Roots (Modern Plays)

by Arnold Wesker

  Mrs Bryant Well I’m sure I don’t know what he’s on about. Turn to your baking gal look and get you done, Father’ll be home for his lunch in an hour.

  A faint sound of an ambulance is heard. Mrs Bryant looks up but says nothing. Beatie turns to whipping the eggs again and Mrs Bryant to cleaning up the runner beans. Out of this pause Mrs Bryant begins to sing ‘I’ll wait for you in the heavens blue’, but on the second line she hums the tune incorrectly.

  Beatie (laughs) No, no, hell Mother, it don’t go like that. It’s –

  Beatie corrects her and in helping her mother she ends by singing the song, with some enthusiasm, to the end.

  Mrs Bryant Thank God you come home sometimes gal – you do bring a little life with you anyway.

  Beatie Mother, I ent never heard you express a feeling like that.

  Mrs Bryant (she is embarrassed) The world don’t want no feelings gal. (Footsteps are heard.) Is that your father home already?

  Mr Bryant appears at the back door and lays a bicycle against the wall. He is a small shrivelled man wearing denims, a peaked cap, boots, and gaiters. He appears to be in some pain.

  Beatie Hello poppy Bryant.

  Mr Bryant Hello Beatie. You’re here then.

  Mrs Bryant What are you home so early for?

  Mr Bryant The ole guts ache again. (Sits in armchair and grimaces.)

  Mrs Bryant Well, what is it?

  Mr Bryant Blust woman, I don’t know what ’tis n’more’n you, do I?

  Mrs Bryant Go to the doctor man I keep telling you.

  Beatie What is it father Bryant?

  Mrs Bryant He got guts ache.

  Beatie But what’s it from?

  Mr Bryant I’ve just said I don’t know.

  Mrs Bryant Get you to a doctor man, don’t be so soft. You don’t want to be kept from work do you?

  Mr Bryant That I don’t, no I don’t. Hell, I just see ole Stan Mann picked up an’ thaas upset me enough.

  Mrs Bryant Picked up you say?

  Mr Bryant Well, didn’t you hear the ambulance?

  Mrs Bryant There! I hear it but I didn’t say narthin’. Was that for Stan Mann then?

  Mr Bryant I was cycling along wi’ Jack Stones and we see this here figure on the side o’ the road there an’ I say, thaas a rum shape in the road Jack, and he say, blust, that’s ole Stan Mann from Heybrid, an’ ’twere. ’Course soon ever he see what ’twere, he rushed off for ’n ambulance and I waited alongside Stan.

  Beatie But he just left here.

  Mrs Bryant I see it comin’. He come in here an’ I shoved him off home. Get you to bed and take some rum an’ a drop o’ hot milk, I tell him.

  Beatie Is he gonna die?

  Mr Bryant Wouldn’t surprise me that it wouldn’t. Blust, he look done in.

  Mrs Bryant Poor ole fellah. Shame though ent it?

  Mr Bryant When d’you arrive Beatie?

  Mrs Bryant She come on the half-past-ten bus. I looked for her on the nine-thirty bus and she weren’t on that, so I thought to myself I bet she come on the half-past-ten. She did.

  Mr Bryant Yearp.

  Mrs Bryant You gonna stay away all day?

  Mr Bryant No I aren’t. I gotta go back ’cos one of the ole sows is piggin’. ’Spect she’ll be hevin’ them in a couple of hours. (To Beatie.) Got a sow had a litter o’ twenty-two. (Picks up paper to read.)

  Beatie Twenty-two? Oh Pop, can I come see this afternoon?

  Mr Bryant Yearp.

  Mrs Bryant Thought you was hevin’ a bath.

  Beatie Oh yes, I forgot. I’ll come tomorrow then.

  Mr Bryant They’ll be there. What you doin’ gal?

  Mrs Bryant She’s baking a sponge, now leave her be.

  Mr Bryant Oh, you learnt something in London then.

  Beatie Ronnie taught me.

  Mr Bryant Well where is Ronnie then?

  Mrs Bryant He’s comin’ on Saturday a week an’ the family’s goin’ to be here to greet him.

  Mr Bryant All on ’em?

  Mrs Bryant and Beatie All on ’em!

  Mr Bryant Well that’ll be a rum gatherin’ then.

  Mrs Bryant And we’ve to be on our best behaviour.

  Mr Bryant No cussin’ and swearin’?

  Mrs Bryant and Beatie No.

  Mr Bryant Blust, I shan’t talk then.

