AMS 1

Mother: Only last week a man turned up in Detroit, missing longer than Larry. You read it yourself.

Keller: All right, all right, calm yourself.

Chris: Then help me stay here.

Keller: All right, but... but don't think like that. Because what the hell did I work for? That's only for you, Chris, the whole shootin' match is for you!

Frank: Sure, there's a lot of them.

Keller: All the kind of business goin' on. In my day, either you were a lawyer, or a doctor, or you worked in a shop. Now...

Ann: You look shaved.

Keller: Oh, no. Gotta be extra special tonight. Big night, Annie. So how's it feel to be a married woman?

Bert: But it's only oral.

Keller: Oh, well, there's no harm in oral. So what's new this morning, Bert?

Mother: That's all, that's enough. Come inside now, and have some tea with me.

Keller: The one thing you ...

Ann: Do they still remember the case, Joe? Do they talk about you?

Keller: The only one still talks about it is my wife.

Chris: Sit down, Dad. I want to talk to you. Keller looks at him searchingly a moment

Keller: The trouble is the Goddam newspapers. Every month some boy turns up from nowhere, so the next one is going to be Larry, so...

Chris: Well, if she does, then that's the end of it. From her letters I think she's forgotten him. I'll find out. And then we'll thrash it out with Mother? Right? Dad, don't avoid me.

Keller: The trouble is, you don't see enough women. You never did.

George: I know those things...

Keller: Then remember them, remember them. There are certain men in the world who rather see everybody hung before they'll take blame. You understand me, George?

Mother: Joe, you're doing the same thing again. All your live whenever there's trouble you yell at me and you think that settles it.

Keller: Then what do I do? Tell me, talk to me, what do I do?

Mother: You're so foolish. Larry was your son too, wasn't he? You know he'd never tell you to do this.

Keller: Then what is this if it isn't telling me? Sure, he was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were. I'll be right down.

Mother: Don't ask me, Joe.

Keller: Then who do I ask? But I don't think she'll do anything about it.

Bert: Nothin'.

Keller: Then you couldn't've made a complete inspection of the block. In the beginning, when I first made you a policeman you used to come in every morning with something new. Now, nothin's ever new.

Chris: That's exactly why.

Keller: Then... Why am I bad?

Mother: There is to him.

Keller: There's nothing he could do that I wouldn't forgive. Because he's my son. Because I'm his father and he's my son.

Frank: Yeah, I got a mess in my yard, too. What a pity. What did Kate say?

Keller: They're all asleep yet. I'm just waiting for her to see it.

Chris: For God's sake, three years! Nobody comes back after three years. It's insane.

Keller: To you it is, and to me. But not to her. You can talk yourself blue in the face, but there's no body and no grave, so where are you?

George: No, got to be back in New York.

Keller: Too bad you can't stay, George. Sit down. He looks fine.

George: It's everything, Joe. It's his soul.

Keller: Uh huh....

Frank: Every Sunday ought to be like this.

Keller: Want the paper?

Mother: You stop that!

Keller: You heard me. Now you know what to tell him. But he wouldn't put me away though... He wouldn't do that... Would he?

Mother: Never, never in this world!

Keller: You lost your mind?

Frank: Why not? Probably a book collector.

Keller: You mean he'll make a living out of that?

Chris: Yes. I like it an hour a day. If I have to grub for money all day long at least at evening I want it beautiful. I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something that I can give myself to. Annie is in the middle of that. Now ... where to I find it?

Keller: You mean... Tell me something, you mean you'd leave the business?

Chris: I'm sick of the whole subject, now cut it out.

Keller: You want her to go on like this? Those cylinder heads when into P‐40s only. What's the matter with you? You know Larry never flew a P‐40.

Lydia: Sh! sh!

Keller: You want the paper?

Mother: Put that out of your head!

Keller: Because...

Ann: Why'd they take our hammock away?

Keller: Oh, no, it broke. Couple of years ago.

Ann: You, either, Kate? Don't you feel any ...?

Keller: The next time you write Dad ...

Lydia: I forgot all about it. Hya. I promised to fix Kate's hair for tonight. Did she comb it yet?

Keller: : Come on up and comb my Katie's hair. She's got a big night, make her beautiful.

Chris: Joe McGuts.

Keller: : That's the only way you lick 'em is guts! The worst thing you did was to move away from here. You made it tough for your father when he gets out. That's why I tell you, I like to see him move back right on this block.

Chris: What's it to you? Why...?

Keller: A father is a father! I better... I better shave. I didn't mean to yell at you, Annie.

Mother: That's because you keep on playing policeman with the kids. All their parents hear out of you is jail, jail, jail.

Keller: Actually what happened was that when I got home from the penitentiary the kids get very interested in me. You know kids. I was like the expert on the jail situation. And as time passed they got it confused and ... I ended up a detective.

Frank: Hey, what happened to your tree?

Keller: Ain't that awful? The wind must've got it last night. You heard the wind didn't you?

Chris: Lots of new books.

Keller: All different?

Chris: Dad, you amaze me...

Keller: All right, forget it forget it. I want a clean start for you, Chris. I want a new sign over the plant... Christopher Keller, Incorporated.

As he turns to porch Lydia comes hurrying from her house.

Keller: Always a smile, hey, Lydia?

Chris: Then kick him in the teeth! I don't want him in the plant, so that's that! You understand? And besides, don't talk about him like that. People misunderstand you!

Keller: And I don't understand why she has to crucify the man.

