Body and Soul Page #2

- Come on, come on!

- Finish the story!

- Well, She and Charlie begin to dance...

- Yeah?

And before you know it...Come here...

- She's inviting him up to her apartment.

- No kidding.

Charlie, perfect man of the world,

gives me the sign, see, and me...I blow.

Fellas...just like that...

- Charlie, very nonchalant...

- Hello, Charlie!

Well? Well?

What happened?

She draws pictures.

You mean she was drawing your picture?

Yeah! She's got a big room with big paintings and statues and all that kind of stuff. I'm going to see her again.

- She give you a diploma?

- Wise guy!

Let me see that.

- Look, she drew his picture!

- Hey, look! Fur!

- Doesn't look like you.

All right, all right...

- What are you getting sore about?

- I'm not sore...who's sore?

Hiya, Mr. Quinn!

He was at the fights.

- No kidding!

- Yeah! I saw him.

- You mean when I knocked that guy out?

- He was sitting right at the ringside.

- Gee.

- Come on!

- What for?

- Come on, don't be a dope! Hit him while you're hot!

- Okay.

I win.

Very strong! You see that, Charlie?

Like the fights tonight, Mr. Quinn?

So-so.

How'd you like that quick knockout Charlie made?

I've seen knockouts before.

Everybody said it was sensational!

You ever meet Charlie personally, Mr. Quinn?

You shoot.

- This is Charlie Davis.

- Hello.

How about you take in a hand? You know, set up a few money fights now? Charlie's on his way up.

Charlie's a great fighter, Mr. Quinn. He's got the natural stuff. He's got the style...

- A little training...

- So what?

So what? He won the amateurs!

So what? Kids win this and that every day. Thousands of them.

One out of a hundred fights professionally, one out of a thousand's worth watching,

one out of a million is worth coffee and donuts...Now tell your boy to get himself an honest job.

Nobody's asking you for coffee and donuts!

You see that, Mr. Quinn? He's a natural fighter, you got a champion!

Throw me the balls.

Hiya, Pop!

Good evening, Ma!

Good evening, champion.

We had a delegation tonight from the poolroom. They congratulated your parents.

Well...it's better to win than to lose.

Surely...And the other boy, you hurt him good, champion?

It's only a prizefight, Ma. It's a sport!

A fine sport...A fine sport, indeed!

Quinn will take you on. He'll teach you to be a professional fighter!

All we gotta do is raise ten or fifteen bucks for equipment.

We can dig up the dough, and...

Evening, Mrs. Davis...evening, Mr. Davis...

- I'll see you later, Charlie.

- Yeah.

So now you'll be a professional sport and make a living hitting people.

Knocking their teeth out, smashing their noses, breaking their heads in.

Sportsman, this is what you want?

All right, Anna, if we're closing up, let's close.

20 years ago, I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charlie would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession.

But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal.

Do you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America?

It was possible to buy the candy store with a small cash-down payment...

A fine investment.

Next door a speakeasy, across the street a poolroom...

Loafers on the corner, children like wolves...

Could I help it that J.P. Morgan refused to advance me credit?

I would have opened a fancy store on Fifth Avenue...

We could have lived at the Ritz, Charlie would be wearing a monocle...

You think I want to spend the rest of my life selling kids two-cent soda?

"Mr. Davis, give me a penny candy, Mr. Davis, give me a pack of cigarettes, mind the baby,

make mine raspberry!"...

Well not me, Ma! Understand, not me.

I don't want to end up like Pop.

Don't talk that way about your father.

Let the boy alone. He don't mean what he says.

I'll let him alone like you do, to fight in poolrooms, to hang around street corners...

- I want him to study to be something.

- I want to be a fighter!

So fight for something, not for money!

Charlie!

That's 10 dollars!

For your boxing equipment.

You don't have to discuss this with your mother.

Thanks, Pop!

They're bombing the speak!

They got the speakeasy.

Yeah, and they got the candy store, too!

Look at the front...All smashed in!

Pop...Pop!

Don't cry, Ma.

Don't cry.

Charlie, it's cold out...Why don't you come in and get a little warm?

- Thanks, I'm waiting for somebody.

- Okay...

- It's cold outside, huh?

- Yeah.

- She didn't come yet, huh?

- No.

Maybe she won't come.

She'll come...She'll come. That's wait I'm afraid of.

It's gonna be great! She and my mother...

- Well, if you're going with a girl...

- Who's going with a girl? I won't have a dime in a hundred years.

No unemployment for him.

All right, all right...Don't rub it in.

I got troubles of my own.

You and me both.

Look through the want ads. Maybe somebody died and you can carry the corpse.

How's business, Mr. Quinn?

Always pitching, huh, punk?

Why don't you talk to Charlie?

What for?

Well, he might listen to you. He ain't got a job...nothing.

It ain't my headache...He don't want to fight.

His old lady won't let him.

That never stopped anybody, kid. You know that. Charlie just doesn't have the drive, the fighting spirit.

How about Marino?

He stinks! But he's willing, that's half the racket.

Now look, stop dreaming, kid. You'll have to make a buck some other way.

- Let me see that form, will you, friend?

- Yeah, that Four Leaf Clover's following in...

Hey Marino, you were great in your last fight!

You know Marino, don't you, Charlie?

The real mutt. Couldn't even lick my kid brother.

Now lay off of that stuff, Shorty.

- He even got knocked out last week, but he still got plenty of dough in his pockets.

- And that was the ringer.

How much do you get when you lose?

50 bucks.

50 bucks?! 50 bucks?

You hear that, Charlie?

He don't have to take his girl walking on the streets...

- Jacks.

- Queens.

- Let me see the cards.

- You don't trust me, eh?

See what I mean? And your boy don't get 50 bucks this time.

You just burned up my cigar money, Charlie.

I bet you'd be willing to pay expenses now, wouldn't you?

- You know, you're a pretty cute kid! I oughta take a sock at you!

- Charlie...Charlie!

- That's a lot of dough, Charlie.

- There's Peg! - Get my hat, will you? Peg! Oh, Peg!

She left her lipstick on you, Charlie.

Did that other girl show you her paintings?

Oh. I ran into a door...Let's take a walk around the block.

What for?

My mother's been talking like I was bringing you around for approval or something.

- I don't want to embarrass you, and make you sore...

- I won't be sore.

Look Charlie, you can't call it off. Just tell her you like long engagements.

Is this a proposal?

From Mama! She'll say:

"And where do you come from, Miss Born?"

And where do you come from, Miss Born?

She told you, Ma.

I heard Miss Born, Charlie.

- Call me Peg, Mrs. Davis. My friends call me Peg.

- Thank you, Peg.

I mean where did you come from in this country?

Highlandtown. My father was a druggist there.

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