The Rose Tattoo Page #7

- This is good.

Well, there's...

There's the one old-maid sister,

one feeble-minded grandmother

and one lush of a pop

who ain't worth the powder it takes

to blow him to... Scusatemi.

You know,

they got the Parchesi habit.

- Yeah?

- They play the game of Parchesi

morning, night and noon.

And they pass the cans of beer

around the table.

They got the beer habit too?

And the numbers habit.

You know, this spring

my old-maid sister,

she gets some kind of lady trouble.

Mostly mental, I think.

And she turns the housekeeping over

to the feeble-minded grandmother,

who's a very sweet old lady,

but who don't think it's necessary

to pay the grocery bills

as long as she's got money

to play the numbers.

She plays the numbers.

She's got a perfect system,

but it don't ever work.

And the grocery bills go up, up,

up so high you can't see them.

- I better try my boss again.

- Yeah.

I'll tell you my hopes and dreams.

- Who, me?

- Operator. The number, please.

Oh, excuse me.

Hello, operator?

The Southern Fruit Company

in Biloxi, 2-4-6-8-1.

- That's right.

- May I have your number?

My number is 6-6-9-9.

- 6-6-9-9, that's right.

- Yes, sir.

I'm hoping to meet some

sensible older lady, you know?

I don't care if she's a little bit too plump

or not such a stylish dresser.

The important thing

in a lady is understanding.

- Good sense, you know?

- Yeah.

And I want her to have a nice,

well-furnished house

and a profitable little business

of some kind.

I see. And...

...such a lady, with a well-furnished

house and business,

what does she want with a man

with three dependents

and the Parchesi and the beer habit,

plays the numbers? Oh, my!

Love and affection in a world that...

That's lonely and cold.

Yeah, it might be lonely, but I would

not say cold on this particular day.

Love and affection is what I got

to offer on hot or cold days

in this lonely old world.

I got nothing else.

- Mangiacavallo has nothing.

- Who?

- Me! Alvaro Mangiacavallo.

- Oh, yeah.

You know, Mangiacavallo means

"eat a horse". You know this.

But I don't have a horse to eat,

not even a chicken.

I'm the grandson

of the village idiot of Riveri.

- Oh, I see you like to make jokes now.

- No, no. No joke. Davvero!

He chased my grandmother

in a flooded rice field.

She slipped on a wet rock:

Ecco, here I am.

Oh, please. You should be

more respectful, you know?

What have I got to respect?

The rock my grandmother slips on?

Yourself at least.

You don't work for a living?

Hey, if I don't work for a living

I would respect myself more.

- Yeah?

- Baronessa, I'm a healthy young man.

Hey, I exist without

no genuine love life.

I look at them pictures

in the magazines...

Them girls in the advertisements,

you know what I mean.

They got a little bitty thing here,

a little bitty thing there.

That's all they need,

they're so skinny!

Yeah. It's a long-distance call,

you know.

Is the line busy?

- Not the line, the boss.

- The boss.

Get your boss on the phone

or hang up.

- OK, OK.

- Hello. Pilade talking.

Oh, hello!

Oh, hello, Mr. Pilade!

How's things at the Southern

Fruit Company this hot afternoon?

Yeah, Mangiacavallo!

- I got a complaint about you.

- What? Well, what complaint?

- What happened?

- I tell you. Over three hours ago,

Joe passed the church

and seen your truck parked

with the bananas and

you playing bingo.

Ow, you get them bananas here.

You're fired, you hear?

- What?

- Drive your truck for somebody else.

Mr. Pilade!

Well, wait a minute, Mr...

- What's happened?

- What's happened?

A man with three dependents

out of a job.

And my truck ain't even paid for.

I can't see no more. I got

a suggestion to make you, huh?

Open that drawer, and you will

find a package with a shirt in it.

- This one?

- You can wear it

and call for this one later.

- There's a name on it.

- No, don't tell me the name, please.

Throw it away. Out the window.

Ecco fatto.

Seta! Seta puro!

Oh, this shirt's too good

for Mangiacavallo.

Everything here is too good

for Mangiacavallo.

Nothing's too good for a man,

if the man's good.

Put it on. You are welcome to it.

- Bella?

- Oh, bella.

- Can I...?

- Sicuramenti. Prego.

- How does it feel, the silk on you?

- Just feels like a girl's hands on me.

It will make you less trouble,

believe me.

You know, there's nothing more

beautiful than a gift between people.

- No?

- Yeah.

You like me a little better now, huh?

You know what they should

have done when you was a baby?

- What?

- They should have put tape

on your ears... to hold them back.

Like this. Lookit.

Is not much better, huh?

So when you grow up,

they wouldn't stick out

like the wings of a little kewpie.

Lady, lady! The black goat

is loose again!

II becco della strega.

Look at my tomatoes.

Look at my...! Oh, the strega.

She has a demon eye, you know.

Now, don't get excited.

Don't worry.

I will catch the black goat, and I'll give

him a kick he'll never forget.

Come on! Come on!

I got a friendship with goats.

Come on!

It was nothing.

Oh, no. Please.

Look.

Oh, my.

In here. Yeah.

- OK.

- You're troppo gentile, signora.

Delle Rose.

Signora Delle Rose.

I have to go now.

I know, I know. Please. Please.

Wonderful. Oh, wonderful!

Excuse the way I'm not dressed.

I'm not always like this, no.

Sometimes I fix myself up, yeah.

When my husband was living,

when my husband comes home...

When he was living, I had

a clean dress on, you know?

And sometimes even...

Even I put a rose in my hair.

A rose in your hair would be pretty.

Oh, yeah, but not for a widow.

It's not the time of roses.

Why? You make a mistake.

It's always for everybody

the time of the roses.

- Yeah?

- The rose is...

The rose is the heart

of the world like the...

Like the heart is the heart

of the body. How's that?

Good, eh?

But you, baronessa, you know

what I think you have done?

- What have I done?

- You have put your heart

in the marble urn with the ashes.

Oh, yes.

And if in a storm sometimes,

or sometime if a five-ton truck

goes down the highway

and the marble urn was to break...

Look! Look, baronessa!

Look what? I don't see.

I was pointing to your heart.

Broken out of the urn!

Rondinella felice!

Rondinella felice!

Che buffone. I take you serious,

and you make jokes.

Your heart is a happy bird.

When I can bring the shirt back?

- When you pass by again.

- I'll come back tonight, volete?

OK.

Then look at the window tonight.

If the shutters are open

and there is a light in the window,

you can stop by for your shirt.

But if the shutters are closed,

you better not stop because

my Rosa will be home.

- Rosa?

- Yeah. Rosa's my daughter.

There's nothing wrong in two grown-up

people having a quiet conversation,

but Rosa's 15.

I must be careful to set her

a perfect example.

- I will look at the window!

- OK.

I will look at the win...

- Bang, bang!

- Hey, you little monkey.

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