Bradbury, Ray - SSC 10 (11 page)

father leary
picks
up the broken bits and the one sign, studies
them, peers at the others, starts to say something,
shakes
his
head, moves toward the door. At
the door he pauses, his back
to the
bartender.

Father
Finn?

Finn
Yes, sir?

Father

If
you should need me
...
don't waste time thinking on it.
Give a
yell.

Finn
A
helluva
yell, Father.

Father
Come
early,
stay
late, Finn.

And the priest is gone.

finn
exhales and strides about the bar.
He wipes his brow.

Finn

Whew,
Finn, whew! I'm shaved to the bone. 'Twill
take
a year
for my beard to grow back! Well, what's the total? Two left out
of four, but surely the most important of the whole
kit. Where
was I? Men!
Boys!

He turns to shout through the door into the back room.

Is
the game done? If not, bring it out here! A free round on the
house!

Voices
Free
round!
Outa
the way, Men.
Here we come, Finn!

The men surge out along the bar, gabbling, laughing.

The Old Man

It's
all in balances and weights, you get a man
so (Illustrates)
,
and thus, and he's in the ditch before he knows
the fight is over!

Casey

Women
are cats, I said, born and bred in Africa, and shipped north to torment men in
youth, middle age, and their dotage!

O'Hara

Meanness
it is, keeps women alive long after a man, in his natural Christian goodness,
has
laid
down with coins on his eyes—

Finn
(pouring)
Drink up!

The men drink. Each talks almost to himself. Each says, and all
only half listen, their faces rosy fire.

Kelly

—worked
in the
pusstoffice
selling stamps of all
denominations
. . . have you ever
looked at stamps, man,
close
? A regular
gallery of art in
one hour's
arrivals of
mail from far coun
tries . . .

The men, drinking, look around, notice the sign,
THINK,
as the
talk continues,
pay
no
attention, and go on with their blarney.

The Old Man
—in
the semicircular canals I heard once on the Radio
Aerrean
is this liquid which dances about
...
if
you can tilt a man so
his semicircular
canals are off center, he'll get seasick, and—

Kelly

They
had a fine stamp once from
Portugal,
and a girl on it
naked
as the palm of my hand and twice
as Umber . . .

The talk begins to die away during all the above and on through
the next speeches. One by one, the men drop out of
conversation.

The Old Man

Then
I said to him, about fighting
...
I don't remember what
I said . . . hold
on
...

Casey

My
wife has six fingers on each hand and all claws. She

Well,
that about describes . . . my . . . wife . . .

Timulty
{trailing off)

Well,
the bog business
ain't
what it was. I've said my say,
I
guess . . .

Kelly
(fading
away)
Then
there was a stamp from
...
oh
...
but
why bother . . .

O'Hara
(after
a pause)
Women are mean. Put that
in your pipe and smoke it.

The Old Man
Well, now . . .

Timulty
Yes,
sir
...

Kelly
Drink . .
.

They are all suddenly uneasy and shy.

Casey
Six
fingers and claws . . .

They all look at their glasses.

Finn
Drink up, boys!

the old man
clears
his throat,
o'hara
blows his
nose. They all
watch him do this, for
lack of anything else to do.

TlMULTY

Old
Man, tell us that joke about Nolan on the bridge.

The Old Man
I
can't remember.

o'hara
clears his throat. The men shuffle their feet. The
men
peer around at each other.

O'HARA

How
about some more cards?

The Old Man
We
was
all
losing.

TlMULTY

That's
hard to do, but we did it.
A
nother
silence.

Kelly
Well?

Casey
Well,
indeed.

They move about uneasily. They peer at each other, glance at
the
sign, but say nothing.

The Old Man
(in
a spooky voice)
Hold on.

They all turn to look at him.

Listen.

They listen.

What
do you hear?

Casey

Nothing.

The Old Man

That's
it. Do you realize that this very moment and hour is the
first time in thirty years there has been silence
in
Heeber
Finn's
pub?

