ARCHIE [viciously]: Shuddup! —I am married to a respectable young lady so I’d be much obliged if you’d not come onto the front yard in that kind of outfit. My Baby Doll would be shocked. Now GIT outta here! I said GIT!
[She laughs mockingly as she eludes his attempt to grab her. He snorts. He takes a long gulp of the contents of the jug. Two Bits seizes the chance to run past Archie Lee after Ruby, startling the flustered redneck. Aunt Rose Comfort is lighted in the kitchen dining-room area. She has not yet discovered that the stove isn’t burning.]
ARCHIE [turning into the house]: BABY DOLL! —Thought I’d smell something cookin’ for supper in here!
AUNT ROSE: Oh! It’s you, Archie Lee!
ARCHIE [entering the kitchen area]: Who the hell else didja think it might be?
AUNT ROSE: I didn’t hear you arrive. It’s been such an unusual afternoon. I paid a call on a sickly friend of mine at the county hospital.
ARCHIE: Eatin’ chocolates, huh?
AUNT ROSE: She was in this see-through tent to help her breathe oxygen, but while I was with her it turned itself off somehow and she. . . she. . . she. . . . Little Precious is gone, and I want you to know that they accused me of turning off the machine. There was this big fuss about it till I told who I was, that I was Miss Rose Comfort McCorkle devoted to Little Precious and jus’—
ARCHIE: Eatin’ choc’lates while she kicked the bucket.
[He notices the sound above.]
Wha’s my Baby Doll?
AUNT ROSE: I think that she’s been restin’.
ARCHIE: —CHRIST!
[He shouts up the stairs.]
HEY!
[He starts up the stairs. Baby Doll appears on them in her flimsy wrapper.]
—What’s the meanin’ of this?
BABY DOLL: Meanin’ of what?
ARCHIE: You drest that way?
BABY DOLL: I just had me a bath and when I heard you down here, I couldn’t wait to see you, you know that.
ARCHIE: What’s them marks on your body?
BABY DOLL: Aw, them’s mosquito bites. I scratched ’em— Lemme go!
ARCHIE: Ain’t I told you not to slop around here like that???!!
AUNT ROSE [alarmed by the shout, appears in the door to the kitchen, crying out thin and high]: Almost ready, now, folks, almost ready!!
[She rushes back into the kitchen with her frightened cackle. There is a crash of china from the kitchen.]
ARCHIE: The breakage alone in this kitchen could ruin a well-to-do man. Whew! Twen-ty sev-en wa-gons full of cot-ton! Some day’s work!
[A dog howls. Baby Doll utters a breathless laugh.]
What’re you laughin’ at, honey? Not at me I hope. I’m all wo’n out an’ I want a little appreciation not—silly giggles like that!
BABY DOLL: You’re not the only one’s—done a big day’s—work.
ARCHIE: Who else that you know of?
[There is a pause. Baby Doll’s laughter spills out again.]
You’re laughin’ like you been on a goddam jag.
[Baby Doll laughs.]
What did you get pissed on? Roach poison or citronella? I think I make it pretty easy for you, workin’ like a mule skinner.
[Baby Doll says: “Sure (laughs). . . you make it easy!” while Archie continues.]
I’ve yet to see you lift a finger. Even gotten. . . too lazy t’ put you’ things on. Round the house ha’f naked all th’ time. All you can think of is “Give me a Coca-Cola!” Well, you better look out. They got a new bureau in the guvamint files. It’s called U.W. A. Stands for Useless Wimmen of America. Tha’s secret plans on foot t’ have ’em shot!
AUNT ROSE: Almost ready, folks, almost ready!
BABY DOLL: How about men that’s destructive? Don’t they have secret plans to round up men that’s destructive and shoot them too?
ARCHIE: What destructive men you talkin’ about?
BABY DOLL: Men that blow things up and burn things down because they’re too evil and stupid to git along otherwise. Because fair competition is too much for ’em. So they turn criminal. Do things like arson. Willful destruction of property by fire.
[She steps out on the porch. Night sounds. A cool breeze tosses her damp curls. She sniffs the night air like a young horse. . . . The porch light, a milky globe patterned with dead insects, turns on directly over her head.]
ARCHIE: Who said that to you, where’d you git that from?
