SHORY: Unless the walls blow out.
GUS: If he don’t go chasing after whores his walls won’t blow out. [Quietly.] And I beg your pardon. I didn’t mean nothing personal.
J.B. [goes to DAVID]: I’ll lend you the money for the mink, Dave.
GUS: Are you mad?
J.B.: I can see what he means, Gus. [Looks at DAVID.] It takes a great kind of man to prepare himself that way. A man does have to pay. It’s just the way it happens, senseless.
[He glances upstairs, then to DAVID.]
It’s true. It always happens senseless.
J.B.: I’ll back you, Dave.
DAVID: I’d like to pay him tonight if I can . . .
They all turn to look up as BELLE appears, slowly descending the stairs. They do not hear her until she is a little way down. Her usual expression of wide-eyed bewilderment is on her face, but now she is tense, and descends looking at DAVID. She half sniffs, half sobs into her kerchief. She stops on the stairs. DAVID rises. She half laughs, half snivels in a quiet ecstasy of excitement, and weakly motions him upstairs. He comes toward her questioningly, to the landing.
BELLE: Go . . . Go up.
DAVID: What. What . . . ?
BELLE [suddenly bursts out and rushes down and flings her arms about him]: Oh, Davey, Davey.
DAVID [ripping her free, he roars in her face]: What happened?! [With a sob of grief in his voice, he grips her.] Belle! The cry of a baby is suddenly heard from above. The sound almost throws DAVID back, away from the stairs. He stands stock still, hard as a rock, looking upward, his mouth fallen open.
BELLE [still half-sobbing]: It’s a boy. A perfect baby boy!
She now breaks info full sobs and rushes up the stairs. Everything is still a moment, DAVID stares at nothing. The cry sounds again. He looks upward again as though to let it sink in. J.B. goes to him, hand extended.
J.B. [filled with joy, and gravely]: Dave.
DAVID dumbly shakes his hand, a weak smile on his face.
A boy, a boy, Dave! Just what you wanted!
A strange short laugh leaps from DAVID. An easier but still tense laugh comes. PAT goes to him and shakes his hand.
PAT: Dave, a new generation!
GUS [smilingly]: Well? You see? [Laughs.] A good man gets what a good man makes. [Hits DAVID jovially.] Wake up now! Good luck!
Gus tosses a quarter to SHORY.
GUS: It’s the first time you’ve been right since I knew you.
J.B.: Come out of the ether. Take a look at him, Dave.
DAVID rushes out. They stand astonished for a moment. What do you suppose come over him?
GUS: What else could come over him? . . . he’s ashamed.
GUS hurries out the door. The others remain in silence. Then one by one they look upstairs toward the sound of the baby’s crying.
Slow Curtain.
Scene ii
Before the curtain rises thunder is heard.
It is one month later. The living room. Night.
The room is empty and in darkness. A bolt of lightning illuminates it through the windows, then darkness again. Now the door to the outside opens and HESTER enters. She is very tense but her motions are minute, as though she were mentally absorbed and had entirely forgotten her surroundings. Without removing her coat or galoshes she comes to the center of the room and stands there staring. Then she goes to a window and looks out. A flash of lightning makes her back a step from the window; and without further hesitation she goes to the phone, switching on a nearby light.
HESTER [she watches the window as she waits]: Hello? Gus? Where have you been, I’ve been ringing you for an hour. [She listens.] Well, look, could you come over here? Right now, I mean. It would not be interfering, Gus, I want to talk to you. He’s outside. Gus, you’ve got to come here—his mink are going to die. [She keeps glancing at the window.] He doesn’t know it yet, but he’ll probably see it any minute. Dan Dibble called before. . . . He’s lost over thirty of his already. . . . They use the same fish. . . . I want you here when he notices. [She turns suddenly toward the door.] He’s coming in. You hurry over now. . . . Please!
She hangs up, and starts for the door, but as though to compose herself she stops, and starts toward a chair when she realizes she still has her coat and galoshes on. She is kicking off the galoshes when DAVID enters. He looks up at her, and with a slight glance upstairs . . .
DAVID: Everything all right?
HESTER: Why?
DAVID: I thought I heard a call or a scream.
HESTER: No, there was no scream.
