American Buffalo

So? So, what, then?

- I'm sorry, Donny. - Uh-huh, all right.

- I'm sorry, Donny. - All right, yeah.

Maybe he's still in there.

- If you think that, how come you're here? - Well, he didn't come out.

What do I care, Bob, if he came out or not?

You're supposed to watch the guy, you watch him. Am I wrong?

- I just went to the back. - Why? Hmm? Why'd you do that?

Cos he wasn't coming out the front.

Well, I'm sorry, Bob, but this isn't good enough. It ain't good enough, Bob.

If you wanna business, if we got a business deal here, this isn't good enough.

- I want you to remember this. - I do.

Yeah, now. But later, what? Just one thing, Bob. Action counts.

Action talks, and bullshit walks.

- I'm tying to teach you something. -OK.

- Now, you take Fletcher. - Fletch?

- Now, Fletcher is your stand-up guy. - Yeah.

- Am I lying to you? - No, Don.

I don't give a shit. He is a fellow stands for something.

You put him down in some strange town with just a nickel in his pocket.

By nightfall, he'll have that town by the balls.

And this is not talk, Bob. This is action.

- Fucker won 400 bucks last night. - And who else won last night?

- Ruthie, she won. - You win?

Yeah, I did OK. Not like Fletch. I mean, Fletcher, he plays cards.

- He's real sharp. - Goddamn right, he is.

- I know it. - Was he born that way?

Huh?

Was he born that way, or do you think he had to learn it?

- Learn it? - Goddamn right he did, and don't forget it.

Everything that I or Fletcher know, we picked up on the street, huh?

That's all business is. Common sense, experience and talent.

Like when he jewed Ruthie out of the pig iron.

What pig iron?

- That he got her for that time. - That wasn't, I don't think, her pig iron.

- No? - No, that was his pig iron, Bob.

- Well she was real mad at him. - Well, that may very well be, Bob.

But the fact remains it was business. That's what business is.

- What? - People taking care of themselves, huh?

Because there's business and there's friendship, Bobby.

You've got to keep clear who your friends are and who treated you like what,

or else the rest is garbage, Bob. Because I want to tell you something.

Things are not always what they seem to be.

I know that, Don.

There are people on this street, they want this, they want that, do anything to get it.

You don't have friends this life.

Fuckin' Ruthie!

Fuckin' Ruthie!

- Want some breakfast? - I'm not hungry.

- Never skip breakfast, Bobby. - I'm not hungry.

Fuckin' Ruthie!

- Fuckin' Ruthie! - Morning, Teach.

- Fuckin' Ruthie! - What?

Fuckin' Ruthie! I come into the Riverside to get a cup of coffee, right?

I sit down at the table, Grace and Ruthie. I'm gonna order just a cup of coffee.

So Grace and Ruthie's having breakfast and they're all done, plates crossed.

So we shoot the shit, talk about the game and so on.

Down I sit, "Hi, hi," I take a piece of toast off Grace's plate

and she says, "Help yourself!"

Help myself? I should help myself to have a piece of toast at four slices for a quarter!

Every time we're over at the game, I pop a coffee, cigarettes, a sweet roll.

Never say a word!

Ah, shit, we're sitting down, how many times do I pick up the check?

But no, because I never go and make a big thing out of it, it's no big thing,

and flaunt, like, "This one's on me!" like some bust-out asshole.

But I naturally assume that I'm with friends and don't forget who's who.

Somebody gets behind half a yard, or needs help with some fuckin' rent,

or drops piles of money at the track, or someone's sick...

- This is what I'm telling you. - Only, I tell you this,

and I'm not casting anything on anyone,

from the mouth of a Southern bull-dyke asshole ingrate of a vicious no-rent cunt

can this trash come.

And I take nothing back, and I know you're close with them.

- With Grace and Ruthie? I like 'em. - I've always treated everybody fair.

- Is this true, Don? - Yep.

Someone is against me, that's their problem, I can look out for myself.

And I don't gotta fuck around behind somebody's back

if I don't like the way they're treating me,

or pray some brick safe falls and hits them on the head, they're on the street.

But to have that shithead turn in one breath

every fucking sweet roll that I ever ate with them into ground glass!

I'm wondering, were they thinking this guy's an idiot to blow a quarter on his friends?

It hurts. It hurts me in a way I don't know what the fuck to do.

- You're probably just upset. - Fuckin' A, I'm upset. I am very upset.

- They got their problems, too. - I would like to have their problems.

They were probably talking about something.

Let them talk about it, then. No, I cannot brush this off.

They treat me like an asshole, they are an asshole.

The only way to teach these people is to kill 'em.

- Want some coffee? - I'm not hungry.

Come in. I'm sending Bobby to Riverside.

Fuckin' joint! They harbor assholes.

Teach, what do you want, huh? Bob, get me a Boston and Teach a coffee.

- Boston, Teacher? - No.

- What? - Black.

