and two glasses. JACKSON sets them down on the table )
I’m here, sir. At your command.
HARRY
Sit down. Forget the sandwiches, I don’t want to eat. Let’s sit down, man to man, and have a drink. That was the most sarcastic hammering I’ve ever heard, and I know you were trying to get back at me with all those noises and that Uncle Tom crap. So let’s have a drink, man to man, and try and work out what happened this morning, all right?
JACKSON
I’ve forgotten about this morning, sir.
HARRY
No, no, no, I mean, the rest of the day it’s going to bother me, you know?
JACKSON
Well, I’m leaving at half-past one.
HARRY
No, but still … Let’s … Okay. Scotch?
JACKSON
I’ll stick to beer, sir, thank you.
( HARRY pours a Scotch and water, JACKSON serves himself a beer. Both are still standing )
HARRY
Sit over there, please, Mr. Phillip. On the deck chair.
( JACKSON sits on the deck chair, facing HARRY )
Cheers?
JACKSON
Cheers. Cheers. Deck chair and all.
( They toast and drink )
HARRY
All right. Look, I think you misunderstood me this morning.
JACKSON
Why don’t we forget the whole thing, sir? Let me finish this beer and go for my sea bath, and you can spend the rest of the day all by yourself.
( Pause )
Well. What’s wrong? What happen, sir? I said something wrong just now?
HARRY
This place isn’t going to drive me crazy, Jackson. Not if I have to go mad preventing it. Not physically crazy; but you just start to think crazy thoughts, you know? At the beginning it’s fine; there’s the sea, the palm trees, monarch of all I survey and so on, all that postcard stuff. And then it just becomes another back yard. God, is there anything deadlier than Sunday afternoons in the tropics when you can’t sleep? The horror and stillness of the heat, the shining, godforsaken sea, the bored and boring clouds? Especially in an empty boarding house. You sit by the stagnant pool counting the dead leaves drifting to the edge. I daresay the terror of emptiness made me want to act. I wasn’t trying to humiliate you. I meant nothing by it. Now, I don’t usually apologize to people. I don’t do things to apologize for. When I do them, I mean them, but, in your case, I’d like to apologize.
JACKSON
Well, if you find here boring, go back home. Do something else, nuh?
HARRY
It’s not that simple. It’s a little more complicated than that. I mean, everything I own is sunk here, you see? There’s a little matter of a brilliant actress who drank too much, and a car crash at Brighton after a panto … Well. That’s neither here nor there now. Right? But I’m determined to make this place work. I gave up the theater for it.
JACKSON
Why?
HARRY
Why? I wanted to be the best. Well, among other things; oh, well, that’s neither here nor there. Flopped at too many things, though. Including classical and Creole acting. I just want to make this place work, you know. And a desperate man’ll try anything. Even at the cost of his sanity, maybe. I mean, I’d hate to believe that under everything else I was also prejudiced, as well. I wouldn’t have any right here, right?
JACKSON
’Tain’t prejudice that bothering you, Mr. Trewe; you ain’t no parrot to repeat opinion. No, is loneliness that sucking your soul as dry as the sun suck a crab shell. On a Sunday like this, I does watch you. The whole staff does study you. Walking round restless, staring at the sea. You remembering your wife and your son, not right? You ain’t get over that yet?
HARRY
Jackson …
JACKSON
Is none of my business. But it really lonely here out of season. Is summer, and your own people gone, but come winter they go flock like sandpipers all down that beach. So you lonely, but I could make you forget all o’ that. I
I’m here, sir. At your command.
HARRY
Sit down. Forget the sandwiches, I don’t want to eat. Let’s sit down, man to man, and have a drink. That was the most sarcastic hammering I’ve ever heard, and I know you were trying to get back at me with all those noises and that Uncle Tom crap. So let’s have a drink, man to man, and try and work out what happened this morning, all right?
JACKSON
I’ve forgotten about this morning, sir.
HARRY
No, no, no, I mean, the rest of the day it’s going to bother me, you know?
JACKSON
Well, I’m leaving at half-past one.
HARRY
No, but still … Let’s … Okay. Scotch?
JACKSON
I’ll stick to beer, sir, thank you.
( HARRY pours a Scotch and water, JACKSON serves himself a beer. Both are still standing )
HARRY
Sit over there, please, Mr. Phillip. On the deck chair.
( JACKSON sits on the deck chair, facing HARRY )
Cheers?
JACKSON
Cheers. Cheers. Deck chair and all.
( They toast and drink )
HARRY
All right. Look, I think you misunderstood me this morning.
JACKSON
Why don’t we forget the whole thing, sir? Let me finish this beer and go for my sea bath, and you can spend the rest of the day all by yourself.
( Pause )
Well. What’s wrong? What happen, sir? I said something wrong just now?
HARRY
This place isn’t going to drive me crazy, Jackson. Not if I have to go mad preventing it. Not physically crazy; but you just start to think crazy thoughts, you know? At the beginning it’s fine; there’s the sea, the palm trees, monarch of all I survey and so on, all that postcard stuff. And then it just becomes another back yard. God, is there anything deadlier than Sunday afternoons in the tropics when you can’t sleep? The horror and stillness of the heat, the shining, godforsaken sea, the bored and boring clouds? Especially in an empty boarding house. You sit by the stagnant pool counting the dead leaves drifting to the edge. I daresay the terror of emptiness made me want to act. I wasn’t trying to humiliate you. I meant nothing by it. Now, I don’t usually apologize to people. I don’t do things to apologize for. When I do them, I mean them, but, in your case, I’d like to apologize.
JACKSON
Well, if you find here boring, go back home. Do something else, nuh?
HARRY
It’s not that simple. It’s a little more complicated than that. I mean, everything I own is sunk here, you see? There’s a little matter of a brilliant actress who drank too much, and a car crash at Brighton after a panto … Well. That’s neither here nor there now. Right? But I’m determined to make this place work. I gave up the theater for it.
JACKSON
Why?
HARRY
Why? I wanted to be the best. Well, among other things; oh, well, that’s neither here nor there. Flopped at too many things, though. Including classical and Creole acting. I just want to make this place work, you know. And a desperate man’ll try anything. Even at the cost of his sanity, maybe. I mean, I’d hate to believe that under everything else I was also prejudiced, as well. I wouldn’t have any right here, right?
JACKSON
’Tain’t prejudice that bothering you, Mr. Trewe; you ain’t no parrot to repeat opinion. No, is loneliness that sucking your soul as dry as the sun suck a crab shell. On a Sunday like this, I does watch you. The whole staff does study you. Walking round restless, staring at the sea. You remembering your wife and your son, not right? You ain’t get over that yet?
HARRY
Jackson …
JACKSON
Is none of my business. But it really lonely here out of season. Is summer, and your own people gone, but come winter they go flock like sandpipers all down that beach. So you lonely, but I could make you forget all o’ that. I
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