Harold Pinter Plays 2 (2 page)

ASTON.
Sit down.

DAVIES.
Thanks.
(Looking
about.)
Uuh.…

ASTON.
Just a minute.

ASTON
looks
around
for
a
chair,
sees
one
lying
on
its
side
by
the
rolled
carpet
at
the
fireplace,
and
starts
to
get
it
out.

DAVIES.
Sit down? Huh … I haven’t had a good sit down … I haven’t had a proper sit down … well, I couldn’t tell you.…

ASTON
(placing
the
chair).
Here you are.

DAVIES.
Ten minutes off for a tea-break in the middle of the night in that place and I couldn’t find a seat, not one. All them Greeks had it, Poles, Greeks, Blacks, the lot of them, all them aliens had it. And they had me working there … they had me working.…

ASTON
sits
on
the
bed,
takes
out
a
tobacco
tin
and
papers,
and
begins
to
roll
himself
a
cigarette.
DAVIES
watches
him.

All them Blacks had it, Blacks, Greeks, Poles, the lot of them, that’s what, doing me out of a seat, treating me like dirt. When he come at me tonight I told him.

Pause.

ASTON.
Take a seat.

DAVIES.
Yes, but what I got to do first, you see, what I got to do, I got to loosen myself up, you see what I mean? I could have got done in down there.

DAVIES
exclaims
loudly,
punches
downward
with
closed
fist,
turns
his
back
to
ASTON
and
stares
at
the
wall.
Pause,
ASTON
lights
a
cigarette.

ASTON.
You want to roll yourself one of these?

DAVIES
(turning).
What? No, no, I never smoke a cigarette.
(Pause.
He
comes
forward.)
I’ll tell you what, though. I’ll have a bit of that tobacco there for my pipe, if you like.

ASTON
(handing
him
the
tin).
Yes. Go on. Take some out of that.

DAVIES.
That’s kind of you, mister. Just enough to fill my pipe, that’s all.
(He
takes
a
pipe
from
his
pocket
and
fills
it.)
I had a tin, only … only a while ago. But it was knocked off. It was knocked off on the Great West Road.
(He
holds
out
the
tin).
Where shall I put it?

ASTON.
I’ll take it.

DAVIES
(handing
the
tin).
When he come at me tonight I told him. Didn’t I? You heard me tell him, didn’t you?

ASTON.
I saw him have a go at you.

DAVIES.
Go at me? You wouldn’t grumble. The filthy skate, an old man like me, I’ve had dinner with the best.

Pause.

ASTON.
Yes, I saw him have a go at you.

DAVIES.
All them toe-rags, mate, got the manners of pigs. I might have been on the road a few years but you can take it from me I’m clean. I keep myself up. That’s why I left my wife. Fortnight after I married her, no, not so much as that, no more than a week, I took the lid off a saucepan, you know what was in it? A pile of her underclothing, unwashed. The pan for vegetables, it was. The vegetable pan. That’s when I left her and I haven’t seen her since.

DAVIES
turns,
shambles
across
the
room,
comes
face
to
face
with
a
statue
of
Buddha
standing
on
the
gas
stove,
looks
at
it
and
turns.

I’ve eaten my dinner off the best of plates. But I’m not young any more. I remember the days I was as handy as any of them. They didn’t take any liberties with me. But I haven’t been so well lately. I’ve had a few attacks.

Pause.

(
Coming
closer.
)
Did you see what happened with that one?

ASTON.
I only got the end of it.

DAVIES.
Comes up to me, parks a bucket of rubbish at me tells me to take it out the back. It’s not my job to take out the bucket! They got a boy there for taking out the bucket. I wasn’t engaged to take out buckets. My job’s cleaning the floor, clearing up the tables, doing a bit of washing-up, nothing to do with taking out buckets!

ASTON.
Uh.

He
crosses
down
right,
to
get
the
electric
toaster.

DAVIES
(following).
Yes, well say I had! Even if I had! Even if I was supposed to take out the bucket, who was this git to
come up and give me orders? We got the same standing. He’s not my boss. He’s nothing superior to me.

ASTON.
What was he, a Greek?

DAVIES.
Not him, he was a Scotch. He was a Scotchman. (
ASTON
goes
back
to
his
bed
with
the
toaster
and
starts
to
unscrew
the
plug.
DAVIES
follows
him).
You got an eye of him, did you?

ASTON.
Yes.

DAVIES.
I told him what to do with his bucket. Didn’t I? You heard. Look here, I said, I’m an old man, I said, where I was brought up we had some idea how to talk to old people with the proper respect, we was brought up with the right ideas, if I had a few years off me I’d … I’d break you in half. That was after the guvnor give me the bullet. Making too much commotion, he says. Commotion, me! Look here, I said to him, I got my rights. I told him that. I might have been on the road but nobody’s got more rights than I have. Let’s have a bit of fair play, I said. Anyway, he give me the bullet.
(He
sits
in
the
chair).
That’s the sort of place.