DAVID: I guess it was the lightning. Is he all right? [Of the baby.]
HESTER: There’s no gate there, you can go up and see.
DAVID: How can I go to him with my hands so bloody? [She turns from him. He starts for the door.]
HESTER: I thought you were through feeding.
DAVID: I am. I’m just grinding some for tomorrow.
HESTER: Are they all right?
DAVID: I never saw them so strung up. I think it’s the hail banging on the cages. [There is a momentary hiatus as he silently asks for leave to go.] I just wondered if he was all right. [He takes a step.]
HESTER [suddenly]: Don’t go out again, Davey. Please. You told me yourself, they ought to be left alone when they’re whelping.
DAVID: I’ve got to be there, Hess, I’ve just got to. I . . . [He goes to her.] I promise you, after they whelp we’ll go away, we’ll travel . . . I’m going to make a queen’s life for you.
HESTER: Don’t go out.
DAVID: I’ll be in right away . . .
HESTER [grasps his arms]: I don’t want them to be so important, Davey!
DAVID: But everything we’ve got is in them. You know that.
HESTER: I’m not afraid of being poor . . .
DAVID: That’s ’cause you never were—and you’ll never be. You’re going to have a life like a . . .
HESTER: Why do you keep saying that? I don’t want it, I don’t need it! I don’t care what happens out there! And I don’t want you to care. Do you hear what I say, I don’t want you to care!
A bolt of lightning floods suddenly through the windows. DAVID starts. Then hurries to the door.
HESTER [ frightened now]: Davey! [DAVID stops, does not turn.] You can’t stop the lightning, can you? [He does not turn still. She goes closer to him, pleading.] I know how hard you worked, but it won’t be the first year’s work that ever went for nothing in the world. It happens that way, doesn’t it?
DAVID [he turns to her slowly. Now his emotions seem to flood him]: Not when a man doesn’t make any mistakes. I kept them alive all year. Not even one got sick. I didn’t make a mistake. And now this storm comes, just when I need it calm, just tonight . . .
HESTER: You talk as though the sun were shining everywhere else but here, as though the sky is making thunder just to knock you down.
DAVID [he looks at her long as though she had reached into him]: Yeh, that’s the way I talk. [He seems about to sob.] Bear with me, Hess—only a little while. [He moves to go.]
HESTER: Davey . . . the house is grey. Like the old paint was creeping back on the walls. When will we sit and talk again? When will you pick up the baby . . . ?
DAVID [comes alive]: I did, Hess . . .
HESTER: You never did. And why is that?
DAVID: When you were out of the house . . .
HESTER: Never, not since he’s been born. Can’t you tell me why? [DAVID turns and opens the door. Her fear raises her voice.] Can’t you tell me why? [He starts out.] Davey, tell me why! [He goes out. She calls out the door] Davey, I don’t understand! Come back here!
In a moment, she comes away, closing the door. Her hands are lightly clasped to her throat. She comes to a halt in the room; now she turns on a lamp. She suddenly hears something behind her, turns, and takes a step toward the door as GUS quietly enters.
HESTER [relieved]: Oh, Gus!
GUS [glancing toward the door]: Is he coming right back?
HESTER: He goes in and out, I don’t know. You’ll stay here tonight, won’t you?
GUS: The first thing to do is sit down.
As he leads her to the couch—she is near tears.
HESTER: I kept calling you and calling you.
GUS [taking off his coat]: Now get hold of yourself; there’s nothing to do till he finds out. I’m sorry, I was in Burley all afternoon, I just got home. What did Dibble tell you? [He returns to her.]
HESTER: Just that he was losing animals, and he thought it was silkworm in the feed. They share the same carload.
GUS: Ah. David notices nothing? [A gesture toward outside with his head.]
HESTER: He just says they’re strung up, but that’s the lightning. It takes time for them to digest.
GUS: Well then, we’ll wait and see. [He goes to the window, looks out.] This storm is going to wipe out the bridges. It’s terrible.
HESTER: What am I going to do, Gus? He worked all year on those animals.
GUS: We will do what we have to, Hester, that’s what we will do. [He turns to her, taking out an envelope.] Actually, I was coming over tonight anyway . . . To say goodbye.
