So what about that?
ALFIERI: But you didnât prove anything about him. It sounds like he just wasnât strong enough to break your grip.
EDDIE: Iâm tellinâ you I knowâhe ainât right. Somebody that donât 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 didnât give me the right kind of fight, I know it, Mr. Alfieri, the guy ainât 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 motherâll 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 sheâs 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, thatâs your business. Morally and legally you have no rights, you cannot stop it; she is a free agent.
EDDIE, angering: Didnât you hear what I told you?
ALFIERI, with a tougher tone: I heard what you told me, and Iâm telling you what the answer is. Iâm not only telling you now, Iâm warning youâthe law is nature. The law is only a word for what has a right to happen. When the law is wrong itâs because itâs 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 wonât 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. Thatâs right. Four-forty-one Saxon Street, Brooklyn, yeah. Ground floor. Heh? With greater difficulty: Iâm just around the neighborhood, thatâs 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 bowlinâ, Eddie?
EDDIE: No, Iâm due home.
LOUIS: Well, take it easy.
EDDIE: Iâll 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, theyâre all moved up there already?
BEATRICE: Yeah.
EDDIE: Whereâs Catherine? She up there?
BEATRICE: Only to bring pillow cases.
EDDIE: She ainât movinâ in with them.
BEATRICE: Look, Iâm sick and tired of it. Iâm sick and tired of it!
EDDIE: All right, all right, take it easy.
BEATRICE: I donât wanna hear no more about it, you understand? Nothinâ!
EDDIE: Whatâre you blowinâ off about? Who brought them in here?
BEATRICE: All right, Iâm sorry; I wish Iâd a drop dead before I told them to come. In the ground I wish I was.
EDDIE: Donât drop dead, just keep in mind who brought them in here, thatâs 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? Theyâre moved out; what do you want now?
EDDIE: I