Scene Five Several days bave pased, Its now Wedneday night. Booth ix sisting in bis brand-new suit. The monte setup # nowhere in sight. dn its place isa table with rua nice chairs. The table is covered with a lovely tablecloth and there are nice plates, sil- verware, champague glastes and candles, Al she makings of cy 4 very romantic dinner for ta. The whole apartment in ft {kes its ue fre the sable ts been cleaned up considers New eurzains on the windows, a doibyike objec an the recliner Booth sts atthe rable daring bis ees around, make ing sure evening i loking good. BOOTH. Shit (He notices some of his girlie magazines visible from underneash bis bed, He gves over and nudges them out of ght. Heiss back down. He notices tbat theyre sill visible, He goes ver and nudges them some ‘more, hicking at them finaly Then be sake che spread fiom bis bed and pulls it down, bidding thom. Heiss back down. He ges up. Checks the champagne on much melted ice. Checks the food.) BOOTH. Foods gerting cold, Grace!! Dont worry man, shell get here, she'll get here (He sits back down, He goes over tothe bed. Checks it for springines Srmoashes down the bedspread. Double-checks 2 matching silk dieing ons, very expensive, marked “His” and “Hers.” Lays the dreuing {gowns acros the bed again. He sits back down. He cans help bus notice the wsbiliey ofthe girlie magazines again. He goes tthe bed, kicks them fiercely then om bis hands and knees shaes them. Then he begins 10 get under the bed 1 push thera, but he remember his nice clothing and take off hijacker. After abet he removes his pants and, inthis half.dresed way, he eras under the bed to give those telkale maga- ines a good and final shove, Lincoln comes in. At fist Booth, sill striped down to his undercan, thnk this date. When be realize its bas brother, he des bis best keep Lincln form entering the apart ‘ment. Lincoln wears hi fock cout and caries the res of his genup in 1 plastic bag) LINCOLN, You in the middle of ie 6BOOTH. Whae the hell you doing here? LINCOLN. Ifyr in chuh middle of i can go. Or I can just be seal quiet and just — sing a song in my head or something. BOOTH. ‘The casas off limits to you tonight. LINCOLN. You know when we fived in ehae 2-room place with che coment backyard and the frontyard wid nothing but trash in it, Mom and Pops would do it in che middle of the night and 1 would always har thom but I would sing in my head, cans, I dunno, Tcouldne hear to listen, BOOTH. You gotta ger out of here. LINCOLN. Twvould make up all kinds of songs. Oh, sorsy, yr all up in it. No sweat, bro, No sweat. Hey, Grace, howyadoing? BOOTH. She aint here yet, man. Shes running late. And its a good thing too ‘cause Laine all dressed yer. Yr gonna spend huh night with friends? LINCOLN, Yeah. (Boosh waits far Lincoln to leave. Lincoln stands bir ground.) LINCOLN. Tost my job. BOOTH. Hanh. 4 LINCOLN, T come in there right on time like I do every day and thae mother- fucker gives me some song and dance about cuchacks and too many folks complaining, BOOTH, Hunk, LINCOLN Showel me uh wax danny — hee buying ight out of cao (Rest) oo : Tale out ill wearing my geup. va my Be Teould go back in romeo 3c ll him Take another pay cat Tht gehim to ake me bal BOOTH. Link. Yr free. Done go crawling back. Yr free at last! Now you ean ddo anything you want. Yr not tied down by that job. You can you can clo something else. Something thar pays Better maybe LINCOLN, You mean Hustle BOOTH. Maybe. Hey, Graces on her way. You gotta go. (Lincoln flops into bie char. Booth it waiting for him to move Lincoln doesn budge) LINCOLN. Pl sray uncil she gets Til act nice, 1 wont embarrass you. BOOTH. You gorta go. LINCOLN What time she coming? 