The Marrying Kind Page #9

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It's no scheme if somebody wants

to get someplace, is it?

I'm someplace.

Be a butcher all your life, do you?

Look, I got a job. One thing, it's steady.

Up, down, come or go,

one thing people got to do is eat.

8:
20 a. m., I give that Emily

a good bite in the neck and I'm off.

8:
50, sometimes 8:55, I'm here.

Good ventilation, clean working conditions.

12:
00 I go have lunch,

take a little walk around...

look in the windows, come back.

5:
30, we close that door, no matter what.

Half-hour clean up, ordering, whatever.

6:
00, hot or cold or Wednesday, I'm out.

6:
50, sometimes 6:55, I'm home.

And here's the thing,

once I cross that door going out...

I don't care about the shop,

or the business again...

until I hit it the next day.

From the time I leave this store,

the only animal I worry about is Emily.

I don't want to be a big man.

Listen, on 201135th Avenue,

Jackson Heights...

I'm the biggest man there is.

That's the only place I want to be a big man.

So, what's wrong with my point of view?

All right.

So I'm a stick-in-the-mud, no ambition.

But for my kind of type,

I got married to Emily...

who's the right kind of type

for my kind of type, and she don't push me.

She don't tell me what the woman next door

got for Christmas.

Live and let live.

Is that beautiful? Or am I prejudiced?

You don't understand

my whole problem, Pat.

- But thanks, anyway.

- See you.

I started.

I see you did.

I didn't know

if you were coming or when. Nothing.

How's the kid?

All right.

Sleeping.

I never did so much thinking

as the last couple of days.

You better eat.

It used to be I thought

this way about something or that way.

Lately, I don't know what.

About the money?

But this much I decided.

Never mind my own feelings,

I got to swallow everything.

I got to think of the kid.

- But not me?

- Sure, you.

You, too.

Thanks.

So what I'm trying to say is, okay.

You got my permission to take it.

The money.

Thanks. I'm glad you feel this way...

- 'cause I already did.

- Already did what?

Went down there and took the money.

No strings attached.

Well, this is great!

- This is just A-number-one great!

- Now what?

You couldn't wait? What were you afraid of?

He'd change his mind?

- How can he change his mind? He's dead!

- You can just stop hollering.

I made my mind up not to listen

to anything hollered.

- Anything said I'll listen to, but not hollered.

- Don't tell me what to do in my house!

- Your?

- That's right!

My house, too!

What, are you going to throw it to me now?

That Howard and Joan

gave some of the furniture?

I'll pitch it out!

And that radio, too, of his.

I shouldn't have let it in here

in the first place!

Listen, Chet, I've been trying my best,

but if you want the truth...

you're not only hard to get along with,

you're impossible!

I leave it to a jury!

You come in,

you say it's all right to take it...

so then I tell you I took it,

so then you're off your handle again.

There's a difference!

- You don't see the difference?

- No, I don't.

What do you want to do about it?

I don't care.

Anything.

Anything you want to do about it

is all right with me.

I'm getting sick and tired of you

slamming out of the house...

at every least little thing! It's no way to act!

What am I supposed to have,

a chain on me?

Daddy! Momma! Go away!

What's the matter, sweetie?

Some mad people were hollering,

and I wasn't dreaming!

It was real! They were real!

No. They're not going to holler anymore,

those mad people.

You just go to sleep, and don't you worry,

I'm going to take care of it.

I'm here, and Daddy's here.

You just go to sleep now.

- You satisfied?

- What?

You make a nervous wreck out of her,

that's what.

Again me! All me!

- Will you shut up for once!

- Why...

You heard me!

- Where do you think you're going?

- What do you want, a chain on me?

You better not, Florence.

I'm going to try

a little fresh-air thinking myself.

How can you leave your kid alone?

- You'll be here.

- That's what you think!

- What kind of a father are you?

- No kind.

No kind of father, no kind of husband,

no kind of man! Nothing!

You may be right!

Florence, for the last time, I warn you,

you better stick around.

If you, too, will.

- I'm going out.

- So am I!

And from then on, Judge Carroll,

it was just a free-for-all.

All of a sudden it was everybody's business.

Everybody had something to say,

even Howard and Joan.

They sent for me

and they give it to me one way:

"After all, you're not a couple of kids.

"You're a married man and a married woman

with a child!"

Don't you think I had to listen to plenty?

Everybody yelling and at the same time

yelling, "Stop yelling at her. "

The one thing I found out in those days is...

I noticed everybody's always interested

in troubles...

are crazy about them,

so long as it isn't their own troubles.

Maybe if we could have gotten together...

and talked everything over

without everybody else's opinion...

And everybody else's opinion was,

"No and yes, no and go, and stop... "

And about the money,

it turns out that crazy old thing, Mr. Dow...

- He left the same amount to 55 other girls!

- And 34 men.

And he was 77 years old,

and in no way remarkable, except eccentric.

So if you found that out,

so why didn't you say?

I don't know. It was too late.

And I couldn't think straight,

everybody hollering.

I couldn't either.

Whatever I did would be wrong

in somebody's opinion.

And what about your own opinion?

I didn't have any.

Like you yourself said that time,

you didn't know what you thought.

And I don't now.

So we wind up here,

and I guess this is the right place.

I think so, too.

Pretty risky thing,

meddling in other people's lives.

Advice:
always worried when I give it

and when I take it.

You two have had seven years of each other

and I've only known you a few hours.

So the fact that I think you ought to

stick together isn't much weight.

You've had hard times, but good ones, too.

You've each made some mistakes,

so has everyone.

And now you've decided.

I wonder if it isn't just wrong-headedness.

How do you know what the other one wants,

or thinks, or feels?

However...

It is late, isn't it?

My husband gets awful irritable

when I get home too late too much.

There was a writer who once said,

"Every human being is a plot. "

That's right.

I wish I had time to hear all of yours.

Maybe there'd be a solution

if we went deep enough.

Thanks for trying.

I imagine we'll finish you up

tomorrow morning. Good night.

- You taking them both tonight, Your Honor?

- What?

- Both briefcases?

- I think I'd better.

A lot of heavy work here.

I think we can scratch Keefer v. Keefer

for tomorrow.

Made up, have they?

I don't know,

but let's scratch them, just for luck.

- What do you say?

- All right.

- Here, I'll take those.

- No, that's all right.

- Good night, Charley.

- Good night, Your Honor.

The only trouble is

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