITT
,
seized by the same fit and pound with their glasses, even
HUGO
,
and
ROCKY
in the bar, and shout in chorus
, “
Who the hell cares? We want to pass out!
”

HICKEY

With an expression of wounded hurt
.

All right, if that’s the way you feel. I don’t want to cram it down your throats. I don’t need to tell anyone. I don’t feel guilty. I’m only worried about you.

HOPE

What did you do to this booze? That’s what we’d like to hear. Bejees, you done something. There’s no life or kick in it now.
He appeals mechanically to
JIMMY TOMORROW
. Ain’t that right, Jimmy?