6BOOTH. ‘Shes late. She could be here any second. LINCOL! Fil meet het. I met hee years ago. I'll meet her again, Pest} row lace is she? BOOTH. She was supposed ro be here at 8 uiNcoun Igufer 2m, Shs — she ie (ia) (Fer se sama yu sould rth Wanker ont and jo prc ike hy 0 fed Fi, And whose ames Tl go. need 0s on, Ben welling sound al BOOTH. LINCOLN, (Booth goes to his bed and dresses hurriedly.) BOOTH. Pretty nice, right? The china thuh silver chub crystal. LINCOLN, Tes great (est) Boosted? BOOTH. Yeah, LINCOLN. Thought you went and spent yr inheritance for a sainure, you hack 66 ime going I was thinking shit, Booth — 3-Card — chat 3-Cards gone and spent his inhericance and che gal is — late BOOTE. Ies boosted. Every bit of i, (Rex) Fuck ehis waiting bullshit LINCOLN Shell be here in a minute, Done sweat it. BOOTH. Right (Boooh comes tothe table. Sits. Relases as hest be cam.) Boor, How come got a hand for boosting and I dnt go a hand fr throwing ear ler sae the sane eung — you goes be quick and sick Maybe ylshow me yt move sometime, LINCOLN, BOOTH. LINCOLN, BOOTH LINCOLN, Looks our the window. When you sce G race coming, I'l go BOOTH Cool. Cause youa jin i, youd telly ji i, Maybe you ben here has jive ie tread. Naw. Shes just a litle lve You aint jin nothing (Booth sts by the windows glancing ou, watching for his date, Lincoln sits in his recliner. He finds the whisey bots sips from ix, Ele hen ren sages around, finding the ragged photo album. He oaks through i orLINCOLN. ‘Thete we are at chat house. Remember when we moved in? BOOTH. No. LINCOLN, You were 2 or 3. BOOTH, Twas 4. LINCOLN. Twas 9. We all thought it was the best fucking house in the world. BOOTH. Cemene backyard and a frontyard full of trasb, yeah, dont be going down memory lane man, yll jinx thuh vibe I got going in here. Gracell be walking in here and wrinkling up her nose cause you done jinxed up huh joine with yr mggedy recollections. LINCOLN. ‘We had some great times in chat house, bro. Selling lemonacle on thah cornet, thuh trechouse out back, summers spent lying in thub grass and looking at chub stars. BOOTH. ‘We never did none of that shi. LINCOLN. Bur we had us some good times, That row of nails 1 got ‘you to line up behind Dads ear so when he backed out the drive ‘way t0 work — BOOTH. He came back that night, only time I ever seen his face go red, 4 flat tires and yelling bout how thuh white man done sabotaged him again 68 LINCOLN. And neither of us flinched. Neither of us let on that itd been us. BOOTH. Tc was at dinner, right? What were we eating? LINCOLN. Food. BOOTH. ‘We was eating pork chops, mashed poraroes and ig pork chops, potatoes and peas. I zemember cause [had to look at them peas real hard o keep from letting on ‘And | would glance over at you, noc relly glancing not acually tuze ing my head, but I was looking at you oue thuh comer of my eye. 1 vas sure he was gonna find us out and chen he woulda whipped ws good. Buc I kepe glancing at you and you was cool, man. Like noth ing was going on. You was cooooel, (Rest) What time isi LINCOLN, Afier 3 (Res) You should call het, Something mighta happened, BOOTH, No man, Im cool. Shell be here ia a minute, Patience isa views Shell be here, LINCOLN. You look sad, BOOTH, Nope. Im just, you know, km just LINCOLN. Cool ooBOOTH. Yeah. Cool i imselfa bi (Booth comes over sakes the bose of whiskey and pours himself a big _glasf He returns to the window looking owe and drinking.) you a severance package, at thuh job? LINCOLN. A wees pay. BOOTH. Great LINCOLN, T blew it. Spene it al. BOOTH. On what? LINCOLN, Juse spent ic (aos {FS god, spenig it. Fle ely good. Like back in huh dy : all day and wien { was realy making money. Throwing chuh cars Serating and rutingall night, Didne have o eke no shit from no fool, diint have to worry about geting fied in Favor of some