Mother: Will you do me a favor, Joe? Don't be helpful.

Keller: And I don't understand why, after I worked forty years and I got a maid, why I have to take out the garbage.

Mother: Oh, shut up.

Keller: And are any of them serious?

Bert stops and sticks his head through the arbor.

Keller: And mum's the word, Bert.

Mother. You can't bull yourself through this one, Joe, you better be smart now. This thing...this thing is not over yet.

Keller: And what is she doing up there? She don't come out of the room.

Ann: He shoulda cried all night.

Keller: Annie, I do not understand why you ...!

Ann: Don't you hold anything against him?

Keller: Annie, I never believed in crucifying people.

Ann: Joe, Let's forget it.

Keller: Annie, the day the news came out about Larry he was in the next cell to mine...Dad. And he cried, Annie...he cried half the night.

Mother: Why don't you both choke?

Keller: Annie, you can't go into a restaurant with that woman any more. In five minutes thirty nine strange people are sitting at the table telling her their life story.

Lydia: Is she still unhappy, Joe?

Keller: Annie? I don't suppose she goes around dancing on her toes, but she seems to be over it.

Chris: I'll get out. I'll get married and live some place else. Maybe in New York.

Keller: Are you crazy?

Mother: If I can't ask Annie a personal question ...

Keller: Asking her is all right, but don't beat her over the head. You're beatin' her, you're beatin' her.

Chris: No, don't feel that.

Keller: Because it's good money, there's nothing wrong with that money.

Chris: Why?

Keller: Because sometimes I think you're... ashamed of the money.

Bert: Aw, I betcha there isn't even a jail. I don't see any bars on the cellar windows.

Keller: Bert, on my word of honor there's a jail in the basement. I showed you my gun, didn't I?

Chris: I know that, Dad. Just you help me stay here.

Keller: But don't think that way, you hear me?

George: I know that, I...

Keller: But it's good to remember those things, kid. The way he cursed Frank because the stock went down. Was that Frank's fault? To listen to him Frank was a swindler. And all the man did was to give him a bad tip.

Chris: It means you knew they'd crash.

Keller: But that doesn't mean...

Mother: He loved you, Joe, you broke his heart.

Keller: But to put me away...

George: Well, I...

Keller: But you do know it. Because the way you come in here you don't look like you remember it. I mean in nineteen thirty seven when we had the shop on Flood Street. And he damn near blew us all up with that heater he left burning for two days without water. He wouldn't admit that was his fault, either. I had to fire a mechanic to save his face. You remember that.

Mother: I want you to act like he's coming back. Both of you. Don't think I haven't noticed you since Chris invited her. I won't stand for any nonsense.

Keller: But, Kate...

Chris: Then why didn't you tell them?

Keller: By the time they could spot them I thought I'd have the process going again, and I could show them they needed me and they'd let it go by. But weeks passed and I got no kick‐back, so I was going to tell them.

Chris: I know somebody just for you! Charlotte Tanner!

Keller: Call Charlotte, that's right.

Mother: Because if he's not coming back, then I'll kill myself! Laugh. Laugh at me. But why did that happen the very night she came back? She goes to sleep in his room and his memorial breaks in pieces. Look at it. Look. Joe...

Keller: Calm yourself.

Mother: Believe with me, Joe. I can't stand all alone.

Keller: Calm yourself.

Chris: No, I don't think she knew anything about it.

Keller: Chris! You... you think you know her pretty good?

Chris: Three and one half years... talking, talking. Now you tell me what you must do... This is how he died, now tell me where you belong.

Keller: Chris, a man can't be a Jesus in this world!

Jim: Any news?

Keller: Chris... My Chris...

Chris: Columbus!

Keller: Did Annie tell you he was going to see his father today?

Chris: To hell with that.

Keller: Did you ask Annie yet?

Chris: I don't know. When it cracked she ran back into the house and cried in the kitchen.

Keller: Did you talk to her?

Frank: Why, I saw a movie a couple of weeks ago, reminded me of you. Here was a doctor in that picture...

Keller: Don Ameche!

Mother: They're all still around.

Keller: Don't listen to her. Every Saturday night the whole gang is playin' poker in this arbor. All the ones who yelled murderer takin' my money now.

Ann: Well, in day school it's broach.

Keller: Don't surround me, will you? Seriously, Ann... You say he's not well. George, I been thinkin', why should be know himself out in New York with that cut‐throat competition, when I got so many friends here... I'm very friendly with some big lawyers in town. I could set George up here.

Chris: It's French.

Keller: Don't talk dirty.

Chris: then explain it to me. What did you do? Explain it to me or I'll tear you to pieces!

Keller: Don't, Chris, don't...

Ann: All right, Chris, all right.

Keller: Every time I come out here it looks like Playland!

Chris: Don't do that, Dad. I'm going to hurt you if you do that. There's nothing to say so say it quick.

Keller: Exactly what's the matter? what's the matter? you got too much money? Is that what bothers you?

Mother: He hasn't been laid up in fifteen years.

Keller: Except my flu during the war.

Bert: I can't, Mr. Keller.

Keller: For what! Bert, the whole neighborhood is depending on you. A policeman don't ask questions. Now peel them eyes!

Mother: Joe, Joe, please... you'll be alright, nothing is going to happen.

Keller: For you, Kate, for both of you, that's all I ever lived for....

