Baby Doll Tiger Tail: A Screenplay and Play by Tennessee Williams

by Tennessee Williams

  SILVA: To celebrate!

  BABY DOLL: No, no, no!

  SILVA: Twenty-seven wagons full of cotton’s a pretty big piece of business to fall into your lap like a gift from the gods, Mrs. Meighan.

  BABY DOLL: I thought you said we would drop the subject.

  SILVA: You brought it up that time.

  BABY DOLL: Well, please don’t try to mix me up anymore, I swear to goodness the fire had already broke out when he got back.

  SILVA: That’s not what you told me a moment ago.

  BABY DOLL: You got me all twisted up. We went in town. The fire broke out and we didn’t know about it.

  SILVA: I thought you said it irritated your sinus.

  BABY DOLL: Oh my God, you sure put words in my mouth. Maybe I’d better make us some lemonade.

  [She starts to get up. Silva pulls her down.]

  What did you do that for?

  SILVA: I don’t want to be deprived of your company yet.

  [He lightly switches her legs with his crop.]

  BABY DOLL [twisting]: Mr. Vacarro, you’re getting awfully familiar.

  SILVA: Haven’t you got any fun-loving spirit about you?

  BABY DOLL: This isn’t fun.

  SILVA: Then why do you giggle?

  BABY DOLL: I’m ticklish!

  SILVA: Ticklish!

  BABY DOLL: Yes, quit switching me, will you?

  SILVA: I’m just shooing the flies off.

  BABY DOLL: They don’t hurt nothing. And would you mind moving your arm?

  SILVA: Don’t be so skittish!

  BABY DOLL: All right! I’ll get up then.

  SILVA: Go on.

  BABY DOLL [trying]: I feel so weak.

  [She pulls herself away from him.]

  Oh! My head’s so buzzy.

  SILVA: Fuzzy?

  BABY DOLL: Fuzzy and buzzy. My head’s swinging around. It’s that swinging. . . . Is something on my arm?

  SILVA: No.

  BABY DOLL: Then what are you brushing?

  SILVA: Sweat off. Let me wipe it. . . .

  [He brushes her arm with his handkerchief.]

  BABY DOLL [laughing weakly]: No, please don’t. It feels funny.

  SILVA: How does it feel?

  BABY DOLL: Funny! All up and down. You cut it out now. If you don’t cut it out I’m going to call.

  SILVA: Call who?

  BABY DOLL: That nigger who’s cuttin’ the grass across the road.

  SILVA: Go on. Call then.

  BABY DOLL: Hey!

  [Her voice is faint, weak.]

  Hey, boy, boy!

  SILVA: Can’t you call any louder?

  BABY DOLL: I feel so funny! What’s the matter with me?

  SILVA: You’re just relaxing. You’re big. There’s a lot of you and it’s all relaxing! So give in. Stop getting yourself all excited.

  BABY DOLL: I’m not—but you. . . .

  SILVA: I!???

  BABY DOLL: Yes. You. Suspicions. The ideas you have about my husband. . . suspicions.

  SILVA: Suspicions? Such as. . .

  BABY DOLL: Such as he burnt your gin down.

  SILVA: Well?

  BABY DOLL: He didn’t.

  SILVA: Didn’t he?

  BABY DOLL: I’m going inside. I’m going in the house.

  [She starts in. He follows close beside her.]

  SILVA: But you’re afraid of the house! Do you believe in ghosts, Mrs. Meighan? I do. I believe in the presence of evil spirits.

  BABY DOLL: What evil spirits you talking about now?

  SILVA: Spirits of violence—and cunning—malevolence—cruelty—treachery—destruction. . . .

  BABY DOLL: Oh, them’s just human characteristics.

  SILVA: They’re evil spirits that haunt the human heart and take possession of it, and spread from one human heart to another human heart the way that a fire goes springing from leaf to leaf and branch to branch in a tree till a forest is all aflame with it—the birds take flight—the wild things are suffocated. . . everything green and beautiful is destroyed. . . .

  BABY DOLL: You have got fire on the brain.