dlama wax duramy. Las thuh shit and they was my fools. (Ren) Back in chub day. (Res) et} ‘Why you think they lef us, man? BOOTH, Mom and Pops? I dont think about it too much, 7 LINCOLN, I dont think they liked us. BOOTH. Naw. That aine i. LINCOLN. Think there was something out there chat they liked more chan they liked us and for years chey was struggling against moving towards that more liked something. Each of them had a special something that they was struggling against. Moms had hers. Pops had his. And thoy was struggling We moved out of chat nasty apartment into a house. A whole hous. Ie wernt perfect but i was house and cheyd bought it and they brought us there and every- thing we owned. figuring we could he a farily in that house and chem things, them two separate chings each of them was struggling ainst, would just leave them be. Them things would see thuh hhouse and be impressed and just leave them be. Would see thuh, job Pops had and how he shined his shoes every night before he went t0 bed, shining them shoes whether they needed ic or not, and thul thing he was struggling against would see all that and just let him be, and chub thing Moms was struggling against, it ‘would see the food on the table every nighe and listen t0 her voice when shed read t0 us sometimes, che clean clothes, the buttons sowed on allright and ic would just let her be. just let us all be, jusc regular people living in 2 house. Thar wernt too much to ask. BOOTH. Lenst we was grown when they split. LINCOLN. 16 and 11 aint grown, BOOTH. 16s grown. Almost, And L was ok cause you was there (Rest) Shic man, it ain like they both one day both, together packed all they shit up and left us so chey could have Fun in chu sun on nsome wopcl ind and you and me would ve o grub in buh Sie foneter They dt leave togetber, That mal diferent She ee? year go by Then hel Like nether of che coulda handle no mot, Se spl hen he spe Like ehh hoe fry rmotgge bls gig ok hing wasn vo enc, And T done Blame Sen, Yeu do ve holding down ase job fo bulshand know it sen how it racked hem gp and Tan going the feo —— [Se Glace want he lke thn One woman berwesting stoerickes She Noc me: She gonna walle her aking ll Rocand she yng sec ow mach scan get me ose ow a LINCOLN. BOOTH. LINCOLN. Moms cold me I shouldne never get married BOOTH, She told me thub same thing. LINCOLN. They gave us each 500 bucks then they cut out. BOOTH. Thats what Im gonna do, Give my kids 500 bucks then cur out. ‘Thats thu way to do it LINCOLN. You dont gor no kids BOOTH. Im gonna have kids then Im gonna cut out 2 LINCOLN. Leaving cach of yr offspring 300 bucks as yr splitting BOOTH. Yerh, i) Just goes to shiow Mom and Pops had some agreemenc between them, LINCOLN. How so. noo They stopped aking to eachother. They sopped sewn eachother Bur they had an agreement. Somewhere thet whee it ook ie ll hey hd wae bate they sat ow adi hal pl” budge es) ‘When Moms splits she gives me 5 unde oll blls oled up and ed up digi one ofr nylon stockings She ces me top tin asl is open ony na ofan ego ae a toll nobody T gor snot even you 2 yea later Pops pls and before he goes — a eer LINCOLN. He slips me 10 fifties ina clean handkerchief: “Hide this somewheres food dont go blowing i dont ell noone you go teil that BOOTH. Theyel been scheming cogether all along. They left separately but they was in agreement. Maybe they arrived at the same place at the same time, maybe they renewed they wedding vows, maybe they got another family LINCOLN. Maybe they got 2 new kids.2 boys, Diffewene than us, though, Better.BOOTH. Maybe. (heir glasses are empty The whiskey bottle is empty too. Booth takes the champagne bottle rom the ice tub. He pops the cork and posrs drinks for his brother and hinslf) BOOTH. T didnt mind them leaving