Act 1 Flashcards
This one’s name was Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman working the docks from Brooklyn Bridge to the breakwater where the open sea begins.
Eddie: Well, I’ll see ya, fellas.
(Catherine enters.)
Louis You workin’ tomorrow?
Eddie: Yeah, there’s another day yet on that ship. See ya, Louis.
Catherine Hi, Eddie!
(Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it.)
Eddie: Where you goin’ all dressed up?
Catherine (running her hands over her skirt) I just got it. You like it?
Eddie: Yeah, it’s nice. And what happened to your hair?
Catherine You like it? I fixed it different. (Calling to the house.) He’s here, B!
Eddie: Beautiful. Turn around, lemme see in the back. (She turns for him.) Oh, if your mother was alive to see you now! She wouldn’t believe it.
Catherine You like it, huh?
Eddie: You look like one of them girls that went to college. Where you goin’?
Catherine (taking his arm) Wait’ll B comes in, I’ll tell you something. Here, sit down. (She is walking him to a seating area. Calling offstage.) Hurry up, will you, B?
Eddie (sitting): What’s goin’ on?
Catherine I’ll get you a beer, all right?
Eddie: Well, tell me what happened. Come over here, talk to me.
Catherine I want to wait till B comes in. (She sits on her heels beside him.) Guess how much we paid for the skirt.
Eddie: I think it’s too short, ain’t it?
Catherine (standing) No! not when I stand up.
Eddie: Yeah, but you gotta sit down sometimes.
Catherine Eddie, it’s the style now. (She walks to show him.) I mean, if you see me walkin’ down the street –
Eddie: Listen, you been givin’ me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it.
Catherine Why?
Eddie: Catherine, I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m tellin’ you you’re walkin’ wavy.
Catherine I’m walkin’ wavy?
Eddie: Now don’t aggravate me, Katie, you are walkin’ wavy! I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you in the candy store. And with them new high heels on the sidewalk – clack, clack, clack. The heads are turnin’ like windmills.
Catherine But those guys look at all the girls, you know that.
Eddie: You ain’t ‘all the girls’.
Catherine (almost in tears because he disapproves) What do you want me to do? You want me to –
Eddie: Now don’t get mad, kid.
Catherine Well, I don’t know what you want from me.
Eddie: Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed. I’m responsible for you. You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things. I mean like when you stand here by the window, wavin’ outside.
Catherine I was wavin’ to Louis!
Eddie: Listen, I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldn’t wave to him no more.
Catherine (trying to joke him out of his warning) Eddie, I wish there was one guy you couldn’t tell me things about!
Eddie: Catherine, do me a favor, will you? You’re gettin’ to be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself more, you can’t be so friendly, kid. (Calls) Hey, B, what’re you doin’ in there? (To Catherine.) Get her in here, will you? I got news for her.
Catherine (starting out) What?
Eddie: Her cousins landed.
Catherine (clapping her hands together) No! (She turns instantly and starts for the house.) B! Your cousins!
(Beatrice enters.)
Beatrice (in the face of Catherine’s shout) What?
Catherine Your cousins got in!
Beatrice (astounded, turns to Eddie) What are you talkin’ about? Where?
Eddie: I was just knockin’ off work when I got the word the ship is in the North River.
Beatrice (her hands are clasped at her breast; she seems half in fear, half in unutterable joy) They’re all right?
Eddie: He didn’t see them yet, they’re still on board. But as soon as they get off he’ll meet them. He figures about ten o’clock they’ll be here.
Beatrice (sits, almost weak from tension) And they’ll let them off the ship all right? That’s fixed, heh?
Eddie: Sure, they give them regular seamen papers and they walk off with the crew. Don’t worry about it, B, there’s nothin’ to it. Couple of hours they’ll be here.
Beatrice What happened? They wasn’t supposed to be till next Thursday.
Eddie: I don’t know; they put them on any ship they can get them out on. Maybe the other ship they was supposed to take there was some danger – What you cryin’ about?