Chris: For me! Where do you live, where have you come from? For me! ...I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do you think I was thinking of, the Goddam business? Is that as far as your mind can see, the business? What is that, the world of business? What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? Don't you live in the world? What the hell are you? You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you? What must I do to you? I ought to tear the tongue out of your mouth, what must I do? What must I do, Jesus God, what must I do?

Keller: For you, a business for you!

Chris: She's not Larry's girl.

Keller: From Mother's point of view he is not dead and you have no right to take his girl. Now you can go on from there if you know where to go, but I'm tellin' you I don't know where to go. See? I don't know. Now what can I do for you?

Chris: George Bernard Shaw as an elephant.

Keller: George! ...Hey, you kissed it out of my head ...your brother's on the phone.

Chris: All right, then, Dad.

Keller: Give it some more thought.

Chris: I can't help it. I know her best. I was brought up next door to her. These years when I think of someone for my wife, I think of Annie. What do you want, a diagram?

Keller: I don't want a diagram... I...I'm... She thinks he's coming back Chris. You marry that girl and you're pronouncing him dead. Now what's going to happen to mother? Do you know? I don't.

Mother: I don't know. I'm beginning to thing we don't really know him. They say in the war he was such a killer. Here he was always afraid of mice. I don't know him. I don't know what he'll do.

Keller: Goddam, If Larry was alive he wouldn't act like this. He understood the way the world is made. He listened to me. To him the world had a forty foot front, it ended at the building line. This one, everything bothers him. You make a deal, overcharge two cents, and his hair falls out. He don't understand money. Too easy, it came too easy. Yes, sir. Larry. That was a boy we lost. Larry. Larry. What am I gonna do, Kate?

Chris: Nobody talks about him any more.

Keller: Gone and forgotten, kid.

Bert: You're finally up.

Keller: Ha! Bert's here! Where's Tommy? He's got his father's thermometer again.

Chris: Dad... you did it?

Keller: He never flew a P‐40, what's the matter with you?

Chris: Then... you did it?

Keller: He never flew a P‐40...

Mother: You wouldn't go, he wouldn't ask you to go. But if you told him you wanted to, if he could feel that you wanted to pay, maybe he would forgive you.

Keller: He would forgive me! For what?

Chris: Something happen?

Keller: He's coming here?

Ann: Why, Frank, you're loosing your hair.

Keller: He's got responsibility.

Chris: Oh Annie, Annie... I'm going to make a fortune for you!

Keller: Hello ... Yes. Sure.

Lydia: Frank, the toaster ... Hya.

Keller: Hello!

Frank: Hya.

Keller: Hello, Frank. What's doin'?

Frank: That is funny.

Keller: Here's another one. Wanted, old dictionaries. High prices paid. Now what's a man going to do with an old dictionary?

Ann: What'll I do with a fortune?

Keller: Hey, Ann, your brother... What's this, Labor Day?

Lydia: Sure, why not?

Keller: Hey, that could be a song. Come on up and comb my Katie's hair... Oh, come up and comb my Katie's hair. Come on up, 'cause she's my lady fair. singing as he goes into kitchen) Oh, come on up, come on up, and comb my lady's hair....

Mother: I mean if you told him that you want to pay for what you did.

Keller: How can I pay?

Frank: Well, I'm working on his horoscope.

Keller: How can you make him a horoscope? That's for the future, ain't it?

Chris: You killed them, you murdered them.

Keller: How could I kill anybody?

Chris: She saw it.

Keller: How could she see it? I was the first one up. She was still in bed.

Mother: He's not going to marry her.

Keller: How do you know he's even thinking about it?

Chris: I wanted to get this settled first.

Keller: How do you know she'll marry you? Maybe she feels the same way Mother does?

Mother: Then why is she still single? New York is full of men, why isn't she married? Probably a hundred people told her she's foolish, but she's waited.

Keller: How do you know why she waited?

Mother: It's too late, Joe. He knows.

Keller: How does he know?

Chris: We've got to say it to her.

Keller: How're you going to prove it? Can you prove it?

Chris bursts out laughing. Goes up into alley.

Keller: I can afford another bag of potatoes.

Mother: Why are you going? You'll sleep, why are you going?

Keller: I can't sleep here. I'll feel better if I go.

Chris: Dad! Dad!

Keller: I didn't kill anybody!

Chris: But you were going to warn them not to use them....

Keller: I didn't say that.

Mother: I didn't want it that way.

Keller: I didn't want it that way, either! What difference is it what you want? I spoiled the both of you. I should've put him out when he was ten like I was put out, and make him earn his keep. Then he'd know how a buck is made in this world. Forgiven! I could live on a quarter a day myself, but I got a family so I...

Mother: Joe, you know what I mean.

Keller: I don't know what you mean! You wanted money, so I made money. What must I be forgiven? You wanted money, didn't you?

Frank: What's the difference, it's all bad news. What's today's calamity?

Keller: I don't know, I don't read the news part anymore. It's more interesting in the want ads.

Ann: What's the matter, is anything wrong?

Keller: I don't know, Kate's talking to him. Hurry up, She'll cost him five dollars.

Ann: That's telling him.

Keller: I don't know, everybody's gettin' so Goddam educated in this country there'll be nobody to take away the garbage. It's gettin' so the only dumb ones left are the bosses.

Chris comes on, hands her bag.

Keller: I don't like garbage in the house.

Mother: His friend is not home.

Keller: I don't like him mixing in so much.

Mother: He guessed it a long time ago.

Keller: I don't like that.

Mother: Why?

Keller: I don't read minds. Do you?