cause you was there, Thats why fm hhooked on us working together. If we could work together it would be like old times. They split and we gor that room down. town. You was done with school and I stopped going, And we bad o run around doing odd jobs just to keep the lights on and che hheat going and thu child protection bitch off our backs. Ie was dime against thuh world, Tink, treonld be fke chat again. LINCOLN: BOOTH. LINCOLN BOOTH. LINCOLN. Throwing thub cards aint as easy as it Looks. BOOTH. Taine seupid LINCOLN. ‘When you ung with us back then, you was just on thu sidelines. “Thu perspective from chub sidelines is chub perspective of cus tomer. There was all kinds of things you didn know nothing about. BOOTH, Lonny would entice folks inro thuh game as they walked by. ‘Thub. 2 folks on either side of ya looked like they was playing but they Juse tu generate ex ‘ould hoping that yr hands swas only preconding uh p was moving thuh cards as fast 28 you would be faster than yr customers eyes. Someti times you lost what else is there to know? LINCOLN, ‘Thuh customer is actually called the “Mark.” You know why? BOOTH, ‘Cause hes thuh one you got yr eye on. You matk him with yr eye LINCOLN. LINCOLN, BOOTH. Im right, LINCOLN, Lemmie show you a few moves. Ifyou pick up ches ll have a chance BOOTH. Ye playing, LINCOLN, Get chub cards and set ie wp. Boork No shi \ LINCOLN. Sec ic up serie up. (iva flash, Bot cer aay she romantic tbl sexing by gabe ‘call pinche cabeot and ring it ade As he dose oooh ‘he “bie underneath the 2 racked monte mile resend tec boarding sfc, nh ksh dk of ert Linc who Bests for ¢ moment then grabs them quickly chong tee and laying ther ost.) [ " LINCOLN. Thuh deuce of spades is thuh card tuh watch. 5BOOTH. work with chuh deuce of hearts. But spades is coo. LINCOLN, Theres thuh Dealer, huh Stickman, chuh Sides, thuh Lookout and chith Mark, Tl be chub Dealer. BOOTH. , Tikbe thuh Lookout. Lemmie be thuh Lookout, right? I'll keep an ye out for dhuk cops. Igor my piece in my pants LINCOLN. You got it on you right now? ROOTH, Talways carey it LINCOLN, Even on a date? In yr own home? BOOTH. You never know, man. (Rest) So lm thu Lookout LINCOLN, Gimmie yr piece (oth gives Lincla bis gun. Lincoln moves the lie wooden chair to Jace righ on fom of there. He hen pus the gan on he ci) LINCOLN. We dont need nobody standing on the corner watching for cops cause there aint none, Thatll be the lookout. BOOTH. Pil be thu Stickman, chen, 76 LINCOLN. Stickman knows the game inside out. You aine there yer. But you ‘willbe. You wanna learn good, be my Sidersan. Playing along with the Dealer, moving the Mark to lay his money dovwn, You wanna learn, right? BOOTH. Til be thu Side. LINCOLN, Good (Rest) First thing you learn is what is. Nexe thing you learn is what aint. You donc know wha is you dont know what aint, you dont know shit, BOOTH Right LINCOLN. BOOTH. BOOTH. Wihatchu looking at? LINCOLN, Im sizing you up. BOOTH. ‘Oh yeah! LINCOLN Dealer always sizes up chuh croved BOOTH, Im yr Side, Link, Im on ye ceam, you dont go sizing up yr own ‘eam. You save looks like thas for yr Mack. oLINCOLN, Dealer abwaye sizes up thu crowd. Everybody out there is pare of the crowel. His crew is part of the crowd, he himself is pare of the rove. Dealee always sizes up thu crowd. (Cincobn lok Booth over some mare then leks aroun at an imaginary crowd) BOOTH. ‘Then whac then what? LINCOLN. Dealer dont wanna pla: BOOTH, Bullshit mant Come on you promised! LINCOLN, Thats thuh Dealers atticude, He acts like he done wanna play. He hholds back and thuh crowd, with cheir eagerness to see is skill and their willingness to take a chance, and their greediness ro win his cash, the larceny in cheir hearts, all goad him on and push him to throw his