Pause.

If you hadn’t come out and stopped that Scotch git I’d be inside the hospital now. I’d have cracked my head on that pavement if he’d have landed. I’ll get him. One night I’ll get him. When I find myself around that direction.

ASTON
crosses
to
the
plug
box
to
get
another
plug.

I wouldn’t mind so much but I left all my belongings in that place, in the back room there. All of them, the lot there was, you see, in this bag. Every lousy blasted bit of all my bleeding belongings I left down there now. In the rush of it. I bet he’s having a poke around in it now this very moment.

ASTON.
I’ll pop down sometime and pick them up for you.

ASTON
goes
back
to
his
bed
and
starts
to
fix
the
plug
on
the
toaster.

DAVIES.
Anyway, I’m obliged to you, letting me … letting
me have a bit of a rest, like … for a few minutes.
(He
looks
about.)
This your room?

ASTON.
Yes.

DAVIES.
You got a good bit of stuff here.

ASTON.
Yes.

DAVIES.
Must be worth a few bob, this … put it all together.

Pause.

There’s enough of it.

ASTON.
There’s a good bit of it, all right.

DAVIES.
You sleep here, do you?

ASTON.
Yes.

DAVIES.
What, in that?

ASTON.
Yes.

DAVIES.
Yes, well, you’d be well out of the draught there.

ASTON.
You don’t get much wind.

DAVIES.
You’d be well out of it. It’s different when you’re kipping out.

ASTON.
Would be.

DAVIES.
Nothing but wind then.

Pause.

ASTON.
Yes, when the wind gets up it.…

Pause.

DAVIES.
Yes.…

ASTON.
Mmnn.…

Pause.

DAVIES.
Gets very draughty.

ASTON.
Ah.

DAVIES.
I’m very sensitive to it.

ASTON.
Are you?

DAVIES.
Always have been.

Pause.

You got any more rooms then, have you?

ASTON.
Where?

DAVIES.
I mean, along the landing here … up the landing there.

ASTON.
They’re out of commission.

DAVIES.
Get away.

ASTON.
They need a lot of doing to.

Slight
pause.

DAVIES.
What about downstairs?

ASTON.
That’s closed up. Needs seeing to.… The floors.…

Pause.

DAVIES.
I was lucky you come into that caff. I might have been done by that Scotch git. I been left for dead more than once.

Pause.

I noticed that there was someone was living in the house next door.

ASTON.
What?

DAVIES.
(gesturing).
I noticed.…

ASTON.
Yes. There’s people living all along the road.

DAVIES.
Yes, I noticed die curtains pulled down there next door as we came along.

ASTON.
They’re neighbours.

Pause.

DAVIES.
This your house then, is it?

Pause.

ASTON.
I’m in charge.

DAVIES.
You the landlord, are you?

He
puts
a
pipe
in
his
mouth
and
puffs
without
lighting
it.

Yes, I noticed them heavy curtains pulled across next door
as we came along. I noticed them heavy big curtains right across the window down there. I thought there must be someone living there.

ASTON.
Family of Indians live there.

DAVIES.
Blacks?

ASTON.
I don’t see much of them.

DAVIES.
Blacks, eh?
(DAVIES
stands
and
moves
about.
)
Well you’ve got some knick-knacks here all right, I’ll say that. I don’t like a bare room. (
ASTON
joins
DAVIES
upstage
centre
)
.
I’ll tell you what, mate, you haven’t got a spare pair of shoes?

ASTON.
Shoes?

ASTON
moves
downstage
right.

DAVIES.
Them bastards at the monastery let me down again.

ASTON.
(going
to
his
bed.)
Where?

DAVIES.
Down in Luton. Monastery down at Luton.… I got a mate at Shepherd’s Bush, you see.…

ASTON
(
looking
under
his
bed
).
I might have a pair.

DAVIES.
I got this mate at Shepherd’s Bush. In the con venience. Well, he was in the convenience. Run about the best convenience they had.
(He
watches
ASTON
.) Run about the best one. Always slipped me a bit of soap, any time I went in there. Very good soap. They have to have the best soap. I was never without a piece of soap, whenever I happened to be knocking about the Shepherd’s Bush area.

ASTON
(emerging
from
under
the
bed
with
shoes).
Pair of brown.

DAVIES.
He’s gone now. Went. He was the one who put me on to this monastery. Just the other side of Luton. He’d heard they give away shoes.

ASTON.
You’ve got to have a good pair of shoes.

DAVIES.
Shoes? It’s life and death to me. I had to go all the way to Luton in these.

ASTON.
What happened when you got there, then?