HESTER: You don’t even know where to find the man . . .
DAVID: I’ll find him, where are the keys?
HESTER [she grabs him]: Davey, stop it . . .
DAVID: I’m going, I’ll drag him here . . . !
HESTER [ frightened]: Davey . . . !
He strides toward the door. SHORY grabs his arm and holds it fast.
SHORY: Stop it!
DAVID: Let go of me!
SHORY [he will not let go]: Listen to me, you damn fool! There’s nothing you can do, you understand?
DAVID: Let go of my arm . . .
SHORY [ forces him down into a chair]: David, I’m going to tell you something . . . I never told you before. But you need to know this now. Amos deserves better than this, but I deserved better than this too. [Pats his thighs.] When I went to France there was no broken bones in my imagination. I left this town with a beautiful moustache and full head of hair. Women traveled half the state to climb into my bed. Even over there, under shot and shell, as they say, there was a special star over my head. I was the guy nothin’ was ever going to hit . . . And nothin’ ever did, David. [He releases DAVID’s arm. Now DAVID does not move away.] Right through the war without a scratch. Surprised? I walked into Paris combing my hair. The women were smiling at me from both sides of the street, and I walked up the stairs with the whistles blowing out the Armistice. I remember how she took off my shoes and put them under the bed. The next thing I knew the house was laying on my chest and they were digging me out. DAVID, all, stare at him.
HESTER: Everybody said it was a battle, I thought . . .
SHORY [to her]: No, no battle at all. [To DAVID.] In battle—there’s almost a reason for it, a man almost “deserves” it that way. I just happened to pick out the one woman in Paris who lived in a house where the janitor was out getting drunk on the Armistice. He forgot to put water in the furnace boiler. [Smiles.] The walls blew out. [Points upstage with his thumb over his shoulder.] Amos’s walls happened to blow out. And you happen to be a lucky boy, brother David. A jellyfish can’t swim no matter how he tries; it’s the tide that pushes him every time. So just keep feeding, and enjoy the water till you’re thrown up on the beach to dry.
Pause.
HESTER [goes to him]: Come, Dave, the folks are waiting to say goodbye.
DAVID is forced to turn quickly toward the window. It is an indecisive turn of the head, a questioning turn, and she follows as he strides to the window and looks out toward upstage direction . . .
DAVID: Wait! [Starting for the window.] A car? [Turns quickly to them all.] It didn’t go past. It stopped. [He starts quickly for the door, across the stage, right. PAT rushes down the stairs.]
PAT: He’s here! He came! Get out, everybody! [To all.] All the way from Burley in a taxicab! Dave, you stay. I want your advice when he starts talkin’ contract! [PAT rushes out.]
DAVID [as they all keep exclaiming]: Out, out, all of you! [As they start for door, DAVID musses SHORY.] Where’s your jellyfish now, brother!
SHORY [at door with the others]: His luck is with him, sister, that’s all, his luck!
DAVID: Luck, heh? [Smiling, he bends over SHORY, pointing left toward his big desk and speaking privately . . . ] Some day remind me to open the middle drawer of that desk. I’ll show you a fistful of phone bills for calls to Detroit.
GUS [joyously]: Dave. You called them!
DAVID: Sure, I called them. That man is here because I brought him here! [To SHORY.] Where’s the jellyfish could’ve done that! [Triumphantly, to all.] Don’t anybody go. We’re going to raise the roof tonight!
They have all gone out now, on his last lines. Only HESTER remains in the doorway.
DAVID looks at her a moment, and with a laugh embraces her quickly.
I’ll tell you everything he says.
HESTER: Be like this all the time, Davey. [She turns toward the hallway into which this door leads.] Tell me every word, now. [She goes.]
DAVID quickly brushes his hair back, looking rapidly about the room and to himself . . .
DAVID: Now it’s wonderful: This is how it ought to be!
Enter AMOS—comes down stairs.
AMOS [hushed, with his hands clasped as though in prayer]:
God, it’s happening just like it ought’ve. ’Cause I’m good. I betcha I’m probably great! [He says this, facing the door, glancing at DAVID.]
Enter AUGIE BELFAST and PAT. AUGIE is a big Irishman dressed nattily.
PAT [as they enter]: . . . couldn’t stop him from setting up a party. [Sees DAVE.] Oh, here he is.
AUGIE [to AMOS and DAVID.]: Sit down, sit down. Don’t stand on ceremony with me. I’m Augie Belfast . . .