cards, although of course the Dealer has been wancing to thtow his cards all along, Only he dont never show ie BOOTH Thats some sneaky shit, Link. LINCOLN. Ic sets thuh mood. You wanna have chem in yr hand before you deal a hand, K? BOOTH, Cool. —K. LINCOLN, Right 8 LINCOLN, BOOTH. BOOTH. You sizing me up again? LINCOLN, ‘Theres 2 parts to throwing thuh cards. Both parts are furly com plicated. Thuh moves and thub grooves, chub tlle and thuh walk ‘huh patter and thuh pitter pat, chub rap and huh flap: what yr doing with yr mouth and whae ye doing with yr hands BOOTH. I gor chuk words down pretty good. LINCOLN, ‘You need co work on both, BOOTH. K. LINCOLN. A goodlooking walk and a dynamite alle capeiowe— stots oo attention, The Mark focuses with 2 organs pritnarly: his eyes and his eas. Leave one out you lose yr shir. Captivate both, yt golden, BOOTH. So them times I seen you lose, chem times I seen huh Matk best you, that was atime when yr hands werent ist enough or yr patter ‘werent right Q LINCOLN You could say’ tha. BOOTH. So, chere was pleney of simes — (Lincoln moses the cards around.) 79LINCOLN. You see what Im doing? Done look ar my hands, man, look at my eyes, Know what is and know what aint BOOTH. Whae is? LINCOLN, My eyes. BOOTH. What aine? LINCOLN My hands. Lool y thinking how shub fuck I gonna leatn how tub throw thu cards if The looking in his eyes? Look into my eyes and get yr focus. Dont ehink about learning how tuh throw dhuh eards. Dont think about nothing, Just look into my eyes. Get yr focus my eyes nor my hands, And you standing there BOOTH. Theyre red INCOLN Look into my eyes BOOTH. You been crying? LINCOLN. Just Tooke into my eyes, fool, Now, Loole down at chub cards, 1 ‘been moving and moving and moving them around. Ready? BOOTH, Yeah, LINCOLN. ‘Ok, Sideman, chub Marks gor his eye on you. Ye gonna show him 80 its easy BOOTH. K LINCOLN, Pile out thuh deuce of spades, Done pick ie up just point to it BOOTH. This one, right? LINCOLN. Done ask thuh Dealer if yr right, man, point to yr card with confidence, (Booth points) BOOTH, That one. (Rest) Flip ic over, man, (Lincoln flips over the card. It is in face the dewce of sper. Boosh struts around gloating like a rooer. Lincoln is mildly erestfallen.) BOOTH. Am I right of am I right Make room for 3-Card! Here comes chuh champ! LINCOLN Cool. Stay focused. Now we gonna add the second el lement. Lise, (Lincaln moves the cards and specks in a low hypnonic vice.) LINCOLN, Lean in close and watch me now: who see thu blick card who see ‘uh black card I see thuh blake card black cards thuh winner pick hub black card thaes chub winner pick thu red card thats thub 81loser pick thob other red card thats thub other loser pick thuh black card you pick thuh winner. Warch me as I throw thih cards. Here we go. (Rest) ‘Who sce thu black card who see thuh black card? You pick chub red card you pick a loser you pick chub other sed card you pick a loser you pick thuh black catd thuh deuce of spades you pick a ‘winner who sees thuh deuce of spades thu one who sees it never fades warch me nov a | throw chub cards. Red losers black win: ner fallow thuh deuce of spades chase thuh black deuce. Darke deuce will get you thuh win. One good pickll get you in 2 good picks you gone win. 10 will gec you 20, 20 will get you 40. (Res) Ima show you thuh cards: 2 red cards but only one spade. Dark win- sacri chal center abd chub red losers ou uhult sides. Pic ub sed ca you got a loser pick thuh other red card you got loser pick thu ‘black card you gota winnet. Warch me warch me watch me now (Rest) ‘Ok, 3-Card, you know which cards thuh deuce of spades? BOOTH. Yeah. LINCOLN. You sure? Yeh? You sure you sure ot you just think you sute? Oh you sure you sure huh? Was you watching Links lighting fast express? Was you watching Link cause he che best? So you sure hhuk? Point out. Now place yr bet and Linkll eum over yz cad BOOTH. ‘Whar should f beet LINCOLN, Done ber nothing man, we just playing. Slap me 5 snd point our thuh deuce. (Booty slaps Lincoln 5, then points out a card which Lincoln flips over It isin ft again the deuce of spedes.) 