The Gambler Page #3

that she's Naomi Freed.

Give her the money.

- Are you going right home?

- Yeah.

- Do you give it to them today?

- Today.

Do they come to your house?

It's all right, Mom.

It's okay now.

This is the end of it.

Yeah. This is the end.

We'll have our coffee,

and I'll take you home.

No. You do it now.

Axe?

You better do

some painful thinking.

Unless you come to terms

with why you're doing this...

no money's gonna get you out.

- Who is it?

- What do you mean who is it?

I need to use your phone.

Did you get your debt paid up?

Are you using this place to hide?

You can if you want to, you know.

- Hello?

- Ray? Axel. Hips there?

- No, he's on the road.

- I'll call back in a half hour.

- Any message?

- Just tell him I've got it all.

- You got all of it?

- Right.

- In cash?

- Yes!

- How did you get it?

- I won it.

Why are you angry at me?

'Cause I didn't call to find out

how you're makin' out?

That's right.

I didn't have to. You told me

you were gonna get it.

Anyway, I knew you would.

You knew it?

You should be a gambler.

You didn't win it, did you?

How did you get it?

I killed somebody for it.

Must've been somebody

pretty important.

I'm gonna go teach a class.

You wanna come with me?

You can jeer and throw

rotten eggs at me if I get boring.

- I'll get the eggs.

- Okay. Hurry up.

"George Washington was,

I think, the typically good man.

Take it as you please.

He was 90% of the force

which made the American Revolution.

Know Washington and you

will know practically...

all there is to understand

about the American republic."

That's the way William Carlos

Williams begins his essay.

Washington is a good man

and a supreme symbol of America.

But as we get into the details...

of this personal vision

of the father of our land...

we find that he is not so simple.

That he wanted women violently...

but stayed tied

to the apron of his wife.

That he lived in constant rage...

but lost his temper only once.

That he was a man

of massive size and frame...

but wore waistcoats,

lace and gloves.

So that by the time

the piece ends...

we find that Williams

has reversed himself completely.

"Washington is the typical

sacrifice to the mob.

In a great many ways,

thoroughly disappointing."

Now, what's happened?

He seen all that

cherry tree stuff was bullshit.

Maybe it is, but it's not the point

that Williams is making.

It's the point I'm making.

And I'm sorry, I can't dig him.

No one's asking you

to dig him, Spencer.

Williams doesn't dig him either.

He's using Washington to tell us

something about ourselves.

He ain't telling me a thing.

Why is Washington disappointing?

- Because he's afraid.

- Afraid of what?

- Losing.

- Losing!

Washington is terrified

of failure.

And if failure

is the absolute evil...

what must be eliminated

at any cost?

- The element of...

- Risk.

Risk! There are certain questions

Washington just won't ask.

Certain borders

he'd rather die than cross.

D.H. Lawrence says...

Americans fear new experience

more than they fear anything.

They are the world's

greatest dodgers...

"because they dodge

their own very selves."

Beautiful!

Look at that golden hair

and the slender legs!

- She's all right.

- All right? She's terrific! Superb!

What else can you do, darling?

- I can do a few things pretty well.

- Such as what?

Tennis, dancing, riding horses.

A sense of humor!

I bet you used to handle yourself

pretty good, Mr. Lowenthal.

You see what I mean?

"I Sing the Body Electric."

You know who wrote that?

Walt Whitman.

Did Axel ever tell you about

the land I owned down in Texas?

I owned a lot of land down there.

Beautiful part of the country.

Beautiful!

- She is not for you.

- What are you talkin' about?

Avoid her. Break it off today.

She's not for you.

There's nothing that girl

wouldn't do for me.

Don't tell me! I see that smile,

the way she looks at you.

- Well?

- She was not meant for a scholar.

That girl was meant

for a club man, a playboy.

Not for a man

of character and virtue.

Not for a Jew.

Put this in the glove compartment.

Give me the Post.

What did he say to you

by the pool?

He said he wanted to marry you.

You always take your girls

out there so he can look 'em over?

Yeah. Three a week.

- Is that what you think I did?

- Isn't it?

Maybe. Read me

the college basketball lines.

I thought you killed for this.

I thought you owed it.

Look, put that in the

glove compartment. Give me that.

What would you do if I let

the wind blow it all away?

Put you out on the street

till you earned it back.

That's what you think

you are, huh? A pimp?

My money's gonna blow, I'm gonna

be the one that does the blowing.

What are you gonna do?

Buy an island

in the Pacific.

Jimmy, how are you?

I'm back in action.

You're happy?

How do you think I feel?

Listen, I want three games

for tomorrow, 15 dimes a pop.

$45,000. Right.

It's only insane if I lose,

and I'm not gonna lose.

What do you mean

"cash up front"?

You've been slow on the draw with

me! I've never held you up a day!

- It's too much.

- What difference does that make?

I haven't played with you in days,

so you treat me like a stranger?

- Too big.

- For what? You can lay it off.

Forget it! If they won't let you,

they won't let you, will they?

What happened?

I asked a weasel

to do something for me.

You might be ready for that.

I'm lookin' to stick around.

- I'm getting out of the car.

- Go ahead and walk.

All right, Jimmy, you lowlife,

we'll play it your way.

Yes, I have it.

Yes, in cash!

Okay? All right.

What's the line on Harvard-Brown?

Pick 'em? You serious?

Give me Harvard.

What's Georgia Tech-Auburn?

I'll take Tech with the six.

Right. Okay, wait, one more.

UCLA-Oregon.

Twelve? These games are

like handouts. Yeah, I want UCLA.

That's right, the same,

Stop whining! I've got every cent

of it here in my pocket.

If you're smart, you'll play

these games yourself.

They can't lose.

Why? Because I'm betting on 'em,

that's why.

I've got magic powers.

I'm scorching. I'm hot as a pistol.

Yeah, you too.

Did you know I once tried to commit

suicide over a girl named Billie?

I was nine, she was thirty-six.

I had to have her.

She wouldn't have me.

So I climbed to the top

of the George Washington Bridge...

tied a rope around my neck...

swallowed a cyanide pill...

And I jumped.

But my luck was

awfully bad that day.

As I was falling...

a tugboat came by

and cut the rope...

and I plunged underwater upside

down and choked out the pill.

They pulled me aboard.

There was Billie standing over me.

She said...

"You're the bravest man

I ever met...

and I love you."

I said...

"I don't want you anymore.

It's just too easy."

You think you can get me with a

third-rate bullshit story like that?

That happens to be

a first-rate bullshit story.

Take me home.

Why don't I take you somewhere

that you've never been?

- Where's that?

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