A View from the Bridge

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Book: Read A View from the Bridge for Free Online
Authors: Arthur Miller
your two submarines?
    EDDIE: They’re okay.
    LOUIS: I see they’re gettin’ work allatime.
    EDDIE: Oh yeah, they’re doin’ all right.
    MIKE: That’s what we oughta do. We oughta leave the country and come in under the water. Then we get work.
    EDDIE : You ain’t kiddin’.
    LOUIS: Well, what the hell. Y’know?
    EDDIE: Sure.
    LOUIS— sits on railing beside Eddie: Believe me, Eddie, you got a lotta credit comin’ to you.
    EDDIE: Aah, they don’t bother me, don’t cost me nutt’n.
    MIKE: That older one, boy, he’s a regular bull. I seen him the other day liftin’ coffee bags over the Matson Line. They leave him alone he woulda load the whole ship by himself.
    EDDIE: Yeah, he’s a strong guy, that guy. Their father was a regular giant, supposed to be.
    LOUIS: Yeah, you could see. He’s a regular slave.
    MIKE, grinning: That blond one, though— Eddie looks at him. He’s got a sense of humor. Louis snickers.
    EDDIE, searchingly: Yeah. He’s funny—
    MIKE, starting to laugh: Well he ain’t exackly funny, but he’s always like makin’ remarks like, y‘know? He comes around, everybody’s laughin’. Louis laughs.
    EDDIE, uncomfortably, grinning: Yeah, well ... he’s got a sense of humor.
    MIKE, laughing: Yeah, I mean, he’s always makin’ like remarks, like, y’know?
    EDDIE: Yeah, I know. But he’s a kid yet, y’know? He —he’s just a kid, that’s all.
    MIKE, getting hysterical with Louis: I know. You take one look at him—everybody’s happy. Louis laughs. I worked one day with him last week over the Moore-MacCormack Line, I’m tellin’ you they was all hysterical. Louis and he explode in laughter.
    EDDIE: Why? What’d he do?
    MIKE: I don’t know ... he was just humorous. You never can remember what he says, y‘know? But it’s the way he says it. I mean he gives you a look sometimes and you start laughin’!
    EDDIE: Yeah. Troubled: He’s got a sense of humor.
    MIKE, gasping: Yeah.
    LOUIS, rising: Well, we see ya, Eddie.
    EDDIE: Take it easy.
    LOUIS: Yeah. See ya.
    MIKE: If you wanna come bowlin’ later we’re goin’ Flatbush Avenue.
    Laughing, they move to exit, meeting Rodolpho and Catherine entering on the street. Their laughter rises as they see Rodolpho, who does not understand but joins in. Eddie moves to enter the house as Louis and Mike exit. Catherine stops him at the door.
    CATHERINE: Hey, Eddie—what a picture we saw! Did we laugh!
    EDDIE— he can’t help smiling at sight of her: Where’d you go?
    CATHERINE: Paramount. It was with those two guys, y’know? That—
    EDDIE: Brooklyn Paramount?
    CATHERINE, with an edge of anger, embarrassed before Rodolpho: Sure, the Brooklyn Paramount. I told you we wasn’t goin’ to New York.
    EDDIE, retreating before the threat of her anger: All right, I only asked you. To Rodolpho: I just don’t want her hangin’ around Times Square, see? It’s full of tramps over there.
    RODOLPHO: I would like to go to Broadway once, Eddie. I would like to walk with her once where the theaters are and the opera. Since I was a boy I see pictures of those lights.
    EDDIE, his little patience waning: I want to talk to her a minute, Rodolpho. Go inside, will you? RODOLPHO: Eddie, we only walk together in the streets. She teaches me.
    CATHERINE: You know what he can’t get over? That there’s no fountains in Brooklyn!
    EDDIE, smiling unwillingly: Fountains? Rodolpho smiles at his own naïveté.
    CATHERINE: In Italy he says, every town’s got fountains, and they meet there. And you know what? They got oranges on the trees where he comes from, and lemons. Imagine—on the trees? I mean it’s interesting. But he’s crazy for New York.
    RODOLPHO, attempting familiarity: Eddie, why can’t we go once to Broadway—?
    EDDIE: Look, I gotta tell her

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