82 BOOTH. Yeah, baby! 3-Card gor thuh moves! You didne know kil bro had huh seaif, huh? Think again, Link, chink again LINCOLN. You wanna learn or you wanna fun yr mouth? BOOTH. Thought you had fast hands. Wassup? What happened tub “Links Lightning Fase Express"? Looks like ul local train uh me, LINCOLN. ‘Thats yr whole motherfucking problem. Yr so busy running yr mouth you aint never gonna learn nothing! You think you some- shing bur you aint shit BOOTH, Taine shit, tam The Shit. Shit, Wheres chub dark deuce? Right there! Yes, baby! LINCOLN. (Ok, 3-Card, Cool. Lets switch, Take chuh cards and show me whatcha gor. Go on. Dont couch thu cards too heavy just — its & light couch. Like yr touching Graces skin. Or, whatever, just a lighe touch, Like uh whisper BOOTH. Like uh whisper, (Booth moves he cards around, in an aur imitation of is brocer) LINC’ Good. LN. BOOTH. Yea. Allright. Look into my eyes. (Booths speech is loud and his movements ae jerky. He i doing worse 83than when he threw the cards atthe top of the play) BOOTH. Warch-me-close-watch-me-close-now: who-see-thub-blacke-card- who-see-thuh-black-card?T-see-thub-black-card, Here-itis. ‘Thub-black-card-is-thuh-winner. Pick-thub-black-card-and-you- pick-ub-winner, Pick-ub-red-card-and-you-pick-ub-loser, Theres. shuh-loser-yeah-theres-thab-red-card, theres-thul-other-loser- and-theres-thuh-black-card, thuh-winner, Watch-me-close-watch: me-close-now: 3-Card-throws-thuli-cards-lightning. fase. 3-Card- shats-me-and-Lma-last. Watch-me-throw-cause-here-I-go. See thuh black card? Yeah? Who see I see you sce thuh black card? LINCOLN. Hahshahhahahabalbahabaht (Lincoln doubles over laughing. Booth puts on is coat and pockets bis gue) BOOTH. What? LINCOLN. Noching, man, nothing. BOOTH, What LINCOLN. Yr jus, yr just ile wild with ie. You eal ke that on thuh steee cards or no cards and theyll lock you up, man. Shit. Reminds me of that time when you hung with us and we le you ty being duh Stik cause you wanted itso bad. Thu hustle was so simple Remember? I told you chat when 1 puc my hand in my left pock ct you was to get thukt Mark euh pick douh card on that side. You got to thinking something like Links left means my lfe some dyslexic sic and turned dhuh wrong card, There wes 800 bucks on the line and you fucked it up. 84 (Rest) Bur it was cool, litte bro, cause we made the money back, Te worked out cool. (Re) So, yeah, I said a light touch, litte bro. Throw thuh cards light Like uh whisper BOOTH. Like Graces skin LINCOLN, Like Graces skin BOOTH, What time is ie? (Lincoln holds up bis watch, Booth takes look) BOOTH, Bitch, Biz She said she was gonna show up around 8, §a-fucking- doc LINCOLN. Maybe she meant 8 a.m: BOOTH, ‘Yeah. She gonna comeall up in my place talking bout how she love me. How she cant stop shining bout me. Nother mans shit up in her nother mans thing in her nother mans dick on her breath. LINCOLN. Maybe something happened co her. BOOTH. ‘Something happened to her all sight. She crying to make a chump ‘outa me. Taine her chump. I aint nobodys chump,LINCOLN, Sit. Tl go to the payphone on che commer. TH ~ BOOTH. ‘Thu world puts its footin ye face and you done move. You tll dul sword euh keep on stepping, But Im my own man, Link. I aint you, (Booth goes ous, slamming she door bebind him.) LINCOLN. Yous gor that right. (After # moment Lincoln picks up the cards, He moves them around fast, faster, faster.) 86