Psycho Page #2

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SAM:

And I'm a working man! We're a regular

working-class tragedy!

(he laughs)

MARY:

It is tragic! Or it will be... if we

go on meeting in shabby hotels

whenever you can find a tax-deductible

excuse for flying down deductible

here...

SAM:

(interrupting,

seriously)

You can't laugh at it, huh?

MARY:

Can you?

SAM:

Sure. It's like laughing through a

broken jaw, but...

He breaks off, his cheeriness dissolved, goes to the window,

tries to raise the shade. It sticks. He pulls at it.

It comes down entirely, and the hot sun glares into the room,

revealing it in all its shabbiness and sordidness as if

corroborating Mary's words and attitude. Sam kicks at the

fallen shade, laughs in frustration, grabs on to his humor

again.

SAM:

And besides, when you say I make tax-

deductible excuses you make me out a

criminal.

MARY:

(having to smile)

You couldn't be a criminal if you

committed a major crime.

SAM:

I wish I were. Not an active criminal

but... a nice guy with the conscience

of a criminal.

(goes close to mary,

touches her)

Next best thing to no conscience at

all.

MARY:

(pulling away)

I have to go, Sam.

SAM:

I can come down next week.

MARY:

No.

SAM:

Not even just to see you, to have

lunch... in public?

MARY:

We can see each other, we can even

have dinner... but respectably, in

my house with my mother's picture on

the mantel and my sister helping me

broil a big steak for three!

SAM:

And after the steak... do we send

Sister to the movies and turn Mama's

picture to the wall?

MARY:

Sam! No!

SAM:

(after a pause, simply)

All right.

She stares at him, surprised at his willingness to continue

the affair on her terms, as girls are so often surprised

when they discover men will continue to want them even after

the sexual bait has been pulled in. Sam smiles reassuringly,

places his hands gently on her arms, speaks with gentle and

simple sincerity.

SAM:

Mary, whenever it's possible, tax-

deductible or not, I want to see

deductible you. And under any

conditions.

(a smile)

Even respectability.

MARY:

You make respectability sound...

disrespectful.

SAM:

(brightly)

I'm all for it! It requires patience

and temperance and a lot of sweating-

out... otherwise, though, it's only

hard work.

(a pause)

But if I can see you, touch you even

as simply as this... I won't mind.

He moves away and again the weight of his pain and problems

crushes away his good humor. There is a quiet moment.

SAM:

I'm fed up with sweating for people

who aren't there. I sweat to pay off

my father's debts... and he's in his

grave... I sweat to pay my ex-wife

alimony, and she's living on the

other side of the world somewhere.

MARY:

(a smile)

I pay, too. They also pay who meet

in hotel rooms.

SAM:

A couple of years and the debts will

be paid off. And if she ever re-

marries, the alimony stops... and

then...

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