Every Good Boy Deserves Favor and Professional Foul (11 page)

ANDERSON:
Well he came back, in the Spring of sixty-eight.

MAN
6: Oh yes.

ANDERSON:
A miscalculation.

MAN
6: How do you mean?

ANDERSON:
Well, really … there are a lot of things wrong in England but it is still not ‘a serious crime against the State' to put forward a philosophical view which does not find favour with the Government.

MAN
6: Professor…. Hollar is charged with currency offences. There is a black market in hard currency. It is illegal. We do not have laws about philosophy. He is an ordinary criminal.
(
Pause.
The radio commentary has continued softly. But in this pause it changes pitch. It is clear to
ANDERSON,
and to us, that something particular has occurred in the match
.
MAN
6
is listening
.)
(
In English
.) Penalty. (
He listens for a moment
.) For us, I'm afraid.

ANDERSON:
Yes, I can hear.
(
This is because it is clear from the crowd noise that it's a penalty for the home side
.
MAN
6
listens again
.)

MAN
6: (
In English
) Broadbent—a bad tackle when Deml had a certain goal… a what you call it?—a necessary foul.

ANDERSON:
A professional foul.

MAN
6: Yes.
(
On the radio the goal is scored. This is perfectly clear from the the crowd reaction
.)
Not good for you.
(
MAN
6
turns off the radio. Pause
.
MAN
6
considers
ANDERSON.
) So you have had a philosophical discussion with Hollar.

ANDERSON:
I believe you implied that I was free to go. (
He stands up
.) I am quite sure you know that Hollar visited me at my hotel last night. It was a social call, which I was returning when I walked into this. And furthermore, I understood nothing about being a witness—I was prevented from leaving. I only came to say hello, and meet Pavel's wife, on my way to the football—

MAN
6: (
With surprise
) So you came to Czechoslovakia to go to the football match, Professor?
(
This rattles
ANDERSON
.)

ANDERSON:
Certainly not. Well, the afternoon of the Colloquium was devoted to—well, it was not a condition of my invitation that I should attend all the sessions. (
Pause
.) I was invited to
speak
, not to listen. I am speaking tomorrow morning.

MAN
6: Why should I know Hollar visited you at the hotel?

ANDERSON:
He told me he was often followed.

MAN
6: Well, when a man is known to be engaged in meeting foreigners to buy currency—

ANDERSON:
I don't believe any of that—he was being harassed because of his letter to Husak—

MAN
6: A letter to President Husak? What sort of letter?

ANDERSON:
(
Flustered
) Your people knew about it—

MAN
6: It is not a crime to write to the President—

ANDERSON:
No doubt that depends on what is written.

MAN
6: You mean he wrote some kind of slander?

ANDERSON:
(
Heatedly
) I insist on leaving now.

MAN
6: Of course. You know, your taxi driver has made a complaint against you.

ANDERSON:
What are you talking about?

MAN
6: He never got paid.

ANDERSON:
Yes, I'm sorry but—

MAN
6: You are not to blame. My officer told him to go.

ANDERSON:
Yes, that's right.

MAN
6: Still, he is very unhappy. You told him you would be five minutes you were delivering something—

ANDERSON:
How could I have told him that? I don't speak Czech.

MAN
6: You showed him five on your watch, and you did all the things people do when they talk to each other without a language. He was quite certain you were delivering something in your briefcase.
(
Pause
.)

ANDERSON:
Yes. All right. But it was not money.

MAN
6: Of course not. You are not a criminal.

ANDERSON:
Quite so. I promised to bring Pavel one or two of the Colloquium papers. He naturally has an interest in philosophy and I assume it is not illegal.

MAN
6: Naturally not. Then you won't mind showing me.
(
ANDERSON
hesitates then opens the briefcase and takes out
MCKENDRICK
'
s paper and his own and passes them over
.
MAN
6
takes them and reads their English titles
.)
‘Ethical Fictions as Ethical Foundations' … ‘Philosophy and the Catastrophe Theory'.
(
MAN
6
gives the papers back to
ANDERSON
.)

MAN
6: You wish to go to the football match? You will see twenty minutes, perhaps more.

ANDERSON:
No. I'm going back to the university, to the Colloquium.

MRS HOLLAR:
(
In Czech
) Is he leaving?

MAN
6: Mrs Hollar would like you to remain.

ANDERSON:
(
To
MRS HOLLAR
) No, I'm sorry. (
A thought strikes him
.) If you spoke to the taxi driver you would have known perfectly well I was going to the England match.
(
MAN
6
doesn't reply to this either in word or expression
.
ANDERSON
closes his briefcase.
The doorbell rings and
MAN
3
goes to open the door.
From the bedroom
MAN
5
enters with a small parcel wrapped
in old newspaper
.)

MAN
5: (
In Czech
) I found this, Chief, under the floorboards.
(
MAN
5
gives the parcel to
MAN
6
who unwraps it to reveal a bundle of American dollars
.
MRS HOLLAR
watches this with disbelief and there is an outburst
.)

MRS HOLLAR:
(
In Czech
) He's lying! (
To
ANDERSON
.) It's a lie—
The door reopens for
MAN 3. SACHA HOLLAR,
aged ten, comes in with him. He is rather a tough little boy. He runs across to his mother, who is crying and shouting, and embraces her. It is rather as though he were a small adult comforting her
.)

