“Why not let her alone, old sport?” remarked Gatsby. “You’re the one who wanted to come to town.” There was a moment of silence. Tom turned with slow, but definite and visible shock that Gatsby had the audacity to call him out on his own words. The shock quickly turned to anger and disbelief that was telegraphed in his face. Jordan began to look away, as if she wished she could be in another suite. Gatsby stood firm as Tom came within inches of him. “I’m sorry… What did you say?” Tom said in a softly spoken tone but you could hear something hiding under his words, waiting to come out. “I said, why not let her alone, old sport. You’re obviously quite experienced in doing so both emotionally and physically.” Gatsby said this with a straight composure, while letting his last words hang in the air. They were there and no one could refute this. I knew that something was going to happen. Jordan knew it. Daisy knew it. And we all knew that no one would walk out of this room as we had walked in. “Who do you think you are? You are a nobody. You’re a crook! I know what you do Mr. Gatsby. I know that you’re in cahoots with Wolfsheim. I did my reading. And you’re going to talk back to me as such, right in front of my wife. Who in the hell do you think you are!” Tom’s tone raised to a scared roar as he finished the last words. He knew he was in the wrong, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to ruin Gatsby. He knew daisy was slipping through his fingers. He knew he had wronged her. He didn’t know it was all going to some back to him though. His forehead began to sweat either from the heat or the anger he was holding onto. But Gatsby stayed calm. He too, was sweating. But that was due to the undeniable fact that the heat was sparing no one, and it seemed to get stronger as the tension stacked. “I, am someone who cares for daisy. I’m the one who has devoted everything about myself thinking of her. I’m the one who is there for her.” said Gatsby. And then he paused. And he looked Tom straight in the eyes and aid in a decisive tone, “I’m the one who deserves her, old sport.” Tom stopped then with his lips trembling a little, and it seemed he felt the weight of what Gatsby had said. And Daisy spoke up and said, “Tom, I won’t stay with you. I’ve seen Gatsby for five years, and he’s been there more for me more than the time we’ve been married.” Tom began to look over at daisy with shock in his eyes, and then he turned on Gatsby with rage. He grabbed Gatsby by his shirt as Daisy and Jordan both gave a start. “You have no right! You’re a nobody, you hear! A nobody!” Gatsby grabbed Tom’s hands as he shouted in his face, spraying a mixture of spittle and sweat on his face. He pulled Tom’s hand from him slowly, and with great effort. “Everything I’ve done, I have done for Daisy. She never loved you. You’ve brought nothing but regret and torment into her life, old sport.” Gatsby spoke as if he were talking business with someone, but his words were still commanding. And it was visible that Tom felt his words. “Daisy, tell him the truth. Tell him that you never loved him. Please. Tell him.” As Gatsby said this, Tom looked over at daisy and another element was added to the emotional cocktail he already was. Desperation. And I realized, that Tom’s tiny and unforgivingly hypocritical world hung on Daisy’s next words as a tipping point. Daisy held the scales. And then, with a word, she tipped them. She said with the softest of tones that held the greatest weight, “Tom, no. I mad a terrible, terrible mistake. And every time you’re god knows where, I remember where it all began.” Tom stopped then, and knew he was through. His nightmares had come to roost. “I should never have said ‘I do’. I should never have married you Tom, and I’m not sorry about this.” as Daisy spoke, we all felt her tone stay the same, but the importance seemed to grow. And for a few moments in the unbearable summer heat, we all stopped. Then Tom did what he had done to Myrtle, and most likely to many other women. He hit Daisy. We all drew breath out of shock then. The air around us had been bent and now snapped with a violent fury. No one had seen Tom’s actions coming to this. In his own genuine, hypocritical way, had loved Daisy. And that’s just what he began to scream as he was pulled away from Daisy by Gatsby. Gatsby grabbed Tom’s hulking shoulders from the back and pulled him away from Daisy in a protective fear for her. He fell to the floor as Daisy hit the couch, as if in unison to their separation in both the physical and marital senses. Tom’s hand began to clamor around the floor until it grasped the neck of a bottle that had fallen to the floor. Tom began to swing at Gatsby with the bottle of liquor that was to be used for the mint juleps. Instead of Gatsby, he hit the floor and shattered the bottle, spilling small and large shards of glass flowing with the golden colored liquor onto the floor where is stayed. I began to back away from the unfolding scene. As I did so, Gatsby did nothing more than look at me for no more than a second, then at Daisy, and once more at myself. Once again, I believed he was going to give his life in pursuit of Daisy. And I knew from that one look what it was Gatsby asked from me. This last favor was all I could do in the moment. I went over to Jordan, who had been petrified perfectly still throughout the entire scene, breaking her stillness only to jump at the loud sounds. I began to pick Daisy up and motioned Jordan to help. She began to do so with trembling fingers. But as I took Daisy and Jordan with me out the door, Tom tightened his already whitened fist around his shattered bottle. And then he jumped for us with the cocktail of emotions now boiling in his eyes. As he neared, I pushed Daisy and Jordan forward towards the door which lay outstretched. I was sure that Tom’s fury, and loss were going to reach us, and that he no longer knew what he was doing. Then Gatsby reached out. And Tom’s ankle was grabbed, and he began to fall. He threw his hands down before himself, and the bottle he had been holding hit the floor first facing upwards. Then the rest of Tom followed his hands to the ground. That was how bottle came to lay under his chest. Tom stayed down, unmoving. I had just watched a mans entire world fall to nothing within mere minutes. I had watched Tom’s downfall. I had watched Tom’s death. And I stayed only long enough to see the back of his jacket begin to darken red. After a momentary gaze, I kept pushing Daisy forward out the door, and out of the room. She didn’t need to see Tom. Not now, and not like this. No matter what the man had done, he didn’t need to to be seen by her as he now was.