CHAPTER 2: THE GREAT GATSBY SCENE 1: GARAGE ACTOR: TOM, NICK, WILSON, MYRTLE Tom: Hello, Wilson, old

man (slapping him jovially on the shoulder) , how's business?" Wilson: I can't complain, when are you going to sell me that car?" Tom: Next week; I've got my man working on it now. Wilson: Works pretty slow, don't he? Tom: No, he doesn't, and if you feel that way about it, maybe I'd better sell it somewhere else after all. Wilson: I don't mean that, I just meant---(Myrtle came & spotted dress of pink crepe-de-chine) (She smiled slowly and walked through her husband) (Shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband) Myrtle: Get some chairs, why don't you, so somebody can sit down. Wilson: Oh, sure (Myrtle moved close to Tom) Tom: I want to see you, get on the next train. Myrtle: All right Tom: I'll meet you by the news-stand on the lower level. (Myrtle nodded and moved away from Tom just as George Wilson emerged with two chairs)

SCENE 2: TOMS APARTMENT IN NEW YORK. ACTOR: NICK, TOM, MYRTLE, LUCILE MCKEE Nick is in the apartment, sitting bored on the couch. Music is playing. Lucille McKee is drunk but dancing. Finally she collapses. Nick goes over, checks shes ok. Sits back d own. NICK: Excuse me; may I turn the music down? (She is too drunk to reply. He goes over and switches off the music. Silence but for some faint love-making sounds from next door.) Excuse me. Do you think I might use the phone? (Lucille is too drunk to respond. Nick picks up the phone. Rings. During the telephone conversation, maybe Lucille McKee is begins to dance again.) NICK: Hello, is that Jordan? Hi. Its Nick.. Im in New York.. No, no, I met up with Tom and a friend of his.. I was wondering.. What? Oh, her names Myrtle.. (keep on talking for minutes) Wait. I better go. I think theyre coming back. Bye. (Nick hangs up. Tom enters looking like hes just had sex. Myrtle follows.) McKEE: I like your dress. I think its adorable. MYRTLE: Its just a crazy old thing. I just slip it on sometimes when I dont care what I look like. McKEE: But it looks wonderful on you, if you know what I mean. TOM: (to Mrs McKee) You should have something to drink. (to Myrtle) Get some more ice and mineral water, Myrtle, before we all go to sleep. MYRTLE: I told that boy about the ice. (Myrtle raises her eyebrows in despair.) These people! You have to keep after them all the time. (Myrtle leaves the room. We hear a dog barking and Myrtle squealing with delight.) TOM: Honey. Where are you going? Where is the ice? McKEE: (to Nick) Do you live down on Long Island? NICK: I live at West Egg. McKEE: Really? I was down there at a party about a month ago. At a man named Gatsbys. Do you know him? NICK: I live next door to him. McKEE: Well, they say hes a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelms. Thats where all his money comes from.

NICK: Really? I keep hearing his name but I havent a clue who... McKEE: Im scared of him. Id hate to have him get anything on me. (Tom returns.) NICK: (Distracted to the romantic scene between Tom and Myrtle) McKEE: You know, neither of them can stand the person theyre married to. NICK: Cant they? McKEE: Cant STAND them. (She looks at Myrtle and then at Tom.) What I say is, why go on living with them if they cant stand them? If I was them Id get a divorce and get married to each other right away. (She takes another drink.) You see, its really his wife thats keeping them apart. Shes a Catholic, and they dont believe in divorce. NICK: But Daisy isnt Catholic. (Myrtle turns and approaches.) McKEE: (ignoring him) I almost made a mistake, too, you know. I almost married a little kyke whod been after me for years. I knew he was below me. Everybody kept saying to me: Lucille, that mans way below you! But if I hadnt met Chester, hed of got me sure. MYRTLE: (after overhearing) Yes, but listen, at least you didnt marry him. McKEE: I know I didnt. MYRTLE: Well, I married him. And thats the difference between you and me. McKEE: Why did you, Myrtle? Nobody forced you to. MYRTLE: I married him because I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasnt fit to lick my shoe. McKEE: You were crazy about him for a while. MYRTLE: Crazy about him! Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any crazier about him than I was about that man there. (Myrtle points at Nick. He tries to show by his expression that he had played no part in her past.) Listen I was CRAZY for marrying him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebodys best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out. Oh, is that your suit? I said. This is the first I ever heard about it. But I gave it to him and then I lay down and c ried to beat the band all afternoon. (turning) Hey, who turned the music off? (She gets up and leaves again.)

McKEE: (quietly to Nick) She really ought to get away from him. Theyve been living over that garage for eleven years. And toms the first sweetie she ever had. TOM: (entering) I have another bottle of whisky here and Ive just told the janitor to fetch us some sandwiches. NICK: Listen, Tom. I really shouldnt stay. I think Ill go take a walk in the park. Its... TOM: No Nick. We want you to stay. (He pours another drink for Nick.) You havent finished your drink. (Tom goes upstage.) NICK: So where is your husband, Mrs McKee? McKEE: I havent the faintest idea. (Everyone laughs.) MYRTLE: (to Nick) You want to know how I first met him? NICK: Who? MYRTLE: Tom. It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes, and I couldnt keep my eyes off hi m, but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me, and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm, and so I told him Id have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didnt know I wasnt getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was You cant live forever; you cant live forever. (Myrtle turns to Lucille and laughs. Every one laughs.)

SCENE 3: FIFTH AVENUE APARTMENT ACTOR: NICK, MYRTLE, TOM, MR. MCKEE, MRS. MCKEE, CATHERINE. Narrator: It was nine o'clock, almost immediately afterward Nick looked at his watch and found it was ten. Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action. Nick takes out his handkerchief and wipe his cheek that has stains since the afternoon. Suddenly at midnight, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Myrtle had any right to mention Daisy's name. Tom: Dont say any word about my wife! Myrtle: Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai" Tom: Shut up! (Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.) Myrtle: How could you do this to me? (Weeping) Narrator: Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women's voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain. (Myrtle murmured angrily) Mr. McKee awoke from his doze and started in a daze toward the door. When he had gone half way he turned around and stared at the scene, his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling as they stumbled here and there among the crowded furniture with articles of aid, and the despairing figure on the couch bleeding fluently and trying to spread a copy of "Town Tattle" over the tapestry scenes of Versailles. Then Mr. McKee turned and continued on out the door. Nick: Wait for me. (Taking his hat from the chandelier and followed Mr. McKee) Tom: "Come to lunch some day," Nick: "Where?" Tom: "Anywhere." Nick: "All right," "I'll be glad to." Narrator: Nick walked away and Tom was watching him till the end of his glimpse. Then Nick was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning "Tribune" and waiting for the four o'clock train.