Baby Doll & Tiger Tail by Tennessee Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

around was a ring of human figures! The fire lit their faces! I looked up. And they were illuminated! Their eyes, their teeth were SHINING!! SEE! LIKE THIS!
    [
He twists his face into a grotesque grimace of pleasure. He holds her. They have arrived at the door to the interior of the house
.]
    Yeah! Like this! Like this!!
    [
He thrusts his grimacing face at her. She springs back, frightened
.]
    BABY DOLL : Hey! Please! Don’t do that! Don’t scare me!
    SILVA : The faces I saw—were grinning! Then I knew! I knew the fire was not accidental!
    [
He holds her fast at the door
.]
    BABY DOLL [
weakly
]: Not accidental?
    SILVA : No, it was not accidental! It was an expression, a manifestation of the human will to
destroy
.
    BABY DOLL : I wouldn’t—feel that way—about it. . . .
    SILVA : I do! I do! And so I say I believe in ghosts, in haunted places, places haunted by the people that occupy them withhearts overrun by demons of hate and destruction. I believe his place, this house is haunted. . . . What’s the matter?
    BABY DOLL [
now thoroughly shaken
]: I don’t know. . . .
    SILVA : You’re scared to enter the house, is that the trouble?
    BABY DOLL [
calling
]: Aunt Rose. Aunt Rose!!
    [
No answer
.]
    That old woman can’t hear a thing.
    SILVA : There’s no question about it. This place is haunted.
    BABY DOLL : I’m getting—I’m getting so thirsty, so hot and thirsty!
    SILVA : Then why don’t you treat yourself to a drink of cold water?
    BABY DOLL : I—I thought I might make us a—pitcher of— cold lemonade.
    [
For some reason, Baby Doll doesn’t want to enter the front door and She starts around the porch away from him. A board cracks under her weight. She screams, staggers. Silva rushes to her and seizes her plump arm, placing an arm behind her. She giggles weakly, but for the first time accepts his help
.]
    BABY DOLL : The place is—collapsing right underneath me!
    SILVA : You’re trembling, Mrs. Meighan, shaking all over!
    BABY DOLL : Your—your hands are so—hot—I don’t think I ever felt hands as hot as your hands, they’re—why they’re like a couple of plates—took right out of—the oven!
    SILVA : Burn, do they?
    BABY DOLL : Yeah, they—
do
, they
burn
—me. . . .
    SILVA : The idea of lemonade is very attractive. I would be glad to help you squeeze the lemons.
    [
Tightens The pressure of his hands
.]
    BABY DOLL : I know you would! I mean I—thanks, but—I can do it myself.
    SILVA : You don’t want my assistance, Mrs. Meighan?
    BABY DOLL : Naw, it ain’t necessary. . . .
    SILVA : But then you would have to go into the house alone and the house is haunted! I better go in with you!
    BABY DOLL : . . .No, it ain’t necessary!
    [
She is panting
.]
    SILVA : You want me to stay on the porch?
    BABY DOLL : Yeh, you stay on the porch!
    SILVA : Why
shouldn’t
I come inside?
    BABY DOLL : No reason, just—just. . .!
    [
She giggles weakly
.]
    You stay out here while I make the lemonade and. . .
    SILVA : All right. Go on, Mrs. Meighan. . . .
    BABY DOLL : You stay out here. . . .
    [
He doesn’t answer. She stares at him, not moving
.]
    SILVA : Now what’s the matter now? Why don’t you go in?
    BABY DOLL : I don’t think I better. I think I will go across the road to the gin. They got a water cooler. . . .
    SILVA : The water cooler’s for colored. A lady, a white lady like you, the wife of the big white boss, would place herself in an undignified position if she went over the road to drink with the hands! They might get notions about her! Unwholesome ideas! The sight of her soft white flesh, so smooth and abundant, might inflame their—natures. . .
    [
Suddenly, Baby Doll sees something off and
. . .]
    66] NEGRO BOY COMING DOWN THE ROAD.
    He pushes a lawnmower. Behind him can be seen Archie Lee’s gin, working
.
    67] BABY DOLL.
    She rushes past Silva in the direction of the Negro boy, runs unsteadily as if she were drunk, across the unkempt lawn and out into the