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INSIDE THE HAMBURGER STAND, a standard cheap eatery, Bert is doing the short orders and Mae is handling the counter. A nickel phonograph is playing a tune. Bill, a truck driver, sits at the counter; his partner, Fred, is playing a slot machine.
BILL: Kinda pie y'got?
MAE: Banana cream, pineapple cream, chocolate cream--and apple.
BILL: Cut me off a hunk a that banana cream, and a cuppa java.
FRED: Make it two.
MAE: Two it is.
(Smirking) Seen any new etchin's lately, Bill?
BILL: (grinning) Well, here's one ain't bad. Little kid comes in late to school. Teacher says--
He stops. Pa is peering in the screen door. Beside him Ruthie and Winfield have their noses flattened against the screen.
Mae looks at Pa.
MAE: Yeah?
PA: Could you see your way clear to sell us a loaf of bread, ma'am.
MAE: This ain't a groc'ry store. We got bread to make san'widges with.
PA: I know, ma'am... on'y it's for a ole lady, no teeth, gotta sof'n it with water so she can chew it, an' she's hongry.
MAE: Whyn't you buy a san'wich? We got nice san'widges.
PA: (embarrassed) I shore would like to do that, ma'am, but the fack is, we ain't got but a dime for it. It's all figgered out, I mean--for the trip.
MAE: You can't get no loaf a bread for a dime. We only got fifteen-cent loafs.
BERT: (an angry whisper) Give 'em the bread.
MAE: We'll run out 'fore the bread truck comes.
BERT: Awright then, run out!
Mae shrugs at the truck drivers, to indicate what she's up against, while Bert mashes his hamburgers savagely with the spatula.
MAE: Come in.
Pa and the two children come in as Mae opens a drawer and pulls out a long waxpaper-covered loaf of bread. The children have been drawn to the candy showcase and are staring in at the goodies.
MAE: This here's a fifteen-cent loaf.
PA: Would you--could you see your way to cuttin' off ten cents worth?
BERT: (a clinched teeth order) Give 'im the loaf!
PA: No, sir, we wanta buy ten cents worth, thas all.
MAE: (sighing) You can have this for ten cents.
PA: I don't wanta rob you, ma'am.
MAE: (with resignation) Go ahead--Bert says take it.
Taking out his pouch, Pa digs into it, feels around with his fingers for a dime, as he apologizes.
PA: May soun' funny to be so tight, but we got a thousan' miles to go, an' we don't know if we'll make it.
But when he puts the dime down on the counter he has a penny with it. He is about to drop this back in the pouch when his eyes fall on the children staring at the candy. Slowly he moves down to see what they are looking at. Then:
PA: Is them penny candy, ma'am?
The children look up with a gasp, their big eyes on Mae as she moves down behind the counter.
MAE: Which ones?
PA: There, them stripy ones.
Mae looks from the candy to the children. They have stopped breathing, their eyes on the candy.
MAE: Oh, them? Well, no--them's *two* for a penny.
PA: Well, give me two then, ma'am.
He places the penny carefully on the counter and Mae holds the sticks of candy out to the children. They look up at Pa.
PA: (beaming) Sure, take 'em, take 'em!
Rigid with embarrassment, they accept the candy, looking neither at it nor at each other. Pa picks up the loaf of bread and they scramble for the door. At the door Pa turns back.
PA: Thank you, ma'am.
The door slams. Bill turns back from staring after them.
BILL: Them wasn't two-for-a-cent candy.
MAE: (belligerently) What's it to you?
BILL: Them was nickel apiece candy.
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