A TABLE BY THE WINDOW
ANDREW AND COOPER ARE SEATED IN A RESTAURANT BY A WINDOW
- COOPER You see all the world’s types passing here – Slavs, Africans, Asiatics, Indians, Semites, Nordics. Who would you trust?
- ANDREW See that couple?
- ANDREW GESTURES AT A COUPLE PASSING BY
He’s nordic-looking with mousey hair, walking arm in arm with a black-haired asiatic woman. There’s no tension between them. They are perfectly in step.
- COOPER They say you need two Georgians to strike a bargain with a Greek, and two Greeks to do a deal with a Jew.
- ANDREW Meaning?
- COOPER Trust only extends so far. In numbers I trust. Two versus one.
- ANDREW Commerce!
- COOPER Don’t despise commerce. It puts food on your table.
- ANDREW It gets as far as the market. Where you haggle and barter and bargain.
- COOPER Yes, of course!
- ANDREW Commerce doesn’t grow it. That’s done in co-operatives. Doesn’t cook it. You work in a restaurant kitchen you work as a team.
- COOPER But restaurant owners?
- ANDREW Swindling bastards. Cheat the customers and treat the staff like shit.
- COOPER Are you ready to order?
- ANDREW Yes.
- COOPER Who’s paying?
CURTAIN