Three Plays (19 page)

GOOPER
: Mae, will y'please get my briefcase out of our room?

MAE
: Yes, honey.

[Rises, goes out through hall.]

MARGARET
[to Brick on gallery
]: Hear them in there?

GOOPER
[stands above Big Mama. Leaning over her]
: Big Mama, what you said just now was not at all true, an' you know it. I've always loved Big Daddy in my own quiet way. I never made a show of it. I know that Big Daddy has always been fond of me in a quiet way, too.

[Mae returns, with briefcase.]

MAE
: Here's your briefcase, Gooper, honey.

[Hands it to him.]

GOOPER
[hands briefcase back to Mae]
: Thank you. Of co'use, my relationship with Big Daddy is different from Brick's.

MAE
: You're eight years older'n Brick an' always had t' carry a bigger load of th' responsibilities than Brick ever had t'carry; he never carried a thing in his life but a football or a highball.

GOOPER
: Mae, will y'let me talk, please?

MAE
: Yes, honey.

GOOPER
: Now, a twenty-eight thousand acre plantation's a mighty big thing t'run.

MAE
: Almost single-handed!

BIG MAMA
: You never had t'run this place, Brother Man, what're you talkin' about, as if Big Daddy was dead an' in his grave, you had to run it? Why, you just had t'help him out with a few business details an' had your law practice at the same time in Memphis.

MAE
: Oh, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! Let's be fair! Why, Gooper has given himself body an' soul t'keepin' this place up fo' the past five years since Big Daddy's health started fallin'. Gooper won't say it, Gooper never thought of it as a duty, he just did it. An' what did Brick do? Brick kep' livin' in his past glory at college!

[Gooper places a restraining hand on Mae's leg]

GOOPER
: Still a football player at twenty-seven!

MARGARET
[bursts in]
: Who are you talkin' about now? Brick? A football player? He isn't a football player an' you know it! Brick is a sports announcer on TV an' one of the best-known ones in the country!

MAE
: I'm talkin' about what he was!

MARGARET
: Well, I wish you would just stop talkin' about my husband!

GOOPER
: Listen, Margaret, I've got a right to discuss my own brother with other members of my own fam'ly, which don't include you!

[Pokes finger at her; she slaps his finger away.]

Now, why don't you go on out there an' drink with Brick?

MARGARET
: I've never seen such malice toward a brother.

GOOPER
: How about his for me? Why he can't stand to be in the same room with me!

BRICK
[on lower gallery]
: That's the truth!

MARGARET
: This is a deliberate campaign of vilification for the most disgusting and sordid reason on earth, and I know what it is!
It's avarice, avarice, greed, greed!

BIG MAMA
: Oh, I'll scream, I will scream in a moment unless this stops! Margaret, child, come here, sit next to Big Mama.

MARGARET
: Precious Mommy.

MAE
: How beautiful, how touchin' this display of devotion! Do you know why she's childless? She's childless because that big, beautiful athlete husband of hers won't go to bed with her, that's why!

GOOPER
: You jest won't let me do this the nice way, will yuh? Aw right—

I don't give a goddam if Big Daddy likes me or don't like me or did or never did or will or will never! I'm just ap-pealin' to a sense of common decency an' fair play! I'm tellin' you th' truth—

[crosses door to Brick on DR gallery.]

I've resented Big Daddy's partiality to Brick ever since th' goddam day you were born, son, an' th' way I've been treated, like I was just barely good enough to spit on, an' sometimes not even good enough for that.

[Crosses back through room to above wicker seat.]

Big Daddy is dyin' of cancer an' it's spread all through him an' it's attacked all his vital organs includin' the kidneys an' right now he is sinkin' into uremia, an' you all know what uremia is, it's poisonin' of the whole system due to th' failure of th' body to eliminate its poisons.

MARGARET
: Poisons, poisons, venomous thoughts and words! In hearts and minds! That's poisons!

GOOPER
: I'm askin' for a square deal an' by God I expect to get one. But if I don't get one, if there's any peculiar shenanigans goin' on around here behind my back, well I'm not a corporation lawyer for nothin'! I know how to protect my own interests.

[Rumble of distant thunder.]

BRICK
[entering the room]
: Storm comin' up.

GOOPER
: Oh, a late arrival!

MAE
: Behold, the conquerin' hero comes!

GOOPER
[following Brick, imitating his limp]
: The fabulous Brick Pollitt! Remember him? Who could forget him?

MAE
: He looks like he's been injured in a game!

GOOPER
: Yep, I'm afraid you'll have to warm th' bench at the Sugar Bowl this year, Brick! Or was it the Rose Bowl that he made his famous run in.

[Another rumble of thunder, sound of wind rising.]

MAE
: The punch bowl, honey, it was the punch bowl, the cut-glass punch bowl!

GOOPER
: That's right! I'm always gettin' the boy's bowls mixed up!

[Pats Brick on the butt.]

MARGARET
[rushes at Gooper, striking him]
: Stop that! You stop that!

[Thunder. | Mae flails at Margaret; Gooper keeps the women apart. Lacey runs through the lawn in a raincoat.]

DAISY and SOOKEY
: Storm! Storm comin'! Storm! Storm!

