In a Bucket of Blood excerpt
CAREY:
You and me go way back. Like me and Nolan go way back.
HILL:
(Trying to get CAREY”s mind on something else)
Right. That’s right. We go back all the way to the beginning. We’ve known each other since the days when Connors ran the neighborhood. Remember old man, Connors?
CAREY:
’Course I remember him. ’Course I remember him. I remember when Nolan was hasslin’ him all the time. Givin’ him shit every chance he got. So one day I aksed him. I say, “Whaddaya got against Connors? Why you always hassling him?”
HILL:
(Knowing exactly where CAREY is going, having heard these stories before many times)
Like when he was on the roof shootin’ the machine gun down on the street in front of where Connors was walkin’?!
CAREY:
Yeah, crazy shit like that, y’know? So one day we were just sittin’ in the bleachers, y’know, hangin’out. We was still real young. I think it was right after we got shot down tryin’ to have a drink in old O’Shea’s …
(Remembers. Excitedly)
Yeah! So we went to
the playground over on
HILL:
O’Shea’s ain’t there anymore.
CAREY:
Huh! Serves ’em right!
HILL:
Now it’s one of them bars with ferns. I’d like to stick a fern up of the ass of one of those power tie guys who hang out there.
CAREY:
You’re tellin’ me! Yuppie scumbags in alligator shirts drinkin’ in our neighborhood ….
(Sips his beer)
So, anyway, anyway … Nolan and me were drinkin’ quarts in the playground, sittin’ on na bleachers, just me and him, and I aks him, “So, what’s your beef with Connors, anyway?” And he tells me. He decides to tell once and for all.
(Beat)
He tells me Connors kidnapped his old man and roughed him up.
HILL:
Not too bad, though – right?
CAREY:
No, nothin’ serious. Connors got his ransom from some buddies of old man Nolan and they let him go. Just the usual scam. No harm done, really.
(Beat)
Still it stuck in Nolan’s craw. He couldn’t get over it.
HILL:
His old man was a respected guy, an accountant.
CAREY:
Exactly. He was a smart guy. He useta do taxes for people in the neighborhood. He never was involved in any of the rackets. And he never hurt nobody.
HILL:
That’s what bothered Nolan – right?
CAREY:
Right! It was humiliatin’ fuh him, y’know? His dad was educated. He had his own business. He never bothered nobody. Nolan thought the old man was out of bounds.
HILL:
But then he found out different.
CAREY:
He did. He certainly did. But that wasn’t the big thing. The big thing was that the guy was neighborhood! Botherin’ an innocent guy in the neighborhood went against everything we grew up believin’. You never hurt someone from the neighborhood. You never go against your own kind. That just got Nolan’s Irish up! It used to make his ears turn red just tawkin’ about it. And when they start to turn red, lookout!
HILL:
Yeah, well, what’s his neighborhood now? Who are his own kind?
CAREY:
(Chuckles)
That’s a good question. A good question. I don’t know.
(Gulps beer)
But, when he finished that story that night in the playground, I said right then and there, I said, “If you need my help, just lemmee know. I’m with ya. Just lemme know.”
HILL:
Seems like he doesn’t care so much about that stuff anymore, the old rules.
CAREY:
I doubt he’s completely forgotten them. Once they’re in your bones, you don’t forget.
(Forgets his loyalty for a moment. Shrugs.)
But who knows?
(Sarcastic)
Now he’s bad, y’know? He’s nationwide.
HILL:
But he was cool in them days. Yeah. Really cool.
CAREY:
Ain’t that the truth.
HILL:
I’ll never forget the one favor he did for me when I was a kid. I was, like, fuckin’ sixteen or seventeen, y’know? I was already doin’ some work for him runnin’ numbers … runnin’ errands here … deliverin’ things over there. Then one night I was in the diner and this fuckin’ guy, this fuckin’ drunk hillbilly from I don’t know … somewhere down South … he’s drunk as shit and he’s mouthin’ off to everyone in the place. He was shootin’ his mouth off to anyone who would pay attention – which wasn’t many people, believe me. Everyone was ignorin’ him. Includin’ me. I was tryin’ to, at least. But you know how I was back then.
CAREY:
Yes, I do. You were a hothead back then, boy. No one would ever forget that.
