Harold Pinter Plays 2 Read Online Free Page A

You were jabbering.
    DAVIES. Jabbering? Me?
    ASTON. Yes.
    DAVIES. I don’t jabber, man. Nobody ever told me that before.
    Pause.
    What would I be jabbering about?
    ASTON. I don’t know.
    DAVIES. I mean, where’s the sense in it?
    Pause.
    Nobody ever told me that before.
    Pause.
    You got hold of the wrong bloke, mate.
    ASTON (crossing to the bed with the toaster). No. You woke me up. I thought you might have been dreaming.
    DAVIES. I wasn’t dreaming. I never had a dream in my life.
    Pause.
    ASTON. Maybe it was the bed.
    DAVIES. Nothing wrong with this bed.
    ASTON. Might be a bit unfamiliar.
    DAVIES. There’s nothing unfamiliar about me with beds. I slept in beds. I don’t make noises just because I sleep in a bed. I slept in plenty of beds.
    Pause.
    I tell you what, maybe it were them Blacks.
    ASTON. What?
    DAVIES. Them noises.
    ASTON. What Blacks?
    DAVIES. Them you got. Next door. Maybe it were them Blacks making noises, coming up through the walls.
    ASTON. Hmmnn.
    DAVIES. That’s my opinion.
    ASTON puts dorm the plug and moves to the door.
    Where you going, you going out?
    ASTON. Yes.
    DAVIES (seizing the sandals). Wait a minute then, just a minute.
    ASTON. What you doing?
    DAVIES (putting on the sandals). I better come with you.

    ASTON. Why?
    DAVIES. I mean, I better come out with you, anyway.
    ASTON. Why?
    DAVIES. Well … don’t you want me to go out?
    ASTON. What for?
    DAVIES. I mean … when you’re out. Don’t you want me to get out … when you’re out?
    ASTON. You don’t have to go out.
    DAVIES. You mean … I can stay here?
    ASTON. Do what you like. You don’t have to come out just because I go out.
    DAVIES. You don’t mind me staying here?
    ASTON. I’ve got a couple of keys. (He goes to a box by his bed and finds them.) This door and the front door. (He hands them to DAVIES .)
    DAVIES. Thanks very much, the best of luck.
    Pause. ASTON stands.
    ASTON. I think I’ll take a stroll down the road. A little … kind of a shop. Man there’d got a jig saw the other day. I quite liked the look of it.
    DAVIES. A jig saw, mate?
    ASTON. Yes. Could be very useful.
    DAVIES. Yes.
    Slight pause.
    What’s that then, exactly, then?
    ASTON walks up to the window and looks out.
    ASTON. A jig saw? Well, it comes from the same family as the fret saw. But it’s an appliance, you see. You have to fix it on to a portable drill.
    DAVIES. Ah, that’s right. They’re very handy.
    ASTON. They are, yes.
    Pause.
    You know, I was sitting in a café the other day. I happened to be sitting at the same table as this woman. Well, westarted to … we started to pick up a bit of a conversation. I don’t know … about her holiday, it was, where she’d been. She’d been down to the south coast. I can’t remember where though. Anyway, we were just sitting there, having this bit of a conversation … then suddenly she put her hand over to mine … and she said, how would you like me to have a look at your body?
    DAVIES. Get out of it.
    Pause.
    ASTON. Yes. To come out with it just like that, in the middle of this conversation. Struck me as a bit odd.
    DAVIES. They’ve said the same thing to me.
    ASTON. Have they?
    DAVIES. Women? There’s many a time they’ve come up to me and asked me more or less the same question.
    Pause.
    ASTON. What did you say your name was?
    DAVIES. Bernard Jenkins is my assumed one.
    ASTON. No, your other one?
    DAVIES. Davies. Mac Davies.
    ASTON. Welsh, are you?
    DAVIES. Eh?
    ASTON. You Welsh?
    Pause.
    DAVIES. Well, I been around, you know … what I mean … I been about.…
    ASTON. Where were you born then?
    DAVIES. (darkly). What do you mean?
    ASTON. Where were you born?
    DAVIES. I was … uh … oh, it’s a bit hard, like, to set your mind back … see what I mean … going back …. a good way … lose a bit of track, like … you know.…
    ASTON (going to below the fireplace). See this plug? Switch it on here, if you like. This little fire.
    DAVIES. Right, mister.
    ASTON. Just plug in