LACEY
[running out]
: Brightie, close them shutters!

GOOPER
[calls after Lacey]
: Lacey, put the top up on my Cadillac, will yuh?

LACEY
: Yes, sur, Mistah Pollitt!

GOOPER
: Big Mama, you know it's goin' to be necessary for me t'go back to Memphis in th' mornin' t'represent the Parker estate in a lawsuit.

[Mae sits on side of bed, arranges papers she removes from briefcase.]

BIG MAMA
: Is it, Gooper?

MAE
: Yaiss.

GOOPER
: That's why I'm forced to—to bring up a problem that—

MAE
: Somethin' that's too important t' be put off!

GOOPER
: If Brick was sober, he ought to be in on this. I think he ought to be present when I present this plan.

MARGARET
: Brick is present, we're present!

GOOPER
: Well, good. I will now give you this outline my partner, Tom Bullitt, an' me have drawn up—a sort of dummy—trusteeship!

MARGARET
: Oh, that's it! You'll be in charge an' dole out remittances, will you?

GOOPER
: This we did as soon as we got the report on Big Daddy from th' Ochsner Laboratories. We did this thing, I mean we drew up this dummy outline with the advice and assistance of the Chairman of the Boa'd of Directors of th' Southern Plantuhs Bank and Trust Company in Memphis, C. C. Bellowes, a man who handles estates for all th' prominent fam'lies in West Tennessee and th' Delta!

BIG MAMA
: Gooper?

GOOPER
: Now this is not—not final, or anything like it, this is just a preliminary outline. But it does provide a—basis—a design—a—possible, feasible—
plan!

[He waves papers Mae has thrust into his hand.]

MARGARET
: Yes, I'll bet it's a plan!

[Thunder rolls. Interior lighting dims.]

MAE
: It's a plan to protect the biggest estate in the Delta from irresponsibility an'—

BIG MAMA
: Now you listen to me, all of you, you listen here! They's not goin' to be no more catty talk in my house! And Gooper, you put that away before I grab it out of your hand and tear it right up! I don't know what the hell's in it, and I don't want to know what the hell's in it. I'm talkin' in Big Daddy's language now, I'm his
wife
, not his
widow
, I'm still his
wife!
And I'm talkin' to you in his language an'—

GOOPER
: Big Mama, what I have here is—

MAE
: Gooper explained that it's just a plan....

BIG MAMA
: I don't care what you got there, just put it back where it come from an' don't let me see it again, not even the outside of the envelope of it! Is that understood? Basis! Plan! Preliminary! Design!—I say—what is it that Big Daddy always says when he's disgusted?

[Storm clouds race across sky.]

BRICK
[from bar]
: Big Daddy says 'crap' when he is disgusted.

BIG MAMA
[rising]
: That's right—
CRAPPPP!
I say
CRAP
too, like Big Daddy!

[Thunder rolls.]

MAE
: Coarse language don't seem called for in this—

GOOPER
: Somethin' in me is
deeply outraged
by this.

BIG MAMA
:
Nobody's goin' to do nothin'!
till Big Daddy lets go of it, and maybe just possibly not—not even then! No, not even then!

[Thunder clap. Glass crash, children commence crying. Many storm sounds | barnyard animals in terror, papers crackling, shutters rattling. Sookey and Daisy hurry from lawn. Inexplicably, Daisy hits together two leather pillows. They cry, 'Storm! Storm!' Sookey waves a piece of wrapping paper to cover lawn furniture. Mae exits to hall. Strange man runs across lawn. | Thunder rolls repeatedly.]

MAE
: Sookey, hurry up an' git that po'ch fu'niture covahed; want th' paint to come off?

GOOPER
[yells to Lacey, who appears]
: Lacey, put mah car away!

LACEY
: Cain't, Mistah Pollitt, you got the keys!

GOOPER
: Naw, you got 'em, man.

[calls to Mae]

Where th' keys to th' car, honey?

MAE
: You got 'em in your pocket!

[Dog howls. Daisy and Sookey sing to comfort children. Mae is heard placating the children. Storm fades away. | During the storm, Margaret sits on couch.]

BIG MAMA
: BRICK! Come here, Brick, I need you.

[Thunder distantly. Children whimper. Mae consoles them. Brick crosses to Right of Big Mama.]

BIG MAMA
: Tonight Brick looks like he used to look when he was a little boy just like he did when he played wild games in the orchard back of the house and used to come home when I hollered myself hoarse for him! all—sweaty—and pink-cheeked—an' sleepy with his curls shinin'—

[Thunder distantly. Children whimper offstage Mae consoles them. Dog howls.]

Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early—almost before you're half-acquainted with life—you meet with the other. Oh, you know we just got to love each other, an' stay together all of us just as close as we can, specially now that such a
black
thing has come and moved into this place without invitation. Oh, Brick, son of Big Daddy, Big Daddy does so love you. Y'know what would be his fondest dream come true? If before he passed on, if Big Daddy has to pass on.... You give him a child of yours, a grandson as much like his son as his son is like Big Daddy....

MARGARET
: I know that's Big Daddy's dream.

BIG MAMA
: That's his dream.