Maeve and Johnny After Ed Dies
(March 1976)(Everyone is at the bar. Johnny has just consoled Jill and sent her upstairs to see Faith, when he starts talking to Maeve.)
JOHNNY: You know, I honestly can't remember who won that first game of marbles we played.
MAEVE: Oh, you always said you did.
JOHNNY: Oh, Ed always said he did. Can you imagine that? Two grown men arguing over a game of marbles played... (sits down and seems troubled by the realization) ...played fifty years ago.
MAEVE: Well, you were a fortunate man to have a friend like Ed.
JOHNNY: You know something, we could never understand how we got to be friends. I mean no two men were more different; no two boys. Me, a scruffy Irish orphan and him a swell kid from a rich family. I'll never forget (waving his finger) when I looked up from that game of marbles and saw that fancy pants just looking at me, and I said to myself, "Oh, I'm going to get you!" And so, fancy pants run (sic) home and got his favorite addie(?) - Ed was never one to overlook a challenge, then or now - (laughs) well, by the time that game was over, his pants were just as scruffy as mine.
(Maeve smiles.)
JOHNNY: Ed was always trying to beat me at my own game! Learning how to burrow through the tenament cellars and subways, throwing snowballs down at the people from the roofs...
(Johnny buries his head, tearfully.)
JOHNNY: You know, I even made him a member of my gang! Promoted him all the way up to second chief. Second chief Ed Coleridge. Oh, I wonder, did he ever really know who won that game of marbles?
MAEVE: (hugging him) Oh, I think you both thought you did. Leave it that way, John.
JOHNNY: I tell you, I'm feeling very old tonight. (Maeve walks away.) Where's Mary?
MAEVE: (pouring some coffee) Oh, she high-tailed it out of here right after you. I think she went downtown.
JOHNNY: Fenelli's?
MAEVE: (nods) This time, I don't think she's coming back.
JOHNNY: Did she say that?
MAEVE: Pretty much.
JOHNNY: I'm gonna phone her.
MAEVE: (insistent) No!
JOHNNY: Maybe just one phone call...
MAEVE: No, she won't come home tonight.
JOHNNY: Well, honey, I just want to call her and tell her I love her and I'm thinking about her and...
MAEVE: She knows that, John. She knows that you love her. But for now, leave it be. A phone call is just more words and any more words between you is just gonna lead to more fighting.
JOHNNY: You're telling me my best friend dies and my daughter leaves home on the same night and I can't do anything about it?
MAEVE: Leave it alone for now! I am as opposed to Jack Fenelli as you are.
JOHNNY: (seething) Opposed to him, I'd like to put my fist right through him!
MAEVE: Well don't.
JOHNNY: What can I do?
MAEVE: I don't know. All I do know is that if you keep coming between her and Fenelli, Mary's gonna move heaven and earth to marry the man just to prove you wrong.
JOHNNY: He won't marry her.
MAEVE: He just might, to spite you. How would you feel then, hmm? No, John, I think we have a choice here: We can either go on letting her hurt herself a little now, or run the risk of hurting her for the rest of her life. Because Jack Fenelli just might get it into his head to marry her. Is that what you want?