Chris: So what? I'm not fast with women.

Keller: I don't see why it has to be Annie.

Chris: I am thinking that way.

Keller: I don't understand you, do I?

Ann: That can't matter any more, Joe.

Keller: I don't what that to come between us.

Bert: Okay.

Keller: I got all the kids crazy!

Mother: You have nothing to say!

Keller: I got plenty to say. Three and a half years you been talking like a maniac... Mother smashes him across the face.

Chris: Sometimes you infuriate me, you know that? Isn't it your business, too, if I tell this to Mother and she throws a fit about it? You have such a talent for ignoring things.

Keller: I ignore what I gotta ignore. The girl is Larry's girl.

George: He hates your guts, Joe. Don't you know that?

Keller: I imagined it. But that can change, too.

George: Why did you say he's never

Keller: I know how you feel, kid, I'll never forgive myself. If I could've gone in that day I'd never allow Dad to touch those heads.

Ann: You're not so dumb, Joe.

Keller: I know, but you go into our plant, for instance. I got so many lieutenants, majors and colonels that I'm ashamed to ask somebody to sweep the floor. I gotta be careful I'll insult somebody. No kiddin'. It's a tragedy: you stand on the street today and spit, you're gonna hit a college man.

Ann: Can't scare me.

Keller: I like that girl. Wrap her up. You got nice legs, Annie! ...I want to see everybody drunk tonight. Look at him, he's blushin' .

Chris: Dad... how could you think that of her?

Keller: I mean if they want to open up the case again, for the nuisance value, to hurt us?

Chris: Well, don't spit.

Keller: I mean to say, it's comin' to a pass. I been thinkin', Annie... your brother, George. I been thinkin' about your brother George. When he comes I like you to brooch something to him.

Chris: Then why'd you ship them out?

Keller: I never though they'd install them. I swear to God. I thought they'd stop 'em before anybody took off.

Ann: Joe, you owe him nothing.

Keller: I owe him a good kick in the teeth, but he's your father.

Lydia: She going to get married? Is there anybody ... ?

Keller: I suppose... say, it's a couple of years already. She can't mourn a boy forever.

Chris: I know all about the world. I know the whole crap story. Now listen to this, and tell me what a man's got to be! "My dear Ann: ...", you listening? He wrote this the day he died. Listen, don't cry. something. Yesterday they flew in a load of papers from the States and I read about Dad and your father being convicted. I can't express myself. I can't tell you how I feel night I circled the base for twenty minutes before I could bring myself in. How could he have done that? Every day three or four men never come back and he sits back there doing 'business'. how to tell you what I feel.... I can't face anybody. probably report me as missing. If they do, I want you to know that you mustn't wait for me. I tell you, Ann, if I had him there now I could kill him. " (Keller grabs the letter from Chris's hand and reads it. After a long pause) Now blame the world. Do you understand that letter?

Keller: I think I do. Get the car. I'll put on my jacket.

Jim: Where's your tobacco?

Keller: I think I left it on the table. Gonna rain tonight.

Mother: Well, get it out of the pail. That's my potatoes.

Keller: I thought it was garbage.

Chris: You were afraid maybe! God in heaven, what kind of a man are you? Kids were hanging in the air by those heads. You knew that!

Keller: I was afraid maybe...

George: I saw your factory on the way from the station. It looks like General Motors.

Keller: I wish it was General Motors, but it ain't. Sit down, George. Sit down. So you finally went to see your father, I hear?

Mother: You're asking me again.

Keller: I'm askin' you. What am I, a stranger? I thought I had a family here. What happened to my family?

Chris: Go ahead, Ann. We're getting married, Dad. Well, don't you say anything?

Keller: I'm glad, Chris, I'm just... George is calling from Columbus.

George: Yes, but...

Keller: I'm just mentioning it, George. Because this is just another one of a lot of things. Like when he gave Frank that money to invest in oil stock.

Chris: Then it isn't just my business.

Keller: I'm just sayin' ...

Chris: I don't know what you're talking about.

Keller: I'm just talkin'. To his last day in court the man blamed it all on me... and his is his daughter. I mean if she was sent here to find out something?

Chris: What kind of question?

Keller: I'm just wondering. All these years George don't go to see his father. Suddenly he goes... and she comes here.

George: Why? What's you expect him to think of you?

Keller: I'm sad to see he hasn't changed. As long as I know him, twenty five years, the man never learned how to take the blame. You know that, George.

Frank: Larry was born in August. He'd be twenty‐seven this month. And his tree blows down.

Keller: I'm surprised you remember his birthday, Frank. That's nice.

Mother: Tell him... You're willing to go to prison.

Keller: I'm willing to...?

Chris: It bothers me.

Keller: If you can't get used to it, then throw it away. You hear me? Take every cent and give it to charity, throw it in the sewer. Does that settle it? In the sewer, that's all. You think I'm kidding? I'm tellin' you to do it, if it's dirty then burn it. It's your money, that's not my money. I'm a dead man, I'm an old dean man, nothing's mine. Well, talk to me! What do you want to do.

Chris: I want to know what you did, now what did you do? You had a hundred and twenty cracked engine heads, how what did you do?

Keller: If your going to hang me then I...

Frank: No.

Keller: Imagine? He walked off with his thermometer. Right out of his bag.

Mother: He's not dead, so there's no argument! Now come!

Keller: In a minute! Now look, Annie...

Chris: I thought you were going to shave?

Keller: In a minute. I just woke up, I can't see nothin'.

