Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

inflamed
     face. ]
    —But how in hell on earth do you imagine—that
     you're going to have a child by a man that can't stand you?
    MARGARET:
    That's a problem that I will have to work out.
    [ She wheels about to face the hall
     door. ]
    Here they come!
    [ The lights dim. ]
    CURTAIN

ACT TWO
----
    There is no lapse of time. Margaret and Brick are in the same
     positions they held at the end of Act I.
----
    MARGARET [ at
     door ]:
    Here they come!
    [ Big Daddy
     appears first, a tall man with a fierce, anxious look, moving carefully not to
     betray his weakness even, or especially, to himself. ]
    BIG DADDY:
    Well, Brick.
    BRICK:
    Hello, Big Daddy.—Congratulations!
    BIG DADDY:
    —Crap . . . .
    [ Some of the people are approaching through
     the hall, others along the gallery: voices from both directions. Gooper and
     Reverend Tooker become visible outside gallery doors, and their voices come in
     clearly.
    [ They pause outside as Gooper lights a
     cigar. ]
    REVEREND TOOKER [ vivaciously ]:
    Oh, but St. Paul's in Grenada has three memorial windows, and the latest one
     is a Tiffany stained-glass window that cost twenty-five hundred
     dollars, a picture of Christ the Good Shepherd with a Lamb in His arms.
    GOOPER:
    Who give that window, Preach?

    REVEREND TOOKER:
    Clyde Fletcher's widow. Also presented St. Paul's with a baptismal
     font.
    GOOPER:
    Y'know what somebody ought t’ give your church is a coolin’ system, Preach.
    REVEREND TOOKER:
    Yes, siree, Bob! And y'know what Gus Hamma's family gave in his
     memory to the church at Two Rivers? A complete new stone parish-house
     with a basketball court in the basement and a—
    BIG DADDY [ uttering a loud harking laugh which is far from truly
     mirthful ]:
    Hey, Preach! What's all this talk about memorials,
     Preach? Y’ think somebody's about t’ kick off around
     here? ‘S that it?
    [ Startled by this interjection, Reverend
     Tooker decides to laugh at the question almost as loud as he can.
    [ How he would answer the question
     we'll never know, as he's spared that embarrassment by the voice
     of Gooper's wife, Mae, rising high and dear as she appears with
     “Doc” Baugh, the family doctor, through the hail
     door.]
    MAE [ almost
     religiously ]:
    —Let's see now, they've had their tyyy-phoid shots, and their tetanus shots, their diphtheria shots
     and their hepatitis shots and their polio shots, they got those shots every month from May through September,
     and—Gooper? Hey! Gooper!—What all have the
     kiddies been shot faw?
    MARGARET [ overlapping a bit ];
    Turn on the hi-fi, Brick! Let's have some music t’ start
     off th’ party with!

    [ The talk becomes so general that the room
     sounds like a great aviary of chattering birds. Only Brick remains unengaged,
     leaning upon the liquor cabinet with his faraway smile, an ice cube in a paper
     napkin with which he now and then rubs his forehead. He doesn't respond
     to Margaret's command. She bounds forward and stoops over the instrument
     panel of the console. ]
    GOOPER:
    We gave ‘em that thing for a third anniversary present, got three speakers in
     it.
    [ The room is suddenly blasted by the climax
     of a Wagnerian opera or a Beethoven symphony. ]
    BIG DADDY:
    Turn that dam thing off!
    [ Almost instant silence, almost instantly
     broken by the shouting charge of Big Mama, entering through hall door like a
     charging rhino. ]
    BIG MAMA:
    Wha's my Brick, wha's mah precious
     baby!!
    BIG DADDY:
    Sorry! Turn it back on!
    [ Everyone laughs very loud. Big Daddy is
     famous for his jokes at Big Mama's expense, and nobody laughs louder at
     these jokes than Big Mama herself, though sometimes they're pretty cruel
     and Big Mama has to pick up or fuss with something to cover the hurt that the
     loud laugh doesn't quite cover.
    [ On this occasion, a happy occasion because
     the dread in her heart has also been lifted by the false report on Big
     Daddy's condition, she giggles, grotesquely, coyly, in Big Daddy's