Luke Rheinhart - The Diceman

'Your second question was going to be "Oh my goodness, perhaps we should discuss why the religion of the Die

attracts some people."

'Oh yes? .

`May I give my answer now?, 'Oh yes do. Go ahead.'

Father Wolfe's prosecuting-attorney voice snaps out from the same screen from which looks Dr. Rhinehart.

`The devil has always attracted men through gaudy disguises ah, through bread and circuses ahh and through promises

he cannot fulfil unh. I believe-'

`Wouldn't it be interesting if he never came out of it?' interrupts Rabbi Fishman's voice.

`I beg your pardon, I was speaking.'[Father Wolfe.]

`Oh he'll come out of it says Dr. Dart. `The permanent catatonic looks more tense but less alert. Rhinehart's obviously

just putting on an act'

`How can people be interested in such a nut?' asked Rabbi Fishman.

`I believe he's not always this way, is he?' asks Mrs. Wippleton.

Father Wolfe says: `He talked to me quite pleasantly before we went on the air, but I wasn't fooled. I knew it was just

ah un trick.'

`Dr. Dart, perhaps you'd like to comment on -why the religion of the Die attracts followers,' says Mrs. W.

`Look, he's exhaling again,' says Rabbi Fishman.

`Ignore him,' says Dr. Dart, `we're playing his game.'

Father Wolfe says: `Mrs. Wippleton, I must point out that you asked me to answer that question first and that I was

rudely interrupted by Dr. Dart before I had finished.'

[Silence. The image changes to Mrs. Wippleton, who is sitting wide-eyed and openmouthed looking to her right.]

`Oh my God,' she says.

`Jesus H. Christ,' comes one of the panelists' voices off screen.

[A loud crash and two or three feminine screams from the audience.] `What the hell-is this?'

`STOP THEM!' [Bang.] Mrs. Wippleton, still openmouthed, is seen standing up and fiddling with the microphone at

her neck She tries a smile: `Will the members of the audience please-'

'Ahhhhgggh a long scream.

`Shut her up!'

[The camera jerks a pan over the audience to locate two armed men, one white and one Negro, standing at the door

behind the audience, one looking out, the other glaring at the audience. Then, for obscure reasons, the image of Dr.

Rhinehart returns, removing his pipe, exhaling air, and returning it to his mouth to chew on it.]

`Has Bobby got the elevators?'

`Are we on?'

[Bang, bamtwang.]

`What if they got Bobby?'

`Stay in your seats! Stay in your seats! Or we'll shoot!'

'Are we on?'

'Go ask Eric what's'

Bambambambam.

`LOOK OUT!'

[More gunshots bang away and Rhinehart disappears and is replaced by an armed man falling (clutching his belly).

Two men with pistols fire past the audience at something. One of them falls forward with a groan. The other stops

shooting, but remains looking off intently.]

'Are we on?' comes the masculine voice again. [Dr. Rhinehart's benign face is again the image on the home screen, but not centered, since the camera which happens to be on him and happens to be being transmitted has been deserted by the cameraman, who is sitting quietly now in the audience trying to look natural, which, since everyone else in the audience looks terrified, makes him stand out like a nude at a funeral.]

`All right, Charlie, get your camera aimed over here; our boys in the control room will do the rest.'

`Where's Malcolm? He was going to introduce Arturo.'

'He's 'Oh. Yes.'

`Ladies and gentlemen, Arturo X.'

On the screen Dr. Rhinehart looks out as always.

'Am I on?' says someone's voice.

'Is he on?'

Dr. Rhinehart exhales.

`Where's Eric?'

`What the hell's the matter with you guys in there?' shouts someone.

[The image shifts to a shot of Rabbi Fishman's feet, which are wrapped around each other, and then to Arturo X, who

is standing tensely with his back to .the camera looking off at the control room.] `You're on,' comes a muffled shout.

Arturo turns to face the camera.

`Black brothers and white bastards of the world A gray-flanneled arm and white hand appear around his neck; the face

of Dr. Dart is seen tensely beside and behind that of Arturo.

`Drop your gun, you, or I'll shoot this man,' Dr. Dart says toward his right.

`Inside the control room there, you I' shouts Dr. Dart. `You! Throw down your gun and come out with your hands up.'

Arturo's face begins to show less, strain, and the viewer becomes aware of Dr. Dart's face taking on a strangled look. A

long blacksuited arm and huge white hand are seen now, firmly around his neck, and the face of Dr. Rhinehart, still

with the pipe in his mouth and still with the benign look on his face, appears beside that of Dr. Dart. Arturo breaks

away from Dart and the viewer sees a gun in Dr. Rhinehart's other hand sticking into the side of Dr. Dart.

`What do you want me to shoot now?' an off-screen voice says.

`Shoot me,' says Arturo's voice.

[The image pans slowly from the sedate wrestler's pose of the two psychologists past the terrified and bewildered faces

of Mrs. Wippleton and Rabbi Fishman, past the empty chair of Father Wolfe, to Arturo, still gasping for breath, but

looking intently and sincerely into the camera.]

`Black bastards and white brothers of the world…' begins Arturo. A pained, quizzical expression crosses his face. He

says: `Black brothers and white bastards of the world, we have taken over this television program this afternoon to

bring you some truths they won't tell you on any program except at gunpoint. The black man-'

[A tremendous explosion from the rear of the studio interrupts Arturo. Screams. A single `bang.']

'Fire!!'

[More screams, and several voices pick up the cry of fire. Arturo is staring off to his right and he yells: `Where's Eric?

']

`Let's get out of here!' someone shouts.

Arturo turns nervously back to the camera and begins speaking of the difficulties of being a black person in a white

society and. the difficulties of being able to communicate his grievances to the white oppressors. Smoke drifts across in front of him and coughs, which had come at isolated intervals, now cone from off-screen with machine-gun regularity.

`Tear gas,' yells a voice.

'Oh no,' screams a woman and begins crying.

Bang. Bang bang.

More screams.

`Let's go!' Arturo, glancing continually to his right and occasionally pausing, struggles on with his speech, staring,

whenever he finds the time, sincerely into the camera. ` .. Oppression so pervasive that no black man alive can breathe without seeming to have ten white men standing on his chest. No more shall we lie down before white pigs! No more shall we obey the laws of white injustice! No more

shall we-simper and fawn to watch out over there Ray! - There! to . . . ah . . . white men anywhere. We have abjected ourselves for the last time. No white, no white Ray! There! [Shots are being exchanged off-screen; Arturo is crouching, his face a tangle of terror and hatred, but he struggles on

with his speech.]

'. . . No white can deny us again our right to be heard, our right to say that WE STILL EXIST, that your efforts to

enslave us continue, and WE WILL NOT LIE DOWN FOR YOU any MORE! Ahhhh.'

The 'Ah' at the end of Ids speech was a gentle sound, and as he fell forward onto the floor the last glimpse the Sunday afternoon television audience had of his face showed a look not of fear or hatred but of bewildered surprise. The shouts and groans and shots continued sporadically, smoke or tear gas floating across in front of the TV image of Dr. Rhinehart, his pipe still emerging in its permanent erection from his mouth, and tears appearing in his eyes. The sound seemed sedate and repetitious compared to the earlier action and hundreds of viewers were about to switch channels when a boy appeared in front of the man with the pipe, longhaired, handsome, blue eyes glittering with tears, dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt open at the neck.