American Buffalo Read Free Page A

coffee.
    BOB : Boston, Teach?
    TEACH : No.
    BOB : What?
    TEACH : Black.
    BOB : Right.
    DON : And something for yourself to eat. (To TEACH ) He doesn’t want to eat.
    TEACH (to BOB ): You got to eat (And this is what I’m saying at The Riverside.)
    Pause.
    BOB : (Black coffee.)
    DON : And get something for yourself to eat. (To TEACH ) Whatdo you want to eat? An English muffin? (To BOB ) Get Teach an English muffin.
    TEACH : I don’t want an English muffin.
    DON : Get him an English muffin, and make sure they give you jelly.
    TEACH : I don’t want an English muffin.
    DON : What do you want?
    TEACH : I don’t want anything.
    BOB : Come on, Teach, eat something.
    Pause.
    DON : You’ll feel better you eat something, Teach.
    Pause.
    TEACH (to BOB ): Tell ‘em to give you an order of bacon, real dry, real crisp.
    BOB : Okay.
    TEACH : And tell the broad if it’s for me she’ll give you more.
    BOB : Okay.
    DON : Anything else you want?
    TEACH : No.
    DON : A cantaloupe?
    TEACH : I never eat cantaloupe.
    DON : No?
    TEACH : It gives me the runs.
    DON : Yeah?
    TEACH : And tell him he shouldn’t say anything to Ruthie.
    DON : He wouldn’t.
    TEACH : No? No, you’re right I’m sorry, Bob.
    BOB : It’s okay.
    TEACH : I’m upset.
    BOB : It’s okay, Teach.
    Pause.
    TEACH : Thank you.
    BOB : You’re welcome.
    BOB starts to exit.
    DON : And the plain if they got it.
    BOB : I will. (Exits.)
    DON : He wouldn’t say anything.
    TEACH : What the fuck do I care . . .
    Pause.
    Cunt.
    Pause.
    There is not one loyal bone in that bitch’s body.
    DON : How’d you finally do last night?
    TEACH : This has nothing to do with that.
    DON : No, I know. I’m just saying . . . for talk . . .
    TEACH : Last night? You were here, Don.
    Pause.
    How’d you do?
    DON : Not well.
    TEACH : Mmm.
    DON : The only one won any money, Retch and Ruthie.
    TEACH (Pause): Cunt had to win two hundred dollars.
    DON : She’s a good card player.
    TEACH : She is not a good card player, Don. She is a mooch and she is a locksmith and she plays like a woman.
    Pause.
    Fletcher’s a card player, I’ll give him that But Ruthie . . . I mean, you see how she fucking plays . . .
    DON : Yeah.
    TEACH : And always with that cunt on her shoulder.
    DON : Grace?
    TEACH : Yes.
    DON : Grace is her partner.
    TEACH : Then let her be her partner, then. (You see what I’m talking about?) Everyone, they’re sitting at the table and then Grace is going to walk around . . . fetch an ashtray . . . go for coffee . . . this . . . and everybody’s all they aren’t going to hide their cards, and they’re going to make a show how they don’t hunch over, and like that. I don’t give a shit. I say the broad’s her fucking partner, and she walks in back of me I’m going to hide my hand.
    DON : Yeah.
    TEACH : And I say anybody doesn’t’s out of their mind.
    Pause.
    We’re talking about money for chrissake, huh? We’re talking about cards. Friendship is friendship, and a wonderful thing, and I am all for it. I have never said different, and you know me on this point.
    Okay.
    But let’s just keep it separate huh, let’s just keep the two apart, and maybe we can deal with each other like some human beings.
    Pause.
    This is all I’m saying, Don. I know you got a soft spot in your heart for Ruthie . . .
    DON : . . . yeah?
    TEACH : I know you like the broad and Grace and, Bob, I know he likes ‘em too.
    DON : (He likes ‘em.)
    TEACH : And I like ‘em too. (I know, I know.) I’m not averse to this. I’m not averse to sitting down. (I know we will sit down.) These things happen, I’m not saying that they don’t . . . and yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I lost a bundle at the game and blah blah blah.
    Pause.
    But all I ever ask (and I would say this to her face) is only she remembers who is who and not to go around with her or Gracie either with this attitude. “The Past is Past, and this is Now, and so Fuck You.”
    You see?
    DON : Yes.
    Long pause.
    TEACH : So what’s new?
    DON :