Free Baby Doll & Tiger Tail by Tennessee Williams Page B

dusk
.]
    ARCHIE : Did I understand you to say you wouldn’t build a new gin but would leave your business to me?
    SILVA : If that’s agreeable with you. . . .
    ARCHIE [
turning from his wife’s back to Vacarro’s face
]: I don’t know yet, I’ll have to consider the matter. . . . Financing is involved such as—new equipment. . . . Let’s go in and eat now. I got a pain in my belly, I got a sort of heartburn. . . .
    102] INTERIOR. HOUSE.
    They enter the kitchen and then to the dining room. Archie Lee’s condition is almost shock. He can’t quite get with the situation. He numbly figures that he’d better play it cool till the inner fog clears. But his instinct is murder. His cowardly caution focuses his malice on the old woman and the unsatisfactory supper she’s prepared
.
    ARCHIE : Hey! Hey! One more place at the table! Mr. Vacarro from the Syndicate Plantation is stayin’ to supper.
    AUNT ROSE [
with a startled outcry, clutching her chest
]: Oh—I had no idea that company was expected. Just let me—change the silver and. . .
    ARCHIE : Another place is all that’s called for. Have you been here all day?
    AUNT ROSE : What was that, Archie Lee?
    ARCHIE : HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE HOUSE ALL AFTERNOON OR DID YOU LIGHT OUT TO THE COUNTY HOSPITAL TO EAT SOME CHOCOLATE CANDY????
    [
Aunt Rose gasps as if struck, then she cackles
. . .]
    AUNT ROSE : I—I—visited!—an old friend in a—coma!
    ARCHIE : Then you was out while I was—.
    [
He turns to Vacarro—fiercely
.]
    I work like the hammers of hell! I come home to find the attic floor has fell through, my wife bad-tempered, insulting! and a supper of hog slops—. Sit down, eat. I got to make a phone call.
    [
He crosses somewhat unsteadily into the hall and picks up the telephone as Baby Doll descends the grand staircase and goes past him with face austerely averted. She is clad in a fresh silk sheath and is adjusting an earring as she passes through the hall. We go with her into the dining room
.]
    BABY DOLL : He’s at the phone about something and if I was you, I wouldn’t hang around long.
    SILVA : I think I’ve got the ace of spades in my pocket.
    [
He pats where he’s stashed the confession by Baby Doll
.]
    BABY DOLL : Don’t count on a law court. Justice is deaf and blind as that old woman!
    [
Aunt Rose Comfort rushes out to cut roses for a vase to set on the table
.]
    BABY DOLL : I’m advising you, go! —while he’s on the phone.
    SILVA : I find you different this evening in some way.
    BABY DOLL : Never mind, just go! Before he gits off the phone.
    SILVA : Suddenly grown up!
    BABY DOLL [
looking at him gratefully
]: I feel cool and rested, for the first time in my life. I feel that way, rested and cool.
    [
A pause
.]
    Are you going or staying???
    [
They are close together by table. Suddenly she catches her breath and flattens her body to his. The embrace is active. She reaches above her and pulls The beaded chain of the light, plunging the room in dark. We hear two things: The breath of the embracing couple and the voice of Archie Lee on the phone
.]
    ARCHIE : A bunch of men from the Syndicate Plantation are out frog-giggin’ on Tiger Tail Bayou and I thought we all might join the party. How’s about meeting at the Brite Spot in halfn hour? With full equipment.
    [
A few more indistinct words, he hangs up. The light is switched back on in the dining room. Aunt Rose rushes in
.]
    AUNT ROSE : Roses! Poems of nature. . .
    [
Archie Lee enters from the hall. His agitation is steadily mounting
.]
    ARCHIE : Never mind poems of nature, just put food on th’ table!
    AUNT ROSE : If I’d only known that company was expected, I’d. . .
    [
Her breathless voice expires as she scuttles about putting roses in a vase
.]
    AUNT ROSE : Only take a minute.
    ARCHIE : We ain’t waitin’ no minute. Bring out the food. . . .
    [
Baby Doll smiles, rather scornfully, at Archie Lee bullying the old woman
.]
    ARCHIE : Is that what they call a Mona Lisa