  A young man, Mr Healey, appears round the garden – he is the farmer’s son, and manager of the estate Bryant works for.

  Mrs Bryant (seeing him first) Oh, Mr Healey, yes. Jack! It’s Mr Healey.

  Mr Bryant rises and goes to the door. Healey speaks in a firm, not unkind, but business-is-business voice. There is that apologetic threat even in his politeness.

  Mr Healey You were taken ill.

  Mr Bryant It’s all right, sir, only guts ache, won’t be long goin’. The pigs is all seen to, just waiting for the ole sow to start.

  Mr Healey What time you expecting it?

  Mr Bryant Oh, she ’ont come afore two this afternoon, no she ’ont be much afore that.

  Mr Healey You’re sure you’re well, Jack? I’ve been thinking that it’s too much for you carting those pails round the yard.

  Mr Bryant No, that ent too heavy, sir, ’course ’tent. You don’t wanna worry, I’ll be along after lunch. Just an ole guts ache that’s all – seein’ the doctor tonight – eat too fast probably.

  Mr Healey If you’re sure you’re all right, then I’ll put young Daniels off. You can manage without him now we’ve fixed the new pump in.

  Mr Bryant I can manage, sir – ’course I can.

  Mr Healey (moving off outside) All right then, Jack, I’ll be with you around two o’clock. I want to take the old one out of number three and stick her with the others in seventeen. The little ones won’t need her, will they? Then we’ll have them sorted out tomorrow.

  Mr Bryant That’s right, sir, they can go on their own now, they can. I’ll see to it tomorrow.

  Mr Healey Right then, Jack. Oh – you hear Stan Mann died?

  Mr Bryant He died already? But I saw him off in the ambulance no more’n half-hour ago.

  Mr Healey Died on the way to hospital. Jack Stones told me. Lived in Heybrid, didn’t he?

  Mr Bryant Alongside my daughter.

  Mr Healey (calling) Well, good morning, Mrs Bryant.

  Mrs Bryant (calling) Good morning, Mr Healey.

  The two men nod to each other, Mr Healey goes off. Mr Bryant lingers a second.

  Mrs Bryant (to Beatie) That was Mr Healey, the new young manager.

  Beatie I know it Mother.

  Mr Bryant (returning slowly) He’s dead then.

  Mrs Bryant Who? Not Stan Mann!

  Mr Bryant Young Healey just tell me.

  Mrs Bryant Well I go t’hell. An’ he were just here look, just here alongside o’ me not more’n hour past.

  Mr Bryant Rum ent it?

  Beatie (weakly) Oh hell, I hate dying.

  Mrs Bryant He were a good ole bor though. Yes he was. A good ole stick. There!

  Beatie Used to ride me round on his horse, always full o’ life an’ jokes. ‘Tell your boy he wanna hurry up and marry you,’ he say to me, ‘or I’ll hev you meself on a plate.’

  Mrs Bryant He were a one for smut though.

  Beatie I was talkin’ with him last night. Only last night he was tellin’ me how he caught me pinchin’ some gooseberries off his patch an’ how he gimme a whole apron full and I went into one o’ his fields near by an’ ate the lot. ‘Blust,’ he say, ‘you had the ole guts ache,’ an’ he laugh, sat there laughin’ away to hisself.

  Mrs Bryant I can remember that. Hell, Jenny’ll miss him – used always to pop in an’ out o’ theirs.

  Beatie Seem like the whole world gone suddenly dead don’ it?

  Mr Bryant Rum ent it?

  Silence.

  Mrs Bryant He’s a nice man Mr Healey is, yes he is, a good sort, I like him.

  Beatie Don’t know about being nice. Sounds to me like he were threatenin
g to sack Father.

  Mr Bryant That’s what I say see, get a rise and they start cutting down the men or the overtime.

  Mrs Bryant The Union magazine’s come.

  Mr Bryant I don’t want that ole thing.

  Beatie Why can’t you do something to stop the sackings?

  Mr Bryant You can’t, you can’t – that’s what I say, you can’t. Sharp as a pig’s scream they are – you just can’t do nothin’.

  Beatie Mother, where’s the bakin’ tin?

  Mr Bryant When we gonna eat that?

  Beatie You ent! It’s for Jenny Beales.

  Mr Bryant You aren’t making that for Jenny are you?

  Beatie I promised her.

  Mr Bryant Not with my electricity you aren’t.

  Beatie But I promised, Poppy.