Beatrice (astounded and afraid) I’m – I just – I can’t believe it! I didn’t even buy a new table cloth; I was gonna wash the walls –
Eddie: Listen, they’ll think it’s a millionaire’s house compared to the way they live. Don’t worry about the walls. They’ll be thankful. (To Catherine.) Whyn’t you run down buy a table cloth. Go ahead, here. (He is reaching into his pocket.)
Catherine There’s no stores open now.
Eddie (to Beatrice): You was gonna put a new cover on the chair.
Beatrice I know – well, I thought it was gonna be next week! I was gonna clean the walls, I was gonna wax the floors. (She stands disturbed.)
Catherine (pointing upward) Maybe Mrs. Dondero upstairs –
Beatrice No, hers is worse than this one. (Suddenly.) My God, I don’t even have nothin’ to eat for them! (She starts for the house.)
Eddie (reaching out and grabbing her arm): Hey, hey! Take it easy
Beatrice No, I’m just nervous, that’s all. (To Catherine.) I’ll make the fish.
Eddie: You’re savin’ their lives, what’re you worryin’ about the table cloth? They probably didn’t see a table cloth in their whole life where they come from.
Beatrice (looking into his eyes) I’m just worried about you, that’s all I’m worried.
Eddie: Listen, as long as they know where they’re gonna sleep.
Beatrice I told them in the letters. They’re sleepin’ on the floor.
Eddie Beatrice, all I’m worried about is you got such a heart that I’ll end up on the floor with you, and they’ll be in our bed.
Beatrice All right, stop it.
Eddie Because as soon as you see a tired relative, I end up on the floor.
Beatrice When did you end up on the floor?
Eddie When your father’s house burned down I didn’t end up on the floor?
Beatrice Well, their house burned down!
Eddie Yeah, but it didn’t keep burnin’ for two weeks!
Beatrice All right, look, I’ll tell them to go someplace else.
Eddie Now wait a minute. Beatrice! (She halts. He goes to her.) I just don’t want you bein’ pushed around, that’s all. You got too big a heart. (He touches her hand.) What’re you so touchy?
Beatrice I’m just afraid if it don’t turn out good you’ll be mad at me.
Eddie Listen, if everybody keeps his mouth shut, nothin’ can happen. They’ll pay for their board.
Beatrice Oh, I told them.
Eddie Then what the hell. (Pause. He moves.) It’s an honor, B. I mean it. I was just thinkin’ before, comin’ home, suppose my father didn’t come to this country, and I was starvin’ like them over there . . . and I had people in America could keep me
a couple of months? The man would be honored to lend me a place to sleep.
Beatrice (there are tears in her eyes. She turns to Catherine) You see what he is? (She turns and grabs Eddie’s face in her hands.) Mmm! You’re an angel! God’ll bless you. (He is gratefully smiling.) You’ll see, you’ll get a blessing for this!
Eddie (laughing) I’ll settle for my own bed.
Beatrice Go, Baby, set the table.
Catherine We didn’t tell him about me yet.
Beatrice Let him eat first, then we’ll tell him. Bring everything in. (She hurries Catherine out.)
Eddie What’s all that about? Where’s she goin’?
Beatrice No place. It’s very good news, Eddie. I want you to be happy.
Eddie What’s goin’ on?
(Catherine re-enters.)
Beatrice She’s got a job.
(Pause. Eddie looks at Catherine, then back to Beatrice.)
Eddie What job? She’s gonna finish school.
Catherine Eddie, you won’t believe it –
Eddie No – no, you gonna finish school. What kinda job, what do you mean? All of a sudden you –
Catherine Listen a minute, it’s wonderful.
Eddie It’s not wonderful. You’ll never get nowheres unless you finish school. You can’t take no job. Why didn’t you ask me before you take a job?
Beatrice She’s askin’ you now, she didn’t take nothin’ yet.
