American Buffalo (8 page)

DON
: Good-bye, Bob.

BOB
: Good-bye.

Pause,
BOB
exits.

DON
: Fuckin‘
kid . . .

TEACH
: So where is Fletcher?

DON
: Don’t worry. He’ll be here.

TEACH
: The question is but when. Maybe his watch broke.

DON
: Maybe it just did, Teach. Maybe his actual watch broke.

TEACH
: And maybe mine didn’t, you’re saying? You wanna bet? You wanna place a little fucking wager on it? How much money you got in your pockets? I bet you all the money in your pockets against all the money in my pockets, I walk out that door right now, I come back with a broken watch.

Pause.

DON
: Calm down.

TEACH
: I am calm. I’m just upset.

DON
: I know.

TEACH
: So where is he when I’m here?

DON
: Don’t worry about it.

TEACH
: So who’s going to worry about it then?

DON
: (Shit.)

TEACH
: This should go to prove you something.

DON
: It doesn’t prove anything. The guy’s just late.

TEACH
: Oh. And I wasn’t?

DON
: You were late, too.

TEACH
: You’re fuckin’ A I was, and I got bawled out for it.

DON
: He’s late for a reason.

TEACH
: I don’t accept it.

DON
: That’s your privilege.

TEACH
: And what was Bob doing here?

DON
: He told you. He wanted to sell me the nickel.

TEACH
: That’s why he came here?

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: To sell you the buffalo?

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: Where did he get it?

DON
: I think from some guy.

TEACH
: Who?

Pause.

DON
: I don’t know.

Pause.

TEACH
: Where’s Fletcher?

DON
: I don’t know. He’ll show up.
(Picks up phone and dials.)

TEACH
: He’ll show up.

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: He’s not here now.

DON
: No.

TEACH
: You scout the guy’s house?

DON
: The guy? No.

TEACH
: Well, let’s do that, then. (He’s not home. Hang up.)

DON
(hangs up phone) :
You wanna scout his house.

TEACH
: Yeah.

DON
: Why? Bob already saw him when he went off with the suitcase.

TEACH
: Just to be sure, huh?

DON
: Yeah. Okay.

TEACH
: You bet. Now we call him up.

DON
: We call the guy up.

TEACH
: Yeah.

Pause.

DON
: Good idea.
(He picks up phone. Hunts guy’s number. Dials. To himself)
We can do this.

TEACH
: This is planning. . . . This is preparation. If he answers . . .

DON
shhhhs
TEACH
.

I’m telling you what to do if he answers.

DON
: What?

TEACH
: Hang up. (
DON
starts to hang up phone.
) No.
Don’t
hang up. Hang up now. Hang up
now!

DON
hangs up phone.

Now look: If he
answers . . .

DON
: . . . yeah?

TEACH
:
Don’t
arouse his fucking suspicions.

DON
: All right.

TEACH
: And the odds are he’s not there, so when he answers just say you’re calling for a wrong fucking
number,
something. Be simple.

Pause.

Give me the phone.

DON
hands
TEACH
the phone.

Gimme the card.

DON
hands
TEACH
card.

This is his number? 221—7834?

DON
: Yeah.

TEACH
(snorts)
: All right I dial, I’m calling for somebody named June, and we go interchange on number.

Pause.

We’re gonna say like, “Is this 221—7834?”

DON
: . . . yeah?

TEACH
: And they go, “No.” (I mean “—7843.” It
is
—7834.)

So we go, very simply, “Is this 221—7843?” and they go “No,” and right away the guy is home, we still haven’t blown the shot.

DON
: Okay.

TEACH
picks up the phone and dials.

TEACH
(into phone):
Hi. Yeah. I’m calling . . . uh . . . is June there?

Pause.

Well, is this 221—7843?

Pause.

It is? Well, look I must of got the number wrong. I’m sorry.

He hangs up phone.

(This is bizarre.) Read me that number.

DON
: 221—7834.

TEACH
: Right.
(Dials phone. Listens.)
Nobody home. See, this is careful operation . . .
(Pause. Hangs up.) You
wanna try it?

DON
: No.

TEACH
: I don’t mind that you’re careful, Don. This doesn’t piss me off. What gets me mad, when you get loose.

DON
: What do you mean?

TEACH
: You know what I mean.

DON
: No, I don’t.

TEACH
: Yes you do. I come in here. The kid’s here.

DON
: He doesn’t know anything.

TEACH
: He doesn’t.

DON
: No.

TEACH
: What was he here for, then?

DON
: Sell me the buffalo.

TEACH
: Sell it tonight.

DON
: Yeah.

TEACH
: A valuable nickel.

DON
: We don’t know.

Pause.

TEACH
: Where is Fletch?

DON
: I don’t know.
(Picks up phone and dials.)

TEACH
: He’s not home. He’s not home, Don. He’s out.

DON
(into phone):
Hello?

TEACH
: He’s in?

DON
: This is Donny Dubrow.

