Topdog/Underdog

A few days later, Wednesday night, Booth is wearing his new suit, and the apartment has been decorated and set up for a romantic dinner. Booth checks the place anxiously, noticing that his dirty magazines are visible. He frantically pulls his bedspread down to hide them. Then he calls out, “Foods getting cold, Grace!!” (63), reassuring himself that she will show up. Nervously, Booth begins to check things—the champagne on ice, two fancy robes embroidered with “His” and “Hers.” He tries to push the magazines further under the bed, then, remembering that he is still wearing his suit, strips down to his underwear so he doesn’t mess up his clothing. Lincoln enters, wearing his Abraham Lincoln coat and carrying the rest of the costume in a bag. Seeing Booth nearly naked, Lincoln asks if he has caught him “in the middle of it” (64). Booth tells Lincoln that he needs to leave and stay out for the evening. But when Lincoln says, “Hey, Grace, howyadoing?” (64), Booth admits that she isn’t there yet.

Lincoln tells Booth that he lost his job. His boss told him that they were making cutbacks and showed him the wax dummy he is planning to order. Lincoln left still wearing his costume. He wonders if he could get his job back if he offered to take a pay cut, but Booth says, “Link. Yr free. Dont go crawling back. Yr free at last!” (65). Again, Booth tells Lincoln that he needs to leave. Lincoln wants to stay until Grace arrives, promising to make a good impression. Booth reveals that Grace was supposed to be there at eight, and it’s after two in the morning. Lincoln asks if Booth stole the fancy decorations, and Booth says that he did. Lincoln is glad that he didn’t spend his inheritance on the setup only for Grace to be so late.

Booth says, “Fuck this waiting bullshit” (67), but Lincoln offers optimism that she’ll show up. Booth asks why Lincoln praises him for stealing but not throwing cards. Lincoln doesn’t answer but promises to leave when Grace arrives. Booth watches out the window. Lincoln drinks from the whiskey bottle and pages through their family photo album. As Lincoln remembers the house they grew up in, Booth warns, “[D]ont be going down memory lane man, yll jinx thuh vibe I got going in here” (68). They continue to reminisce, and Booth asks Lincoln the time. It’s after three, and Lincoln suggests that Booth call. Booth insists that he just has to be patient. Lincoln tells Booth that he got a week’s pay as severance, but he blew it because it felt good to spend money like “back in thuh day when I was really making money. Throwing thuh cards all day and strutting and rutting at night” (70). After a moment, Lincoln asks Booth why he thinks their parents left them. Booth says that he doesn’t think about it, and Lincoln replies, “I don’t think they liked us” (71).

Booth disagrees, but Lincoln says, “I think there was something out there that they liked more than they liked us and for years they was struggling against moving toward that more liked something” (71). Lincoln and Booth were 16 and 11 respectively when their parents left them, although their mother left first and then their father left two years later. Booth sympathizes with his parents for yearning for more, adding, “It aint right me trying to make myself into a one woman man just cause Grace wants me like that. One woman rubber-wearing motherfucker. Shit. Not me” (72). Their mother told both of them not to ever get married. Before she left, she gave Booth $500. When their father left, he handed Lincoln another $500. Booth suggests that this meant that even though they left at different times, they had planned it. 

The brothers wonder if their parents left separately to meet up with each other and start a new family. The whiskey is gone, and Booth opens the champagne. Booth tells Lincoln that he accepted their parents’ absence because the brothers had each other, which is why Booth wants Lincoln to hustle with him so badly. Lincoln warns him that throwing cards is harder than it looked when Booth was a kid watching from the sidelines. Lincoln shows him some tricks, and Booth offers to be the lookout, telling Lincoln that he always has his gun in his pants. Lincoln asks for it, and Booth hands it over. Lincoln sets it on the chair and says that the gun will stand in for the lookout, since there aren’t really any cops around. Lincoln tells Booth to be the Sideman, whose job is “playing along with the Dealer, moving the Mark to lay his money down” (77). Booth agrees. 

Lincoln instructs, “First thing you learn is what is. Next think you learn is what aint. You dont know what is you dont know what aint, you dont know shit” (77). Lincoln looks at Booth, sizing him up because the “Dealer always sizes up thuh crowd. […] His crew is part of the crowd, he himself is part of the crowd” (78). Then, Lincoln announces, “Dealer dont wanna play” (78). Booth protests, and Lincoln teaches him that the Dealer is supposed to act as if he doesn’t want to play so the crowd thinks they have to convince him. Lincoln tells Booth that he needs to practice “thuh moves and thuh grooves, the talk and thuh walk, the patter and the pitter pat, thuh rap and thuh flap: what yr doing with yr mouth and what yr doing with yr hands” (79). Lincoln tells Booth to look at his eyes, not his hands. Booth notices that Lincoln’s eyes are red and asks if he has been crying, but Lincoln doesn’t answer.

Booth points to a card, and Lincoln is a little disappointed that he chooses the right card. Booth gloats, and Lincoln tells him to focus. Lincoln tries again, this time adding the patter. Booth picks a card, and it is again the right one. Booth gloats again, and Lincoln says, “You wanna learn or you wanna run yr mouth?” (83) Booth continues to brag, so Lincoln tells him to switch roles. Booth is not nearly as smooth as his brother. Lincoln suddenly cuts him off, laughing hysterically, saying, “Yr just, yr just a little wild with it. You talk like that on thuh street cards or no cards and they’ll lock you up man” (84). Lincoln remembers an instance when Booth was trying to be a part of the hustle and made a mistake that cost them $800. Lincoln gives Booth advice, and Booth asks for the time. Lincoln shows Booth his watch, and Booth gets angry, cursing Grace. Lincoln tries to calm Booth down, but he storms out.