BABY DOLL: Turn that porch light off, there’s men on the road can see me.
ARCHIE: Who said arson to you? Who spoke of willful destruction of— YOU never known them words. Who SAID ’em to yuh?
BABY DOLL: Sometimes, Big Shot, you don’t seem t’ give me credit for much intelligence! I’ve been to school, in my life, and I’m a—magazine reader!
[She shakes off his grip and starts down the porch steps.
[There is a group of men on Tiger Tail Road. One of them gives a wolf whistle. At once, Archie Lee charges down the steps—crying out—]
ARCHIE: Who gave that whistle?? Which one of you give a wolf-whistle at my wife?
[Ruby Lightfoot announces her return with characteristic flamboyance.]
RUBY: Hey, there, Daddy, Ruby’s back!
ARCHIE: Didn’t I tellya to keep your ass—?
RUBY [drawing a knife]: Don’t say it! Don’t gimme no mouth, I’m back for cash that you’ve had time to collect off that fine new client of yours. Two Bits, go make the collection off him, he knows the bill and the bill refuses to wait!
BABY DOLL: Has she come back with more liquor for Archie Lee to celebrate—?
ARCHIE [turning to Baby Doll with his hand lifted]: Shut your goddam—
BABY DOLL: His criminal action las’ night?
[Meighan slaps her viciously. Two Bits exits running in response to the violent slap.]
RUBY: Hey, now!
BABY DOLL: That’s the last time you’ll lay a hand on me!
ARCHIE: I’ll lay more’n a hand on you in less’n three hours. . . . You will be age twenty and I will celebrate plenty!
[Ruby laughs and Archie whirls back to face her.]
Now, you, moonshiner, haul your ass off my property! Back to the bayou with it!
RUBY: Moonshiner, who? Don’t lay that name on me! Though, I suspects that’s all you gonna be layin’ tonight. . .
[Ruby exits.]
BABY DOLL: Small dawgs got a loud bark, specially at a full moon. . .
ARCHIE: That gang of men was from the Syndicate Plantation, white an’ black mixed, headed for Tiger Tail Bayou with frog-gigs and with rubber boots on! I just hope they turn downstream an’ trespass on my property! I hope they dast do! I’ll blast ’em out of the bayou with a shotgun! Nobody’s gonna insult no woman of mine!
BABY DOLL: You take a lot for granted when you say mine. This afternoon I think maybe you didn’t understand th’ good neighbor—policy.
ARCHIE: Don’t understand it? Why I’m the boy that invented it.
BABY DOLL: Huh-huh! What an—invention! All I can say is—I hope you’re satisfied now that you’ve ginned out twenty-seven wagons full of cotton. I for one, have got no sympathy for you, now or ever. An’ the rasslin’ match between us is over so let me go!
ARCHIE: You’re darn tootin’ it’s over. In just three hours the terms of the agreement will be settled for good.
BABY DOLL: Don’t count on it. That agreement is cancelled. Because it takes two sides to make an agreement, like an argument, and both sides got to live up to it completely. You didn’t live up to yours. Stuck me in a house which is haunted and five complete sets of unpaid-for furniture was removed from it las’ night. OOHH I’m free from my side of that bargain.
ARCHIE: Sharp at midnight! We’ll find out about that.
BABY DOLL: Too much has happened here lately. . .
ARCHIE [eying her figure, sweating, licking his chops]: Well. . . my credit’s wide open again!
BABY DOLL: So is the jailhouse door wide open for you if the tru
th comes out.
ARCHIE: You threatnin’ me with—blackmail??
BABY DOLL: Well, well, well. . . look who’s drawin’ some cool well water from the pump out there.
[The full frog-gigging moon emerges from a mackerel sky, and we see Silva making his ablutions at the cistern pump with the zest and vigor of a man satisfied.]
BABY DOLL [with unaccustomed hilarity]: HEIGH HO SILVER. . . HaHa!!
[Archie stops dead in his tracks.]
BABY DOLL: Give me another drink of that sweet well water, will yuh, Mistuh Vacarro? You’re the first person could ever pump it. Archie Lee, Mr. Vacarro says he might not put up a new cotton gin, but let you gin cotton for him all the time now. Ain’t you pleased about that? Tomorrow he plans to come with lots more cotton, and maybe another twenty-seven wagonloads. And while you’re ginning it out, he’ll have me entertain him, make lemonade for him. It’s going to go on and on! Maybe even next fall.
