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116 MR. JENKINS No stories tonight, Parker... MR. PARKER Mister Parker. (The last move is made, the game is over. His conquest slowly sinks in. And MR. PARKER is at long last the victor. Rising from the table.) Call me champ! (THEO and ADELE enter shop from outside, and stand just inside the door. PARKER is laughing.) You're beat! I beat you! I beat you! (MR. PARKER throws his arm around MR. JENKIN'S waist and holds him from behind.)... You fall down and you never get up! (Still laughing.) Fall down, old man! Fall down! (Releases JENKINS upon seeing ADELE and THEO.) You hear that, children, I beat him! I beat him! (His laughter subsides as he realizes they are not responding to him. Guilt-ridden, he approaches THEO, looks at him intently, then reaches into his inside coat pocket and pulls out the money.) Here, Theo, here's the money, here's all of it. Take it, it's your. Go out and try to get happy, boy. (THEO does not move or take the money from his father's outstretched hand. He turns to ADELE. Her face is almost a blank.) WHY DON'T SOMEBODY SAY SOMETHING! (ADELE attempts to speak but PARKER cuts her off.) I know you have some trouble with me... (PARKER spies the notebook in the phone seat, takes it in his hand, and approaches ADELE.) You have a woman, you love her, you stop loving her, and sooner or later she ups and dies and you sit around behaving like you was a killer. I didn't have no more in me. I just didn't have no more in me! (Pause.) I know you don't believe that I ever loved your mother, but it's here in this book--read it... (She does not respond.) You wanta read something, boy! (THEO turns away. PARKER slowly crosses, hands the book to MR. JENKINS, and addresses his remarks to him.) I got sour the day my legs got so trembly and sore on the stage of the Strand Theatre——I couldn't even walk out to take a proper bow. It was then I knew nobody would ever hire me to dance again. I Just couldn't run downtown to meet the man the way she did——not after all those years of shuffling around like I was a dumb clown, with my feet hurting and arching the way they did, having my head patted as if I 117 was some little pet animal: back of the bus, front of the train, grinning when I was bleeding to death! ... After all of that I was going to ask for more by throwing myself into the low Drago of some dusty old factory in Brooklyn. All I could do was stay here in this shop with you, my good friend. And we acted out the ceremony of a game. And you, boy—— (Turns to THEO). ... You and Blue with your ideas of overcoming the evil of the white man. To an old man like me, it was nothing more than an ounce of time to end my dragging about this shop. All it did was to send me out into those streets to live a time——and I did live myself a time for a while. I did it amongst a bunch of murderers——all kinds of 'em——where at times it gets so bad till it seems that the only thing that's left is for you to go out there and kill somebody before they kill you. That's all——that's out there! (Goes to ADELE.) Adele, as for that girl that was here tonight, she's probably no good, but if at my age I was stupid enough to think that I could have stepped out of here and won that little girl, loved her, and moved through the rest of my days without killing anybody, that was a victory! (Moves to center stage, stands silently, then does a little dance.) Be a dancer——any kind of dancer you wanta be——but dance it! (Tries out a difficult step, but can't quite make it.) Uh-uhhh! Can't make that one no more. (Continues to dance.) Be a singer——sing any song you wanta sing, but sing! (Stops in his tracks. And you've got enough trouble to take you to the graveyard!) (Pause.) But think of all that life you had before they buried you. (Breaks into a frantic dance, attempting steps that just cross him up. He stumbles about until he falls. Everyone in the room rushes to help him up.) ... I'm okay, I'm okay ... (He rises from the floor, slowly.) I'm tired, I'm going to bed and by the time tomorrow comes around, let's see if we can't all throw it into the river. (Moves into the back room, singing.) I have had my fun! If I don't get well no more I have had my fun If I don't get well no more——
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