BEN frowns and presses his forehead.
You've missed something out.
BEN. I know. What?
GUS. I haven't taken my gun out, according to you.
BEN. You take your gun out--
GUS. After I've closed the door.
BEN. After you've closed the door.
GUS. You've never missed that out before, you know that?
BEN. When he sees you behind him--
GUS. Me behind him--
BEN. And me in front of him--
GUS. And you in front of him--
BEN. He'll feel uncertain--
GUS. Uneasy.
BEN. He won't know what to do.
GUS. So what will he do?
BEN. He'll look at me and he'll look at you.
GUS. We won't say a word.
BEN. We'll look at him.
GUS. He won't say a word.
BEN. He'll look at us.
GUS. And we'll look at him.
BEN. Nobody says a word.
Pause.
GUS. What do we do if it's a girl?
BEN. We do the same.
GUS. Exactly the same?
BEN. Exactly.
Pause.
GUS. We don't do anything different?
BEN. We do exactly the same.
GUS. Oh.
GUS rises, and shivers.
Excuse me.
He exits through the door on the left.
BEN remains sitting on the bed, still.
The lavatory chain is pulled once off left, but the lavatory does not flush.
Silence. GUS reenters and stops inside the door, deep in thought. He looks at BEN, then walks slowly across to his own bed. He is troubled. He stands, thinking. He turns and looks at
BEN. He moves a few paces towards him.
(Slowly in a low, tense voice.) Why did he send us matches if he knew there was no gas?
Silence. BEN stares in front of him. GUS crosses to the left side of BEN, to the foot of his bed, to get to his other ear.
Ben. Why did he send us matches if he knew there was no gas?
BEN looks up.
Why did he do that?
BEN. Who?
GUS. Who sent us those matches?
BEN. What are you talking about?
GUS stares down at him.
GUS (thickly). Who is upstairs?
BEN (nervously). What's one thing to do with another?
BEN fumbles for his paper on the bed.
GUS. I asked you a question.
BEN. Enough!
GUS (with growing agitation). I asked you before. Who moved in? I asked you. You said the people who had it before moved out. Well, who moved in? BEN (hunched). Shut up.
GUS. I told you, didn't I?
BEN (standing). Shut up!
GUS (feverishly). I told you before who owned this place, didn't I? I told you.