SILVA [through the water]: Good neighbor policy in practice.
[Having wetted himself down he now drinks from the gourd.]
I love well water. It tastes as fresh as if it never was tasted before. Mrs. Meighan, would you care for some more?
BABY DOLL: Why thank you, yes, I would.
[There is a grace and sweetness and softness of speech about her, unknown before. . .]
SILVA: Cooler nights have begun.
[Archie Lee has been regarding the situation, with its various possibilities, and is far from content.]
ARCHIE: How long you been on the place?
SILVA [drawling sensuously with his eyes on the girl]: All this unusually long hot afternoon I’ve imposed on your hospitality. You want some of this well water?
ARCHIE [with a violent gesture of refusal]: Where you been here???
SILVA: Taking a nap on your only remaining bed. The crib in the nursery with the slats let down. I had to curl up on it like a pretzel, but the fire last night deprived me of so much sleep that almost any flat surface was suitable for slumber.
[He winks impertinently at Archie Lee, then turns to grin sweetly at Baby Doll, wiping the drippings of well water from his throat.]
But there’s something sad about it. Know what I mean?
ARCHIE: Sad about what??
SILVA: An unoccupied nursery in a house, and all the other rooms empty. . .
ARCHIE: That’s no problem of yours!
SILVA: The good neighbor policy makes your problems mine—and vice versa. . .
AUNT ROSE [violent and high and shrill]: SUPPER! READY! CHILDREN. . .
[She staggers back in. Now there’s a pause in which all three stand tense and silent about the water pump. Baby Doll with her slow, new smile speaks up first. . .]
BABY DOLL: You all didn’t hear us called in to supper?
ARCHIE: You gonna eat here tonight?
SILVA: Mrs. Meighan asked me to stay for supper but I told her I’d better get to hear the invitation from the head of the house before I’d feel free to accept it. So. . . . What do you say?
ARCHIE [a tense pause. . . then, with great difficulty. . .]: Stay!. . . fo’ supper.
BABY DOLL: You’ll have to take potluck.
SILVA: I wouldn’t be putting you out?
[This is addressed to Baby Doll, who smiles vaguely and starts toward the house.]
BABY DOLL: I better get into my clo’se. . .
ARCHIE: Yeah. . . hunh. . .
[They follow her sensuous departure with their eyes till she fades into the dusk.]
Did I understand you to say you wouldn’t build a new gin but would leave your business to me?
SILVA: If that’s agreeable to you. . .
ARCHIE [turning from his wife’s back to Silva’s face]: I don’t know yet, I’ll have to consider the matter. . . . Financing is involved such as—new equipment. . . . Let’s go in and eat now. . . . I got a pain in my belly, I got a sort of heartburn. . .
[They enter the kitchen. Archie Lee’s condition is almost shock. He can’t quite get with the situation. He numbly figures that he’d better play it cool till the inner fog clears. But his instinct is murder. His cowardly caution focuses his malice on the old woman and the unsatisfactory supper she’sprepared.]
Hey! Hey! One more place at the table! Mr. Vacarro from the Syndicate Plantation is stayin’ to supper.
AUNT ROSE: Just let me—cut some roses!
ARCHIE: Another place is all that’s called for. Have you been here all day?
AUNT ROSE: What was that you say, Archie Lee?
ARCHIE: HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE HOUSE ALL AFTERNOON OR DID YOU LIGHT OUT TO THE COUNTY HOSPITAL TO EAT SOME DYING WOMAN’S CHOCOLATE CANDY???
AUNT ROSE [gasping as if struck, then cackling. . .]: I—I—visited! an old friend in a—coma! Like I told you!
ARCHIE: Then you wasn’t here while I was—
[He turns to Vacarro—fiercely.]
I work like the hammer of hell! I come home to find the kitchen all broken glass, my wife bad-tempered, insulting! and a supper of hog slops— Sit down, eat. I got to make a phone call.
[He crosses somewhat uneasily to the phone, picks it up as Baby Doll descends the steps, goes past him with her face austerely averted. She is clad in a fresh silk sheath and is adjusting an earring as she enters the kitchen.]
