Page 166

By Jack Joseph Smith

She was playing games, acting like a cunt and calling me a highschool kid. So now you've slapped her. Is she hurt? Who gives a shit, the stupid bitch? Beaver was on one of the tables doing the Irish jig, with mush encouragement in the form of handclapping and singing coming from the floor. The cook was shouting that she had called the cops, it was all on its way again. O'Dandy was giggling and stuffing his yellow yokes into his, he he he ing, mouth, and I was sitting there wondering about the seconds. Just then a cop came through the door, bigger than shit, as they say, and walked directly up to O'Dandy, as Beaver scurried off the table. Everyone started to leave, and it was to much time gone by, when the three of us were the only ones left in the restraunt. Five or six cops had formed a gauntlet outside the door and the music makers were huddled together passing through them, on their way to there automobiles. Okey O'Dandy, the cop said. Who slapped the girl? I'm busy eating eggs. Let's go he said, putting his hand on O'Dandy's arm. Hey just wait a minute, for Christ's sake. I'm eating my eggs. This takes alot of gaul. I think you better talk to my buddy Murphy. Okey Murphy. Did you hit the girl? Yeah, I hit her. Let's go. You bastard Dandy, said Murphy. You know I can't be bothered with that kind of bull shit Murphy, when I'm eating my eggs. The cop put the hand cuffs on Murphy, and walked him out the door and through the

Original Scan

Page 166

AI Interpretation

GPT

While Murphy is cuffed and taken out, O'Dandy keeps eating his eggs, stalls for time, and then steps into another half-joking, half-calculated plan as the narrator realizes the police are waiting for the rest of them too.

O'Dandy's calm over breakfast turns the arrest into a performance of contempt, which is funny on the surface but also reckless and manipulative. The page works by contrast: Murphy is removed physically while Dandy tries to keep control socially.

Claude

Murphy justifies the slap with ugly contempt - she 'was playing games... and calling me a highschool kid,' and 'Who gives a shit' whether she is hurt - while Beaver dances 'the Irish jig' on a tabletop to handclaps and the cook shouts that 'she had called the cops.' The officer walks 'directly up to O'Dandy,' who stalls with the page's running deflection - 'I'm busy eating eggs... This takes alot of / gaul' - and offloads the blame onto Murphy, who flatly owns it: 'Yeah, I hit her.' Murphy's 'You bastard Dandy' meets O'Dandy's serene betrayal - 'I can't be bothered with that kind of bull shit Murphy, when I'm eating / my eggs' - as Murphy is cuffed and walked out through a gauntlet of cops. Source slurs are preserved as archival text per the scan review.