Death of a Salesman_ Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem - Miller, Arthur [22]
WILLY [hesitantly]: All right. You got cards?
CHARLEY [taking a deck from his pocket]: Yeah, I got them. Someplace. What is it with those vitamins?
WILLY [dealing]: They build up your bones. Chemistry.
CHARLEY: Yeah, but there’s no bones in a heartburn.
WILLY: What are you talkin’ about? Do you know the first thing about it?
CHARLEY: Don’t get insulted.
WILLY: Don’t talk about something you don’t know anything about.
[They are playing. Pause.]
CHARLEY: What’re you doin’ home?
WILLY: A little trouble with the car.
CHARLEY: Oh. [Pause.] I’d like to take a trip to California.
WILLY: Don’t say.
CHARLEY: You want a job?
WILLY: I got a job, I told you that. [After a slight pause] What the hell are you offering me a job for?
CHARLEY: Don’t get insulted.
WILLY: Don’t insult me.
CHARLEY: I don’t see no sense in it. You don’t have to go on this way.
WILLY: I got a good job. [Slight pause.] What do you keep comin’ in here for?
CHARLEY: You want me to go?
WILLY [after a pause, withering]: I can’t understand it. He’s going back to Texas again. What the hell is that?
CHARLEY: Let him go.
WILLY: I got nothin’ to give him, Charley, I’m clean, I’m clean.
CHARLEY: He won’t starve. None a them starve. Forget about him.
WILLY: Then what have I got to remember?
CHARLEY: You take it too hard. To hell with it. When a deposit bottle is broken you don’t get your nickel back.
WILLY: That’s easy enough for you to say.
CHARLEY: That ain’t easy for me to say.
WILLY: Did you see the ceiling I put up in the living-room?
CHARLEY: Yeah, that’s a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. How do you do it?
WILLY: What’s the difference?
CHARLEY: Well, talk about it.
WILLY: You gonna put up a ceiling?
CHARLEY: How could I put up a ceiling?
WILLY: Then what the hell are you bothering me for?
CHARLEY: You’re insulted again.
WILLY: A man who can’t handle tools is not a man. You’re disgusting.
CHARLEY: Don’t call me disgusting, Willy. [UNCLE BEN, carrying a valise and an umbrella, enters the forestage from around the right corner of the house. He is a stolid man, in his sixties, with a mustache and an authoritative air. He is utterly certain of his destiny, and there is an aura of far places about him. He enters exactly as WILLY speaks.]
WILLY: I’m getting awfully tired, Ben.
[BEN’S music is heard. BEN looks around at everything.]
CHARLEY: Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben?
[BEN looks at his watch.]
WILLY: That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben.
BEN: I only have a few minutes. [He strolls, inspecting the place. WILLY and CHARLEY continue playing.]
CHARLEY: You never heard from him again, heh? Since that time?
WILLY: Didn’t Linda tell you? Couple of weeks ago we got a letter from his wife in Africa. He died.
CHARLEY: That so.
BEN [chuckling]: So this is Brooklyn, eh?
CHARLEY: Maybe you’re in for some of his money.
WILLY: Naa, he had seven sons. There’s just one opportunity I had with that man . . .
BEN: I must make a train, William. There are several properties I’m looking at in Alaska.
WILLY: Sure, sure! If I’d gone with him to Alaska that time, everything would’ve been totally different.
CHARLEY: Go on, you’d froze to death up there.
WILLY: What’re you talking about?
BEN: Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska, William. Surprised you’re not up there.
WILLY: Sure, tremendous.
CHARLEY: Heh?
WILLY: There was the only man I ever met who knew the answers.
CHARLEY: Who?
BEN: How are you all?
WILLY [taking a pot, smiling]: Fine, fine.
CHARLEY: Pretty sharp tonight.
BEN: Is Mother living with you?
WILLY: No, she died a long time ago.
CHARLEY: Who?
BEN: That’s too bad. Fine specimen of a lady, Mother.
WILLY [to CHARLEY]: Heh?
BEN: I’d hoped to see the old girl.
CHARLEY: Who died?
BEN: Heard anything from Father, have you?
WILLY [unnerved]: What do you mean, who died?
CHARLEY [taking a pot]: What’re you talkin’ about?
BEN [looking at his watch]: William, it’s half past eight!
WILLY [as though to dispel his confusion he angrily