Free The Iceman Cometh by Harold Bloom, Eugene O’Neill Page A

imagine tryin’ to sleep wid dat on de phonograph!
    MARGIE
    Maybe you tink we wasn’t glad when de house dick come up and told us all to git dressed and take de air!
    PEARL
    We told de guys we’d wait for dem ’round de corner.
    MARGIE
    So here we are.
    ROCKY
    Sententiously .
    Yeah. I see you. But I don’t see no dough yet.
    PEARL
    With a wink at margie — teasingly . Right on de job, ain’t he, Margie?
    MARGIE
    Yeah, our little business man! Dat’s him!
    ROCKY
    Come on! Dig!
    They both pull up their skirts to get the money from their stockings .
    ROCKY watches this move carefully .
    PEARL
    Amused .
    Pipe him keepin’ cases, Margie.
    MARGIE
    Amused .
    Scared we’re holdin’ out on him.
    PEARL
    Way he grabs, yuh’d tink it was him done de woik.
    She holds out a little roll of bills to rocky.
    Here y’are, Grafter!
    MARGIE
    Holding hers out .
    We hope it chokes yuh.
    ROCKY counts the money quickly and shoves it in his pocket .
    ROCKY
    Genially .
    You dumb baby dolls gimme a pain. What would you do wid money if I wasn’t around? Give it all to some pimp.
    PEARL
    Teasingly .
    Jees, what’s the difference—?
    Hastily .
    Aw, I don’t mean dat, Rocky.
    ROCKY
    His eyes growing hard — slowly .
    A lotta difference, get me?
    PEARL
    Don’t get sore. Jees, can’t yuh take a little kiddin’?
    MARGIE
    Sure, Rocky, Poil was on’y kiddin’.
    Soothingly .
    We know yuh got a reg’lar job. Dat’s why we like yuh, see? Yuh don’t
    live offa us. Yuh’re a bartender.
    ROCKY
    Genially again .
    Sure, I’m a bartender. Everyone knows me knows dat. And I treat you goils right, don’t I? Jees, I’m wise yuh hold out on me, but I know it ain’t much, so what the hell, I let yuh get away wid it. I tink yuh’re a coupla good kids. Yuh’re aces wid me, see?
    PEARL
    You’re aces wid us, too. Ain’t he, Margie?
    MARGIE
    Sure, he’s aces.
    ROCKY beams complacently and takes the glasses back to the bar . margie whispers .
    Yuh sap, don’t yuh know enough not to kid him on dat? Serve yuh right if he beat yuh up!
    PEARL
    Admiringly .
    Jees, I’ll bet he’d give yuh an awful beatin’, too, once he started.
    Ginnies got awful tempers.
    MARGIE
    Anyway, we wouldn’t keep no pimp, like we was reg’lar old whores. We ain’t dat bad.
    PEARL
    No. We’re tarts, but dat’s all.
    ROCKY
    Rinsing glasses behind the bar .
    Cora got back around three o’clock. She woke up Chuck and dragged him outa de hay to go to a chop suey joint.
    Disgustedly .
    Imagine him standin’ for dat stuff!
    MARGIE
    Disgustedly .
    I’ll bet dey been sittin’ around kiddin’ demselves wid dat old pipe dream about getting’ married and settlin’ down on a farm. Jees, when Chuck’s on de wagon, dey never lay off dat dope! Dey give yuh an earful every time yuh talk to ’em!
    PEARL
    Yeah. Chuck wid a silly grin on his ugly map, de big boob, and Cora gigglin’ like she was in grammar school and some tough guy’d just told her babies wasn’t brung down de chimney by a boid!
    MARGIE
    And her on de turf long before me and you was! And bot’ of ’em arguin’ all de time, Cora sayin’ she’s scared to marry him because he’ll go on drunks again. Just as dough any drunk could scare Cora!
    PEARL
    And him swearin’, de big liar, he’ll never go on no more periodicals! An’ den her pretendin’—But it gives me a pain to talk about it. We ought to phone de booby hatch to send round de wagon for ’em.
    ROCKY
    Comes back to the table — disgustedly .
    Yeah, of all de pipe dreams in dis dump, dey got de nuttiest! And nuttin’ stops dem. Dey been dreamin’ it for years, every time Chuck goes on de wagon. I never could figger it. What would gettin’ married get dem? But de farm stuff is de sappiest part. When bot’ of ’em was dragged up in dis ward and ain’t never been nearer a farm dan Coney Island! Jees, dey’d tink dey’d gone deef if dey didn’t hear de El rattle! Dey’d get D.T.s if dey ever hoid a cricket choip! I hoid crickets once