Moe: The kid’s a fighter! _(To Hennie)_...

Moe: The kid’s a fighter! (To Hennie) Why are you crying?

Hennie: I never cried in my life. (She is now.)

Moe: (Starts for door. Stops) You told Sam you love him. . . .

Hennie: If I’m sore on life, why take it out on him?

Moe: You won’t forget me to your dyin’ day—I was the first guy. Part of your insides. You won’t forget. I wrote my name on you—indelible ink!

Hennie: One thing I won’t forget—how you left me crying on the bed like I was two for a cent!

Moe: Listen, do you think——

Hennie: Sure. Waits till the family goes to the open air movie. He brings me perfume. . . . He grabs my arms——

Moe: You won’t forget me!

Hennie: How you left the next week?

Moe: So I made a mistake. For Chris’ sake, don’t act like the Queen of Roumania!

Hennie: Don’t make me laugh!

Moe: What the hell do you want, my head on a plate?! Was my life so happy? Chris’, my old man was a bum. I supported the whole damn family—five kids and Mom. When they grew up they beat it the hell away like rabbits. Mom died. I went to the war; got clapped down like a bedbug; woke up in a room without a leg. What the hell do you think, anyone’s got it better than you? I never had a home either. I’m lookin’ too!

Hennie: So what?!

Moe: So you’re it—you’re home for me, a place to live! That’s the whole parade, sickness, eating out your heart! Sometimes you meet a girl—she stops it—that’s love. . . . So take a chance! Be with me, Paradise. What’s to lose?

Hennie: My pride!

Moe: (Grabbing her) What do you want? Say the word—I’ll tango on a dime. Don’t gimme ice when your heart’s on fire!

Hennie: Let me go! (He stops her)

Moe: WHERE?!!

Hennie: What do you want, Moe, what do you want?

Moe: You!

Hennie: You’ll be sorry you ever started——

Moe: You!

Hennie: Moe, lemme go—— (Trying to leave) I’m getting up early—lemme go.

Moe: No! . . . I got enough fever to blow the whole damn town to hell. (He suddenly releases her and half stumbles backwards. Forces himself to quiet down.) You wanna go back to him? Say the word. I’ll know what to do. . . .

Hennie: (Helplessly) Moe, I don’t know what to say.

Moe: Listen to me.

Hennie: What?

Moe: Come away. A certain place where it’s moonlight and roses. We’ll lay down, count stars. Hear the big ocean making noise. You lay under the trees. Champagne flows like—— (Phone rings. Moe finally answers the telephone.) Hello? . . . Just a minute. (Looks at Hennie.)

Hennie: Who is it?

Moe: Sam.

Hennie: (Starts for phone, but changes her mind) I’m sleeping. . . .

Moe: (In phone) She’s sleeping. . . . (Hangs up. Watches Hennie who slowly sits) He wants you to know he got home O.K. . . . What’s on your mind?

Hennie: Nothing.

Moe: Sam?

Hennie: They say it’s a palace on those Havana boats.

Moe: What’s on your mind?

Hennie: (Trying to escape) Moe, I don’t care for Sam—I never loved him——

Moe: But your kid—?

Hennie: All my life I waited for this minute.

Moe: (Holding her) Me too. Made believe I was talkin’ just bedroom golf, but you and me forever was what I mean! Christ, baby, there’s one life to live! Live it!

Hennie: Leave the baby?

Moe: Yeah!

Hennie: I can’t. . . .

Moe: You can!

Hennie: No. . . .

Moe: But you’re not sure!

Hennie: I don’t know.

Moe: Make a break or spend the rest of your life in a coffin.

Hennie: Oh God, I don’t know where I stand.

Moe: Don’t look up there. Paradise, you’re on a big boat headed south. No more pins and needles in your heart, no snake juice squirted in your arm. The whole world’s green grass and when you cry it’s because you’re happy,

Hennie: Moe, I don’t know. . . .

Moe: Nobody knows, but you do it and find out. When you’re scared the answer’s zero.

Hennie: You’re hurting my arm.

Moe: The doctor said it—cut off your leg to save your life! And they done it—one thing to get another.

Odets, Clifford, “Awake and Sing!,” Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays, Grove Press, p. 97-100.