Death of a Salesman_ Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem - Miller, Arthur [23]
CHARLEY: I put the ace—
WILLY: If you don’t know how to play the game I’m not gonna throw my money away on you!
CHARLEY [rising]: It was my ace, for God’s sake!
WILLY: I’m through, I’m through!
BEN: When did Mother die?
WILLY: Long ago. Since the beginning you never knew how to play cards.
CHARLEY [picks up the cards and goes to the door]: All right! Next time I’ll bring a deck with five aces.
WILLY: I don’t play that kind of game!
CHARLEY [turning to him]: You ought to be ashamed of yourself!
WILLY: Yeah?
CHARLEY: Yeah! [He goes out.]
WILLY [slamming the door after him]: Ignoramus!
BEN [as WILLY comes toward him through the wall-line of the kitchen]: So you’re William.
WILLY [shaking BEN’S hand]: Ben! I’ve been waiting for you so long! What’s the answer? How did you do it?
BEN: Oh, there’s a story in that.
[LINDA enters the forestage, as of old, carrying the wash basket.]
LINDA: Is this Ben?
BEN [gallantly]: How do you do, my dear.
LINDA: Where’ve you been all these years? Willy’s always wondered why you—
WILLY [pulling BEN away from her impatiently]: Where is Dad? Didn’t you follow him? How did you get started?
BEN: Well, I don’t know how much you remember.
WILLY: Well, I was just a baby, of course, only three or four years old—
BEN: Three years and eleven months.
WILLY: What a memory, Ben!
BEN: I have many enterprises, William, and I have never kept books.
WILLY: I remember I was sitting under the wagon in—was it Nebraska?
BEN: It was South Dakota, and I gave you a bunch of wildflowers.
WILLY: I remember you walking away down some open road.
BEN [laughing]: I was going to find Father in Alaska.
WILLY: Where is he?
BEN: At that age I had a very faulty view of geography, William. I discovered after a few days that I was heading due south, so instead of Alaska, I ended up in Africa.
LINDA: Africa!
WILLY: The Gold Coast!
BEN: Principally diamond mines.
LINDA: Diamond mines!
BEN: Yes, my dear. But I’ve only a few minutes—
WILLY: No! Boys! Boys! [YOUNG BIFF and HAPPY appear.] Listen to this. This is your Uncle Ben, a great man! Tell my boys, Ben!
BEN: Why boys, when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs.] And by God I was rich.
WILLY [to the boys]: You see what I been talking about? The greatest things can happen!
BEN [glancing at his watch]: I have an appointment in Ketchikan Tuesday week.
WILLY: No, Ben! Please tell about Dad. I want my boys to hear. I want them to know the kind of stock they spring from. All I remember is a man with a big beard, and I was in Mamma’s lap, sitting around a fire, and some kind of high music.
BEN: His flute. He played the flute.
WILLY: Sure, the flute, that’s right!
[New music is heard, a high, rollicking tune.]
BEN: Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston, and he’d toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he’d drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Western states. And we’d stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he’d made on the way. Great inventor, Father. With one gadget he made more in a week than a man like you could make in a lifetime.
WILLY: That’s just the way I’m bringing them up, Ben—rugged, well liked, all-around.
BEN: Yeah? [To BIFF] Hit that, boy—hard as you can. [He pounds his stomach.]
BIFF: Oh, no, sir!
BEN [taking boxing stance]: Come on, get to me! [He laughs.]
WILLY: Go to it, Biff! Go ahead, show him!
BIFF: Okay! [He cocks his fists and starts in.]
LINDA [to WILLY]: Why must he fight, dear?
BEN [sparring with BIFF]: Good boy! Good boy!
WILLY: How’s that, Ben, heh?
HAPPY: Give him the left, Biff!
LINDA: Why are you fighting?
BEN: Good boy! [Suddenly comes in, trips BIFF, and stands over him, the point of his umbrella poised over BIFF’S eye.]
LINDA: Look out, Biff!
BIFF: Gee!
BEN [patting BIFF’S knee]: Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way. [Taking LINDA’S hand and bowing]