The Apple Family. Richard Nelson

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СКАЧАТЬ Just ask my sisters. (Smiles) But it’s flattering. This is not a big thing, Marian. I’m changing jobs. I need a change. I really do.

       (Then:)

       Mr. Cox is a senior partner in Patterson, Belknap—

      MARIAN: Is that the “Richard Nixon–son-in-law” Cox?

      RICHARD: Yes.

      MARIAN (To Barbara): Who runs the state Republicans? . . .

      JANE: Richard’s being groomed to be a Republican.

       (Pause.)

       That’s what I think. That’s what I’ve told him.

      RICHARD: I’m being hired to be a lawyer. I’m a good lawyer.

      MARIAN: A Republican, Richard?

      RICHARD: For Christ sake, I’m changing jobs—And what if I was? (Shrugs) Javits was a Republican. Mayor Lindsay—

      MARIAN: Paladino.

      RICHARD: You know I don’t mean—There’s a fine tradition—

      MARIAN: Who? Bloomberg?

      RICHARD: I’m not talking about—

      MARIAN (To Tim): We don’t have elections anymore, Tim—we just have money contests.

      RICHARD: Why are you saying this to Tim?

      TIM: I don’t mind.

      MARIAN: Fucking Bloomberg. I liked him too. Once. A man with so much money—they seem incorruptible. That was the argument that got me. The problem is—we’re corruptible by a man with lots of money. So a Republican like Bloomberg.

      RICHARD: No.

      BARBARA: We don’t have to talk about this.

      MARIAN: This is Pamela’s doing—

      RICHARD (Upset): This is not about my wife!

      JANE: We can clean up later.

      RICHARD: You really don’t have the right to judge her. Maybe I was at fault too. Could that be possible?

      MARIAN (To her sisters): I think she’s got him into therapy.

      RICHARD: Shut up!!

      MARIAN: The party of Javits is long gone, Richard. Don’t kid yourself. You’re being used. Who’s being naive now? Who’s going to be hurt now?

      RICHARD: You don’t understand.

      MARIAN: And there’s going to be a new Attorney General. He seems fine. We just voted for him.

      JANE: I didn’t.

      RICHARD: He’s an Albany politician.

      MARIAN: Give him a chance. Maybe he’s different.

      RICHARD: The politicians like him. Because he’s a politician. I don’t owe you this, but . . . let me try to explain.

       (He hesitates.)

      MARIAN: We’re listening.

      RICHARD: When Eliot—resigned? That was a god-awful week. I’d almost gone to the governor’s office with him. I went up two, three times in the transition? You can’t believe the jokers who are up in Albany. You can’t imagine the incompetence, greed, the stupidity . . . Eliot maybe came on a little too strong, sure. True. But all of us—we’d have walked off a cliff for him.

       (Then:)

       It was worse for those who went to Albany of course. But it was bad for the rest of us too. We were crushed. Betrayed? (Shrugs) I don’t know. And then Andrew—(Smiles) For Andrew everything is politics. Celebrity politics. What gets noticed. What makes the impression. And so, he couldn’t forgo the opportunity. And he denigrated Eliot. Just sat on his carcass and ate . . . I’ll never forgive him for that. (Shrugs)

      MARIAN: Spitzer’s got a TV show now. Have you watched it?

      RICHARD: I can’t.

       But then, I suppose they’re all shits. Remember Grandpa always telling us—they are all crooks.

      MARIAN: He was talking about Chicago. Everything was always crooked in Chicago.

      JANE (To Tim): Tim, another uncle, not Benjamin, he got a job in the parks department—and everyone in the family had to promise to vote for the Democrats. To get his job, and then keep it. (Shrugs, to Marian) How did they know how everyone votes?

      MARIAN: Rhinebeck for one is not Chicago.

       (Short pause.)

      RICHARD: No. But the whole thing—it needs something. Something to happen. To change where we’re headed . . .

      MARIAN: Another Republican? Is that what’s needed, Richard? If that’s the case, then let’s just wait another— (Looks at her watch) Forty-five minutes and we’ll have a whole lot more of “them.”

       (Doorbell rings.)

      BARBARA: That’s probably Benjamin back from the vote. (She hurries off)

      JANE: Must not have been any line. Is that a good sign?

       (She is gone.)

      RICHARD (To Marian): So our enemy is “them”? You love to say that, don’t you? “Them.” As for me, I always get a little suspicious when it’s “them.” “Them” tea partiers. (Smiles) “Them” crazies. “Them”—

      MARIAN (Upset): Don’t you fucking condescend to me, Richard!

      RICHARD: What have I done? (“Innocently”) Tim, what have I done?

      JANE (To a confused Tim): Stay out of this.

      RICHARD: I’m just trying—perhaps foolishly—to get you to open your goddamn small town self-righteous closed “liberal” mind!

      MARIAN: Fuck you.

      RICHARD: Language.

      MARIAN: Fuck you. I’m so sick of your smugness, Richard. It’s not cute anymore.

      RICHARD: I didn’t think it was—

      MARIAN: Get off your fucking ass and quit smirking at everything.

      RICHARD: I’m smirking? I didn’t think I even knew how to smirk.

      MARIAN: Fuck you!

      RICHARD: You should have been the lawyer with that gift for argument.

      MARIAN: Fuck you! Fuck you!

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