AMOS sits on the couch. DAVID in a chair. As PAT . . .
PAT: Let me have your coat?
AUGIE [lays down his hat]: It don’t bother me. I live in it. Thanks just the same. [Taking out chewing gum.] Gum?
DAVID: No thanks, we’ve been eating all day.
AUGIE [unfolding a slice as PAT sits. He moves about constantly; he already has a wad of gum in his cheek]: Loosen up, don’t stand in awe of me. [To DAVID and AMOS.] I was just telling your father . . . I got tied up in Burley on some long-distance calls. I’m very sorry to be so late. [He is anxious to be pardoned.]
DAVID: Oh, that’s all right. We know how busy you fellas are.
AUGIE: Thanks. I knew how you must’ve been feeling. [He paces a little, chewing, looking at the floor.] Amos? [He says nothing for a long moment. Stops walking, looks down, slowly unfolds another slice of gum.]
AMOS [whisper]: Ya?
AUGIE: Amos, how long you been pitchin’?
AMOS: Well, about . . . [Turns to PAT.]
PAT: Steadily since he’s been nine years old.
AUGIE [nods. Pause]: I guess you know he’s a damn fine pitcher.
PAT [comfortably]: We like to think so around here.
AUGIE: Yeh, he’s steady, he’s good. Got a nice long arm, no nerves in that arm. He’s all right. He feels the plate. [All the time thinking of something else, pacing.]
PAT: Well, you see, I’ve had him practicing down the cellar against a target. Dug the cellar out deeper so he could have room after he grew so tall.
AUGIE: Yeh, I know. Man sitting next to me this afternoon was telling me. Look, Mr. Beeves . . . [He straddles a chair, folds his arms on its back, facing them.] I want you to have confidence in what I say. I’m Augie Belfast, if you know anything about Augie Belfast you know he don’t bull. There’s enough heartbreak in this business without bull-throwers causin’ any more. In toto, I don’t string an athlete along. Pitchin’ a baseball to me is like playin’ the piano well, or writin’ beautiful literature, so try to feel I’m giving you the last word because I am. [PAT nods a little, hardly breathing.] I have watched many thousands of boys, Mr. Beeves. I been whackin’ the bushes for material for a long time. You done a fine job on Amos. He’s got a fine, fast ball, he’s got a curve that breaks off sharp, he’s got his control down to a pinpoint. He’s almost original sometimes. When it comes to throwin’ a ball, he’s all there. Now. [Slight pause.] When I saw him two years ago, I said . . .
DAVID [electrically]: You were here before?
AUGIE: Oh yeh, I meant to tell you. I came to see him last year, too . . .
PAT: Why didn’t you let me know?
AUGIE: Because there was one thing I couldn’t understand, Mr. Beeves. I understand it today, but I couldn’t then. When the bases are clear, Mr. Beeves, and there’s nobody on, your boy is terrific. . . . Now wait a minute, let me say rather that he’s good, very good. . . . I don’t want to say an untruth, your boy is good when nobody’s on. But as soon as a man gets on base and starts rubbin’ his spikes in the dirt and makin’ noise behind your boy’s back, something happens to him. I seen it once, I seen it twice. I seen it every time the bases get loaded. And once the crowd starts howlin’, your body, Mr. Beeves, is floatin’ somewhere out in paradise.
PAT: But he pitched a shut-out.
/>
AUGIE: Only because them Black Giants like to swing bats. If they’d waited him out in the eighth inning they could’ve walked in half a dozen runs. You boy was out of control. [Dead silence.] I couldn’t understand it. I absolutely couldn’t get the angle on it. Here’s a boy with a terrific. . . . Well, let’s not say terrific, let’s say a damn good long arm. But not an ounce of base-brains. There is something in him that prevents him from playin’ the bases . . .
PAT: I know, I’ve been drilling him the last three years. AUGIE: I know, but in three years there’s been no improvement.
In fact, this year he’s worse in that respect than last year. Why? Today I found the answer.
PAT [softly]: You did?
AUGIE: The guy sitting next to me mentions about him pitchin’ down the cellar since he was nine years old. That was it! Follow me now. In the cellar there is no crowd. In the cellar he knows exactly what’s behind his back. In the cellar, in toto, your boy is home. He’s only got to concentrate on that target, his mind is trained to take in that one object, just the target. But once he gets out on a wide ball field, and a crowd is yelling in his ears, and there’s two or three men on bases jumpin’ back and forth behind him, his mind has got to do a lot of things at once, he’s in a strange place, he gets panicky, he gets paralyzed, he gets mad at the base runners and he’s through! From that minute he can’t pitch worth a nickel bag of cold peanuts!