HESTER: Goodbye!
GUS: In here I explain. [He places the envelope on the mantel.] When I am gone, give it to him. I can’t argue with him no more.
HESTER: You mean you’re moving away?
GUS: I am going to Chicago. There is an excellent position for me. Double what I can make here.
HESTER: But why are you going?
GUS: I told you, I can make double . . .
HESTER [gets up]: Don’t treat me like a baby, why are you going? [Slight pause.]
GUS: Well . . . Actually, I am lonely. [Laughs slightly.] There is plenty of girls here, but no wifes, Hester. Thirty-seven years is a long time for a man to wash his own underwear.
HESTER [touched]: You and your red-headed girls!
GUS: I was always a romantic man. You know that, don’t you? Truly.
HESTER: But to give up a business and go traipsing off just for . . . ?
GUS: Why not? What made me give up Detroit to come here?
HESTER: Really, Gus?
GUS: Certainly. Moving is very necessary for me. [Pause.] I’m leaving tomorrow night.
HESTER: But why? I suppose I should understand, but I can’t. [Pause. GUS looks directly at her.] It doesn’t make sense. [Insistently. ] Gus?
GUS: [ pause. For a long time he keeps her in his eye]: Because
I have no courage to stay here. [Pause.] I was talking today with a doctor in Burley. I believe David . . . is possibly losing his mind.
She does not react. She stands there gaping at him. He waits. With no sound she backs a few steps, then comes downstage and lightly sets both hands on the couch, never taking her eyes from him. A pause. As though hearing what he said again, she is impelled to move again, to a chair on whose back she sets a hand—facing him now. They stand so a moment.
I thought surely you knew. Or at least you would know soon. [She does not answer.] Do you know?
HESTER: I’ve almost thought so sometimes. . . . But I can’t believe he . . .
GUS [a new directness, now that she has taken the blow]: I have been trying to straighten him out all month. But I have no more wisdom, Hester. I . . . I would like to take him to the doctors in Burley.
HESTER [shocked]: Burley!
GUS: Tonight. They will know what to say to him there.
HESTER [horrified]: No, he’s not going there.
GUS: It is no disgrace. You are talking like a silly woman.
HESTER: He’s not going there! There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s worried, that’s all . . .
GUS: When those animals begin dying he will be more than worried. Nothing worse could possibly happen . . .
HESTER: No. If he can take the shock tonight he’ll be all right. I think it’s better if they die.
GUS: For God’s sake, no!
HESTER: All his life he’s been waiting for it. All his life, waiting, waiting for something to happen. It’ll be over now, all over, don’t you see? Just stay here tonight. And when it happens, you’ll talk to him . . .
GUS: What he has lost I can’t put back, Hester. He is not a piece of machinery.
HESTER [stops moving]: What has he lost? What do you mean, lost?
GUS: What a man must have, what a man must believe. That on this earth he is the boss of his life. Not the leafs in the teacups, not the stars. In Europe I seen already millions of Davids walking around, millions. They gave up already to know that they are the boss. They gave up to know that they deserve this world. And now here too, with such good land, with such a . . . such a big sky they are saying . . . I hear it every day . . . that it is somehow unnatural for a man to have a sweet life and nice things. Daily they wait for catastrophe. A man must understand the presence of God in his hands. And when he don’t understand it he is trapped. David is trapped, Hester. You understand why everything he has is in the mink?
HESTER [wide-eyed]: It’s the baby, isn’t it. He thought it was going to be . . .
GUS: Dead, yes. Say, say out now. I was here that night. He always wanted so much to have a son and that is why he saw him dead. This, what he wanted most of all he couldn’t have. This finally would be his catastrophe. And then everything would be guaranteed for him. And that is why he put everything in those animals.
HESTER: Gus . . .
GUS: The healthy baby stole from David his catastrophe, Hester. Perfect he was born and David was left with every penny he owns in an animal that can die like this . . . [Snaps his fingers. ] and the catastrophe still on its way.
HESTER [seeing the reason]: He never touched the baby . . .
