DOROTHY
I paid my own way before I met him, the son of a bitch, and I paid my own way while I was with him, and I’ll go on paying my own way now that I’m rid of him. The last time I took money from a man was when my Uncle Ralph lent me bus fare to New York when I was eighteen years old. He didn’t call it a loan, and he sure as hell didn’t give me a piece of paper to sign, but I paid him back all the same. I saved up the money and sent him a money order. I didn’t even have a bank account. I got a money order at the post office and sent it to him.
BILLY
That’s when you came here? When you were eighteen?
DOROTHY
Fresh out of high school. And I’ve been on my own ever since, and paying my own way. I would have paid my own way to Singapore, as far as that goes, but that wasn’t the deal. It was supposed to be a present. And he wants me to pay my way and his way, he wants the whole ten thousand plus interest, and—
BILLY
He’s looking to charge you interest?
DOROTHY
Well, the note I signed. Ten thousand dollars plus interest at the rate of eight percent per annum.
BILLY
Interest.
DOROTHY
He’s pissed off that I wanted to end the relationship. That’s what this is all about.
BILLY
I figured.
DOROTHY
And what I figured is if a couple of the right sort of people had a talk with him, maybe he would change his mind.
BILLY
And that’s what brings you here.
(She nods. She’s toying with her empty glass. He points to it, raises his eyebrows. She nods, he raises a hand, catches the offstage waiter’s eye, signals for another round.)
DOROTHY
(pause)
I didn’t know who to call, and then I thought of Tommy, and he said maybe he knew somebody.
BILLY
And here you are.
DOROTHY
And here I am, and—
(He holds up a hand, cutting her off, and the waiter appears, and they’re silent until he has served their drinks and withdrawn.)
BILLY
A couple of the boys could talk to him.
DOROTHY
That would be great. What would it cost me?
BILLY
Five hundred dollars would do it.
DOROTHY
Well, that sounds good to me.
BILLY
The thing is, when you say talk, it’ll have to be more than talk. You want to make an impression, situation like this, the implication is either he goes along with it or something physical is going to happen. Now, if you want to give that impression, you have to get physical at the beginning.
DOROTHY
So he knows you mean it?
BILLY
So he’s scared. Because otherwise what he gets is angry. Not right away, but later. Two tough-looking guys push him against a wall and tell him what he’s gotta do, that scares him, but then they don’t get physical and he goes home, and he starts to think about it, and he gets angry.
DOROTHY
I can see how that might happen.
BILLY
But if he gets knocked around a little the first time, enough so he’s gonna feel it for the next four, five days, he’s too scared to get angry. That’s what you want.
DOROTHY
Okay.
BILLY
(Sips his drink, looks at her over the brim)
There’s things I need to know about the guy.
DOROTHY
Like?
BILLY
Like what kind of shape is he in.
DOROTHY
He could stand to lose twenty pounds, but other than that he’s okay.
BILLY
No heart condition, nothing like that?
DOROTHY
No.
BILLY
He work out?
DOROTHY
He belongs to a gym, and he went four times a week for the first month after he joined, and now if he gets there twice a month it’s a lot.
BILLY
Like everybody. That’s how the gyms stay in business. If all their paid-up members showed up, you couldn’t get in the door.
DOROTHY
You work out.
BILLY
Well, yeah. Weights, mostly, a few times a week. I got in the habit. I won’t tell you where I got in the habit.
DOROTHY
And I won’t ask, but I could probably guess.
BILLY
(grinning)
You probably could.
(back to business)
Martial arts. He ever get into any of that?
DOROTHY
No.
BILLY
You’re sure? Not lately, but maybe before the two of you started keeping company?
DOROTHY
He never said. And he would, it’s the kind of thing he’d brag about.
BILLY
Does he carry?
DOROTHY
Carry?
BILLY
A gun.
DOROTHY
God, no.
BILLY
You know this for a fact?
DOROTHY
He doesn’t even own a gun.
BILLY
Same question. Do you know this for a fact?
DOROTHY
Well, how would you know something like that for a fact? I mean, you could know for a fact that a person did own a gun, but how would you know that he didn’t? I can say this much — I lived with him for three years and there was never anything I saw or heard that gave me the slightest reason to think he might own a gun. Until you asked the question just now it never entered my mind, and my guess is it never entered his mind, either.
BILLY
You’d be surprised how many people own guns.
DOROTHY
I probably would.
BILLY
Sometimes it feels like half the country walks around strapped. There’s more carrying than there are carry permits. A guy doesn’t have a permit, he’s likely to keep it to himself that he’s carrying, or that he even owns a gun in the first place.
DOROTHY
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t own a gun, let alone carry one.
BILLY
And you’re probably right, but the thing is you never know. What you got to prepare for is he might have a gun, and he might be carrying it.
(he waits while she takes this in and nods)
So here’s what I’ve got to ask you. What you got to ask yourself, and come up with the answer. How far are you prepared for this to go?
DOROTHY
I’m not sure what you mean.
BILLY
We already said it’s gonna be physical. Manhandling him, and a couple of shots he’ll feel for the better part of a week. Work the rib cage, say.
DOROTHY
All right.
BILLY
Well, that’s great, if that’s how it goes. But you got to recognize it could go farther.
DOROTHY
What do you mean?
BILLY
I mean you can’t necessarily decide where it stops. I don’t know if you ever heard the expression, but it’s like, uh, having relations with a gorilla. You don’t stop when you decide. You stop when the gorilla decides.
DOROTHY
I never heard that before. It’s cute, and I sort of get the point, or maybe I don’t. Is Howard Bellamy the gorilla?
BILLY
He’s not the gorilla. The violence is the gorilla.
DOROTHY
Oh.
BILLY
You start something, you don’t know where it goes. Does he fight back? If he does, then it goes a little farther than you planned. Does he keep coming back for more? As long as he keeps coming back for it, you got to keep dishing it out. You got no choice.
DOROTHY
I see.
BILLY
Plus there’s the human factor. The boys themselves, they don’t have an emotional stake. So you figure they’re cool and professional about it.
DOROTHY
That’s what I figured.
BILLY