  SILVA: I see it as more than it seems to be on the surface. I saw it last night as an explosion of those evil spirits that haunt the human heart—I fought it! I ran into it, beating it, stamping it, shouting the curse of God at it! They dragged me out, suffocating. I was defeated! When I came to, lying on the ground—the fire had won the battle, and all 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 with hearts 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 gi
n. 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 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 if you 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 knees. She’s sobbing. She rests a moment in the tall grass.]

  74] SILVA.

  He runs up to her and stoops down to help her.

  BABY DOLL: Le’ me go. Le’ me go.

  [She gets up and moves away from him towards her house.]

  75] AUNT ROSE COMFORT, AND BABY DOLL.

  Aunt Rose comes out of the house all dressed up.

  BABY DOLL: Aunt Rose Comfort.

  [Aunt Rose Comfort rushes past her.]

  Aunt Rose Comfort!! Where are you going?

  AUNT ROSE: I have to see a sick friend at the county hospital.

  [And she is gone. Silva has caught up to Baby Doll again.]

  BABY DOLL: You might as well shout at the moon as that old woman.

  SILVA: You didn’t want her to go??

  BABY DOLL: She’s got no business leaving me here alone.

  SILVA: It makes you uneasy to be alone here with me.

  BABY DOLL: I think she just pretended not to hear me. She has a passion for chocolate candy and she watches the newspapers like a hawk to see if anybody she knows is registered at the county hospital.

  SILVA: Hospital. . .?

  BABY DOLL: They give candy to patients at the county hospital, friends and relations send them flowers and candy and Aunt Rose Comfort calls on them and eats up their chocolate candy.

  [Silva explodes with laughter.]

  BABY DOLL: One time an old lady friend of Aunt Rose Comfort was dying at the county hospital and Aunt Rose Comfort went over and ate up a two-pound box of chocolate cherries while the old lady was dying, finished it all, hahahaha, while the old lady was dying.

  [They’re both laughing together.]

  I like ole people—they’re crazy. . . .

  [They both laugh together. . . .]

  SILVA: Mrs. Meighan. . . . May I ask you something? Of a personal nature?

  BABY DOLL: What?

  SILVA: Are you really married to Mr. Meighan?

  BABY DOLL: Mr. Vacarro, that’s a personal question.

  SILVA: All questions are more or less personal, Mrs. Meighan.

  BABY DOLL: Well, when I married I wasn’t ready for marriage. I was still eighteen, but my daddy was practically on his death bed and wanted to see me took care of before he died. Well, ole Archie Lee had been hanging around like a sick dog for quite some time and. . . the boys are a sorry lot around here. Ask you to the movies and take you to the old rock quarry instead. You have to get out of the car and throw rocks at ’em, oh, I’ve had some experiences with boys that would curl your hair if I told you—some—experiences which I’ve had with boys!! But Archie Lee Meighan was an older fellow and in those days, well, his business was better. You hadn’t put up that cotton gin of yours and Archie Lee was ginning out a lot of cotton. You remember?

/>   SILVA: Yes, I remember. . . .

  BABY DOLL: Well, I told my daddy I wasn’t ready for marriage and my daddy told Archie Lee that I wasn’t ready for it and he promised my daddy he’d wait till I was ready.

  SILVA: Then the marriage was postponed?

  BABY DOLL: Not the wedding, no, we had the wedding, my daddy gave me away. . . .

  SILVA: But you said that Archie Lee waited?

  BABY DOLL: Yes, after the wedding. . . he waited.

  SILVA: For what?

  BABY DOLL: For me to be ready for marriage.

  SILVA: How long did he have to wait?

  BABY DOLL: Oh, he’s still waiting! Of course, we had an agreement that. . . well. . . I mean I told him that I’d be ready on my twentieth birthday—I mean ready or not. . . .

  SILVA: And that’s tomorrow?

  BABY DOLL: Uh-huh.

  SILVA: And are you. . . will you—be ready?

  BABY DOLL: That all depends.

  SILVA: What on?

  BABY DOLL: Whether or not the furniture comes back—I guess. . . .

  SILVA: Your husband sweats more than any man I know and now I understand why!!

  [There is a pause. They look at each other. Then Baby Doll looks away. Then with a sudden access of energy she enters the house, slams the screen door in his face and latches it.]