“It’s my life, my life!”
“And it’s his death! Your life against his death!”
“Don’t throw semantics at me,” King said angrily. He put his glass down on the coffee table and rose suddenly, beginning to pace the room. “It’s my death, too. What happens to me if I pay that ransom? I’ll tell you what happens. Benjamin and his goddamn vultures will team up with the Old Man and kick me into the street. You were worried about what I did to Robinson, about his ever getting a job again. Okay, do you know what they’ll do to me? My name’ll be mud in the industry. A power grab that failed! Do you think any other firm would trust me after that? Do you think I’d ever get this far again? I’d be finished, Diane. Finished!”
“You could start again. You could—”
“Where? Where do I start? And how far do I go? Goddamnit, even the office boys would watch me to make sure I never got too big again. I’d be chained to a desk. Is that what you want for me? Is that living?”
“Yes, it’s living. There are hundreds of men chained to—”
“Not me! Never.” He paused. “And what about yourself, Diane? Think of yourself. All this would go.” He gestured wildly with his hands. “The house, the cars, the way we live, even the goddamn food we eat!”
“I’d choke!” Diane said. “If you let Jeff die, I’d choke with every bite I took.”
“Then who’s supposed to die? Me? Am I supposed to die for him? What is he to me?”
“He’s a human being, that’s all. Another human being. You used to care about…”
“All right, and I’m a human being, too. What the hell do I owe humanity, this great faceless mass named by the gentle spirits of our time? What has humanity, anonymous humanity, ever handed me? Nothing! I’ve clawed an existence for myself, clawed it out of solid rock until my hands are bleeding. How could you know, Diane, how could you possibly know? You were attending a private school while I was working my ass off in Granger’s stockroom. I’ve worked for this business all my life, don’t you see, all my life! And only because I could see into the future, the time when—”
“I don’t want to hear it. If you mention the business again, I’ll… I’ll punch you. I swear to God, I’ll punch you!”
“All right, forget the business. Just tell me why I should pay. How many people out there have more money than I’ll ever have. I’m poor, for God’s sake. By comparison, I’m poor. It’s taken me years to reach the point where I can afford this deal. There are people who make deals like this every day of the week, pick up a phone, close it by saying yes or no. Why haven’t we had munificent offers from some of them? Why don’t they pay the goddamn ransom?”
“That couple in Calm’s Point offered you a thousand dollars, Doug. And they’re probably poorer than you ever were.”
“Sure, a thousand dollars. What percentage of their life’s savings is that? How much have they got in the bank besides that? Have they got five thousand? Okay, let’s send them a return wire and ask for the entire sum, the entire five, not just the portion of it represented by the thousand they offered. Let’s tell them they have to give us their life savings or a boy will die. What plans have they made for that money, Diane? A down payment on a house in the country? A new car? A trip to Europe? What? Ask them to give up their plans and their dreams for a kid who means nothing to them. Go ahead, ask them. Ask anybody in the world! Ask all of your sweet loving humanity! Ask humanity to commit suicide for a brother!”
“You were asked,” Diane said. “You can’t pass the buck.”
“I know I was asked, and I’m saying it’s unfair. It’s idiotic! I’m saying nobody should be asked.”
Diane sat at his feet suddenly. She took his hands in her own and looked up into his face. “Look,” she said gently, “if… if Jeff were drowning and… and you were standing there on the shore… why, you’d automatically jump in after him, wouldn’t you? You’d save him. That’s all I’m asking of you now. Save him, Doug. Save him, please, please, pl—”
“But why me?” King said plaintively. “Because I took the trouble to learn how to swim? Why didn’t Reynolds learn to swim? Why should he come to me now and say, ‘Save my son! I never bothered to learn how to swim!’?”
“Are you blaming Reynolds for what happened?”
“Don’t be silly, how could I?”
“For what then? For being a chauffeur? For not having five hundred thousand dollars?”
“Okay, I have got five hundred thousand, and I didn’t get it by sitting around and watching the world go by. So where’s the justice? I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve ever—”
“Reynolds has worked hard, too!”
“Not hard enough, then! Not half as hard! If he had, I wouldn’t have to ransom his goddamn son! He’s a sitter, Diane. And the sitters all want something for nothing. The big jackpot! The big country of quiz programs that pay thousands of dollars for worthless information! Want a million dollars? Sure, go out and win it! Bull! Go out and work for it! Work like a bastard, until your fingers are—”
“Stop it, stop it,” she said.
“What is Reynolds saying to me? He’s saying, ‘Help me, I’m helpless.’ Well, I don’t want to help. I don’t want to help anybody but myself.”
“You don’t mean that,” Diane said, dropping his hands. “You can’t mean that.”
“I do mean it. Don’t you think I’m tired too, Diane? Don’t you think I’d like to sit?”
“I don’t know what to think. I don’t know anything about you any more.”
“You don’t have to know anything about me. I’m a man fighting for his life. That’s all you have to know.”
“And Jeffs life?” she asked, suddenly rising. “Do you want them to kill him?”
“Of course I don’t!” he shouted.
“Don’t yell at me, Doug! They will kill him. You know they will!”
“I don’t know they will! And it’s not my problem. He’s not mine. He’s not my son!”
“He’s there because of your son!” Diane shouted.
“I’m sorry about that, but it wasn’t my—”
“You’re not sorry! You don’t care what they do to him. Oh, my God, you don’t give a damn what happens to that—”
“That’s not true, Diane. You know I…“
“What’s happened to you, anyway?” she said. “What’s become of you? Where’s Douglas King?”
“I don’t know what you…”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have stood by watching all these years, never raising a finger. Yes, you clawed, oh God, how you clawed your way, but I told myself this was an admirable trait, a desirable trait. This was a man, I told myself, the man I love. Even when I realized what you were doing to people. I excused it, I said it was simply your way. I convinced myself that you weren’t cruel and ruthless and—”