BABY DOLL: He’s at the phone about something and if I was you, I wouldn’t hang around long.
SILVA: I think I’ve got a pretty good little witness.
BABY DOLL: Don’t count on a law court. Justice around here is as deaf and blind as that old woman.
SILVA: I find you different this evening in some way. Suddenly grown up.
BABY DOLL [looking at him gratefully]: I feel cool and rested, for the first time in my life. I feel that way, rested and cool.
[A pause. We hear Archie Lee on the phone.]
Are you staying or going???
[They are close together by the table. Suddenly she catches her breath and flattens her body to his. The embrace is active. She reaches above her and pulls the beaded chain of the light bulb, plunging the room into darkness. We hear two things: the breath of the embracing couple and the voice of Archie Lee on the phone.]
ARCHIE: A bunch of men from the Syndicate Plantation are out frog-giggin’ on Tiger Tail Bayou and I thought we all might join the party. How about meetin’ at the Brite Spot in half’n hour? With full equipment.
[A few more indistinct words, he hangs up. The light is switched back on in the kitchen. Aunt Rose rushes in.]
AUNT ROSE: Roses! Poems of nature. . . poems of nature. . .
ARCHIE [entering from the hall, his agitation steadily mounting]: Never mind poems of nature, just put food on th’ table!
AUNT ROSE: If I’d only known that company was expected, I’d. . .
[Her breathless voice expires as she scuttles about putting roses in a vase.]
Only takes a minute.
ARCHIE: We ain’t waitin’ no minute. Bring out the food.
BABY DOLL: Don’t pick on Aunt Rose. . .
ARCHIE [shouting]: Put some food on the table!!! [Muttering.] I’m going to have a talk with that old woman, right here tonight. She’s outstayed her welcome.
SILVA [changing the subject]: What a pretty wrapper you’re wearing tonight, Mrs. Meighan.
BABY DOLL [coyly]: Thank you, Mr. Vacarro.
SILVA: If you don’t mind my saying it, but it’s very flattering to your figure.
ARCHIE [screaming]: FOOD! FOOD!
SILVA: There’s so many shades of blue. Which shade is that?
BABY DOLL: Jus’ baby blue.
ARCHIE: Baby blue, my ass. FOOD!
SILVA: Your wrapper brings out the color of your eyes.
ARCHIE: FOOD! FOOD!
AUNT ROSE: Immediately! This instant!
[She places the greens on the table. They are raw.]
BABY DOLL: This wrapper was part of my trousseau, as a matter of fact. I got all my trousseau in Memphis at various departments where my dad
dy was known. Big department stores on Main Street.
ARCHIE: WHAT IS THIS STUFF???!! GRASS??!!
BABY DOLL: Greens! Don’t you know greens when you see them?
ARCHIE: This stuff is greens??!!
AUNT ROSE: Archie Lee dotes on greens, don’t you, Archie Lee?
ARCHIE: No, I don’t!
AUNT ROSE: You don’t? You. . . you don’t dote on greens?
ARCHIE: I don’t think I ever declared any terrible fondness for greens in your presence, Aunt Rose!
AUNT ROSE: Well, somebody did.
ARCHIE [raving]: Somebody did—sometime, somewhere, but that don’t mean it was me!
BABY DOLL [who is holding Silva’s hand under the table]: Sit down, Big Shot, an’ eat your greens. Greens puts iron in your system.
ARCHIE: This ain’t even fit for hog slops. I’m gonna have a talk with you, woman—tonight! You’ve outstayed your welcome.
AUNT ROSE: But I. . . I thought Archie Lee doted on greens! —All those likes an’ dislikes are hard to keep straight in your head. But Archie Lee’s easy to cook for. Jim’s a complainer, oh, my, what a complainer Jim is, and Susie’s household, they’re nothing but complainers.
ARCHIE: TAKE THIS SLOP OFF TH’ TABLE!!!
AUNT ROSE: I’ll—cook you some—eggs Birmingham! — These greens didn’cook long enough. I played a fool trick with my stove. I forgot to light it! Ha ha! When I went out—I had my greens on the stove. I thought I’d left ’em boilin’. But when I got home I discovered that my stove wasn’t lighted.