HILL:
Yeah, maybe I calmed down a wee bit since then. But in them days, it was hard for me to ignore an asshole like that. I did try, though! I tried. But every time I thought I had myself under control, I hear this guy mouthin’ awff in that fuckin’ hick accent again. And I start thinkin’, “Who the fuck is this guy makin’ trouble in our neighborhood, in our diner .. givin’ shit to people we know? … ” I mean, my aunt worked in that diner at one time. And the more I think about all that, the more my blood started to boil. And fuckin …
(Drifts off. Forgetting what he was saying for a minute.)
And fuckin’ …
(Remembers)
This stupid hillbilly … I guess he sees me lookin’ at him and he goes,
(With an exaggerated hillbilly accent)
“’ey, boy, gimme a cigarette!”
CAREY:
Ah, I think I remember this story now! The stupid redneck that was givin’ shit to everybody.
HILL:
Right. Right. Now you know who I’m tawkin’ about. He was playin’ all these hick songs on the jukebox, annoyin’ everybody, makin’ a general nuisance of himself. But, man, when he said that … when he called me boy and ordered me – not asked me, ordered me to give him a cigarette – I mean that was it for me. I knew he was bigger than me. And he, at least, must have thought he was tough shit.
CAREY:
He better be -- comin’ into Hell’s Kitchen and startin’ shit! … I mean,he had to be either tough or really stupid.
HILL:
Well, this guy turned out to be both. And he probably was makin’ out with his cousin when his other cousin was givin’ geography lessons.
CAREY:
Well, he shoulda paid attention to the part about the
HILL:
Damn straight! It was only a matter of time before somebody taught him a lesson.
CAREY:
And you was gonna be the teacher!
HILL:
Fuckin’ A., man!
(They clink beer bottles.)
Shit, when he said, “Boy, gimme a cigarette,” I just couldn’t sit still for that. I stood up and said, “Who are you givin’ orders to? Who do you think you are, talkin’ to me like that?! I don’t take orders from nobody. I never have and I sure ain’t gonna start by takin’ ’em from some ignorant redneck bastahd like you.”
CAREY:
And I heard the whole place cheered!
HILL:
I don’t know. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. Some people might have laughed or something. All I could hear was my own heart poundin’. But then I told him,
(Disgusted)
“You wanna smoke? Machine’s right over theah.”
CAREY:
What’d he do?
HILL:
He forgot all about smokin’ and says he wants to take it outside. So I say,
(Shrugs)
“It’s your funeral” and we go out into the parking lot. A couple of people in the diner come out, too, to see this hillbilly get his ass kicked. So, I go out and I’m standin’ there in the parkin’ lot and the guy’s comin’ down the steps from the diner.
(Stands up to demonstrate)
He’s tuckin’ in the back of his shirt …
(Uses his right hand to tuck his t-shirt into his jeans and imitate the man’s action)
… y’know, like he’s getting’ ready to fight when, all of a sudden, out comes a knife he had in his back pocket. Before I knew what happened, the fuckin’ sneak
(Demonstrates on his own abdomen)
sticks it into my stomach and slits me right up to my chest.
CAREY:
Oh, man. I remember that. What an asshole!
HILL:
I still got the scar here, too.
(Lifts up his shirt to show CAREY)
CAREY:
Can hardly tell it’s there now. It’s faded.
(Gulps from his bottle)
Guess it was a long time ago.
HILL:
Don’t seem like it to me. The guy took off runnin’ and was gone in a second. I guess he wasn’t such a badass after all.
CAREY:
Fuckin’ chickenshit! Says he wants to go out and fight and he pulls sneaky shit like that!
HEALEY:
(Lifting his head just slightly off of the bar. Partially awake)
Cops? No cops. No chickenshit cops! No … none o’ that … No sneaky shit. Cheese eatin’ bastard!
HILL:
(Leaning down and addressing HEALEY. Joking)
Did you have something to add there, Mr. Healey? Mr. Hill is tellin’ a story. You just wait your turn!
(CAREY and HILL laugh.)
HILL:
Healey was there. He knows all about it. I remember he was pissed. The whole neighborhood was pissed. Even the cops! At the hospital, they kept aksin’ me what the prick looked like and why I thought he was in the neighborhood. How the hell should I know?
CAREY:
I remember you were in the hospital for a while.
HILL:
Weeks, man. I was in the hospital for 4 weeks. And all I could think of was gettin’ that bastard.
