Free Every Good Boy Deserves Favor and Professional Foul by Tom Stoppard Page B

that Hollar visited me at my hotel last night. It was a social call, which I was returning when I walked into this. And furthermore, I understood nothing about being a witness—I was prevented from leaving. I only came to say hello, and meet Pavel’s wife, on my way to the football—
    MAN 6: (
With surprise
) So you came to Czechoslovakia to go to the football match, Professor?
(
This rattles
ANDERSON .)
    ANDERSON: Certainly not. Well, the afternoon of the Colloquium was devoted to—well, it was not a condition of my invitation that I should attend all the sessions. (
Pause
.) I was invited to
speak
, not to listen. I am speaking tomorrow morning.
    MAN 6: Why should I know Hollar visited you at the hotel?
    ANDERSON: He told me he was often followed.
    MAN 6: Well, when a man is known to be engaged in meeting foreigners to buy currency—
    ANDERSON: I don’t believe any of that—he was being harassed because of his letter to Husak—
    MAN 6: A letter to President Husak? What sort of letter?
    ANDERSON: (
Flustered
) Your people knew about it—
    MAN 6: It is not a crime to write to the President—
    ANDERSON: No doubt that depends on what is written.
    MAN 6: You mean he wrote some kind of slander?
    ANDERSON: (
Heatedly
) I insist on leaving now.
    MAN 6: Of course. You know, your taxi driver has made a complaint against you.
    ANDERSON: What are you talking about?
    MAN 6: He never got paid.
    ANDERSON: Yes, I’m sorry but—
    MAN 6: You are not to blame. My officer told him to go.
    ANDERSON: Yes, that’s right.
    MAN 6: Still, he is very unhappy. You told him you would be five minutes you were delivering something—
    ANDERSON: How could I have told him that? I don’t speak Czech.
    MAN 6: You showed him five on your watch, and you did all the things people do when they talk to each other without a language. He was quite certain you were delivering something in your briefcase.
(
Pause
.)
    ANDERSON: Yes. All right. But it was not money.
    MAN 6: Of course not. You are not a criminal.
    ANDERSON: Quite so. I promised to bring Pavel one or two of the Colloquium papers. He naturally has an interest in philosophy and I assume it is not illegal.
    MAN 6: Naturally not. Then you won’t mind showing me.
( ANDERSON
hesitates then opens the briefcase and takes out
MCKENDRICK ’
s paper and his own and passes them over
. MAN 6
takes them and reads their English titles
.)
‘Ethical Fictions as Ethical Foundations’ … ‘Philosophy and the Catastrophe Theory’.
( MAN 6
gives the papers back to
ANDERSON .)
    MAN 6: You wish to go to the football match? You will see twenty minutes, perhaps more.
    ANDERSON: No. I’m going back to the university, to the Colloquium.
    MRS HOLLAR: (
In Czech
) Is he leaving?
    MAN 6: Mrs Hollar would like you to remain.
    ANDERSON: (
To
MRS HOLLAR ) No, I’m sorry. (
A thought strikes him
.) If you spoke to the taxi driver you would have known perfectly well I was going to the England match.
( MAN 6
doesn’t reply to this either in word or expression
.
ANDERSON
closes his briefcase.
The doorbell rings and
MAN 3
goes to open the door.
From the bedroom
MAN 5
enters with a small parcel wrappedin old newspaper
.)
    MAN 5: (
In Czech
) I found this, Chief, under the floorboards.
( MAN 5
gives the parcel to
MAN 6
who unwraps it to reveal a bundle of American dollars
.
MRS HOLLAR
watches this with disbelief and there is an outburst
.)
    MRS HOLLAR: (
In Czech
) He’s lying! (
To
ANDERSON .) It’s a lie—
The door reopens for
MAN 3. SACHA HOLLAR,
aged ten, comes in with him. He is rather a tough little boy. He runs across to his mother, who is crying and shouting, and embraces her. It is rather as though he were a small adult comforting her
.)
    ANDERSON: Oh my God … Mrs Hollar …
( ANDERSON,
out of his depth and afraid, decides abruptly to leave and does so
. MAN 3
isn’t sure whether to let him go but
MAN 6
nods