George: I didn't know you were interested.

Keller: In a way, I am. I would like him to know, George, that as far as I'm concerned, any time he wants, he's got a place with me. I would like him to know that.

Frank: That's what I'm working on to find out. It takes time! See, the point is, if November twenty‐fifth was his favorable day, then it's completely possible he's alive somewhere, because, I mean, it's possible. I didn't even see you.

Keller: Is he talkin' sense?

Mother: How could they move back?

Keller: It ain't gonna end till they move back! Till people play cards with him again, and talk with him, and smile with him ... you play cards with a man you know he can't be a murderer. And the next time you write him I like you to tell him just what I said. You hear me?

Ann: But what did he say to you, for God's sake?

Keller: It couldn't be, heh. You know.

Chris: Then you thought they'd crash.

Keller: It don't mean that.

Chris: Well, what about it?

Keller: It's crazy, but it comes to my mind. She don't hold nothin' against me, does she?

Mother: Joe, Joe... It don't excuse it that you did it for the family.

Keller: It's got to excuse it!

Bert: About what?

Keller: Just in general. Be v‐e‐r‐y careful.

Bert: I can't. It's not a nice word.

Keller: Just whisper it in my ear. I'll close my eyes. Maybe I won't even hear it.

Bert: Gee, aren't you going to arrest him? I warned him.

Keller: Kate...

Ann: He's going to read it! Larry. He wrote it to me the day he died.

Keller: Larry!

Chris: How about seeing what they did with your house?

Keller: Leave him be.

Ann: Please go.

Keller: Lemme know when he comes.

Mother: Don't, Joe. She's a sensitive girl, don't fool her. They still remember about Dad. It's different with him. He was exonerated, your father's still there. That's why I wasn't so enthusiastic about your coming. Honestly, I know how sensitive you are and I told Chris, I said...

Keller: Listen, you do like I did and you'll be all right. The day I come home, I got out of my car ... but not in front of the house... on the corner. You should've been here, Annie, and you too Chris. You'd 'a seen something. Everybody know I was getting out that day. The porches were loaded. Picture it now. None of them believed I was innocent. The story was, I pulled a fast one getting myself exonerated. So I get out of my car, and I walk down the street. But very slow. And with a smile. The beast! I was the beast ... the guy who sold cracked cylinder heads to the Army Air Force ... the guy who made twenty one P‐40s crash in Australia. Kid, walkin' down the street that day I was guilty as hell. Except I wasn't, and there as a court paper in my pocket to prove I wasn't, and I walked ... past ... the porches. Result? Fourteen months later I had one of the best shops in the state again, a respected man again, bigger than ever.

Mother: Stop that, Bert. Go home. There's no jail here.

Keller: Look at you, look at you shaking.

Ann: It comes and goes.

Keller: Look how nice her legs turned out!

Chris: Dad, you don't have to tell me this.

Keller: Look, Chris, I'll go to work on Mother for you. We'll get her so drunk tonight we'll all get married. There's gonna be a wedding, kid, like there never was seen! Champagne, tuxedos...!

Mother: She knows what I know, that's why. She's faithful as a rock. In my worst moments, I think of her waiting, and I know again that I'm right.

Keller: Look, it's a nice day. What are we arguing for?

Chris: The business! The business doesn't inspire me.

Keller: Must you be inspired?

Mother: Huhh?

Keller: My flu, when I was sick during... the war.

Frank: Why, you trying to buy something?

Keller: No, I'm just interested. To see what people want, y'know? For instance here's a guy is lookin' for two Newfoundland dogs. Now what's he want with two Newfoundland dogs?

Ann: That's awfully nice of you, Joe.

Keller: No, kid, it ain't nice of me. I want you to understand me. I'm thinking of Chris. See... this is what I mean. You get older, you want to feel that you... accomplished something. My only accomplishment is my son. I ain't brainy. That's all I accomplished. Now, a year, eighteen months, your father'll be a free man. Who is he going to come to, Annie? His baby. You. He'll come, old, mad, into your house.

Ann: You'd have him as a partner?

Keller: No, no partner. A good job. I want him to know that when he gets out he's got a place waitin' for him. It'll take his bitterness away. To know you got a place...

Chris: Well, it's her father if she feels...

Keller: No, no.

Chris: All right, Dad, forget it.

Keller: No, she dasn't feel that way. Annie...

George: No, he's not well, Joe.

Keller: Not his heart again, is it?

Mother: There's something bigger than the family to him.

Keller: Nothin' is bigger!

Mother: Joe, I tell you...

Keller: Nothin's bigger than that. And you're going to tell him, you understand? I'm his father and he's my son, and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head!

Mother: What's going on here Joe?

Keller: Now listen, kid...

Chris: And champagne?

Keller: Now you're operatin'! I'll call Swanson's for a table! Big time tonight, Annie!

Bert: Except some kids from Thirtieth Street. They started kicking a can down the block, and I made them go away because you were sleeping.

Keller: Now you're talkin', Bert. Now you're on the ball. First thing you know I'm liable to make you a detective.

Frank: Well, then, we assume that if he was killed it was on November twenty‐fifth. Now, what Kate wants...

Keller: Oh, Kate asked you to make a horoscope?

Mother: The only think is I think her nose got longer. But I'll always love that girl. She's one that didn't jump into bed with somebody else as soon as it happened with her fella.

Keller: Oh, what're you...

Bert: The dirty word.

Keller: Oh. Well...