And get yourself something to eat. What do you want, Teach, English muffin?

- I don't want an English muffin. - Make sure they give him you jelly.

I don't want an English muffin. I don't want anything.

- Come on, Teach, eat something. - You I feel better if you eat.

Tell him to give you an order of bacon, real dry, real crisp.

And tell the broad. If it's for me, she'll give you more.

- Anything else you want? Cantaloupe? - I never eat cantaloupe. Gives me the runs.

Tell him he shouldn't say anything to Ruthie.

- He wouldn't. - No. No, you're right.

- I'm sorry, Bob. I'm upset. - That's OK.

- That's OK, Teach. - Thank you.

- You're welcome. - And a plate, if they got it.

I will.

- He wouldn't say anything. - What the fuck do I care?

Cunt!

There is not one loyal bone in that bitch's body.

So how you finally do last night?

- This has nothing to do with that. - No, I know. I'm just saying, for talk.

Last night? You were here, Don. How did you do?

Not well. Only one won any money, Fletcher and Ruthie.

- Cunt had to win 200 dollars. - She's a good card player.

She is not a good card player, Don. She's a mooch and she plays like a woman.

Fletch is a card player. I'll give him that.

But Ruthie! You see how the fuck she plays!

And always with that cunt on her shoulder.

- Grace? Grace is her partner. - Then let her be her partner, then!

You see what I'm talking about.

Everyone is sitting at the table and Grace has got to fetch an ashtray, go for coffee.

Everybody's all... They aren't gonna hide their cards, they're not gonna make a thing.

I don't give a shit. I say, the broad's a fucking partner,

she walks in back of me, I'm gonna hide my hand.

Yeah.And I say anybody who doesn't is out of their mind.

We're talking about money, for Christ's sake!

We're talking about cards.

Friendship is friendship and a wonderful thing, and I'm all for it.

I have never said different, and you know me on this point, OK?

But let's just keep it separate, huh?

Let's just keep the two apart, and maybe we can deal with each other like human beings.

I know you got a soft spot for Ruthie.

I know you like the broad and Grace. And Bob, I know he likes them, too.

- He likes them. - And I like 'em, too!

I'm not averse to this, I'm not averse to sitting down.

I know we will sit down. These things happen. I'm not saying they don't.

And yeah yeah yeah, I know I lost a bundle at the game and blah blah blah.

But all I ever ask, and I would say this to her face,

is only she remembers who is who,

and not to go round with her, or Gracie either, with this attitude.

The past is past, and this is now, and so, fuck you!

See?

- So, what's new? - Nothing.

- Same old shit, huh? - Yep.

- Seen my hat? - No. Did you leave it here?

- Yeah. - Did you ask 'em over at the Riv?

- I left it here. - When?

- Last night. - You left it here, then it's here. You seen it?

No

- Fletch been in? - No.

- Probably drop in, huh? - Yeah. You never know with Fletch.

He might drop in in the morning and then he's gone for ten, fifteen days.

You never know he's gone.

- What? - I want to talk to him.

- Ruthie might know. - Vicious dyke.

- You got something up with Fletch? - No, just I have to talk with him.

He'll probably show up.

- What are these? - Those? They're from 1933.

From the thing? Nice.

They had a whole market in 'em, just like anything.

They license out the shit, everybody makes it.

They got that much to ship it around? - Shit, yes. Not that long ago.

The thing, it ran two years, and they had, I don't know, all kinds of people.

Every year they're buying everything they can lay their hands on.

They're going to take it back to Buffalo and give it to their aunt. It mounts up.

- What does it go for? - This shit's fashionable.

- They're going to have to go 15 bucks. - You're full of shit.

- My word of honor. - What a bunch of crap!

- Every goddamn thing. - Yeah, everything like that.

If I kept the stuff I threw out, I would be a wealthy man today.

I would be cruising on some European yacht.

Uh-huh.

- Shit my father kept in his desk drawer. - My father, too.

-The basement? -Uh-huh.

Fuckin' toys in the back yard, for Christ's sake.

- Don't even talk about it. - I don't even want to talk about it.

- Do you want to play some gin? - Maybe later.

OK.

I don't know...

Fuckin' day. Fuckin' weather.

- Think it's gonna rain? - Well, look at it.

Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.

- Ruthie isn't mad at you. - How do you know?

- I talked to her. - You talked to her?

- Yes. - I asked you, you weren't going to.

- Well, she asked me. - What did you tell her?

- You were here. - What did you say to her, Bob?

- Just Teach was here. - And is she coming over here?

I don't think so. They had the plate.

So this is all right. All right, Bob.

You shouldn't eat that shit.

- Why? - I have this feeling about health foods.

- It's not health foods, Teach. It's yogurt. - That's not health food?

- No. I've had it forever. - Yogurt?

Yeah. They used to joke about it on My Little Margie.

- Way before your time. - What the fuck! A little bit can't hurt you.

Where's my coffee?

- It's not in there? - No.