TEACH
: The Riv?

DON
: I’m looking for Fletcher.

Pause.

Okay. Thank you.
(He hangs up.)

TEACH
: Cocksucker should be horsewhipped with a horsewhip.

DON
: He’ll show up.

TEACH
: Fucking Riverside, too. (Thirty-seven cents for takeout coffee . . .)

DON
: Yeah.
(Picks up phone.)

TEACH
: A lot of nerve you come in there for sixteen years. This is not free enterprise.

DON
: No.

TEACH
: You know what is free enterprise?

DON
: No. What?

TEACH
: The freedom . . .

DON
: . . . yeah?

TEACH
: Of the
Individual . . .

DON
: . . . yeah?

TEACH
: To Embark on Any Fucking Course that he sees fit.

DON
: Uh-huh . . .

TEACH
: In order to secure his honest chance to make a profit. Am I so out of line on this?

DON
: No.

TEACH
: Does this make me a Commie?

DON
: No.

TEACH
: The country’s
founded
on this, Don. You know this.

DON
: Did you get a chance to take a nap?

TEACH
: Nap nap nap nap nap. Big deal.

DON
(Pause)
: Yeah.

TEACH
: Without this we’re just savage shitheads in the wilderness.

DON
: Yeah.

TEACH
: Sitting around some vicious campfire. That’s why
Ruthie
bums me up.

DON
: Yeah.

TEACH
: (Nowhere dyke . . .) And take those fuckers in the concentration camps. You think they went in there by
choice?

DON
: No.

TEACH
: They were
dragged
in there, Don . . .

DON
: . . . yeah.

TEACH
: Kicking and screaming.
Gimme
that fucking phone.

TEACH
grabs phone. Listens. Hangs up.

He’s not home. I say
fuck
the cocksucker.

DON
: He’ll show up.

TEACH
: You believe that?

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: Then you are full of shit.

DON
: Don’t tell me that, Teach. Don’t tell me I’m full of shit.

TEACH
: I’m sorry. You want me to hold your hand? This is how you keep score. I mean,
we’re
all here . . .

DON
: Just, I don’t want that talk.

TEACH
: Don . . . I talk straight to you ‘cause I respect you. It’s kickass or kissass, Don, and I’d be lying if I told you any different.

DON
: And what makes you such an authority on life all of a sudden?

TEACH
: My life, Jim. And the way I’ve lived it.

Pause.

DON
: Now what does that mean, Teach?

TEACH
: What does that mean?

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: What does that
mean?

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: Nothing. Not a thing. All that I’m telling you, the shot is yours. It’s one night only. Too many guys know. All I’m saying. Take your shot.

DON
: Who knows?

TEACH
: You and me.

DON
: Yeah.

TEACH
: Bob and Fletcher. Earl, the phone guy, Grace and Ruthie, maybe.

DON
: Grace and Ruth don’t know.

TEACH
: Who
knows
they know or not, all that I’m telling you, it’s not always so clear what’s going on. Like Fletcher and the pig iron, that time.

DON
: What was the shot on that?

TEACH
: He stole some pig iron off Ruth.

DON
: (I
heard
that . . .)

TEACH
: That’s a fact. A fact stands by itself. And we must face the facts and act on them. You better wake up, Don, right now, or things are going to fall around your
head,
and you are going to turn around to find he’s took the joint off by himself.

DON
: He would not do that.

TEACH
: He would. He is an animal.

DON
: He don’t have the address.

TEACH
: He doesn’t know it.

DON
: No.

TEACH
: Now, that is wise. Then let us go and take what’s ours.

DON
: We have a deal with the man.

TEACH
: With Fletcher.

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: We had a deal with Bobby.

DON
: What does that mean?

TEACH
: Nothing.

DON
: It don’t.

TEACH
: No.

DON
: What did you mean by that?

TEACH
: I didn’t mean a thing.

DON
: You didn’t.

TEACH
: No.

DON
: You’re full of shit, Teach.

TEACH
: I am.

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: Because I got the balls to face some facts?

Pause.

You scare me sometimes, Don.

DON
: Oh, yeah?

TEACH
: Yes. I don’t want to go around with you here, things go down, we’ll settle when we’re done. We have a job to do here. Huh? Forget it. Let’s go, come on.

DON
: We’re waiting for him.

TEACH
: Fletcher.

DON
: Yes.

TEACH
: Why?

DON
: Many reasons.

TEACH
: Tell me one. You give me one good reason, why we’re sitting here, and I’ll sit down and never say a word. One reason. One. Go on. I’m listening.

DON
: He knows how to get in.

Pause.

TEACH
: Good night, Don.
(He starts to go for door.)

DON
: Where are you going?

TEACH
: Home.

DON
: You’re going home.

TEACH
: Yes.

DON
: Why?

TEACH
: You’re fucking with me. It’s all right.

DON
: Hold on. You tell me how I’m fucking with you.

TEACH
: Come
on,
Don.