Bert, on tiptoe, puts his lips to Keller's ear, then in unbearable embarrassment, steps back.

Keller: Okay, Bert. I take your word. Now go out, and keep both eyes peeled.

Mother: Be smart now, Joe. The boy is coming. Be smart.

Keller: Once and for all, did you hear what I said? I said I'm sure!

Chris: All different.

Keller: Psss! Annie up yet?

Chris: Shave, will you?

Keller: Right again.

Ann: Let's forget the whole thing, Joe.

Keller: Right. She's likeable.

Bert: Mr. Keller! Say, Mr. Keller... Tommy just said it again!

Keller: Said what? Who?

Chris: I will, Dad.

Keller: Say it to me.

George: I never felt at home anywhere but here. I feel so... Kate, you look so young, you know? You didn't change at all. It ... rings an old bell. You too, Joe, you're amazingly the same. The whole atmosphere is.

Keller: Say, I ain't got time to get sick.

Chris: Mother's giving her breakfast in the dining room.

Keller: See what happened to the tree?

Bert: Can I see the jail now?

Keller: Seein' the jail ain't allowed, Bert. You know that.

Chris: No, I... I figured the best thing was to leave her alone. Pause.

Keller: She cried hard?

Mother: I don't know, what is she doing? Sit down, stop being mad. You want to live? You better figure out your life.

Keller: She don't know, does she?

Lydia: Oh, what a pity. Annie get in?

Keller: She'll be down soon. Wait'll you meet her, Sue, she's a knockout.

Chris: I guess she is.

Keller: She's getting just like after he died. What's the meaning of that?

Chris: But the others.

Keller: She's out of her mind.

Mother: Altogether! Your brother's alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him. Do you understand me now? As long as you live, that boy is alive. God does not let a son be killed by his father. Now you see, don't you? Now you see.

Keller: She's out of her mind.

Mother: Then let your father go.

Keller: She's out of her mind.

Mother: She'll be right out. That wind did some job on this place. So much for that, thank Got.

Keller: Sit down, take it easy.

Lydia: I'll never hear the end of this one.

Keller: So what's the difference? Instead of toast have a malted!

Mother: I don't know. He's a lawyer now, Joe. George is a lawyer. All these years he never even sent a postcard to Steve. Since he got back from the war, not a postcard.

Keller: So what?

George: How're you, Joe?

Keller: So‐so. Gettin' old. You comin' out to dinner with us?

Ann: On the seven o'clock. He's in Columbus. I told him it would be all right.

Keller: Sure, fine! Your father took sick?

George: I'd like to talk to him.

Keller: Sure, he just got here. That's the way they do, George. A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by his thumbs. The big ones become ambassadors. I wish you'd‐a told me you were going to see Dad.

Frank: Annie came?

Keller: Sure, sleepin' upstairs. We picked her up on the one o'clock train last night. Wonderful thing. Girl leaves here, a scrawny kid. Couple of years go by, she's a regular woman. Hardly recognized her, and she was running in and out of this yard all her life. That was a very happy family used to live in your house, Jim.

Mother: Why must he go? Make the midnight, George.

Keller: Sure, you'll have dinner with us!

Chris: Sure, and let's break out of this, heh, Mom? I thought the four of us might go out to dinner a couple of nights, maybe go dancing out at the shore.

Keller: Swell with me!

Frank: You look more womanly. You've matured. You ...

Keller: Take it easy, Frank, you're a married man.

Ann: No, George didn't say he was sick. I... I don't know, I suppose it's something stupid, you know my brother... Let's go for a drive, or something....

Keller: Take your time. What does George want?

Chris: Because it is.

Keller: That's a good answer, but it don't answer anything. You haven't seen her since you went to war. It's five years.

Bert: But that's a hunting gun.

Keller: That's an arresting gun!

Ann: Don't yell at him. He just wants everybody happy.

Keller: That's my sentiments. Can you stand steak?

Jim: I would love to help humanity on a Warner Brothers salary.

Keller: That's very good, Jim.

Mother: He looks terrible.

Keller: That's what I said, you look terrible, George. I wear the pants and she beats me with the belt.

Chris: So who flew those P‐40s, pigs?

Keller: The man was a fool, but don't make a murderer out of him. You got no sense? Look what is does to her! Listen, you gotta appreciate what was doin' in that shop in the war. The both of you! It was a madhouse. Every half hour the Major callin' for cylinder heads, they were whippin' us with the telephone. The trucks were hauling them away hot, damn near. I mean just try to see it human, see it human. All of a sudden a batch comes out with a crack. That happens, that's the business. A fine, hairline crack. All right, so...so he's a little man, your father, always scared of loud voices. What'll the Major say? Half a day's production shot... What'll I say? You know what I mean? Human.

Chris: J. O. Keller is good enough.

Keller: We'll talk about it. I'm going to build you a house, stone, with a driveway from the road. I want you to spread out, Chris, I want you to use what I made for you. I mean, with joy, Chris, without shame... with joy.

They all burst out laughing as Keller appears in the doorway. George rises abruptly and stares at Keller, who comes rapidly down to him.

Keller: Well! Look who's here! Georgie, good to see ya.

Chris: You know.

Keller: Well, I got an idea, but... What's the story?

Ann: You shouldn't burst out like that.

Keller: Well, as long as I know it's Labor Day from now on, I'll wear a bell around my neck.

Ann: I don't write him.

Keller: Well, every now and then you ...

Bert: Oh, I can't say that.

