Free Writers by Barry Gifford

SPRING TRAINING AT THE FINCA VIGÍA

    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    CAST OF CHARACTERS
    Ernest Hemingway , Americanwriter
    H ugh Casey and Kirby Higbe , pitchers for the Brooklyn Dodgers
    Martha Gellhorn , Hemingway’s wife, also a writer
    Manuel , Hemingway’s right hand man
    Two Men in the darkness
    SETTINGS
    TheFincaVigía,thehomeofErnestHemingwayandMarthaGellhorn,outsideHavana,Cuba,in 1941 .
    The Floridita, a bar inHavana.
    PRODUCTION NOTES
    Thetimeofyearisearlyspring.TheBrooklynDodgersbaseball team is in training for the upcoming major league season andtwo of their players, pitchers Hugh Casey and Kirby Higbe, havebecome companions of the forty-two-year-old author of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms , among otherbooks.
    Â 
    Â 
    SCENE ONE
    It is just after ten thirty p.m. whenCASEY andHIGBE,ledby HEMINGWAY, storm into the house through the front porchdoor and mill about in the livingroom likelions or tigers driven by the lash of a whip intoa cage. Each of them stalks the roomwarily for a long time, as if they—even Ernest— had never been in it before. They are all more than slightlyinebriated.
    CASEY
    So this is your domain, hey, Ernie? Where you do yourdrinking.
    HIGBE
    Call him Ernest, Case. He told us he don’t like people callin’ him Ernie.
    HEMINGWAY
    Wherever I am is where I drink. I’m here now.
    HIGBE
    So are we. We’re all three of us here in Cuba.
    CASEY
    That’s right. Higbe’s right. What’re yougonnadoaboutit,Ernesto?
    HEMINGWAY
    Might I offer you gentleman a libation?
    HIGBE
    I thought there was only Cuban women in Cuba.
    HEMINGWAY
    What’s he talkin’ about?
    CASEY
    What’re you talkin’ about, Ernesto?
    HEMINGWAY
    I’m offering you bums a beverage.
    CASEY
    Hell, yes, Hem, we’ll take you up on that offer.
    HIGBE
    Up and up!
    hemingway goes to his wet bar and pours whiskey into glasses for each of them, hands out the drinks
    HEMINGWAY
    The regulars at the Havana Gun and Country Club surelyappreciate your patronage, boys, but I’m not certain they’ve gotenough doves to last you until the end of springtraining.
    HIGBE
    Us country boys are sure as shit some sharpshootin’ sons of bitches, you bet.
    HEMINGWAY
    Hig, I wish I had eagle eyes like you, but I inherited my eyesfrom mymother.Iwould’vebeenbetteroffhavinghadaneaglefora motherthantheoneIhave.Hercharacterisasfuckedupasher eyesight.
    HIGBE and CASEY can sense HEM INGWAY ’s mood shift at the mentionof his mother. They all drinkharder.
    HEMINGWAY
    Come on, Case, let’s put on thegloves.
    HEMINGWAY takes down two pairs of boxing gloves hanging by their laces from a hook in one corner of the room, tosses a pair to CASEY. As the men are pulling on and lacing up the gloves, assisted by HIGBE, Hemingway’s wife, MARTHA GELLHORN, enters. She’s a dirty blonde, Barbara Stanwyck type, tough and sassy, not terrifically beautiful but attractive and smarter than the men, including her husband, who knows this and hates her because of it. She swiftly and accurately appraises the scene.
    GELLHORN
    Goodevening,children.I’llbedamnedifI can’t hearthethirdsheet fluttering in thewind.
    CASEY
    Evenin’, Missus Hemingway.
    HIGBE
    Evenin’, missus.
    HEMINGWAY
    You can dispense with the formality, boys. Señorita Gellhorn don’t cotton to the marital terminology. Martha, my esteemedopponent isnoneotherthan Mr. Hugh Casey, presentlyapitcherforthe Brooklyn Dodgers. Serving as second for both of us is Mr. Kirby Higbe,alsooftheBrooklynteam,andnotedauthorofwhathas been appropriately dubbed the high, hardone.
    HIGBE
    Don’t listentohim,missus—Imean ma’am. I ain’t noauthor. I’m a pitcher, like Case. It’s what they call my numerouno.
    GELLHORN
    Your Spanishisverygood, Mr. Higbe.But don’t worry, Ilistenedto Mr. Hemingstein once, and that wasenough.
    CASEY
    I know what you mean. Ol’ Ern knows how to convince peoplein a