Finn
Aw, now—

Casey
(gasps)
He's right!

Kelly
By God,
he
is!

Everyone is spooked now. The men look around.

The Old Man

A
lull is a strange thing to an Irishman.

Kelly
(awed
—sotto voce)
You
can feel the damn thing, like a calm at sea.

They all
jeel
it, together,
finn
is upset, but does not speak.

The Old Man
(whispering)
Strange . . .

Casey
Say
something, Kelly.

Kelly
(blinks)
What
, for instance?

O'Hara
(whispering)
Ah, for God's sake, man,
"what for instance,"
what?
he
says!

Kelly
You
say something,
Timulty
.

He checks his watch.

Timulty
I got to get
home.

The Old Man
{astounded)
Home!

Timulty
walks, dazed, to the door.

Timulty
I think so, anyway . . .

He wanders out. All look stunned at the doors as they swing
shut.

Finn
(falsely
hearty)
Here's another belt for everyone.

No answer. No enthusiasm.

Kelly

See
you later . . .

Finn
Later?

And
kelly
is gone, too.

O'Hara
I think
I'll play solitaire . . .

He lays out the cards.

Ah,
damn! I can see I've lost before I begin
...
So long,
boys . . .

He leaves the cards and goes.

Casey

For
all I said of the little woman, she's mine and not well . . .
I'd best go see how she does . . .

The rest follow, wordless, leaving only
the old man
and
finn
at the
bar.
finn
comes out from behind the bar in
shock, almost
staggering with the blow
of this great unnamed event.

Finn
What
happened?

The Old Man
{puffs his pipe thoughtfully)
A strange thing, for sure.

Finn

Everybody
was so happy, everybody talking, everybody bustling
about like always and then, as if the Red Death
Hisself
had
walked
in all bones at the strike of twelve . . . hush
...
I
never heard the likes in my life! Old Man . . .

The Old Man
Hush
up a bit, yourself.

the old man
walks
about the pub, sniffing, probing,
squinting
.

He glances now and then at the signs behind the bar and at last
stops, looking at one of the signs,
the old man
goes behind the
bar and reaches up to handle the one sign.

Finn
Don't!

The Old Man
Why
not?

Finn
I hate to
see something shallow touching something
deep,
is all!

The Old Man

Don't
be so sure about your shallows and deeps,
Heeber
Finn!
Have you stopped to think—
this
may be the cause?

Finn
The cause?

The Old Man

Of
the lull, man! Of the damn peace and quiet which suddenly
befell this place? Of the becalming of this ship
of yours!

Finn

"Think"
did that?
THINK?

The Old Man

Think,
Think, Think! Didn't you see their faces? I saw mine in
the mirror, I watched it fall! I was talking
along, fourteen to the
dozen, when my
eye spied that sign and my tongue went slower
and I looked again and my lips tightened up on me and I read
the
THINK!
again
and the mud settled on the bottom of my
brain! First thing I knew, I was "mum's the word," and so were
the rest! I could see it come over
them,
they broke
out in pale
sweats! They been talking
all their lives, man, and what did you
do
to them now?

Finn
I didn't
do anything!

The Old Man

Yes,
you did; you asked them to think, think, think, what they
was
saying! That's more than enough to break a man's leg, his
arm, his neck and then his back. Crippled them, you
did.
Called
attention to
their tongues and mouths.
First time they had ever
noticed they
had
tongues! First time they noticed they
was
actors,
and they got stage fright!
Think
did it, man, think and nothing
but
think!

Finn
(lets
out a loud cry of anguish)
Ahhhh
. . .

The Old Man

Well
may you
groan.
It's a sad day.
Driving
off old friends and
pals.
Scaring the wits out of them by showing them the
marionette strings in their fingers and lips! How
could
you be so
cruel, Finn?

the old man
goes
to the door.

{Shaken)
I
ask
myself . . .
how? How?

He exits,
finn
is
alone. He groans again and
bites his knuckles,
pacing the room.

Finn