The Old Neighborhood Read Online Free PDF Page B

not to …
    JOLLY : I know. You’ve got a Busy Life …
    BOB : No, I’ve just …
    JOLLY : Buub …
    BOB : Hey, I’ve been
lazy
. I’m sorry. I
owe it
to you. I’ve been …
    JOLLY : … and I know it’s been a difficult time for you, Buub … 
(Pause)
    BOB : And so I came here to get Comfort.
    JOLLY : Times of stress, you …
    BOB : Isn’t that “selfish” of me …?
    JOLLY : … times of stress, you … We need comfort. You think that you can do without it? You can’t.
(Pause)
You can’t, Bob.
(Pause)
No one … 
(Pause)
Carl and I … you know, many times … 
(Pause)
    BOB : How are you getting on?
    JOLLY : We’re
(Pause)
Hey, what the fuck are you going to expect. From the Sort of a Background That We Come From. It’s a miracle that we can Wind our Watch.
(Pause)
That’s what Carl said about you. And, you know … how
good
you’re doing.
    BOB : He said …
    JOLLY : He said that he knows. How incredibly
difficult
this has been for you, and he thinks that you are doing, that he thinks that you are doing well. And
that’s
the man, you understand … that’s the man they
made fun
of. That they said “wasn’t good enough for me.”
(Pause) Fuck
them. Fuck the
lot
of them.
(Pause)
And carried that fucking
bookbag
around for three years.
(Pause)
What are you gonna do?
    BOB : About?
    JOLLY : About your life.
(Pause)
    BOB : I don’t know.
    JOLLY : You don’t know. Tell me. You gonna go back to her?
    BOB : I don’t know.
    JOLLY : ’Cause I wanted to tell you. If you
do
. No one’s going to think you foolish. I swear to you.
    BOB : I’m not going back to her.
    JOLLY : If you
do. (Pause)
I’m not saying you
should …
    BOB : I un …
    JOLLY : Or you should
not
. But if you
do
, always …
    BOB : … I know …
    JOLLY : You remember, Bob. Carl, Carl said it: He said it, baby. You, you can
Kill the Pope
, and you are wel …
    BOB : I’m not going to go back …
    JOLLY : … if you
should
. And I am not “plumping” for it.
    BOB : I know.
(Pause)
    JOLLY : I WANT ONE THING. And that is: The thing that is best for you. Period. Paragraph. And the rest of the world can go to hell. I don’t give a fuck. I’m too old.
(Pause)
And there you have it and that’s the story of it.
(Pause)
All I want to say … 
(Long pause) …
Fella comes up to me, I’m driving, fella comes up to me I’m drivin’ the girls somewhere, “Don’t you know,” No. “Did you know. This is a One-way Street …” I’m … never in my life, Bob. I’m sick. I’m a sick woman. I know that. I’m aware of that, how could I not be. My mind is racing “Did you know,” “Didn’t you know …” Did I drive down on PURPOSE? I did
not
know … IS YOUR QUESTION … what? The proper, I would say, response, is “One-way Street!” Smiles. One way. You, we would
assume
, did not know that you are, why
would
I, and even, I HAD, how
terrible
is that. Some piece of shit JUST LIKE ME. Whether or
not
I knew, your … your “rights” end with “this is a one-way street,” and what I MAY HAVE KNOWN is none of your
concern
, and FUCK YOU, and I’m SEETHING at this, this emasculated piece of shit who has to take out his
aggression
on some haggard, sexless, unattractive
housewife
, with her
kids
in her station wagon … 
(Pause)
and this is my fantasy life.
(Pause)
A rich, “full” life.
(Pause)
    BOB : You should go to bed.
    JOLLY : Why should I go to bed?
    BOB : Because you have a husband up there.
(Pause)
    JOLLY : I thought you gave up smoking.
    BOB : You know, some times I can’t … I can’t, it seems I can’t … 
(Pause)
Oh, God, I get so
sad
sometimes, Jol. I can’t, it seems, getting up from the
table … (Pause)
I wake up in the night. “Where am I?” Three times in a night. And I saw that I was waking up.
    JOLLY : To go pee the kids.
    BOB : To pee the kids. You get a Red apple.
    JOLLY : Your kids are going to be okay.
    BOB : No, they won’t. Of
course
they