EIGHT (to FOUR). Take a look at that sketch. How long does it take an elevated train going at top speed to pass a given point?
FOUR. What has that got to do with anything?
EIGHT. How long? Guess.
FOUR. I wouldn’t have the slightest idea.
EIGHT (to FIVE). What do you think?
FIVE. About ten or twelve seconds, maybe.
EIGHT. I’d say that was a fair guess. Anyone else?
ELEVEN. I would think about ten seconds, perhaps.
TWO. About ten seconds.
FOUR. All right. Say ten seconds. What are you getting at?
EIGHT. This. An el train passes a given point in ten seconds. That given point is the window of the room in which the killing took place. You can almost reach out of the window of that room and touch the el. Right? (Several of them nod.) All right. Now let me ask you this. Did anyone here ever live right next to the el tracks? I have. When your window is open and the train goes by, the noise is almost unbearable. You can’t hear yourself think.
TEN. Okay. You can’t hear yourself think. Will you get to the point?
EIGHT. The old man heard the boy say, “I’m going to kill you,” and one second later he heard a body fall. One second. That’s the testimony, right?
TWO. Right.
EIGHT. The woman across the street looked through the windows of the last two cars of the el and saw the body fall. Right? The last two cars.
TEN. What are you giving us here?
EIGHT. An el takes ten seconds to pass a given point or two seconds per car. That el had been going by the old man’s window for at least six seconds, and maybe more, before the body fell, according to the woman. The old man would have had to hear the boy say, “I’m going to kill you,” while the front of the el was roaring past his nose. It’s not possible that he could have heard it.
THREE. What d’ya mean! Sure he could have heard it.
EIGHT. Could he?
THREE. He said the boy yelled it out. That’s enough for me.
NINE. I don’t think he could have heard it.
TWO. Maybe he didn’t hear it. I mean with the el noise—
THREE. What are you people talking about? Are you calling the old man a liar?
FIVE. Well, it stands to reason.
THREE. You’re crazy. Why would he lie? What’s he got to gain?
NINE. Attention, maybe?
THREE. You keep coming up with these bright sayings. Why don’t you send one in to a newspaper? They pay two dollars.
(EIGHT looks hard at THREE and then turns to NINE.)
EIGHT (softly). Why might the old man have lied? You have a right to be heard.
NINE. It’s just that I looked at him for a very long time. The seam of his jacket was split under the arm. Did you notice that? He was a very old man with a torn jacket, and he carried two canes. I think I know him better than anyone here. This is a quiet, frightened, insignificant man who has been nothing all his life, who has never had recognition—his name in the newspapers. Nobody knows him after seventy-five years. That’s a very sad thing. A man like this needs to be recognized. To be questioned, and listened to, and quoted just once. This is very important.
TWELVE. And you’re trying to tell us he lied about a thing like this just so that he could be important?
NINE. No, he wouldn’t really lie. But perhaps he’d make himself believe that he heard those words and recognized the boy’s face.
THREE (loud). Well, that’s the most fantastic story I’ve ever heard. How can you make up a thing like that? What do you know about it?
NINE (low). I speak from experience. (There is a long pause, then the FOREMAN clears his throat.)
FOREMAN (to EIGHT). All right. Is there anything else?
(EIGHT is looking at NINE. TWO offers the FOREMAN a box of cough drops. The FOREMAN pushes it away.)
TWO (hesitantly). Anybody … want a cough … drop?
FOREMAN (sharply). Come on. Let’s get on with it.
EIGHT. I’ll take one. (TWO almost gratefully slides him one along the table.) Thanks. (TWO nods and EIGHT puts the cough drop in his mouth.)
EIGHT. Now. There’s something else I’d like to point out here. I think we proved that the old man couldn’t have heard the boy say, “I’m going to kill you,” but supposing he really did hear it? This phrase: how many times has each of you used it? Probably hundreds. “If you do that once more junior, I’m going to murder you.” “Come on, Rocky, kill him!” We say it every day. This doesn’t mean that we’re going to kill someone.
THREE. Wait a minute. The phrase was “I’m going to kill you,” and the kid screamed it out at the top of his lungs. Don’t try and tell me he didn’t mean it. Anybody says a thing like that the way he said it—they mean it.