Read Harold Pinter Plays 2 for Free Online

familiar.
    DAVIES. What do you mean?
    MICK. Where’d you get it?
    ASTON (rising, to them). Scrub it.
    DAVIES. That’s mine.
    MICK. Whose?
    DAVIES. It’s mine! Tell him it’s mine!
    MICK. This your bag?
    DAVIES. Give me it!
    ASTON. Give it to him.
    MICK. What? Give him what?
    DAVIES. That bloody bag!
    MICK (slipping it behind the gas stove). What bag? (To DAVIES .) What bag?
    DAVIES (moving). Look here!
    MICK (facing him). Where you going?
    DAVIES. I’m going to get … my old …
    MICK. Watch your step, sonny! You’re knocking at the door when no one’s at home. Don’t push it too hard. You come busting into a private house, laying your hands on anything you can lay your hands on. Don’t overstep the mark, son.
    ASTON picks up the bag.
    DAVIES. You thieving bastard … you thieving skate … let me get my—
    ASTON. Here you are. ( ASTON offers the bag to DAVIES .)
    MICK grabs it. ASTON takes it.
    MICK grabs it. DAVIES reaches for it.
    ASTON takes it. MICK reaches for it.
    ASTON gives it to DAVIES . MICK grabs it.
    Pause.
    ASTON takes it. DAVIES takes it. MICK takes it. DAVIES reaches for it. ASTON takes it.
    Pause.
    ASTON gives it to MICK . MICK gives it to DAVIES .
    DAVIES grasps it to him.
    Pause.
    MICK looks at ASTON . DAVIES moves away with the bag.
    He drops it.
    Pause.
    They watch him. He picks it up. Goes to his bed, and sits.
    ASTON goes to his bed, sits, and begins to roll a cigarette.
    MICK stands still.
    Pause.
    A drip sounds in the bucket. They all look up.
    Pause.
    How did you get on at Wembley?
    DAVIES. Well, I didn’t get down there.
    Pause.
    No. I couldn’t make it.
    MICK goes to the door and exits.
    ASTON. I had a bit of bad luck with that jig saw. When I got there it had gone.
    Pause.
    DAVIES. Who was that feller?
    ASTON. He’s my brother.
    DAVIES. Is he? He’s a bit of a joker, en’he?
    ASTON. Uh.
    DAVIES. Yes … he’s a real joker.
    ASTON. He’s got a sense of humour.
    DAVIES. Yes, I noticed.
    Pause.
    He’s a real joker, that lad, you can see that.
    Pause.
    ASTON. Yes, he tends … he tends to see the funny side of things.
    DAVIES. Well, he’s got a sense of humour, en’ he?
    ASTON. Yes.
    DAVIES. Yes, you could tell that.
    Pause.
    I could tell the first time I saw him he had his own way of looking at things.
    ASTON stands, goes to the sideboard drawer, right, picks up the statue of Buddha, and puts it on the gas stove.
    ASTON. I’m supposed to be doing up the upper part of the house for him.
    DAVIES. What … you mean … you mean it’s his house?
    ASTON. Yes. I’m supposed to be decorating this landing for him. Make a flat out of it.
    DAVIES. What does he do, then?
    ASTON. He’s in the building trade. He’s got his own van.
    DAVIES. He don’t live here, do he?
    ASTON. Once I get that shed up outside … I’ll be able to give a bit more thought to the flat, you see. Perhaps I can knock up one or two things for it. (He walks to the window.) I can work with my hands, you see. That’s one thing I can do. I never knew I could. But I can do all sorts of things now, with my hands. You know, manual things. When I get that shed up out there … I’ll have a workshop, you see. I … could do a bit of woodwork. Simple woodwork, to start Working with … good wood.
    Pause.
    Of course, there’s a lot to be done to this place. What I think, though, I think I’ll put in a partition … in one of the rooms along the landing. I think it’ll take it. You know … they’ve got these screens … you know … Oriental. They break up a room with them. Make it into two parts. I could either do that or I could have a partition. I could knock them up, you see, if I had a workshop.
    Pause.
    Anyway, I think I’ve decided on the partition.
    Pause.
    DAVIES. Eh, look here, I been thinking. This ain’t my bag.
    ASTON. Oh. No.
    DAVIES. No, this ain’t my bag. My bag, it was another kind of bag altogether, you see. I know what they’ve done. What they done, they kept my bag, and they given you another