SUPPERBURGER
381
MR. P. My son's up there! You get him out here! Patrick Polo!
I want him out here.
He is almost barking, the way he talks. Louie must be confused.
He does not know about any of this. I want to talk to him about it.
But now, I must decide to go to the front of the roof.
P. Here I am.
MR. P. Kid, you get down here now!
P. I won't.
MR. P. You're pretty well known here, aren't you! Making a
reputation already! Who's that?
S. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Supperburger.
MR. P. I'm telling you, if I ever find my son here again, you've
got trouble. What are you doing! Passing it on to the coming genera–
tion? Turning my son into a freak? I give it to you once more, kid:
you're coming down here!
P.No.
MR. P. All right. That's the last of my money you'll get!
Probably don't need it, earning a good wage on the street!
I am shaking.
It
is all lies. He does not know. How can he know
people, being what he is. I do not want him. I do not want money.
Charles and Louie are holding me on either side.
S. We have done nothing to your son, Mr. Polo. He has had
dinner with my wife and me this evening. He is a fine boy and a
credit to you.
MR. P. Christ have mercy!
He has stepped back into his car, with his two men. They
drive up the street, screeching the wheels. Now everyone is here.
Aunt Ruth and even Matty, who must have followed Charles up
the fire escape. Supperburger is still standing, and I can hear him
talking to himself, but out loud. I notice he is holding one of the
Swinburnes.
S. I have done something to his son. I have not built a solid
house for him but made him dwell on being young and beautiful,
where he cannot stay. I have not learned but have grown old with
the same song.
If
I had not been turned away the first time...
If
it
had held on, and changed as one. . . .
We are all listening now, but it is hard to understand him, Sup–
perburger.
