The Early Ayn Rand

FANNY: It says here that Sayers Oil was beginning to pick up.

FINK: Oh, well, one plutocrat less. So much the better for the heirs.

FANNY: [Picks up a pile of books] Twenty-five copies of Oppress the Oppressors— [Adds with a bow] — by Chuck Fink!... What the hell are we going to do with them?

FINK: [Sharply] What do you think we're going to do with them?

FANNY: God! Lugging all that extra weight around! Do you think there are twenty-five people in the United States who bought one copy each of your great masterpiece?

FINK: The number of sales is no proof of a book's merit.

FANNY: No, but it sure does help!

FINK: Would you like to see me pandering to the middle-class rabble, like the scribbling lackeys of capitalism? You're weakening, Fanny. You're turning petty bourgeois.

FANNY: [Furiously] Who's turning petty bourgeois? I've done more than you'll ever hope

to do! I don't go running with manuscripts to third-rate publishers. I've had an article printed in The Nation!. Yes, in The Nation! If I didn't bury myself with you in this mudhole of a...

FINK: It's in the mudholes of the slums that the vanguard trenches of social reform are dug, Fanny.

FANNY: Oh, Lord, Chuck, what's the use? Look at the others. Look at Miranda Lumkin. A column in the Courier and a villa at Palm Springs! And she couldn't hold a candle to me in college! Everybody always said I was an advanced thinker. [Points at the room] This is what one gets for being an advanced thinker.

FINK: [Softly] I know, dear. You're tired. You're frightened. I can't blame you. But, you see, in our work one must give up everything. All thought of personal gain or comfort. I've done it. I have no private ego left. All I want is that millions of men hear the name of Chuck Fink and come to regard it as that of their leader!

FANNY: [Softening] I know. You mean it all right. You're real, Chuck. There aren't many unselfish men in the world.

FINK: [Dreamily] Perhaps, five hundred years from now, someone will write my

biography and call it Chuck Fink the Selfless.

FANNY: And it will seem so silly, then, that here we were worried about some piddling California landlord! FINK: Precisely. One must know how to take a long view on things. And...

FANNY: [Listening to some sound outside, suddenly] Sh-sh! I think there's someone at the door.

FINK: Who? No one'll come here. They've deserted us. They've left us to... [There is a knock at the door. They look at each other. FINK walks to the door] Who's there? [There is no answer. The knock is repeated. He throws the door open angrily] What do you... [He stops short as KAY GONDA enters; she is dressed as in the preceding scene. He gasps] Oh!... [He stares at her, half frightened, half incredulous. FANNY makes a step forward and stops. They can't make a sound]

KAY GONDA: Mr. Fink?

FINK: [Nodding frantically] Yes. Chuck Fink. In person... But you... you're Kay Gonda, aren't you?

KAY GONDA: Yes. I am hiding- From the police. I have no place to go. Will you let me stay here for the night?

FINK: Well, I'll be damned!... Oh, excuse me!

FANNY: You want us to hide you here? KAY GONDA: Yes. If you are not afraid of it.

FANNY: But why on earth did you pick...

KAY GONDA: Because no one would find me here. And because I read Mr. Fink's letter.

FINK: [Quite recovering himself] But of course! My letter. I knew you'd notice it among the thousands. Pretty good, wasn't it?

FANNY: I helped him with it.

FINK: [Laughing] What a glorious coincidence! I had no idea when I wrote it, that... But how wonderfully things work out!

KAY GONDA: [Looking at him] I am wanted for murder.

FINK: Oh, don't worry about that. We don't mind. We're broadminded.

FANNY: [Hastily pulling down the window shade] You'll be perfectly safe here. You'll excuse the... informal appearance of things, won't you? We were considering moving out of here.

FINK: Please sit down, Miss Gonda.

KAY GONDA: [Sitting down, removing her hat] Thank you.

FINK: I've dreamed of a chance to talk to you like this. There are so many things I've always wanted to ask you.

KAY GONDA: There are many things I've always wanted to be asked.

FINK: Is it true, what they say about Granton Sayers? You ought to know. They say he was a regular pervert and what he didn't do to women...

FANNY: Chuck! That's entirely irrelevant and...