CAREY:
The cops picked him up – right?
HILL:
Yeah, they finally did find him. You know how? He came back to the diner. Everyone remembered him. The old lady called the cops because she thought the guy was gonna get murdered right at the counter.
CAREY:
And ruin’ her lunchtime business!
HILL:
Who wants to get rid of a corpse when ya got customers who wanna eat?
CAREY:
She shoulda called Nolan and them.
HILL:
Yeah, they coulda done a Houdini on him! Now ya seem ’im! Now ya don’t!
CAREY:
Probly the first and last time someone in the Kitchen called the cops on somebody!
HILL:
(Chuckling)
Yeah, that’s right. And when he got to court, the judge told him never to come around the neighborhood again.
(Gulps from his beer. Remembers the point of the story)
And Nolan knew this whole story. That’s what I’ll never forget about him. About a year later … I was all back to normal by then … I was shootin’ pool in this bar – right over there – and Nolan comes up to me. I’ll never forget it. “An old friend o’ yours is back for a visit,” he says. “Who? Whaddaya tawkin’ about?” I says. “That redneck sonofbitch. He’s sittin’ at the bar at O’Flaherty’s!”
(Beat. Shakes his head. Stands as if with poolstick in his hand.)
So, I’m like … I mean I couldn’t believe it. I’m standin’ there with this poolstick and I don’t know what to say. My blood starts boilin’ like I was standin’ in that diner again – only worse. So I just look at Nolan and he reads my mind. He says, “Yeah, go ahead. Take the poolstick with you.” Next thing I know I’m across the street and I’m through the door of O’Flaherty’s. There’s the asshole sittin’ at the bar. He’s downin’ the last of his beer …
(Demonstrates the man’s throwing his head back)
… when I grab him by the collar of his shirt and drag him outside like a dog. I get him outside and I just start beatin’ him …
(Imitates beating man on floor with poolstick)
… duuuzh … duuuzh … duuzzh … I’m not hearin’ nothin’ or thinkin’ nothin’. I’m just getting’ my revenge. All his mouthin’ off the first time … duuzzh … all them days in the hospital … duuuzh duuzzh duuuzh … There’s somethin’ about getting’ revenge that way, y’know, with yaw hands, that’s satisfyin’, y’know?
CAREY:
Yeah! Yeah!
HILL:
I mean, using the gun gives ya that power … you’re like a God.
(Lowers pistol at his imaginary victim on the floor)
Die, motherfucker!
CAREY:
(Remembering)
Yeah, that’s right!
HILL:
But this was better. I was getting’ my revenge with my own hands. I was so pissed, I didn’t notice anything. I’m just wailin’ on the guy … duuuzh … duuuzh … duuzzh … and every time he moaned or said anything or asked me to stop it just pissed me off even more. I had the taste of blood, like an animal. And people tell me a big crowd gathered around from Fergus’s and O’Flaherty’s and no one did nothin’ to stop it. Everybody knew.
CAREY:
People were cheering you on! There were people from both bars, a couple of fags in drag, some hookers and winos, hell, maybe even a lost tourist or two. Everyone knew the story. They knew the asshole deserved everything he got. I mean, even the judge told him to stay away from here.
HILL:
I remember seeing the red lights flashin’ on him but I didn’t know if it was just me seein’ red or what.
CAREY:
That was cool as shit. The cops were just standin’ there …
(Folds arms over his chest)
… watchin’ …
HILL:
They didn’t make a move to stop me. I remember lookin’ up finally and seein’ them there just watchin’ and I couldn’t believe it. I beat the asshole a few more times until my arms were achin’ and I was all outta breath …
(Beat. As if pointing to his victim’s body with a poolstick)
“All right,” I says to the cops. “I’m done. Get this piece o’ shit outta here.”
CAREY:
Then we was all buyin’ you drinks for the rest of the night.
HILL:
And no one carded me, either. I wasn’t even 18 yet.
(HILL and CAREY clink bottles and drink.)
CAREY:
Fuckin’ A.
HILL:
But I’ll never forget Nolan standin’ there. He smiled at me and, as pissed off and tired as I was, I had an even stronger feelin’ o’ gratitude. He’s the one that told me the asshole was back. He’s the one that told me where he was and he was the one who let me use the poolstick. And that was it. From that day on, I was with him.