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

shimmering brilliance of the road
.
    BABY DOLL : Boy! Boy! I want you to cut my grass.
    BOY : Can’t now, ma’am.
    BABY DOLL : Yes, you can.
    BOY : I got a job cuttin’ grass across Tiger Tail Bayou.
    BABY DOLL : You cut grass here.
    [
Her intensity frightens the boy
.]
    BOY : Yes, ma’am, later.
    BABY DOLL : NO! NOW! RIGHT NOW! I—I’ll pay you five dollars. . . .
    BOY : Yes, Ma’am.
    BABY DOLL : I’ll pay you five dollars. . . but
now
.
    BOY [
scared to death
]: Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am.
    BABY DOLL : And work close to the house. Hear! Speak up. Do you hear. . .?
    BOY : Yes ma’am. Yes ma’am.
    [
Baby Doll sees
. . .]
    68] SILVA.
    As he comes into the picture
,
she retreats
,
walking backwards. Then there is a hoot from the gin. The sound from the gin suddenly stops. This calls her attention to the gin and she starts in that direction
.
    SILVA : Boy.
    BOY : Yes, sir.
    SILVA : Here’s that five dollars the lady was mentioning.
    BOY : Yes, sir.
    SILVA : Only she don’t want you to cut the grass.
    BOY : Yes, sir.
    SILVA : So you go on like you were. Understand?
    BOY : Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
    [
The boy, now completely bewildered, goes on, as he was
.]
    69] INTERIOR. COTTON GIN.
    Something is wrong. The men, including Rock, are gathered around a large piece of machinery. There is the characteristic debate as to what is wrong, opinions differing
.
    Onto this rather hectic group runs Baby Doll. Archie turns on her viciously
.
    ARCHIE : What’re you doin’ here, have you gone crazy??
    BABY DOLL : I want to tell you something! You big slob.
    [
This is just a little more than a desperate and harassed Archie can bear. He suddenly comes across and smacks Baby Doll. Good and hard!
]
    ARCHIE : I told you never, never, never, to cross that road to this cotton gin—
    70] CLOSE SHOT. SILVA.
    He has entered and seen the action
.
    71] ARCHIE.
    He notices Silva
.
    ARCHIE : . . .this cotton gin when niggers are working here.
    BABY DOLL : You left me. . . you know what you left with me over there. . . .
    [
Archie’s eye wanders over to Silva, and Baby Doll sees him and clams up
.]
    72] SILVA.
    He now officially enters the scene
.
    SILVA : How’s progress, Mr. Meighan?
    ARCHIE : Fine! Great!
    SILVA : Personally, I can’t hear the gin at all.
    BABY DOLL [
full of disgust
]: Big Shot!
    [
And she exits
.]
    SILVA : What’s holding up?
    ARCHIE : Nothing. . . .
    SILVA : Rock!
    [
Silva’s own foreman steps forward
.]
    ROCK : His saw-cylinder is busted.
    SILVA : It figures. I inspected your equipment, Meighan, before I put in my own and I put up my own cotton gin because this equipment was rotten, was rotten, and still is rotten. Now it’s quarter past two by my watch and I counted twenty-three fully loaded wagons still out on your runway. And if you can’t move those wagons any faster. . .
    ARCHIE : Now don’t go into any hysterics. You Italians are prone to get too excited. . . .
    SILVA : Never mind about we Italians. You better get yourself a new saw-cylinder and get this contraption running again. And if you can’t get one in Clarksdale, you better go to Tunica, and ifyou can’t get one in Tunica, you better go to Memphis, and if you can’t get one in Memphis, keep going to St. Louis. Now get on your horse.
    ARCHIE : Now listen to me, Silva—
    SILVA : One more crack out of you, I’m going to haul across the river. I said get on your horse.
    [
Meighan hesitates. Then decides he must swallow this humiliation. There’s nothing else for him to do under the circumstances. He exits
.
    [
Silva calls Rock over close
.]
    SILVA [
sotto voce
]: I got a saw-cylinder in our commissary. Go get it and bring Hank over to help you put it in. Get this thing running. He ain’t gonna get one in Clarksdale and if he goes to Memphis—well, don’t wait for him.
    [
And he exits
.]
    73] ARCHIE LEE IN HIS CHEVY.
    He nearly runs Baby Doll over
.
    BABY DOLL : Archie Lee! Archie Lee! Archie Lee!
    [
She stumbles to her