people now. I steer clear of places like that café. I never go into them now. I don’t talk to anyone … like that. I’ve often thought of going back and trying to find the man who did that to me. But I want to do something first. I want to build that shed out in the garden.
Curtain
Act Three
Two weeks later.
MICK is lying on the floor, down left, his head resting on the rolled carpet, looking up at the ceiling.
DAVIES is sitting in the chair, holding his pipe. He is wearing the smoking jacket. It is afternoon.
Silence.
DAVIES. I got a feeling he’s done something to them cracks.
Pause.
See, there’s been plenty of rain in the last week, but it ain’t been dripping into the bucket.
Pause.
He must have tarred it over up there.
Pause.
There was someone walking about on the roof the other night. It must have been him.
Pause.
But I got a feeling he’s tarred it over on the roof up there. Ain’t said a word to me about it. Don’t say a word to me.
Pause.
He don’t answer me when I talk to him.
He lights a match, holds it to his pipe, and blows it.
He don’t give me no knife!
Pause.
He don’t give me no knife to cut my bread.
Pause.
How can I cut a loaf of bread without no knife?
Pause.
It’s an impossibility.
Pause.
MICK. You’ve got a knife.
DAVIES. What?
MICK. You’ve got a knife.
DAVIES. I got a knife, sure I got a knife, but how do you expect me to cut a good loaf of bread with that? That’s not a bread-knife. It’s nothing to do with cutting bread. I picked it up somewhere. I don’t know where it’s been, do I? No, what I want—
MICK. I know what you want.
Pause. DAVIES rises and goes to the gas stove.
DAVIES. What about this gas stove? He tells me it’s not con nected. How do I know it’s not connected? Here I am, I’m sleeping right with it, I wake up in the middle of the night, I’m looking right into the oven, man! It’s right next to my face, how do I know, I could be lying there in bed, it might blow up, it might do me harm!
Pause.
But he don’t seem to take any notice of what I say to him. I told him the other day, see, I told him about them Blacks, about them Blacks coming up from next door, and using the lavatory. I told him, it was all dirty in there, all the banisters were dirty, they were black, all the lavatory was black. But what did he do? He’s supposed to be in charge of it here, he had nothing to say, he hadn’t got a word to say.
Pause.
Couple of weeks ago … he sat there, he give me a long chat … about a couple of weeks ago. A long chat he give me. Since then he ain’t said hardly a word. He went on talking there … I don’t know what he was … he wasn’t looking at me, he wasn’t talking to me, he don’t care about me. He was talking to himself! That’s all he worries about. I mean, you come up to me, you ask my advice, hewouldn’t never do a thing like that. I mean, we don’t have any conversation, you see? You can’t live in the same room with someone who … who don’t have any conversation with you.
Pause.
I just can’t get the hang of him.
Pause.
You and me, we could get this place going.
MICK (ruminatively). Yes, you’re quite right. Look what I could do with this place.
Pause.
I could turn this place into a penthouse. For instance … this room. This room you could have as the kitchen. Right size, nice window, sun comes in. I’d have … I’d have teal-blue, copper and parchment linoleum squares. I’d have those colours re-echoed in the walls. I’d offset the kitchen units with charcoal-grey worktops. Plenty of room for cupboards for the crockery. We’d have a small wall cupboard, a large wall cupboard, a corner wall cupboard with revolving shelves. You wouldn’t be short of cupboards. You could put the dining-room across the landing, see? Yes. Venetian blinds on the window, cork floor, cork tiles. You could have an off-white pile linen rug, a table in … in afromosia teak veneer, sideboard with matt
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