Desperate Characters

Remember that hat?

Remember that hat he had?

How did you decide when you were on the boat

who was the captain?

We always knew that 'cause Charlie had the hat.

We had Charlie. That's what we had.

Charlie...

He didn't even tell me until this morning

that he'd actually found a new office.

He just moved out.

"If I need the files, can I get in touch with you?"

I don't care for the new people he's taken up with,

the clients.

I know what's always gone on in the office.

I've done the tiresome work

while Charlie's knocked everybody dead with personal charm.

His whole act has consisted in denying

that the law's anything but an ironic joke,

and that goes far with a lot of people.

He told me today

some clients were intimidated by our office's grandeur.

One of his clients accused the receptionist of being racist

because she asked him to use an ashtray instead of the rug.

If you don't tune in on the world, you'll disappear.

It's back.

No, he can have the boat.

It's back.

Well, you shouldn't have fed it in the first place.

I suppose so.

I'll have to call the aspca.

Poor thing.

It does very well for itself.

All those cats do well.

Stop watching it.

Soph?

Soph.

The livers are good.

Perhaps their survival depends on people like me.

I don't see that it matters whether they survive or not.

Well, it looks half-starved.

Ignore it.

Do you want all the wild cats in Brooklyn

holding a food vigil on our porch?

I saw one catch a bird the other day.

They're not pussycats, you know. They're thugs.

The days are getting shorter.

Goody. No more locals with their God damn bongos.

Maybe it'll snow early like last year.

Well, the weather's not on your side.

Yes, it is.

I think I'll give the cat a little milk.

That God damned woman

just dumped her evening load of garbage over there.

Why doesn't the cat go over there to eat?

Here, kitty.

Yes. Here, kitty. Come on.

What time are we due at the holsteins'?

9-ish.

Here, kitty, yeah...

That's a kitty.

Yeah...

Nice ki...

oh!

Oh, no! Oh...

All that melodrama. I can't live with that.

He couldn't leave it alone.

If I wasn't with him, I was against him.

I'll be better off by myself.

What are you going to wear?

I haven't decided yet.

Why'd it bite me?

I thought you said it just scratched you.

Oh, whatever it did.

I was petting it.

Because it's savage,

because all it wanted from you was food.

Charlie's using these people and their causes.

He doesn't want to be left out.

I don't want to be left out.

Time to end it, anyway. We've used each other up.

The truth is, I don't even like him anymore.

I wonder how he feels.

Like Paul muni.

Paul muni?

Charlie is right.

You're barely in the right century.

That's right.

Charlie's not bad.

No, he's not bad.

He's vain, irresponsible, and hysterical.

Bad hasn't anything to do with it.

Irresponsible? What?

Shut up.

Sorry.

Don't.

Why not?

My hand. I don't want to get blood on you.

No! Try the bathroom window!

O.K.! Fire when ready!

I'd like to throw the door open and catch it empty.

Like being alive at your own funeral.

Not at all.

Two more houses sold over there.

What happens to the people in them now?

I don't know.

What are they doing to that dog?

Catholics believe animals have no souls.

Why talk about catholics?

They all to go that pentecostal iglesia.

Watch out.

No dog ever did that.

I think maybe I'll just give the boat to Charlie.

Where is he going to sail it, the bowery?

Why do they drop everything on the pavement?

The packaging/wrapping frenzy.

I saw a colored man kick a trash can yesterday.

When it rolled in the street,

he roared with laughter.

This morning I saw that white man,

who hangs his blanket out the window,

pissing into the yard.

There's good and bad in every race.

Ain't it the truth?

Ouch.

What's the matter?

I bumped my hand.

Let's see.

That's a real bite.

You shouldn't have fed it.

Why didn't you tell me?

I didn't want you to say you shouldn't have fed it.

That's awful.

No, it's just sensitive.

You should at least get a tetanus shot.

What do you mean, at least?

Even a psychoanalyst should know something about animal bites.

Don't bring it up.

I'd like to leave early.

It's like a sale.

Soph, darling. Hello, Otto.

Hello, Mike.

Hey, you look marvelous,

like some sad, lovely girl out of the thirties.

And me?

Just sad.

Ah. Tell him.

Something's happened, and Otto's making too much of it.

Tell me while I make you a drink.

Gin on the rocks?

No.

It was such a shock.

I'd been feeding the damn beast, and it turned on me.

It ought to be looked at.

It's nothing.

Animals have bitten me before.

No, I haven't. Why'd I say that?

There's been no rabies around here in years.

No chance. The cat was healthy.

You know me. I want to be the Saint who tames wild creatures.

Would you get the door?

I shall return.

A very gentile party.

A very gentile party.

I saw at least three Jews.

Your parties are very educational.

It's not my party.

Yes, it is.

Your generation's thing.

Oh, for Christ's sake.

She's a wicked one, isn't she?

You must be young Mike's friends.

Let's see Lonnie in St. Luke's.

O.K.

The hospital? The visiting hours are over now.

The final line of final lines

is from the roaring twenties.

Cagney, bogart, Paul Kelly, Gladys George.

Cagney was top dog all through prohibition,

but now he's a bum,

and for some reason that escapes me,

the mob guns him down.

He's dying on the steps of a church. It's snowing.

Gladys George... who's been in love with him the entire picture,

but he was in love with someone else...

is cradling him in her arms

as he draws his last breath.

A cop comes and says, "who was he?"

And Gladys George says... brace yourself...

Gladys George says, "he used to be a big shot."

Man, that chokes me up.

"He used to be a big shot."

That's a line.

Here come the tears.

Hello, Sophie.

I didn't know you knew the holsteins.

I don't. I came with their friends, the elders.

I don't know them.

Otto spotted me.

We chatted.

How've you been?