  Mr Bryant That’s no matters. I aren’t spendin’ money on electricity bills so’s you can make every Tom, Dick ’n’ Harry a sponge cake, that I aren’t.

  Mrs Bryant Well, don’t be so soft man, it won’t take more’n half-hour’s bakin’.

  Mr Bryant I don’t care what it’ll take I say. I aren’t lettin’ her. Jenny wants cakes, she can make ’em herself. So put that away Beatie and use it for something else.

  Mrs Bryant You wanna watch what you’re sayin’ of ’cos I live here too.

  Mr Bryant I know all about that but I pay the electricity bill and I says she isn’t bakin’.

  Beatie But Poppy, one cake.

  Mr Bryant No I say.

  Beatie Well, Mummy, do something – how can he be so mean.

  Mrs Bryant Blust me if you ent the meanest ole sod that walks this earth. Your own daughter and you won’t let her use your oven. You bloody ole hypercrite.

  Mr Bryant You pay the bills and then you call names.

  Mrs Bryant What I ever seen in you God only knows. Yes! an’ he never warn me. Bloody ole hypercrite!

  Mr Bryant You pay the bills and then you call names I say.

  Mrs Bryant On four pounds ten a week? You want me to keep you and pay bills? Four pound ten he give me. God knows what he do wi’ the rest. I don’t know how much he’ve got. I don’t, no I don’t. Bloody ole hypercrite.

  Mr Bryant Let’s hev grub and not so much o’ the lip woman.

  Beatie begins to put the things away. She is on the verge of the tears she will soon let fall.

  Mrs Bryant That’s how he talk to me – when he do talk. ’Cos you know he don’t ever talk more’n he hev to, and when he do say something it’s either ‘how much this cost’ or ‘lend us couple o’ bob’. He’ve got the money but sooner than break into that he borrow off me. Bloody old miser. (To Beatie.) What you wanna cry for gal? ’Tent worth it. Blust, you don’t wanna let an ole hypercrite like him upset you, no you don’t. I’ll get my back on you my manny, see if I don’t. You won’t get away with no tricks on me.

  Beatie has gone into the other room and returned with a small packet.

  Beatie (throwing parcel in father’s lap) Present for you.

  Mrs Bryant I’d give him presents that I would! I’d walk out and disown him! Beatie, now stop you a-cryin’ gal – blust, he ent worth cryin’ for, that he ent. Stop it I say and we’ll have lunch. Or you lost your appetite gal?

  Beatie sniffs a few tears back, pauses, and –

  Beatie No – no, that I ent. Hell, I can eat all right!

  Curtain.

  Scene Two

  Lunch has been eaten. Mr Bryant is sitting at the table rolling himself a cigarette. Mrs Bryant is collecting the dishes and taking them to a sink to wash up. Beatie is taking things off the table and putting them into the larder – jars of sauce, plates of sliced bread and cakes, butter, sugar, condiments, and bowl of tinned fruit.

  Mrs Bryant (to Beatie) Ask him what he want for his tea.

  Mr Bryant She don’t ever ask me before, what she wanna ask me now for?

  Mrs Bryant Tell him it’s his stomach I’m thinking about – I don’t want him complaining to me about the food I cook.

  Mr Bryant Tell her it’s no matters to me – I ent got no pain now besides.

  Beatie Mother, is that water ready for my bath?

  Mrs Bryant Where you hevin’ it?

  Beatie In the kitchen of course.

  Mrs Bryant Blust gal, you can’t bath in this kitchen during the day, what if someone call at the door?

  Beatie Put up the curtain then, I shan’t be no more’n ten minutes.

  Mr Bryant ’Sides, who wants to see her in her dickey suit.

  Beatie I know men as ’ould pay to see me in my dickey suit. (Posing her plump outline.) Don’t you think I got a nice dickey suit?

  Mr Bryant makes a dive and pinches her bottom.

  Beatie Ow! Stoppit Bryants, stoppit!

  He persists.

  Daddy, stop it now!

  Mrs Bryant Tell him he can go as soon as he like, I want your bath over and done with.

  Beatie Oh Mother, stop this nonsense do. If you want to tell him something tell him – not me.

  Mrs Bryant I don’t want to speak to him, hell if I do.

  Beatie Father, get the bath in for me please. Mother, where’s them curtains.

  Mr Bryant goes off to fetch a long tin bath – wide at one end, narrow at the other – while Mrs Bryant leaves washing-up to fish out some curtains which she hangs from one wall to another concealing thus a corner of the kitchen. Anything that is in the way is removed. Beatie meanwhile brings out a change of underwear, her dressing-gown, the new frock, some soap, powder, and towel. These she lays within easy reach of the curtain.