Keller: Well, gimme an idea.

Ann: But he was your partner, he dragged you through the mud.

Keller: Well, he ain't my sweetheart, but you gotta forgive, don't you?

Ann: Boy, the poplars got thick, didn't they?

Keller: Well, it's three years, Annie. We're gettin' old, kid.

Mother: She's been in New York three and a half years, why all of a sudden...?

Keller: Well, maybe... maybe he just wanted to see her.

Chris: All right, all right.

Keller: Well, nobody told me it was Labor Day. Where's the hot dogs?

Chris: You ever meet a bigger ignoramus?

Keller: Well, somebody's got to make a living.

Frank: Well, I was going to be a forester once.

Keller: Well, that shows you. In my day, there was no such think. You look at a page like this you realize how ignorant you are. Psss!

Chris: I'm going to ask her to marry me.

Keller: Well, that's only your business, Chriss.

Lydia: It's so strange. Annie's here and not even married. And I've got three babies. I always thought it'd be the other way around.

Keller: Well, that's what a war does. I had two sons, now I got one. It changed all the tallies. In my day when you had sons it was an honor. Today, a doctor could make a million dollars if he could figure out a way to bring a boy into the world without a trigger finger.

Frank: Well, a favorable day for a person is a fortunate day, according to the stars. In other words it would be practically impossible for him to have died on his favorable day.

Keller: Well, was that his favorable day? November twenty‐fifth?

Chris: Then it's all right, I'll go ahead with it?

Keller: Well, you want to be sure Mother isn't going to...

Chris: Yes. On this I would.

Keller: Well... you don't want to think like that.

Mother: It's got that about it.

Keller: Well? So what?

Mother: Suddenly he takes an airplane from New York to see him. An airplane!

Keller: Well? So?

Mother: Why, Joe? What has Steve suddenly got to tell him that he takes an airplane to see him?

Keller: What do I care what Steve's got to tell him?

Mother: Joe... I've been thinking this way. If he comes back...

Keller: What do you mean "if"? He's comin' back!

Chris: Being dishonest with her. That kind of thing always pays off, and now it's paying off.

Keller: What do you mean, dishonest?

Mother: Nobody comes seven hundred miles "just to see".

Keller: What do you mean? He lived next door to the girl all his life, why shouldn't he want to see her again? Don't look at me like that, he didn't tell me any more than he told you.

Mother: Nobody in this house dast take her faith away, Joe. Strangers might. But not his father, not his brother.

Keller: What do you want me to do? What do you want?

Chris: You know it's not only my business.

Keller: What do you want me to do? You're old enough to know your own mind.

Chris: You know Larry's not coming back and I know it. Why do we allow her to go on thinking that we believe with her?

Keller: What do you want to do, argue with her?

Jim: I have the feeling he's in the park. I'll look for him. Put her to bed, Joe, this is no good for what she's got.

Keller: What does he want here?

Mother: Just don't stop believing.

Keller: What does that mean, me above all? Bert comes rushing on.

Mother: He's been in Columbus since this morning with Steve. He's gotta see Annie right away, he says.

Keller: What for?

Mother: I can't help it.

Keller: What have I got to hide? What the hell is the matter with you Kate?

Mother: I think if you sit him down and you... explain yourself. I mean you ought to make it clear to him that you know you did a terrible thing. I mean if he saw that you realize what you did. You see?

Keller: What ice does that cut?

Chris: I like to keep abreast of my ignorance.

Keller: What is that, every week a new book comes out?

Frank: Yeah, what she wants to find out is whether November twenty‐fifth was a favorable day for Larry.

Keller: What is that, favorable day?

Chris: The great roue'!

Keller: What is that, roue'?

Ann: Why do you stay up? I'll tell you when he comes.

Keller: You didn't eat supper, did you? Why don't you make her something?

Mother: It's not like a headache.

Keller: You don't sleep, that's why. She's wearing out more bedroom slippers than shoes.

Mother: You've got a family. I'm simply telling you that I have to strength to think any more.

Keller: You have no strength. The minute there's trouble you have no strength.

Chris: It's not what I want to do. It's what you want to do.

Keller: What should I want to do? Jail? You want me to go to jail? If you want me to go, say so! Is that where I belong? Then tell me so! What's the matter, why can't you tell me? You say everything else to me, say that! I'll tell you why you can't say it. Because you know I don't belong there. Because you know! Who worked for nothin' in that war? When they ship a gun or a truck outa Detroit before they got their price? Is that clean? It's dollars and cents, nickels and dimes, war and peace, it's nickels and dimes, what's clean? Half the Goddam country is gotta go if I go! That's why you can't tell me.

Chris: I've given it three years of thought. I'd hoped that if I waited, Mother would forget Larry and then we'd have a regular wedding and everything happy. But if that can't happen here, then I'll have to get out.

Keller: What the hell is this?

Chris: He murdered twenty one pilots.

Keller: What the hell kinda talk is that?

Chris: I could hear her right through the floor of my room.

Keller: What was she doing out here at that hour? She's dreaming about him again. She's walking around at night.

Chris: About four this morning. I heard it cracking and I woke up and looked out. She was standing right there when it cracked.

Keller: What was she doing out here four in the morning?

Chris: We'll wait till tonight. After dinner. Now don't get tense, just leave it to me.

Keller: What're you telling her?

Chris: Yeah.

Keller: What's mother going to say?

Chris: One of these days, they'll all come in here and beat your brains out.