He gets up, pulls down his vest. DAVID and PAT sit dumbly, AMOS staring at nothing.
I got to make a train, Mr. Beeves.
PAT [slowly rises. As though in a dream]: I didn’t want to waste the winters, that’s why I trained him down the cellar.
AUGIE [thoughtfully]: Yeh, that’s just where you made your mistake, Mr. Beeves.
DAVID [rises]: But . . . that was his plan. He didn’t want to waste the winters. Down the cellar . . . it seemed like such a good idea!
AUGIE: But it was a mistake.
DAVID: But he’s been doing it twelve years! A man can’t be multiplying the same mistake for twelve years, can he?
AUGIE: I guess he can, son. It was a very big mistake. Pause.
PAT: Well . . . you can’t take that out of him? Your coaches and . . . everything?
AUGIE: There’s no coach in the world can take out a boy’s brain and set it back twelve years. Your boy is crippled up here. [Taps his temple.] I’m convinced.
DAVID: But if you coached him right, if you drilled him day after day . . .
AUGIE: It would take a long, long time, and I personally don’t believe he’ll ever get rid of it.
PAT: You can’t . . . you can’t try him, eh?
AUGIE: I know how you feel, Mr. Beeves, but I am one man who will not take a boy out of his life when I know in my heart we’re going to throw him away like a wet rag.
DAVID [ for a long time he stands staring]: He has no life.
AUGIE [bends closer to hear]: Eh?
DAVID: He doesn’t know how to do anything else.
AUGIE [nods with sympathy]: That was another mistake. [He starts to turn away to go.]
PAT [as though to call him back somehow]: I believed if he concentrated . . . concentration . . . you see I myself always jumped from one thing to another and never got anywhere, and I thought . . .
AUGIE: Yeh . . . when it works concentration is a very sound principle. [Takes a breath.] Well, lots of luck.
Still unable to believe, PAT can’t speak.
’Bye, Amos.
AMOS nods slightly, numbly staring. At the door, to DAVE. ’Bye. [He starts to open the door.]
DAVID: Look . . . [He hurries to him. He looks in his eyes, his hand raised as though to grab the man and hold him here.]
AUGIE: Yeh?
DAVID starts to speak, then looks at AMOS who is still staring at nothing. DAVID turns back to AUGIE.
DAVID: . . . You’ll see him in the Leagues.
AUGIE: I hope so. I just don’t . . .
DAVID [trying to restrain his fury]: No, you’ll see him. You’re not the only team, you know. You’ll see him in the Leagues.
AUGIE [grasps DAVID’s arm]: . . . Take it easy, boy. [To the others.] I hope you’ll pardon me for being late.
DAVID [quietly, like an echo, his voice cracking]: You’ll see him.
AUGIE nods. Glances at PAT and AMOS, opens the door and goes. PAT and DAVID stand looking at the door. PAT turns now, walks slowly to AMOS who is sitting. As PAT nears him he stand slowly, his fists clenched at his sides.
PAT [softly, really questioning]: He can be wrong too, can’t he?
[AMOS is silent, his face filling with hate.] Can’t he be wrong? [No reply.] He can, can’t he?
AMOS [a whip-like shout]: No, he can’t be!
PAT: But everybody makes mistakes . . .
AMOS [with a cry he grabs PAT by the collar and shakes him violently back and forth]: Mistakes! Mistakes! You and your goddam mistakes!
DAVID [leaps to them, trying to break his grip]: Let him go! Amos, let him go!
AMOS [amid his own, and PAT’s weeping. To PAT]: You liar! I’ll kill you, you little liar, you liar!
With a new burst of violence he starts forcing PAT backward and down to the floor. GUS comes in as DAVID locks an arm around AMOS’s neck and jerks him from PAT who falls to the floor.
Leave me alone! Leave me alone!
With a great thrust DAVID throws AMOS to the couch and stands over him, fists raised.
DAVID: Stay there! Don’t get up! You’ll fight me, Amos!
PAT [scurrying to his feet, and taking DAVID away from the couch]: Don’t, don’t fight! [He turns quickly, pleadingly to AMOS, who is beginning to sob on the couch.] Amos, boy, boy . . . [AMOS lies across the couch and sobs violently. PAT leans over and pats his head.] Boy, boy . . .
