Paul
Prompting with a gesture.
Montana
Maxie
About to start, but resumes talking instead.
That was a great idea of Fagan’s, writing a lyric about Montana. I’ve often wondered why lyric writers stayed out of the Northwest.
Paul
Maybe Fagan was born there.
Maxie
Naw! Shamokin, Pennsylvania. If songwriters always wrote about their home state, what a big Jewish population Tennessee must have. · ·
He starts playing a popular tune—the telephone rings. Paul takes it up.
Paul
Hello. This is him. … Oh, hello! … Where are you at now? … Well, you better hop in a taxi—it’s quite a ways yet. 448 Riverside Drive. Tell him just above 116th Street. … That’s it. That’s Stevens, the lyric writer I was telling you about. From Schenectady.
Eileen makes another expectant appearance in the doorway—departs in disappointment as she learns that it still isn’t her call.; He hangs up; addresses Maxie , who continues to drum.
Maxie
Thank God he can’t get that in a lyric.
Paul
He had the phone number, but he didn’t know the address.
Lucille
How’d he get the phone number?