Catherine Listen a minute! I came to school this morning and the principal called me out of the class, see? To go to his office.
Eddie Yeah?
Catherine So I went in and he says to me he’s got my records, y’know? And there’s a company wants a girl right away. It ain’t exactly a secretary, it’s a stenographer first, but pretty soon you get to be secretary. And he says to me that I’m the best student in the whole class –
Beatrice You hear that?
Eddie Well why not? Sure she’s the best.
Catherine I’m the best student, he says, and if I want, I should take the job and the end of the year he’ll let me take the examination and he’ll give me the certificate. So I’ll save practically a year!
Eddie (strangely nervous) Where’s the job? What company?
Catherine It’s a big plumbing company over Nostrand Avenue.
Eddie Nostrand Avenue and where?
Catherine It’s someplace by the Navy Yard.
Beatrice Fifty dollars a week, Eddie.
Eddie (to Catherine, surprised) Fifty?
Catherine I swear.
(Pause.)
Eddie What about all the stuff you wouldn’t learn this year, though?
Catherine There’s nothin’ more to learn, Eddie, I just gotta practice from now on. I know all the symbols and I know the keyboard. I’ll just get faster, that’s all. And when I’m workin’ I’ll keep gettin’ better and better, you see?
Beatrice Work is the best practice anyway.
Eddie That ain’t what I wanted, though.
Catherine Why! It’s a great big company –
Eddie I don’t like that neighborhood over there.
Catherine It’s a block and half from the subway, he says.
Eddie Near the Navy Yard plenty can happen in a block and a half. And a plumbin’ company! That’s one step over the water front. They’re practically longshoremen.
Beatrice Yeah, but she’ll be in the office, Eddie.
Eddie I know she’ll be in the office, but that ain’t what I had in mind.
Beatrice Listen, she’s gotta go to work sometime.
Eddie Listen, B, she’ll be with a lotta plumbers? And sailors up and down the street? So what did she go to school for?
Catherine But it’s fifty a week, Eddie.
Eddie Look, did I ask you for money? I supported you this long I support you a little more. Please, do me a favor, will ya? I want you to be with different kind of people. I want you to be in a nice office. Maybe a lawyer’s office someplace in New York in one of them nice buildings. I mean if you’re gonna get outa here then get out; don’t go practically in the same kind of neighborhood.
(Pause. Catherine lowers her eyes.)
Beatrice Go, Baby, check on the supper. (Catherine goes out.) Think about it a little bit, Eddie. Please. She’s crazy to start work. It’s not a little shop, it’s a big company. Some day she could be a secretary. They picked her out of the whole class. (He is silent, staring down.) What are you worried about? She could take care of herself. She’ll get out of the subway and be in the office in two minutes.
Eddie (somehow sickened) I know that neighborhood, B, I don’t like it.
Beatrice Listen, if nothin’ happened to her in this neighborhood it ain’t gonna happen noplace else. (She turns his face to her.) Look, you gotta get used to it, she’s no baby no more. Tell her to take it. (He turns his head away.) You hear me? (She is angering.) I don’t understand you; she’s seventeen years old, you gonna keep her in the house all her life?
Eddie (insulted) What kinda remark is that?
Beatrice (with sympathy but insistent force) Well, I don’t understand when it ends. First it was gonna be when she graduated high school, so she graduated high school. Then it was gonna be when she learned stenographer, so she learned stenographer. So what’re we gonna wait for now? I mean it, Eddie, sometimes I don’t understand you; they picked her out of the whole class, it’s an honor for her.
(Catherine re-enters. After a moment of watching her face, Eddie breaks into a smile, but it almost seems that tears will form in his eyes.)
Eddie With your hair that way you look like a madonna, you know that? You’re the madonna type. (She doesn’t look at him.) You wanna go to work, heh, Madonna?
Catherine (softly) Yeah.