AMOS swings his arm out blindly and hits PAT across the chest. DAVID starts toward them but PAT remains over him, patting his back.
Come on, boy, please, boy, stop now, stop, Amos! Look, Ame, look, I’ll get Cleveland down here, I’ll go myself, I’ll bring a man. Ame, listen, I did what I could, a man makes mistakes, he can’t figure on everything. . . . [He begins shaking AMOS who continues sobbing.] Ame, stop it! [He stands and begins shouting over AMOS’s sobbing.] I admit it, I admit it, Ame, I lie, I talk too much, I’m a fool, I admit it, but look how you pitch, give me credit for that, give me credit for something! [Rushes at AMOS and turns him over.] Stop that crying! God Almighty, what do you want me to do! I’m a fool, what can I do!
DAVID [wrenches PAT away from the couch. Stands over AMOS]: Listen, you! [Leans over and pulls AMOS by the collar to a sitting position. AMOS sits limply, sobbing.] He made a mistake. That’s over with. You’re going to drill on base play. You got a whole life. One mistake can’t ruin a life. He’ll go to Cleveland. I’ll send him to New York . . .
HESTER enters quietly.
The man can be wrong. Look at me! The man can be wrong, you understand!
AMOS shakes his head.
AMOS: He’s right.
DAVID releases him and stands looking down at him. AMOS gets up slowly, goes to a chair and sits.
He’s right. I always knew I couldn’t play the bases. Everything the man said was right. I’m dumb, that’s why. I can’t figure nothin’. [Looks up at PAT.] There wasn’t no time, he said, no time for nothin’ but throwin’ that ball. Let ’em laugh, he said, you don’t need to know how to figure. He knew it all. He knows everything! Well, this is one time I know something. I ain’t gonna touch a baseball again as long as I live!
PAT [frantically]: Amos, you don’t know what you’re saying . . . !
AMOS: I couldn’t ever stand out on a diamond again! I can’t do it! I know! I can’t! [Slight pause.] I ain’t goin’ to let you kid me anymore. I’m through. [He rises. PAT sobs into his hands.]
DAVID [AMOS keeps shaking his head in denial of everything]:
What do you mean, through? Amos, you can’t lay down. Listen to me. Stop shaking your head—who gets what he
wants in this world!
AMOS [suddenly.]: You. Only you.
DAVID: Me! Don’t believe it, Amos. [Grabs him.] Don’t believe that anymore!
AMOS: Everything you ever wanted . . . in your whole life, every . . . !
DAVID: Including my children, Ame? [Silence.] Where are my children?
HESTER: Dave . . .
DAVID [to HESTER]: I want to tell him! [To AMOS.] What good is everything when nothing is good without children? Do you know the laughingstock it makes of everything you do in the world? You’ll never meet a man who doesn’t carry one curse . . . at least one. Shory, J.B., Pop, you, and me too. Me as much as anybody!
HESTER: Don’t, Davey . . .
DAVID [with a dreadful triumph]: No, Hess, I’m not afraid of it anymore. I want it out. I was always afraid I was something special in the world. But not after this. [To AMOS.] Nobody escapes, Ame! But I don’t lay down, I don’t die because I’ll have no kids. A man is born with one curse at least to be cracked over his head. I see it now, and you got to see it. Don’t envy me, Ame . . . we’re the same now. The world is made that way, as if a law was written in the sky somewhere—nobody escapes! [Takes AMOS’s hand.]
HESTER [almost weeping she cannot restrain]: Why do you talk that way?
DAVID: Hess, the truth . . .
HESTER: It’s not the truth! . . . You have no curse! None at all! DAVID [struck]: What . . . ?
HESTER: I wanted to wait till the scout signed him up. And then . . . when the house was full of noise and cheering, I’d stand with you on the stairs high over them all, and tell them you were going to have a child. [With anger and disappointment and grief.] Oh Davey, I saw you so proud . . . !
DAVID [twisted and wracked, he bursts out]: Oh, Hess, I am, I am.
HESTER: No, you don’t want it. I don’t know what’s happened to you, you don’t want it now!
DAVID [with a chill of horror freezing him]: Don’t say that! Hester, you mustn’t . . . [DAVID tries to draw her to him.]
HESTER [holding him away]: You’ve got to want it, Davey. You’ve just got to want it!
She bursts into tears and rushes out. He starts after her, calling her name . . . when he finds himself facing AMOS.