It’s Thursday night, and Lincoln enters drunk and waving a large amount of cash, but Booth isn’t home. Lincoln describes how, instead of going back to the arcade, he started hustling again. And when he went into the bar, everyone, including the women, treated him like a big shot. Booth enters and watches Lincoln quietly as Lincoln crows about his success. Then Booth closes the door, and Lincoln notices him. Both brothers have news. Booth tells Lincoln that Grace asked him to marry her. Booth says that he told Grace to come over Thursday, not Wednesday. She hadn’t been out with another man but at home. Booth tells Lincoln that Grace wants to have a baby right away but that Lincoln will have to move out so she can move in. Lincoln agrees easily. Booth is confused, and Lincoln explains that he got a job as a security guard so finding a new place won’t be an issue.

As Lincoln packs, he advises Booth to get a job if he wants to keep Grace. Booth replies, “Grace is very cool with who I am and where Im at, thank you” (92). Watching Lincoln pack, Booth comments that it was strange that their father left without taking his clothes and belongings. Lincoln points out that their father was always drunk. He remembers meeting their father’s women. Sometimes their father would let Lincoln watch him have sex with them, and one of them would have sex with Lincoln after his father was asleep. Lincoln pulls out his Abraham Lincoln costume, and Booth comments that he’ll miss Lincoln coming home in the outfit since he doesn’t even have a photo of it for the album. Lincoln offers to put it on so they can take a picture. He puts the costume on, “including 2 smears of white pancake makeup, more like war paint than whiteface” (94). 

Lincoln pose, and Booth tries to convince him to smile. He takes the picture. Lincoln offers to put in a good word at the arcade for Booth in case they decide to hire a new Lincoln when business improves, but Booth declines. He asks what Lincoln thought about all day while sitting there as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s ex-wife, Cookie, comes up, and Booth remembers the night when Cookie came by looking for Lincoln. Lincoln was at the bar, and Cookie, sexually frustrated, flirted with Booth. She told Booth that “she wanted to have her fun right here” (47) but then changed her mind. Booth claims, “But she’d hooked me. That bad part of me that I fight down every day” (97) and describes how he “carried her into the bed and had her” (97). Lincoln doesn’t address the rape but tells Booth that he doesn’t think about Cookie anymore. The brothers begin to argue, and Lincoln insults Booth’s card-throwing ability. They set up the cards, and Lincoln begins his patter. To Lincoln’s confusion, Booth picks the right card. Booth gloats, then says that Lincoln had been out throwing cards, not getting a new job. 

Lincoln tells Booth that he planned to tell him, pointing out that Booth’s technique was improving. Booth says that it doesn’t feel real because there’s no money on the line. So he tells Lincoln to put down the money he won that day. Lincoln gives in and sets $500 on the table. Booth accuses Lincoln of not “going full out” (103). Booth says that he has to put down money as well and goes to find his inheritance in an old sock. As Booth gets the money, he describes the day he went home and found their mother packing. He used to catch their mother with the man she was having an affair with. One day, Booth heard her asking the man for money for an abortion. Booth heard the man say no, but two months later she didn’t seem to be pregnant, and she had the stocking full of money when he caught her leaving. Booth puts the stocking on the table. 

Seeing Booth’s inheritance, Lincoln tries to back out, but Booth insists. The first throw, Booth picks the right card. The second time, Lincoln reminds Booth that if he picks right again, he gets the money, but if he’s wrong, he loses all of it. Suddenly, Lincoln asks, “You think we’re really brothers? […] I know we brothers, but is we really brothers, you know, blood brothers or not, you and me, whatduhyathink?” (107). 

Booth replies, “I think we’re brothers” (107). Booth picks a card, and it’s the wrong one. Booth loses. Lincoln reassures Booth that losing at throwing cards isn’t everything, and Booth has other things like Grace. When Lincoln unties the stocking, Booth admits that he never opened it. Booth tries to tell Lincoln to leave it tied, and Lincoln wonders out loud if there really is money in there or if their mother might have been lying. 

Booth gets upset, screaming, “Fuck you. Fuck you FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!!” (111), and Lincoln reaches for a knife to open the stocking. Lincoln laughs, claiming, “Im not laughing at you, bro, Im just laughing” (111). As Lincoln prepares to slit the stocking open, Booth suddenly says, “I popped her. […] Grace. I popped her. Who thuh fuck she think she is doing me like she done?” (112). She wasn’t wearing his ring because it was too small, and Booth adds, “She aint dead” (112), then repeats, “[S]hes alive shes shes—” (112). Lincoln interjects, “Dead. Shes—” (112). Booth finishes, “Dead” (112). Lincoln tries to give Booth the stocking back, but Booth gets angry both at Lincoln acting like a big brother and that he keeps calling him Booth and not 3-Card. Booth insists that Lincoln open the stocking. As Lincoln starts to open it, Booth grabs him and shoves his gun into Lincoln’s neck. Lincoln says, “Dont” (114), and Booth shoots him. Lincoln falls dead. Booth paces, ranting about Lincoln trying to take his inheritance. Then he drops the stocking, cradles his brother’s body, and weeps. Booth screams.