Eddie (with a sense of her childhood, her babyhood, and the years) All right, go to work. (She looks at him, then rushes and hugs him.) Hey, hey! Take it easy! (He holds her face away from him to look at her.) What’re you cryin’ about’! (He is affected by her, but smiles his emotion away.)
Catherine I just – (Bursting out.) I’m gonna buy all new dishes with my first pay! (They laugh warmly.) I mean it. I’ll fix up the whole house! I’ll buy a rug!
Eddie And then you’ll move away.
Catherine No, Eddie!
Eddie (grinning) Why not? That’s life. And you’ll come visit on Sundays, then once a month, then Christmas and New Year’s, finally.
Catherine (grasping his arm to reassure him and to erase the accusation) No, please!
Eddie (smiling but hurt) I only ask you one thing – don’t trust nobody. You got a good aunt but she’s got too big a heart, you learned bad from her. Believe me.
Beatrice Be the way you are, Katie, don’t listen to him.
Eddie (to Beatrice – strangely and quickly resentful) You lived in a house all your life, what do you know about it? You never worked in your life.
Beatrice She likes people. What’s wrong with that?
Eddie Because most people ain’t people. She’s goin’ to work; plumbers; they’ll chew her to pieces if she don’t watch out. (To Catherine.) Believe me, Katie, the less you trust, the less you be sorry.
Catherine First thing I’ll buy is a rug, heh, B?
Beatrice I don’t mind. (To Eddie.) I smelled coffee all day today. You unloadin’ coffee today?
Eddie Yeah, a Brazil ship.
Catherine I smelled it too. It smelled all over the neighborhood.
Eddie That’s one time, boy, to be a longshoreman is a pleasure. I could work coffee ships twenty hours a day. You go down in the hold, y’know? It’s like flowers, that smell. We’ll bust a bag tomorrow, I’ll bring you some.
Beatrice Just be sure there’s no spiders in it, will ya? I mean it. (She directs this to Catherine, rolling her eyes upward.) I still remember that spider coming out of that bag he brung home. I nearly died.
Eddie You call that a spider? You oughta see what comes outa the bananas sometimes.
Beatrice Don’t talk about it!
Eddie I seen spiders could stop a Buick.
Beatrice (clapping her hands over her ears) All right, shut up!
Eddie (laughing and looks at his watch) Well, who started with spiders?
Beatrice All right, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Just don’t bring none home again. What time is it?
Eddie Quarter nine.
Catherine He’s bringin’ them ten o’clock, Tony?
Eddie Around, yeah.
Catherine Eddie, suppose somebody asks if they’re livin’ here. (He looks at her as though already she had divulged something publicly. Defensively.) I mean if they ask.
Eddie Now look, Baby, I can see we’re gettin’ mixed up again here.
Catherine No, I just mean . . . people’ll see them goin’ in and out.
Eddie I don’t care who sees them goin’ in and out as long as you don’t see them goin’ in and out. And this goes for you too,
B. You don’t see nothin’ and you don’t know nothin’.
Beatrice What do you mean? I understand.
Eddie You don’t understand; you still think you can talk about this to somebody just a little bit. Now lemme say it once and for all, because you’re makin’ me nervous again, both of you. I don’t care if somebody comes in the house and sees them sleepin’ on the floor, it never comes out of your mouth who they are or what they’re doin’ here.
Beatrice Yeah, but my mother’ll know –
Eddie Sure she’ll know, but just don’t you be the one who told her, that’s all. This is the United States government you’re playin’ with now, this is the Immigration Bureau. If you said it you knew it, if you didn’t say it you didn’t know it.
Catherine Yeah, but Eddie, suppose somebody –
Eddie I don’t care what question it is. You – don’t – know- nothin’. They got stool pigeons all over this neighborhood they’re payin’ them every week for information, and you don’t know who they are. It could be your best friend. You hear? (To Beatrice.) Like Vinny Bolzano, remember Vinny?
Beatrice Oh, yeah. God forbid.
