Five Television Plays (David Mamet) Read Online Free Page B

cash register. )
    H ARRY: Mister, you tell me, you ain't from around here: how many acres does it take to support a doe all winter?
    P RICE: I have no idea.
    H ARRY: F‘ course you don't, neither do they down state, then they should stay out of it. Keep the peace, ’stead of getting so involved with the law.
    P RICE ( to the W AITRESS): What do I owe you . . . ?
    W AITRESS: That'll be ninety-five cents.
    ( He pays her. )
    B USINESSMAN: You want to use the law for something, find out who burnt the Emporium . . .
    S ECOND B USINESSMAN: Charley Hopkins would've found him in an hour.
    F ARMER: You going today? The Memorial?
    B USINESSMAN: That's today, Lord, isn't it?
    F ARMER: Yep.
    B USINESSMAN: Time flies, don't it?
    F ARMER: I've noticed it does.
    B USINESSMAN: You going down the Memorial . . . ?
    (P RICE walks out of the restaurant. )
    ( ANGLE EXTERIOR: STATE STREET, TOWN OF BRADFORD. A SMALL NEW ENGLAND TOWN. He has just exited from The Coffeecorner, and behind him, in the bay window, we see the R EGULARS whose conversation we have just been hearing. P RICE stands on the sidewalk for a moment, looks up at the sky and shivers a bit. One of the R EGULARS comes out behind him, stands near him, lighting a cigarette. )
    R EGULAR: Just passing through?
    P RICE: No . I think I'll stay a bit longer than that.
    ( The R EGULAR moves off Camera follows P RICE to an old station wagon at the curb. It is piled high with personal effects, clothing, and furniture. P RICE opens the passenger door, takes out a raincoat, puts it on, consults his map, and moves off down the street. )
    EXTERIOR: BRADFORD LIBRARY. DAY.
    A small granite block; cut into it, a five-point star, with the name “Bradford” on it, and the badge number 2121 and “Sacred to the Memory of Charles Hopkins, Chief of Police 1968-1987.”
    M AYOR ( voice over ): What is a “good man"?
    ( Angle: The M AYOR on the steps of the police department, flanked by three uniformed officers; in the foreground, twenty or so townspeople. As he speaks, it begins to rain lightly and the townspeople begin to put up umbrellas. )
    People might say, no man is quite as good, or quite as bad as he seems; but there is such a thing as a good man, and we were privileged to know such a man . . .
    ( Angle: The group of bystanders. A P RIEST listening. )
    Charley Hopkins defined for me the meaning of Community Service, and, as I think he did for all of us, helped define the meaning of Community.
    ( A young man of eighteen walks in front of the P RIEST. They nod to each other. )
    B ILLY B ATES: Morning, Father . . .
    P RIEST: . . . Billy.
    (B ILLY moves out of the frame. )
    M AYOR ( voice over ): Chief of Police, Past President of our Local Post of the VFW, active in Scouting, a grandmaster of the Masons. Many might say, those who did not know the Chief might say, “A joiner, a booster, a ‘babbitt’ . . .”
    ( Angle: The M AYOR.)
    M AYOR: But who among us, does not have a Charley Hopkins story? Of the things he might have taught you . . . of a good word he put in for you, at school, to get a job, you never found out ‘til years later . . . I remember one time . . .
    ( Angle: The P RIEST. P RICE now comes into the group. It has started raining heavily. P RICE stands next to the P RIEST. We hear the M AYOR’S voice in the background, as P RICE and the P RIEST converse. The P RIEST motions for P RICE to come share the umbrella with him. P RICE demurs. )
    P RIEST: . . . Come on, don't get yourself wet.
    (P RICE moves under the umbrella with him. )
    . . . our Chief of Police. Chief Hopkins.
    (P RICE nods. )
    One year anniversary, his death.
    (P RICE nods. )
    Hell of a thing. Good man. Very good man. Died last year. Hunting accident.
    P RICE: Uh-hmm.
    P RIEST: A hunting accident.
    P RICE: His family here?
    P RIEST: Didn't have one. Someone more poetic might say the Town was his family.
    P RICE: Sounds like a rare man.
    P RIEST: Yes. He was.
    ( Angle: P RICE and the ground in the foreground. The M