My Sister's Hand in Mine (38 page)

GERTRUDE
No, later at home.

MRS. LOPEZ
  Pinch him, see how much fat he got on him.

GERTRUDE
(
Automatically touching chicken for a second
) He's very nice … (
Then swerving around abruptly and showing a stern fierce profile to the audience
) Why is he here?

MRS. LOPEZ
  (
Looking stupid
) Who?

GERTRUDE
The chicken. Why is he here?

MRS. LOPEZ
  The chicken? He go home. We put him now with his rice and his peas.

GERTRUDE
(
In a fury manifestly about the chicken. But her rage conceals panic about
MOLLY
) But
what
rice and peas. You know what we're having … I ordered it myself … It was going to be a light meal … something
I
liked … for once … we're having jellied consommé and little African lobster tails.

MRS. LOPEZ
  (
Crossing back to center tables and stopping near
MRS. CONSTABLE
) That's right, jelly and Africa and this one too.

(
She hoists chicken up in the air with a flourish. Enter
MRS. CONSTABLE.
)

MRS. CONSTABLE
  A chicken. I hate chickens. I'd rather have a dog.

(
FREDERICA
pulls a thin striped horn out of one of the paper bags and blows on it.
)

GERTRUDE
Frederica, stop that. Stop that at once! I told you I didn't want to hear a single horn on my birthday. This is a party for adults. Put that away. Come along, we're leaving. We'll leave here at once.

FREDERICA
(
In her pallid voice
) And Umberto? My uncle …

GERTRUDE
What about him?

FREDERICA
Uncle Umberto say he was calling for us to ride home all together.

GERTRUDE
(
Automatically
) Where
is
he?

FREDERICA
He is with Pepe Hernández, Frederica Gómez, Pacito Sánchez, Pepito Pita Luga …

GERTRUDE
No more names, Frederica … Tell him we're coming. We'll be right along …

MRS. LOPEZ
  And the limonadas …

GERTRUDE
Never mind the limonadas. We're leaving here at once … Collect your bundles … Go on, go along.

(
The Mexicans start to collect everything, and there is the usual confusion and chatter.
FREDERICA
spills some horns out of her bag.
MRS. LOPEZ
screams at her, etc. They reach the exit just as
INEZ
arrives with the limonadas.
)

MRS. LOPEZ
  (
Almost weeping, in a pleading voice to
GERTRUDE
) Look, Eastman Cuevas, the limonadas!

FREDERICA
(
Echoing
) The limonadas … ¡Ay!

GERTRUDE
No! There isn't time. I said we were leaving. We're leaving at once …

INEZ
  (
To
MRS. LOPEZ
as they exit, including
MRS. CONSTABLE
) Take them along … Drink them in the car, for Christ's sake.

MRS. LOPEZ
  (
Off stage
) But the glasses …

INEZ
  (
Off stage
) To hell with the glasses. Toss them down the cliff.

GERTRUDE
Molly, it's time to go. (
MOLLY
starts for stairway
) Molly, come along. We're going. What is it, Molly? Why are you standing there? You have your silver bracelet on and the necklace to match. We're ready to leave. Why are you waiting? Tonight you'll wear my gown with the tulips on it. I told you that … and tomorrow we'll go and I'll show you the vines. When you see how thick the leaves are and the blossoms, you'll know I'm not dreaming. Molly, why do you look at me like that? What is it? What did you forget?

(
LIONEL
  
comes downstairs.
GERTRUDE
stiffens and pulls
MOLLY
to her side with a strong hand, holding her there as a guard holds his prisoner.
)

GERTRUDE
Lionel, we're going. It's all settled. We're leaving at once. Molly's coming with me and she's not coming back.

MOLLY
  (
Her voice sticking in her throat
) I …

LIONEL
  (
Seeing her stand there, overpowered by her mother, as if by a great tree, accepts the pattern as utterly hopeless once and for all. Then, after a moment
) Good-bye, Molly. Have a nice time at the birthday supper … (
Bitterly
) You look very pretty in that dress.

(
He exits through oyster-shell door.
)

GERTRUDE
(
After a moment. Calm and firm, certain of her triumph
) Molly, we're going now. You've said good-bye. There's no point in standing around here any longer.

MOLLY
  (
Retreating
) Leave me alone …

GERTRUDE
Molly, what is it? Why are you acting this way?

MOLLY
  I want to go out.

GERTRUDE
Molly!

MOLLY
  I'm going … I'm going out.

GERTRUDE
(
Blocking her way
) I'll make it all up to you. I'll give you everything you wanted, everything you've dreamed about.

MOLLY
  You told me not to dream. You're all changed … You're not like you used to be.

GERTRUDE
I will be, darling. You'll see … when we're together. It's going to be the same, just the way it was. Tomorrow we'll go back and look at the vines, thicker and more beautiful …

MOLLY
  I'm going … Lionel!

GERTRUDE
(
Blocking her way, fiendish from now on
) He did it. He changed you. He turned you against me.

MOLLY
  Let me go … You're all changed.

GERTRUDE
You can't go. I won't let you. I can stop you. I can and I will.

(
There is a physical struggle between them near the oyster-shell door.
)

MOLLY
  (
Straining to get through the door and calling in a voice that seems to come up from the bottom of her heart
) Lionel!

GERTRUDE
I know what you did … I didn't want to … I was frightened, but I knew … You hated Vivian. I'm the only one in the world who knows you. (
MOLLY
aghast ceases to struggle. They hold for a moment before
GERTRUDE
releases her grip on
MOLLY.
Confident now that she has broken her daughter's will forever
) Molly, we're going … We're going home.