Eddie Tell her about Vinny. (To Catherine.) You think I’m blowin’ steam here? (To Beatrice.) Go ahead, tell her.
(To Catherine.) You was a baby then. There was a family lived next door to her mother, he was about sixteen –
Beatrice No, he was no more than fourteen, ’cause I was to his confirmation in Saint Agnes. But the family had an uncle that they were hidin’ in the house, and he snitched to the Immigration.
Catherine The kid snitched?
Eddie On his own uncle!
Catherine What, was he crazy?
Eddie He was crazy after, I tell you that, boy.
Beatrice Oh, it was terrible. He had five brothers and the old father. And they grabbed him in the kitchen and pulled him down the stairs – three flights his head was bouncin’ like a coconut. And they spit on him in the street, his own father and his brothers. The whole neighborhood was cryin’.
Catherine Ts! So what happened to him?
Beatrice I think he went away. (To Eddie.) I never seen him again, did you?
Eddie (looking at his watch) Him? You’ll never see him no more, a guy do a thing like that? How’s he gonna show his face? (To Catherine.) Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.
Catherine Okay, I won’t say a word to nobody, I swear.
Eddie Gonna rain tomorrow. We’ll be slidin’ all over the decks. Maybe you oughta put something on for them, they be here soon.
Beatrice I only got fish, I hate to spoil it if they ate already. I’ll wait, it only takes a few minutes; I could broil it.
Catherine What happens, Eddie, when that ship pulls out and they ain’t on it, though? Don’t the captain say nothin’?
Eddie Captain’s pieced off, what do you mean?
Catherine Even the captain?
Eddie What’s the matter, the captain don’t have to live? Captain gets a piece, maybe one of the mates, piece for the guy in Italy who fixed the papers for them, Tony here’ll get a little bite . . .
Beatrice I just hope they get work here, that’s all I hope.
Eddie Oh, the syndicate’ll fix jobs for them; till they pay ’em off they’ll get them work every day. It’s after the pay-off, then they’ll have to scramble like the rest of us.
Beatrice Well, it be better than they got there.
Eddie Oh sure, well, listen. So you gonna start Monday, heh, Madonna?
Catherine (embarrassed) I’m supposed to, yeah.
(Eddie is standing facing the two seated women. First Beatrice smiles, then Catherine, for a powerful emotion is on him, a childish one and a knowing fear, and the tears show in his eyes – and they are shy before the avowal.)
Eddie (sadly smiling, yet somehow proud of her) Well . . . I hope you have good luck. I wish you the best. You know that, kid.
Catherine (rising, trying to laugh) You sound like I’m goin’ a million miles!
Eddie I know. I guess I just never figured on one thing.
Catherine (smiling) What?
Eddie That you would ever grow up. (He utters a soundless laugh at himself, feeling his breast pocket of his shirt.) I left a cigar in my other coat, I think. (He starts for the house.)
Catherine Stay there! I’ll get it for you.
(She hurries out. There is a slight pause, and Eddie turns to Beatrice, who has been avoiding his gaze.)
Eddie What are you mad at me lately?
Beatrice Who’s mad? I’m not mad. You’re the one is mad. (She turns and goes into the house as Catherine enters with a cigar and a pack of matches.)
Catherine Here! I’ll light it for you! (She strikes a match and holds it to his cigar. He puffs. Quietly.) Don’t worry about me, Eddie, heh?
Eddie Don’t burn yourself. (Just in time she blows out the match.) You better go in help her with the dishes.
Catherine Oh! (She hurries into the house, and as she exits there.) I’ll
(Alone, Eddie stands upstage looking toward the house. Then he checks his watch, and stares at the smoke flowing out of his mouth.
The lights go down, then come up on Alfieri.)
NEW SCENE
NEW SCENE
Rodolpho This will be the first house I ever walked into in America! Imagine! She said they were poor!
Marco Ssh! Come.
(Marco and Rodolpho enter the SQUARE, removing their caps. Beatrice and Catherine enter from the house. The lights fade in the street.)
