Blood Knot and Other Plays. Athol Fugard

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СКАЧАТЬ I did.

      MORRIS. And then?

      ZACHARIAH. He said: ‘Go to the gate or go to hell.’

      MORRIS. That’s an insult.

      ZACHARIAH. What’s the other one?

      MORRIS. Injury!

      ZACHARIAH No, no. The long one.

      MORRIS. Inhumanity!

      ZACHARIAH. That’s it. That’s what I think it is. My inhumanity from him. ‘Go to the gate or go to hell.’ What do they think I am?

      MORRIS. What about me?

      ZACHARIAH. [Anger]. What do you think I am?

      MORRIS. No, Zach! Good heavens! You got it all wrong. What do they think I am, when they think what you are.

      ZACHARIAH. Oh.

      MORRIS. Yes. I’m on your side, they’re on theirs. I mean, I couldn’t be living here with you and not be on yours, could I, Zach?

      [Morris is helping Zachariah off with his coat. When Zachariah is not looking, he smells it.]

      Zach, I think we must borrow Minnie’s bath again.

      ZACHARIAH. Okay, Morrie.

      MORRIS. What about me? Do I smell?

      ZACHARIAH. No. [Pause.] Hey! Have I started again?

      [Morris doesn’t answer. Zachariah laughs.]

      Hey! What’s that thing you say, Morrie? The one about smelling?

      MORRIS [quoting]. ‘The rude odours of manhood.’

      ZACHARIAH. ‘The rude odours of manhood.’ What’s the other one? The long one?

      MORRIS. ‘NO smell’?

      [Zachariah nods.]

      ‘No smell doth stink as sweet as labour.

      ’Tis joyous times when man and man

      Do work and sweat in common toil,

      When all the world’s my neighbour.’

      ZACHARIAH. ‘When all the world’s my neighbour.’

      [Zachariah starts drying his feet with the towel. Morris empties the basin and puts it away.]

      Minnie.

      MORRIS. What about Minnie?

      ZACHARIAH. Our neighbour. You know, strange thing about Minnie. He doesn’t come no more.

      MORRIS. I don’t miss him.

      ZACHARIAH. No, you don’t remember, man. I’m talking about before you. He came every night. Ja! Me and him used to go out—together, you know—quite a bit. [Pause.] Hey! How did I forget a thing like that!

      MORRIS. What are you talking about?

      ZACHARIAH. Me and Minnie going out! Almost every night . . . and I’ve forgotten. [Pause.] How long you been here, Morrie?

      MORRIS. Oh, about a year now, Zach.

      ZACHARIAH. Only one miserable year and I have forgotten just like that! Just like it might not have never happened!

      MORRIS. Yes, Zach, the year has flown by.

      ZACHARIAH. You never want to go out, Morrie.

      MORRIS. So I don’t want to go out. Ask me why and I’ll tell you. Come on.

      ZACHARIAH. Why?

      MORRIS. Because we got plans, remember? We’re saving for a future, which is something Minnie didn’t have.

      ZACHARIAH. Ja. He doesn’t come no more.

      MORRIS. You said that already, Zach. I heard you the first time.

      ZACHARIAH. I was just thinking. I remembered him today. I was at the gate. It was lunchtime, and I was eating my bread.

      MORRIS. Hey—did you like the peanut butter sandwiches I made?

      ZACHARIAH. I was eating my bread, and then it comes, the thought: What the hell has happened to old Minnie?

      MORRIS. Zach, I was asking you—

      ZACHARIAH. Wait, man! I’m remembering it now. He used to come, I thought to myself, with his guitar to this room, to me, to his friend, old Zachariah, waiting for him here. Friday nights it was, when an ou’s got pay in his pocket and there’s no work tomorrow and Minnie’s coming. Now there was a friend for a man! He could laugh, could Minnie, and drink! He knew the spots, I’m telling you . . . the places to be, the good times . . . and—Ja! [Reverently.] Minnie had music. Listen, he could do a vastrap, that man, non-stop, on all strings at once. He knew the lot. Polka, tickey-draai, opskud en uitkap, ek sê. . . Now that was jollification for you, with Minnie coming around. So, when I’m waiting in here, and I hear that guitar in the street, at my door, I’m happy! ‘It’s you!’ I shout. He stops. ‘I know it’s you,’ I say. He pretends he isn’t there, you see. ‘Minnie,’ I call. ‘Minnie!’ So what does he do? He gives me a quick chick-a-doem in G. He knows I like G. ‘It’s Friday night, Minnie.’ ‘Chick-a-doem-doem, doem, doem,’ he says. And then I’m laughing. ‘You bugger! You motherless bastard!’ So I open the door. What do I see? Minnie! And what’s he got in his hand? Golden Moments at fifty cents a bottle. Out there, Morrie, standing just right on that spot in the street with his bottle and his music and laughing with me. ‘Zach,’ he says, ‘Ou pellie, tonight is the night—’ [The alarm goes off.] . . . is the night . . . is the night . . . is the night . . .

      [Zachariah loses the thread of his story. By the time the alarm stops, he has forgotten what he was saying. The moment the alarm goes off Morris springs to his feet and busies himself at the table with their supper. Zachariah eventually goes back to the bed.]

      MORRIS [watching Zachariah surreptitiously from the table]. I been thinking, Zach. It’s time we started making some definite plans. I mean . . . we’ve agreed on the main idea. The thing now is to find the right place. [Pause.] Zach? [Pause.] We have agreed, haven’t we?

      ZACHARIAH. About what?

      MORRIS. Hell, man. The future. Is it going to be a small two-man farm, just big enough for me and you; or what is it going to be?

      ZACHARIAH. Ja.

      MORRIS. Right. We agree. Now, I’m saying we got to find the right place. [Pause.] Zach! What’s the matter with you tonight?

      ZACHARIAH. I was trying to remember what I was saying about Minnie. There was something else.

      MORRIS. Now listen, Zach! СКАЧАТЬ