Death of a Salesman_ Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem - Miller, Arthur [31]
WILLY: Yeah. I’ll put it to him straight and simple. He’ll just have to take me off the road.
LINDA: And Willy, don’t forget to ask for a little advance, because we’ve got the insurance premium. It’s the grace period now.
WILLY: That’s a hundred . . . ?
LINDA: A hundred and eight, sixty-eight. Because we’re a little short again.
WILLY: Why are we short?
LINDA: Well, you had the motor job on the car . . .
WILLY: That goddam Studebaker!
LINDA: And you got one more payment on the refrigerator . . .
WILLY: But it just broke again!
LINDA: Well, it’s old, dear.
WILLY: I told you we should’ve bought a well-advertised machine. Charley bought a General Electric and it’s twenty years old and it’s still good, that son-of-a-bitch.
LINDA: But, Willy—
WILLY: Whoever heard of a Hastings refrigerator? Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they’re used up.
LINDA [buttoning up his jacket as he unbuttons it]: All told, about two hundred dollars would carry us, dear. But that includes the last payment on the mortgage. After this payment, Willy, the house belongs to us.
WILLY: It’s twenty-five years!
LINDA: Biff was nine years old when we bought it.
WILLY: Well, that’s a great thing. To weather a twenty-five-year mortgage is—
LINDA: It’s an accomplishment.
WILLY: All the cement, the lumber, the reconstruction I put in this house! There ain’t a crack to be found in it any more.
LINDA: Well, it served its purpose.
WILLY: What purpose? Some stranger’ll come along, move in, and that’s that. If only Biff would take this house, and raise a family . . . [He starts to go.] Good-bye, I’m late.
LINDA [suddenly remembering]: Oh, I forgot! You’re supposed to meet them for dinner.
WILLY: Me?
LINDA: At Frank’s Chop House on Forty-eighth near Sixth Avenue.
WILLY: Is that so! How about you?
LINDA: No, just the three of you. They’re gonna blow you to a big meal!
WILLY: Don’t say! Who thought of that?
LINDA: Biff came to me this morning, Willy, and he said, “Tell Dad, we want to blow him to a big meal.” Be there six o’clock. You and your two boys are going to have dinner.
WILLY: Gee whiz! That’s really somethin’. I’m gonna knock Howard for a loop, kid. I’ll get an advance, and I’ll come home with a New York job. Goddammit, now I’m gonna do it!
LINDA: Oh, that’s the spirit, Willy!
WILLY: I will never get behind a wheel the rest of my life!
LINDA: It’s changing, Willy, I can feel it changing!
WILLY: Beyond a question. G’bye, I’m late. [He starts to go again.]
LINDA [calling after him as she runs to the kitchen table for a handkerchief ]: You got your glasses?
WILLY [ feels for them, then comes back in]: Yeah, yeah, got my glasses.
LINDA [ giving him the handkerchief ]: And a handkerchief.
WILLY: Yeah, handkerchief.
LINDA: And your saccharine?
WILLY: Yeah, my saccharine.
LINDA: Be careful on the subway stairs.
[She kisses him, and a silk stocking is seen hanging from her hand. WILLY notices it.]
WILLY: Will you stop mending stockings? At least while I’m in the house. It gets me nervous. I can’t tell you. Please.
[LINDA hides the stocking in her hand as she follows WILLY across the forestage in front of the house.]
LINDA: Remember, Frank’s Chop House.
WILLY [passing the apron]: Maybe beets would grow out there.
LINDA [laughing]: But you tried so many times.
WILLY: Yeah. Well, don’t work hard today. [He disappears around the right corner of the house.]
LINDA: Be careful!
[As WILLY vanishes, LINDA waves to him. Suddenly the phone rings. She runs across the stage and into the kitchen and lifts it.]
LINDA: Hello? Oh, Biff! I’m so glad you called, I just . . . Yes, sure, I just told him. Yes, he’ll be there for dinner at six o’clock,