238
ABE: I beg your pardon. That person?
COHN: That's Joan! Joan, here's Abe!
ABE: I beg your pardon. An old friend?
J
U L E5 FElF
FER
COHN: How old is old? Ten minutes? A half hour?
It
feels like half
a lifetime. It was
your
lifetime, that I'll tell you!
ABE: Riddles. You invited her?
COHN: Not two minutes ago you were dead.
ABE : You wish.
COHN: I wished you back. They sent you back dead.
ABE: Intrigue is going on here. This is my house. I beg your pardon,
Miss. It's not personal. The house
is
in my name. But can I ever
invite guests? Who was my last guest? Fifteen years ago. I'll show
you the guest book. Look - here's the guest book. Blank, see?
Hundreds
of
pages - wait, here's the guest - no, it reminds me -
not even a real guest - a Jehovah's Witness. Came in out of the
blue. We had coffee, a pleasant chat about religion. Cohn, here,
throws a fit. Facts are facts, Cohn. It's nothing personal, Miss.
Cohn and I don't entertain. He agreed and I agreed. When we
entertain we differ. It ends up in a fight. So we agreed to live and
let live and not entertain. I didn't make up the rule. Now he
breaks it. Is this a way to run a household? Anarchy?! I beg your
pardon, Cohn, I thought we'd agreed - anarchy
is
for outslde.
COHN:
(to
JOAN) Is that a mouth? I love that mouth!
(beaming
at him)
Abe, not five minutes ago you know what you were?
ABE: What?
COHN: You weren't. That's what you were. You were
not!
You were
dead! You were dead! You were dead!
(smile slowly fades)
You
weren't dead.
(turns to
JOAN) He wasn't dead.
JOAN: He was dead.
COHN: How could he be alive if he was dead?
JOAN: You saw him!
COHN: For half a second.
JOAN: He was cold.
COHN: Who felt him?
JOAN: I did!
COHN: I thought you were a saint. Now you're a doctor?
JOAN: You're reneging on your promise.
COHN: Don't
be
foolish; he only fainted .
