Complete Works, Volume III by Harold Pinter Read Free Book Online

lunch.
    MAX . I'm glad you liked it. ( To the others .) Did you hear that? ( To RUTH .) Well, I put my heart and soul into it, I can tell you. ( He sips .) And this is a lovely cup of coffee.
    RUTH . I'm glad.
    Pause.
    MAX . I've got the feeling you're a first-rate cook.
    RUTH . I'm not bad.
    MAX . No, I've got the feeling you're a number one cook. Am I right, Teddy?
    TEDDY . Yes, she's a very good cook.
    Pause.
    MAX . Well, it's a long time since the whole family was together, eh? If only your mother was alive. Eh, what do you say, Sam? What would Jessie say if she was alive? Sitting here with her three sons. Three fine grown-up lads. And a lovely daughter-in-law. The only shame is her grandchildren aren't here. She'd have petted them and cooed over them, wouldn't she, Sam? She'd have fussed over them and played with them, told them stories, tickled them – I tell you she'd have been hysterical. ( To RUTH .) Mind you, she taught those boys everything they know. She taught them all the morality they know. I'm telling you. Every single bit of the moral code they live by – was taught to them by their mother. And she had a heart to go with it. What a heart. Eh, Sam? Listen, what's the use of beating round the bush? That woman was the backbone to this family. I mean, I was busy working twenty-four hours a day in the shop, I was going all over the country to find meat, I was making my way in the world, but I left a woman at home with a will of iron, a heart of gold and a mind. Right, Sam?
    Pause.
    What a mind.
    Pause.
    Mind you, I was a generous man to her. I never left her short of a few bob. I remember one year I entered into negotiations with a top-class group of butchers with continental connections. I was going into association with them. I remember the night I came home, I kept quiet. First of all I gave Lenny a bath, then Teddy a bath, then Joey a bath. What fun we used to have in the bath, eh, boys? Then I came downstairs and I made Jessie put her feet up on a pouffe – what happened to that pouffe, I haven't seen it for years – she put her feet up on the pouffe and I said to her, Jessie, I think our ship is going to come home, I'm going to treat you to a couple of items, I'm going to buy you a dress in pale corded blue silk, heavily encrusted in pearls, and for casual wear, a pair of pantaloons in lilac flowered taffeta. Then I gave her a drop of cherry brandy. I remember the boys came down, in their pyjamas, all their hair shining, their faces pink, it was before they started shaving, and they knelt down at our feet, Jessie's and mine. I tell you, it was like Christmas.
    Pause.
    RUTH . What happened to the group of butchers?
    MAX . The group? They turned out to be a bunch of criminals like everyone else.
    Pause.
    This is a lousy cigar.
    He stubs it out.
    He turns to SAM.
    What time you going to work?
    SAM . Soon.
    MAX . You've got a job on this afternoon, haven't you?
    SAM . Yes, I know.
    MAX . What do you mean, you know? You'll be late. You'll lose your job. What are you trying to do, humiliate me?
    SAM . Don't worry about me.
    MAX . It makes the bile come up in my mouth. The bile – you understand? ( To RUTH .) I worked as a butcher all my life, using the chopper and the slab, the slab, you know what I mean, the chopper and the slab! To keep my family in luxury. Two families! My mother was bedridden, my brothers were all invalids. I had to earn the money for the leading psychiatrists. I had to read books! I had to study the disease, so that I could cope with an emergency at every stage. A crippled family, three bastard sons, a slutbitch of a wife – don't talk to me about the pain of childbirth – I suffered the pain, I've still got the pangs – when I give a little cough my back collapses – and here I've got a lazy idle bugger of a brother won't even get to work on time. The best chauffeur in the world. All his life he's sat in the front seat giving lovely hand signals. You call that work? This man doesn't