The Pot Boiler | Page 3

I can finish it in four days!
Peggy. Yes--if you sit up all night and work! Don't you know that when you work all night your stomach stops working all day? Haven't you sworn to me on the Bible you'd never work at night again?
Will (seizes her in his arms). Peggy! I've got to do this play! I've started it.
Peggy. What?
Will. What do you think I've been doing all afternoon? _(Pulls out a huge wad of loose papers from rear pocket.) Look at that! (Drags her to the table._) Now sit down here and listen--I'll tell you about it. I'm going to tell my own story--a rich young fellow who has a quarrel with his father and goes out into the world to make his own way. I'm going to call him Jack, but he's really myself. Imagine me as I was at twenty-one-when I was happy, care-free, full of fun.
Peggy. Oh, Will, I can't imagine you! I can't bring myself to believe that you were ever rich and free!
Will. But I was, Peggy! And this will bring it all back to you. When you read this manuscript you'll see me when I didn't know what trouble meant-I'd never had to make an effort in my life, I couldn't imagine what it would be to fail. Oh, what a wonderful time it was, Peggy! It's been wonderful just to recall it here. I've pictured my twenty-first birthday--I had a dinner party in the big drawing- room of Dad's home! (_As Will goes on the Real-play fades, and the Play-play comes slowly into sight._) There's Jessie, my sister, and there's my cousin, Bob. He's a college professor who went out into the world as a hobo in order to see life for himself. You see it's all my story--my own story! Only my name's to be Jack, you know! Here's the manuscript! Read it!
(_Full light on the Play-play. The Real-play figures are in darkness, visible only in silhouette. Will exchanges places with a substitute concealed on upstage side of the desk, and then slips below the level of the desk and exit Left, to make quick change for entrance into Play-play in the role of Jack._)
Jessie. But Bob--
Bob. Well, Jessie?
Jessie. You're so hard on people, Bob!
Bob. Not at all! It's life that's hard, and you don't know it. Neither does Jack!
Jessie. Why do you want him to know it?
Bob. I want him to do his share to change it--instead of idling his life away.
Jessie. He's going to college, isn't he?
Bob (laughs). A lot of good that's doing!
Jessie. Don't you believe in going to college?
Bob. Not the way Jack's doing it. It's all play to him, and I want him to work. Just as I was trying to tell him a while ago--
Jessie. You're always nagging at him, Bob.
Bob. I want to teach him something. Something about the reality of life.
Jack (enters Play-play left in evening dress). Good heavens! You two still arguing?
Bob. Yes, Jack--still arguing!
Jack. Can't you cut it out for one evening? I'm not in your class in college.
Bob. If you were, Jack, you'd learn something real about the world you live in.
Jack. Oh, cut it out, Bob! You give me a pain! Just because you once put on hobo clothes and went out and knocked about with bums for a year, you think you've a call to go around making yourself a bore to every one you know!
Bob. Well, Jack, some things I saw made an impression on me and I can't forget them. When I hear my glib young cousin who sits and surveys life from the shelter of his father's income--when I hear him making utterly silly assertions----
Jack (angrily). What, for example?
Bob. The one you were making today--that if a man fails, it must be his own fault.
Jack. I say there's a place in life for every man that's good for anything.
Bob. I say that with things as they are at present, most men fail of necessity.
Jack. They'd succeed if they only had nerve to try. There's plenty of good jobs lying idle.
Bob. Oh, Jack, what rot!
Jack. By thunder, I'd like to show you!
Bob. We'd like to do all sorts of bold things--if only it weren't too much trouble.
Jack. What should I do to prove it?
Bob. You couldn't prove it, Jack--it isn't true.
Jack. Suppose I wanted to try to prove it? What should I do?
Bob. You're wasting my time, boy.
Jack (to Jessie). You see! He won't even answer me!
Jessie. Answer him, Bob.
Bob. Just what do you want to prove, Jack?
Jack. That a man can get a job if he really wants it.
Bob. Well, suppose you get a job!
Jessie. That's too easy! Jack has a dozen jobs waiting for him when he gets through college.
Bob. I don't mean for him to go on his father's name. Here--I'll propose a