GUS: How can he touch him? He is bleeding with shame, Hester. Because he betrayed his son, and he betrayed you. And now if those animals die he will look into the tea leafs of his mind, into the sky he will look where he always looked, and if he sees retribution there . . . you will not call him worried any more. Let me take him to Burley before he notices anything wrong in the cages.
HESTER: No. He’s Davey, he’s not some . . .
GUS: They will know what to do there!
HESTER: I know what to do! [She moves away and faces him.] I could have warned him. . . . Dan called before he started feeding.
GUS [shocked and furious]: Hester!
HESTER: I wanted them dead! I want them dead now, those beautiful rats!
GUS: How could you do that!
HESTER: He’s got to lose. Once and for all he’s got to lose. I always knew it had to happen, let it happen now, before the baby can see and understand. You’re not taking him anywhere. He’ll be happy again. It’ll be over and he’ll be happy!
GUS [unwillingly]: Hester.
HESTER: No, I’m not afraid now. It’ll be over now.
GUS: What will be over, Hester? He took out last week an insurance policy. A big one. [HESTER stops moving.] It covers his life.
HESTER: No, Gus.
GUS: What will be over?
HESTER [a cry]: No, Gus! [Breaks into sobbing.]
GUS [taking her by the arms]: Get hold now, get hold!
HESTER [sobbing, shaking her head negatively]: Davey, Davey . . . he was always so fine, what happened to him . . . !
GUS: He mustn’t see you this way . . . ! Nothing is worse than . . .
HESTER [trying to break from GUS to go out]: Davey, Davey . . . !
GUS: Stop it, Hester! He’s shamed enough!
He has her face in his hands as the door suddenly opens and DAVID is standing there. GUS releases her. They stand apart. DAVID has stopped moving in surprise. He looks at her, then at GUS, then at her. DAVID goes toward her.
DAVID [astonished, alarmed]: Hess. What’s the matter?
HESTER: Nothing . . . How is everything outside?
DAVID: It’s still hailing . . . [Stops. With an edge of self-accusation. ] Why were you crying?
HESTER [her voice still wet]: I wasn’t really.
DAVID [feeling the awkwardness, glances at both; to GUS]: Why were you holding her?
HESTER [with an attempt at a laugh]: He wasn’t holding me. He’s decided to go to Chicago and . . .
DAVID [mystified, to GUS]: Chicago! Why . . . ?
HESTER [tries to laugh]: He wants to find a wife! Imagine?
DAVID [to GUS]: All of a sudden you . . . ?
HESTER [unbuttoning his coat, ready to weep and trying to be gay]: Let’s have some tea and sit up till way late and talk! Don’t go out anymore, Davey. . . . From now on I’m not letting you out of my sight. . . . There are so many nice things to talk about!
She has his coat and has just stepped away with a gross animation.
DAVID [deeply worried. Brushing her attempt away]: Why were you crying, Hester?
The phone rings. HESTER fairly leaps at the sound. She starts quickly for the phone but DAVID is close to it and picks it up easily, slightly puzzled at her frantic eagerness to take it.
HESTER: It’s probably Ellie. I promised to lend her a hat for tomorrow.
DAVID [looks at her perplexed. He lifts the receiver]: Yes?
As she speaks HESTER steps away from him, in fear now. GUS changes position instinctively, almost as though for physical advantage.
Mr. Dibble? No, he isn’t here; I don’t expect him. Oh! Well, he isn’t here yet. What’s it all about? [Listens.] What are you talking about; have I got what under control? [Listens. Now with horror.] Of course I’ve fed! Why didn’t you call me, you know I feed before this! God damn your soul, you know I use the same feed he does! [Roars.] Don’t tell me he called me! Don’t . . . ! [Listens] When did he call? Breaks off; listens. He turns, listening, to HESTER; slowly, an expression of horrified perplexity and astonishment grips his face. His eyes stay on HESTER.
Well, they seem all right now . . . maybe it hasn’t had time to grip them. [Still into the phone.] Yeh . . . yeh . . . all right, I’ll wait for him.
He hangs up weakly. For a long time he looks at her. Then he looks at GUS and back to her as though connecting them somehow.
What . . . Why . . . didn’t you tell me he called?
HESTER [suddenly she dares not be too near him; she holds out a hand to touch and ward him off . . . she is a distance from him]: Davey . . .