Stalag 17 Page #10

Hoffy gets the two cans filled, gives one to Joey. This is

the end of the line.

TRIZ:

Anyone else want potato soup?

No answer. He takes out a homemade washboard and a pair of

socks, puts them in the tea and starts scrubbing.

Through the door, Stosh and Harry come running.

STOSH:

(out of breath)

Chow! Where's the chow!

He dashes to his bunk, gets his chow can and is about to dip

it into the tub, when he sees what Triz is doing.

STOSH:

Take your socks outa my breakfast!

Triz takes the socks out. Stosh dips in his chow can.

HARRY:

No, Animal.

STOSH:

No?

HARRY:

No. Your eyeball goes. The top of

your head. Gotta wind up with

athlete's stomach.

Stosh pours back his tea, a miserable man. His eyes fall on

the door. An electric shock goes through him. He grabs Harry's

arm. They look off:

Sefton has come into the barrack and is crossing toward the

iron stove. In his hand is the incredible -- more beautiful

than all the Kohinoors in the world: an egg.

Harry and Stosh stand there with their eyes bulging. They

start forward, drawn by the egg.

Cookie is at the stove, tending a can of boiling water. He

sees Sefton and puts a makeshift skillet (the banged-up top

of a tin can) with a dab of margarine in it, on the fire.

Sefton takes some keys out of his pocket, tosses them to

Cookie.

SEFTON:

Set 'er up, Cookie. I'm starved.

Cookie goes towards Sefton's bunk. Sefton cracks the egg

into the skillet. Stosh and Harry move in, their eyes bulging

at sight of the sizzling beauty.

HARRY:

Easy, Animal! Easy!

STOSH:

Where'd that come from?

SEFTON:

From a chicken, bug-wit.

STOSH:

A chicken?

HARRY:

Don't you remember, Animal? A chicken

lays those things.

STOSH:

It's beautiful!

(to Sefton)

You goin' to eat it all yourself?

SEFTON:

Uh-huh. The yellow and the white.

He flips the egg over in the skillet. Harry and Stosh cover

their eyes and yelp in panic. To their relief they see that

the egg has landed safely. The aroma of the frying egg has

brought about six P.O.W.s down from their bunks. They crowd

around, their mouths watering.

STOSH:

Is it all right if we smell it?

SEFTON:

Just don't drool on it.

HARRY:

You're not going to eat the eggshells?

SEFTON:

Help yourself.

He tosses him the eggshells. Harry gives one half to Stosh.

STOSH:

(grateful)

Thanks. You're a real pal!

(on second thought)

What're we goin' to do with it?

HARRY:

Plant it, Animal, and grow us a

chicken for Christmas.

Cookie, at Sefton's bunk, has taken from one of the

footlockers three cans, a china cup with a broken handle, a

fork, a spoon, and a salt-and-pepper shaker. He slams the

locker shut with his foot and sets everything up on the other

footlocker. Hoffy, Duke and Price, seated at the table eating

chow, eye him with disgust.

From the stove comes Sefton carrying the skillet and the can

of boiling water. The other P.O.W.s, including Harry and

Stosh, follow him, hypnotized by the egg. Sefton walks to

his bunk, sits down on a little stool, puts salt and pepper

on the egg. Cookie meanwhile has opened the cans. From one

of them he measures out a spoonful of instant coffee into

the cup and pours the boiling water over it. Sefton takes

two lumps of sugar out of the other can and some Zwieback

from the third can. The guys around him sniff the royal

breakfast. The situation is tense.

HOFFY:

If I were you, Sefton, I'd eat that

egg some place else. Like for instance

under the barrack.

SEFTON:

(sipping the coffee,

to Cookie)

A little weak today.

Cookie puts another half a spoonful of instant coffee into

the cup.

DUKE:

Come on, Trader Horn! Let's hear it:

what'd you give the Krauts for that

egg?

SEFTON:

(eating away)

Forty-five cigarettes. The price has

gone up.

STOSH:

That wouldn't be the cigarettes you

took us for last night?

SEFTON:

What was I going to do with them? I

only smoke cigars.

DUKE:

Nice guy! The Krauts shoot Manfredi

and Johnson last night and today

he's out trading with them.

SEFTON:

Look, this may be my last hot

breakfast on account of they're going

to take away that stove. So will you

let me eat it in peace?

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