Eddie You Marco?
Marco Marco.
Eddie Come on in! (He shakes Marco’s hand.)
Beatrice Here, take the bags!
Marco (nods, looks to the women and fixes on Beatrice. Crosses to Beatrice) Are you my cousin?
(She nods. He kisses her hand.)
Beatrice (above the table, touching her chest with her hand) Beatrice. This is my husband, Eddie. (All nod.) Catherine, my sister Nancy’s daughter. (The brothers nod.)
Marco (indicating Rodolpho) My brother. Rodolpho. (Rodolpho nods. Marco comes with a certain formal stiffness to Eddie.) I want to tell you now, Eddie – when you say go, we will go.
Eddie Oh, no . . .
Marco I see it’s a small house, but soon, maybe, we can have our own house.
Eddie You’re welcome, Marco, we got plenty of room here. Katie, give them supper, heh?
Catherine Come here, sit down. I’ll get you some soup.
Marco We ate on the ship. Thank you. (To Eddie) Thank you
Beatrice Get some coffee. We’ll all have coffee. Come sit down.
Catherine (wondrously) How come he’s so dark and you’re so light, Rodolpho?
Rodolpho (ready to laugh) I don’t know. A thousand years ago, they say, the Danes invaded Sicily.
(Beatrice kisses Rodolpho.)
Catherine (to Beatrice) He’s practically blond!
Eddie How’s the coffee doin’?
Catherine (brought up) I’m gettin’ it. (She hurries back into the house.)
Eddie Yiz have a nice trip?
Marco The ocean is always rough. But we are good sailors.
Eddie No trouble gettin’ here?
Marco No. The man brought us. Very nice man.
Rodolpho (to Eddie) He says we start to work tomorrow. Is he honest?
Eddie (laughing) No. But as long as you owe them money, they’ll get you plenty of work. (To Marco.) Yiz ever work on the piers in Italy?
Marco Piers? Ts! – no.
Rodolpho (smiling at the smallness of his town) In our town there are no piers, only the beach, and little fishing boats.
Beatrice So what kinda work did yiz do?
Marco (shrugging shyly, even embarrassed) Whatever there is, anything.
Rodolpho Sometimes they build a house, or if they fix the bridge – Marco is a mason and I bring him the cement.
(He laughs.) In harvest time we work in the fields . . . if there is work. Anything.
Eddie Still bad there, heh?
Marco Bad, yes.
Rodolpho (laughing) It’s terrible! We stand around all day in the piazza listening to the fountain like birds. Everybody waits only for the train.
Beatrice What’s on the train?
Rodolpho Nothing. But if there are many passengers and you’re lucky you make a few lire to push the taxi up the hill.
(Re-enter Catherine from the house; she listens.)
Beatrice You gotta push a taxi?
Rodolpho (laughing) Oh, sure! It’s a feature in our town. The horses in our town are skinnier than goats. So if there are too many passengers we help to push the carriages up to the hotel. (He laughs.) In our town the horses are only for show.
Catherine Why don’t they have automobile taxis?
Rodolpho There is one. We push that too. (They laugh.) Everything in our town, you gotta push!
Beatrice (to Eddie) How do you like that!
Eddie (to Marco) So what’re you wanna do, you gonna stay here in this country or you wanna go back?
Marco (surprised) Go back?
Eddie Well, you’re married, ain’t you?
Marco Yes. I have three children.
Beatrice Three! I thought only one.
Marco Oh, no. I have three now. Four years, five years, six years.
Beatrice Ah . . . I bet they’re cryin’ for you already, heh?
Marco What can I do? The older one is sick in his chest. My wife – she feeds them from her own mouth. I tell you the truth, if I stay there they will never grow up. They eat the sunshine.
Beatrice My God. So how long you want to stay?
Marco With your permission, we will stay maybe a –
Eddie She don’t mean in this house, she means in the country.