  Beatie I’m gonna wear my new dress and go across the fields to see Frankie and Pearl.

  Mrs Bryant Frankie won’t be there, what you on about? He’ll be gettin’ the harvest in.

  Beatie You makin’ anything for the harvest festival?

  Mr Bryant (entering with bath, places it behind curtain) Your mother don’t ever do anything for the harvest festival – don’t you know that by now.

  Beatie Get you to work father Bryant, I’m gonna plunge in water and I’ll make a splash.

  Mrs Bryant Tell him we’ve got kippers for tea and if he don’ want none let him say now.

  Beatie She says it’s kippers for tea.

  Mr Bryant Tell her I’ll eat kippers. (Goes off, collecting bike on the way.)

  Beatie He says he’ll eat kippers. Right now, Mother, you get cold water an’ I’ll pour the hot.

  Each now picks up a bucket. Mrs Bryant goes off out to collect the cold water and Beatie plunges bucket into boiler to retrieve hot water. The bath is prepared with much childlike glee. Beatie loves her creature comforts and does with unabashed, almost animal, enthusiasm that which she enjoys. When the bath is prepared, Beatie slips behind the curtain to undress and enter.

  Mrs Bryant You hear about Jimmy Skelton? They say he’ve bin arrested for accosting some man in the village.

  Beatie Jimmy Skelton what own the pub?

  Mrs Bryant That’s him. I know all about Jimmy Skelton though. He were a young boy when I were a young girl. I always partner him at whist drives. He’s been to law before you know. Yes! An’ he won the day too! Won the day he did. I don’t take notice though, him and me gets on all right. What do Ronnie’s mother do with her time?

  Beatie She’ve got a sick husband to look after.

  Mrs Bryant She an educated woman?

  Beatie Educated? No. She’s a foreigner. Nor ent Ronnie educated neither. He’s an intellectual, failed all his exams. They read and things.

  Mrs Bryant Oh, they don’t do nothing then?

  Beatie Do nothing? I’ll tell you what Ronnie do, he work till all hours in a hot ole kitchen. An’ he teach kids in a club to act and jive and such. And he don’t stop at weekends either ’cos then there’s political meetings and such and I get breathless trying to keep up wi’ him. Oooh, Mother it’s hot . . .

  Mrs Bryant I’ll get you some cold then.

  Beatie No – ooh – it’s lovely. The water’s so soft Mo
ther.

  Mrs Bryant Yearp.

  Beatie It’s so soft and smooth. I’m in.

  Mrs Bryant Don’t you stay in too long gal. There go the twenty-minutes-past-one bus.

  Beatie Oh Mother, me bath cubes. I forgot me bath cubes. In the little case by me pick-up.

  Mrs Bryant finds bath cubes and hands them to Beatie.

  Mrs Bryant (continuing her work) I shall never forget when I furse heard on it. I was in the village and I was talking to Reggie Fowler. I say to him, there’ve bin a lot o’ talk about Jimmy ent there? Disgustin’, I say. Still, there’s somebody wanna make some easy money, you’d expect that in a village wouldn’t you? Yes, I say to him, a lot of talk. An’ he stood there, an’ he were a-lookin’ at me an’ a-lookin’ as I were atalkin’ and then he say, missus, he say, I were one o’ the victims! Well, you could’ve hit me over the head wi’ a hammer. I was one o’ the victims, he say.

  Beatie Mother, these bath cubes smell beautiful. I could stay here all day.

  Mrs Bryant Still, Jimmy’s a good fellow with it all – do anything for you. I partner him at whist drives; he bin had up scores o’ times though.

  Beatie Mother, what we gonna make Ronnie when he come?

  Mrs Bryant Well, what do he like?

  Beatie He like trifle and he like steak and kidney pie.

  Mrs Bryant We’ll make that then. So long as he don’t complain o’ the guts ache. Frankie hev it too you know.

  Beatie Know why? You all eat too much. The Londoners think we live a healthy life but they don’t know we stuff ourselves silly till our guts ache.

  Mrs Bryant But you know what’s wrong wi’ Jimmy Beales? It’s indigestion. He eat too fast.

  Beatie What the hell’s indigestion doin’ a’tween his shoulder-blades?

  Mrs Bryant ’Cos some people get it so bad it go right through their stomach to the back.

  Beatie You don’t get indigestion in the back, Mother, what you on about?