ANDERSON:
Oh my God … Mrs Hollar …
(
ANDERSON,
out of his depth and afraid, decides abruptly to leave and does so
.
MAN
3
isn't sure whether to let him go but
MAN
6
nods at him and
ANDERSON
leaves
.)

7. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. EVENING

ANDERSON
approaches his room. He is worn out. When he gets to his door and fumbles with his key he realizes that he can hear a voice in the room next door to his. He puts his ear to this other door
.

GRAYSON:
(
Inside
) Yes, a new top for the running piece—O.K.—Prague, Saturday.
(
GRAYSON
speaks not particularly slowly but with great deliberation enunciating every consonant and splitting syllables up where necessary for clarity. He is, of course, dictating to a fast typist
.)
There'll be Czechs bouncing in the streets of Prague tonight as bankruptcy stares English football in the face, stop, new par.
(
ANDERSON
knocks on the door
.)
(
Inside
.) It's open!
(
ANDERSON
opens the door and looks into the room.
Interior room. It is of course a room very like
ANDERSON
'
s own room, if not identical. Its occupant, the man we had seen leave the room earlier is
GRAYSON,
a sports reporter from England. He is on the telephone as
ANDERSON
cautiously enters the room
.) Make no mistake, comma, the four-goal credit which these slick Slovaks netted here this afternoon will keep them in the black through the second leg of the World Cup Eliminator
at Wembley next month, stop. New par— (
To
ANDERSON.
) Yes? (
Into phone
.) You can bank on it.

ANDERSON:
I'm next door.

GRAYSON:
(
Into phone
) —bank on it. New par— (
To
ANDERSON.
) Look, can you come back? (
Into phone
.) But for some determined saving by third-choice Jim Bart in the injury hyphen jinxed England goal, we would have been overdrawn by four more when the books were closed, stop. Maybe Napoleon was wrong when he said we were a nation of shopkeepers, stop. Today England looked like a nation of goalkeepers, stop. Davey, Petherbridge and Shell all made saves on the line. New par.

ANDERSON:
Do you mind if I listen—I missed the match.
(
GRAYSON
waves him to a chair
.
ANDERSON
sits on a chair next to a door which is in fact a connecting door into the next room. Not
ANDERSON
'
s own room but the room on the other side of
GRAYSON
'
s room
.)

GRAYSON:
(
Into phone
) Dickenson and Pratt were mostly left standing by Wolker, with a W, and Deml, D dog, E Edward, M mother, L London—who could go round the halls as a telepathy act, stop. Only Crisp looked as if he had a future outside Madame Tussaud's—a.u.d.s.—stop. He laid on the two best chances, comma, both wasted by Pratt who skied one and stubbed his toe on the other, stop. Crisp's, apostrophe s. comment from where I was sitting looked salt and vinegar flavoured …
(
ANDERSON
has become aware that another voice is cutting in from the next room. The door between the two rooms is not quite closed. During
GRAYSON
'
s last speech
ANDERSON
gently pushes open the door and looks behind him and realizes that a colleague of
GRAYSON
'
s is also dictating in the next room
.
ANDERSON
stands up and looks into the next room and is drawn into it by the rival report. This room belongs to
CHAMBERLAIN.
Interior
CHAMBERLAIN
'
s room
.
CHAMBERLAIN
on phone
.)

CHAMBERLAIN:
Wilson, who would like to be thought the big bad man of the English defence merely looked slow-footed and slow-witted stop. Deml—D.E.M. mother L.—Deml got round him five times on the trot, bracket, literally, close
bracket, using the same swerve, comma, making Wilson look elephantine in everything but memory, stop. On the fifth occasion there was nothing to prevent Deml scoring except what Broadbent took it on himself to do, which was to scythe Deml down from behind, stop. Halas scored from the penalty, stop.
(
ANDERSON
sighs and sits down on the equivalent chair in
CHAMBERLAIN
'
s room
,
CHAMBERLAIN
sees him
.)
Can I help you—?

ANDERSON:
Sorry—I'm from next door.

CHAMBERLAIN:
(
Into phone
) New paragraph— (
To
ANDERSON.
) I won't be long— (
Into phone
.) This goal emboldened the Czechs to move Bartok, like the composer, forward and risk the consequences, stop. Ten minutes later, just before half time, comma, he was the man left over to collect a short corner from Halas and it was his chip which Jirasek rose to meet for a simple goal at the far post—

ANDERSON:
I knew it!
(
CHAMBERLAIN
turns to look at him
.)

CHAMBERLAIN:
(
Into phone
) New paragraph. As with tragic opera, things got worse after the interval…
(
ANDERSON
has stood up to leave. He leaves through
GRAYSON
'
s room
.
GRAYSON
is on the phone saying:
)

GRAYSON:
(
Into the phone
) … Jirasek, unmarked at the far post, flapped into the air like a great stork, and rising a yard higher than Bart's outstretched hands, he put Czechoslovakia on the road to victory.
(
ANDERSON
leaves the room without looking at
GRAYSON
or being noticed
.)

8. INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM

The cut is to gay Czech music
.

The dining room has a stage. A small group of Czech musicians and singers in the tourist version of peasant costume is performing. It is evening. At one of the tables
STONE,
the American, and a
FRENCHMAN
are sitting next to each other and sharing the table are
ANDERSON, MCKENDRICK
and
CHETWYN
.
The three of them are, for different reasons, subdued
.
STONE
is unsubdued. They are reaching the end of the meal
.