Moe: _(advancing into the room)_ That yo...

Moe: (advancing into the room) That your husband?

Moe: Maybe he’s a nurse you hired for the kid—it looks it—how he tends it. A guy comes howling to your old lady every time you look cross-eyed. Does he sleep with you?

Hennie: Don’t be so wise!

Moe: (indicating newspaper) Here’s a dame strangled her hubby with wire. Claimed she didn’t like him. Why don’t you brain Sam with an axe some night?

Hennie: Why don’t you lay an egg, Axelrod?

Moe: I laid a few in my day, Feinschreiber. Hard-boiled ones too.

Hennie: Yeah?

Moe: Yeah. You wanna know what I see when I look in your eyes?

Hennie: No.

Moe: Ted Lewis playing the clarinet—some of those high crazy notes! Christ, you coulda had a guy with some guts instead of a cluck stands around boilin’ baby nipples.

Hennie: Meaning you?

Moe: Meaning me, sweetheart.

Hennie: Think you’re pretty good.

Moe: You’d know if I slept with you again.

Hennie: I’ll smack your face in a minute.

Moe: You do and I’ll break your arm. (Holds up paper) Take a look. (Reads) “Ten-day luxury cruise to Havana.” That’s the stuff you coulda had. Put up at ritzy hotels, frenchie soap, champagne. Now you’re tied down to “Snake-Eye” here. What for? What’s it get you? . . . a 2 x 4 flat on 108th Street . . . a pain in the bustle it gets you.

Hennie: What’s it to you?

Moe: I know you from the old days. How you like to spend it! What I mean! Lizard-skin shoes, perfume behind the ears. . . . You’re in a mess, Paradise! Paradise—that’s a hot one—yah, crazy to eat a knish at your own wedding.

Hennie: I get it—you’re jealous. You can’t get me.

Moe: Don’t make me laugh.

Hennie: Kid Jailbird’s been trying to make me for years. You’d give your other leg. I’m hooked? Maybe, but you’re in the same boat. Only it’s worse for you. I don’t give a damn no more, but you gotta yen makes you—

Moe: Don’t make me laugh.

Hennie: Compared to you I’m sittin’ on top of the world.

Moe: You’re losing your looks. A dame don’t stay young forever.

Hennie: You’re a liar. I’m only twenty-four.

Moe: When you comin’ home to stay?

Hennie: Wouldn’t you like to know?

Moe: I’ll get you again.

Hennie: Think so?

Moe: Sure, whatever goes up comes down. You’re easy—you remember—two for a nickel—a pushover! (Suddenly she slaps him. They both seem stunned.) What’s the idea?

Hennie: Go on . . . break my arm.

Moe: (As if saying “I love you”) Listen, lousy.

Hennie: Go on, do something!

Moe: Listen——

Hennie: You’re so damn tough!

Moe: You like me. (He takes her)

Hennie: Take your hand off! (Pushes him away) Come around when it’s a flood again and they put you in the ark with the animals. Not even then—if you was the last man!

Moe: Baby, if you had a dog I’d love the dog.

Hennie: Gorilla! (Exits)

Odets, Clifford, “Awake and Sing!,” Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays, Grove Press, p. 68-69.