Topdog / Underdog by Suzan Lori Parks Read Free Book Online

blame them. You dont see me holding down a steady job. Cause its bullshit and I know it. I seen how it cracked them up and I aint going there.
    (Rest)
    It aint right me trying to make myself into a one woman man just because she wants me like that. One woman rubber-wearing motherfucker. Shit. Not me. She gonna walk in here looking all hot and shit trying to see how much she can get me to sweat, how much she can get me to give her before she gives me mines. Shit.
     
    Lincoln
    Booth

    Lincoln
    Moms told me I shouldnt never get married.
     
    Booth
    She told me thuh same thing.
     
    Lincoln
    They gave us each 500 bucks then they cut out.
     
    Booth
    Thats what Im gonna do. Give my kids 500 bucks then cut out. Thats thuh way to do it.
     
    Lincoln
    You dont got no kids.
     
    Booth
    Im gonna have kids then Im gonna cut out.
     
    Lincoln
    Leaving each of yr offspring 500 bucks as yr splitting.
     
    Booth
    Yeah.
    (Rest)
    Just goes to show Mom and Pops had some agreement between them.
     
    Lincoln
    How so.
     
    Booth
    Theyd stopped talking to eachother. Theyd stopped screwing eachother. But they had an agreement. Somewhere in there when it looked like all they had was hate they sat down and did thuh “split” budget.
    (Rest)
    When Moms splits she gives me 5 hundred-dollar bills rolled up and tied up tight in one of her nylon stockings. She tells me to put it in a safe place, to spend it only in case of an emergency, and not to tell nobody I got it, not even you. 2 years later Pops splits and before he goes—

    Lincoln
    He slips me 10 fifties in a clean handkerchief: “Hide this somewheres good, dont go blowing it, dont tell no one you got it, especially that Booth.”
     
    Booth
    Theyd been scheming together all along. They left separately but they was in agreement. Maybe they arrived at the same place at the same time, maybe they renewed they wedding vows, maybe they got another family.
     
    Lincoln
    Maybe they got 2 new kids. 2 boys. Different than us, though. Better.
     
    Booth
    Maybe.
     
    Their glasses are empty. The whiskey bottle is empty too.
    Booth takes the champagne bottle from the ice tub.
    He pops the cork and pours drinks for his brother and himself.
     
    Booth
    I didnt mind them leaving cause you was there. Thats why Im hooked on us working together. If we could work together it would be like old times. They split and we got that room downtown. You was done with school and I stopped going. And we had to run around doing odd jobs just to keep the lights on and the heat going and thuh child protection bitch off our backs. It was you and me against thuh world, Link. It could be like that again.
     
    Lincoln
    Booth
    Lincoln Booth
     
    Lincoln
    Throwing thuh cards aint as easy as it looks.

    Booth
    I aint stupid.
     
    Lincoln
    When you hung with us back then, you was just on thuh sidelines. Thuh perspective from thuh sidelines is thuh perspective of a customer. There was all kinds of things you didnt know nothing about.
     
    Booth
    Lonny would entice folks into thuh game as they walked by. Thuh 2 folks on either side of ya looked like they was playing but they was only pretending tuh play. Just tuh generate excitement. You was moving thuh cards as fast as you could hoping that yr hands would be faster than yr customers eyes. Sometimes you won sometimes you lost what else is there to know?
     
    Lincoln
    Thuh customer is actually called the “Mark.” You know why?
     
    Booth
    Cause hes thuh one you got yr eye on. You mark him with yr eye.
    Lincoln
    Lincoln
     
    Booth
    Im right, right?
     
    Lincoln
    Lemmie show you a few moves. If you pick up these yll have a chance.
     
    Booth
    Yr playing.
     
    Lincoln
    Get thuh cards and set it up.

    Booth
    No shit.
     
    Lincoln
    Set it up set it up.
     
    In a flash, Booth clears away the romantic table setting by gathering it all up in the tablecloth and tossing it aside.
    As he does so he reveals the “table” underneath: the 2 stacked monte milk crates and the cardboard playing