MOLLY
  (
Backing away in horror
) No!

GERTRUDE
Molly, we're going! (
MOLLY
continues to retreat
) If you don't (
MOLLY
,
shaking her head still retreats
) If you don't, I'll tell her! I'll call Mrs. Constable.

MOLLY
  (
Still retreating
) No …

GERTRUDE
(
Wild, calling like an animal
) Mrs. Constable! Mrs. Constable! (
To
MOLLY
,
shaking her
) Do you see what you're doing to me! Do you? (
MRS. CONSTABLE
appears in doorway.
GERTRUDE
drags
MOLLY
brutally out of her corner near the staircase and confronts her with
MRS. CONSTABLE
) I have something to tell you, Mrs. Constable. It's about Molly. It's about my daughter … She hated Vivian. My daughter hated yours and a terrible ugly thing happened … an ugly thing happened on the cliffs …

MRS. CONSTABLE
  (
Defiantly
) Nothing happened … Nothing!

GERTRUDE
(
Hanging on to
MOLLY
,
who is straining to go
) It
had
to happen. I know Molly … I know her jealousy … I was her whole world, the only one she loved … She wanted me all to herself … I know that kind of jealousy and what it can do to you … I know what it feels like to wish someone dead. When I was a little girl … I … (
She stops dead as if a knife had been thrust in her heart now. The hand holding
MOLLY'S
in its hard iron grip slowly relaxes. There is a long pause. Then, under her breath
) Go … (
MOLLY'S
flight is sudden. She is visible in the blue light beyond the oyster-shell door only for a second. The Mexican band starts playing the wedding song from Act One.
GERTRUDE
stands as still as a statue.
MRS. CONSTABLE
approaches, making a gesture of compassion
) The band is playing on the beach. They're playing their music. Go, Mrs. Constable … Please.

(
MRS. CONSTABLE
exits through oyster-shell door.
)

FREDERICA
(
Entering from street, calling, exuberant
) Eastman Cuevas! Eastman Cuevas! Uncle Umberto is ready. We are waiting in the car … Where's Molly? (
She falters at the sight of
GERTRUDE'S
white face. Then, with awe
) Ay dios … ¿Qué pasa? ¿Qué tiene? Miss Eastman Cuevas, you don't feel happy? (
She unpins a simple bouquet of red flowers and puts it into
GERTRUDE'S
hand
) For your birthday, Miss Eastman Cuevas … your birthday …

(
She backs away into the shadows, not knowing what to do next.
GERTRUDE
is standing rigid, the bouquet stuck in her hand.
)

GERTRUDE
(
Almost in a whisper, as the curtain falls
) When I was a little girl …

Plain Pleasures

Plain Pleasures

Alva Perry was a dignified and reserved woman of Scotch and Spanish descent, in her early forties. She was still handsome, although her cheeks were too thin. Her eyes particularly were of an extraordinary clarity and beauty. She lived in her uncle's house, which had been converted into apartments, or tenements, as they were still called in her section of the country. The house stood on the side of a steep, wooded hill overlooking the main highway. A long cement staircase climbed halfway up the hill and stopped some distance below the house. It had originally led to a power station, which had since been destroyed. Mrs. Perry had lived alone in her tenement since the death of her husband eleven years ago; however, she found small things to do all day long and she had somehow remained as industrious in her solitude as a woman who lives in the service of her family.

John Drake, an equally reserved person, occupied the tenement below hers. He owned a truck and engaged in free-lance work for lumber companies, as well as in the collection and delivery of milk cans for a dairy.

Mr. Drake and Mrs. Perry had never exchanged more than the simplest greeting in all the years that they had lived here in the hillside house.

One night Mr. Drake, who was standing in the hall, heard Mrs. Perry's heavy footsteps, which he had unconsciously learned to recognize. He looked up and saw her coming downstairs. She was dressed in a brown overcoat that had belonged to her dead husband, and she was hugging a paper bag to her bosom. Mr. Drake offered to help her with the bag and she faltered, undecided, on the landing.

“They are only potatoes,” she said to him, “but thank you very much. I am going to bake them out in the back yard. I have been meaning to for a long time.”

Mr. Drake took the potatoes and walked with a stiff-jointed gait through the back door and down the hill to a short stretch of level land in back of the house which served as a yard. Here he put the paper bag on the ground. There was a big new incinerator smoking near the back stoop and in the center of the yard Mrs. Perry's uncle had built a roofed-in pigpen faced in vivid artificial brick. Mrs. Perry followed.

She thanked Mr. Drake and began to gather twigs, scuttling rapidly between the edge of the woods and the pigpen, near which she was laying her fire. Mr. Drake, without any further conversation, helped her to gather the twigs, so that when the fire was laid, she quite naturally invited him to wait and share the potatoes with her. He accepted and they sat in front of the fire on an overturned box.

Mr. Drake kept his face averted from the fire and turned in the direction of the woods, hoping in this way to conceal somewhat his flaming-red cheeks from Mrs. Perry. He was a very shy person and though his skin was naturally red all the time it turned to such deep crimson when he was in the presence of a strange woman that the change was distinctly noticeable. Mrs. Perry wondered why he kept looking behind him, but she did not feel she knew him well enough to question him. She waited in vain for him to speak and then, realizing that he was not going to, she searched her own mind for something to say.

“Do you like plain ordinary pleasures?” she finally asked him gravely.

Mr. Drake felt very much relieved that she had spoken and his color subsided. “You had better first give me a clearer notion of what you mean by ordinary pleasures, and then I'll tell you how I feel about them,” he answered soberly, halting after every few words, for he was as conscientious as he was shy.