Keller: What's she going to say? Maybe we ought to tell her before she sees it.

Chris: Broach.

Keller: What's the matter with brooch?

Chris: How could you do that? how?

Keller: What's the matter with you!

Ann: Then I will!

Keller: What's the matter with you? I want to talk to you!

Chris: Then you did it. To the others.

Keller: What's the matter with you? What the hell is the matter with you?

Ann: I don't know, yet.

Keller: What's the matter, you slippin'?

Chris: Dad... Dad, you killed twenty one men!

Keller: What, killed

Chris: I don't know the meaning of it. But I know one thing, Dad. We've made a terrible mistake with Mother.

Keller: What?

Frank: You know? Its funny.

Keller: What?

Chris: It's not English.

Keller: When I when to night school it was brooch.

Chris: She was out here when it broke.

Keller: When?

Jim: If you son wants to play golf tell him I'm ready. Or if he'd like to take a trip around the world for about thirty years.

Keller: Why do you needle him? He's a doctor, women are supposed to call him up.

Mother: Why did he invite her here?

Keller: Why does that bother you?

Mother: You above all have got to believe, you...

Keller: Why me above all?

Ann: Joe, go in the house.

Keller: Why should I...

Mother: Chris, it's not for you. Joe... go away...

Keller: Why'd she say, Larry, what...?

Chris: All right, all right, listen to me. You know why I asked Annie here, don't you?

Keller: Why?

Frank: Gee whiz!

Keller: Without Frank the stars wouldn't know when to come out.

Ann: My brother?

Keller: Yeah, George. Long distance.

Chris: No, you don't. I'm a pretty tough guy.

Keller: Yeah, I can see that.

Mother: Did you take a bag from under the sink?

Keller: Yeah, I put it in the pail.

Mother: Then don't eat.

Keller: Yeah, I'm in last place again. I don't know, once upon a time I used to think that when I got money again I would have a maid and my wife would take it easy. Now I got money, and I got a maid, and my wife is workin' for the maid.

Lydia: He's really very handy. Oh, did the wind get your tree?

Keller: Yeah, last night.

Frank: Nothin'. Walking off my breakfast. That beautiful? Not a cloud in the sky.

Keller: Yeah, nice.

Jim: Paper says so?

Keller: Yeah, right here.

Sue: All I said was Mrs. Adams is on the phone. Can I have some of your parsley?

Keller: Yeah, sure. You were a nurse too long, Susie. You're too ... too ... realistic.

Bert: Then why don't you ever arrest anybody? Tommy sad another dirty word to Doris yesterday, and you didn't even demote him.

Keller: Yeah, that's a dangerous character, that Tommy. What word does he say?

Mother: What you don't like.

Keller: Yeah, what I don't like.

Frank: Well, what I'm doing is this, see. Larry was reported missing on November twenty‐fifth, right?

Keller: Yeah?

Mother: You're sure, Joe?

Keller: Yes, I'm sure.

Mother: She's not his girl, Joe. She knows she's not.

Keller: You can't read her mind.

Chris: I don't want to argue with her, but it's time she realized that nobody believes Larry is alive any more. Why shouldn't she dream of him, walk the nights waiting for him? Do we contradict her? Do we say straight out that we have no hope any more? That we haven't had any home for years now?

Keller: You can't say that to her.

Chris: I'm listening. God almighty, I'm listening!

Keller: You' re a boy, what could I do! I'm in business, a man is in business; a hundred and twenty cracked, you're out of business; you· got a process, the process don't work you're out of business; you don't know how to operate, your stuff is no good; they close you up; they tear up your contracts, what the hell's it to them? You lay forty years into a business and they knock you out in five minutes, what could I do, let them take forty years, let them take my life away?

Ann: I'll do nothing about Joe, but you're going to do something for me. You made Chris feel guilty with me. I'd like you to tell him that Larry is dead and that you know it. You understand me? I'm not going out of here alone. There's no life for me that way. I want you to set him free. And then I promise you, everything will end, and we'll go away, and that's all.

Keller: You'll do that. You'll tell him.

Ann: I know what I'm asking, Kate. You had two sons. But you've only got one now.

Keller: You'll tell him.

Chris: I don't know why it is, but every time I reach out for something I want, I have to pull back because other people will suffer. My whole bloody life, time after time after time.

Keller: You're a considerate fella, there's nothing wrong in that.

Chris: That's all right, just the book section.

Keller: You're always reading the book section and you never buy a book.

Ann: I can only tell you that that could never happen.

Keller: You're in love now, Annie, but believe me, I'm older than you and I know... a daughter is a daughter, and a father is a father. And it could happen. I like you and George to go to him in prison and tell him... "Dad, Joe wants to bring you into the business when you get out."

Chris: I've been a good son too long, a good sucker. I'm through with it.

Keller: You've got a business here. What the hell is this?

Chris: You even knew that they wouldn't hold up in the air.

Keller: it was too late. The paper, it was all over the front page, twenty one went down, it was too late. They came with handcuffs into the shop, what could I do? Chris... Chris, I did it for you, it was a chance and I took it for you. I'm sixty one years old, when would I have another chance to make something for you? Sixty one years old you don't get another chance, do ya?

George: Yes, this morning. What kind of stuff do you make now?

Keller: oh, little of everything. Pressure cookers, an assembly for washing machines. Got a nice, flexible plant now. So how'd you find Dad? Feel alright?

Mother: Steve was never like that.

Keller: that's a sad thing to hear.