Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [22]
MAMA Travis! (She is counting off with doubt) Is that the right number of zeros?
TRAVIS Yes’m … ten thousand dollars. Gaalee, Grandmama, you rich.
MAMA (She holds the check away from her, still looking at it. Slowly her face sobers into a mask of unhappiness) Ten thousand dollars. (She hands it to RUTH) Put it away somewhere, Ruth. (She does not look at RUTH; her eyes seem to be seeing something somewhere very far off) Ten thousand dollars they give you. Ten thousand dollars.
TRAVIS (To his mother, sincerely) What’s the matter with Grandmama—don’t she want to be rich?
RUTH (Distractedly) You go on out and play now, baby. (TRAVIS exits. MAMA starts wiping dishes absently, humming intently to herself. RUTH turns to her, with kind exasperation) You’ve gone and got yourself upset.
MAMA (Not looking at her) I spec if it wasn’t for you all … I would just put that money away or give it to the church or something.
RUTH Now what kind of talk is that. Mr. Younger would just be plain mad if he could hear you talking foolish like that.
MAMA (Stopping and staring off) Yes … he sure would. (Sighing) We got enough to do with that money, all right. (She halts then, and turns and looks at her daughter-in-law hard; RUTH avoids her eyes and MAMA wipes her hands with finality and starts to speak firmly to RUTH) Where did you go today, girl?
RUTH To the doctor.
MAMA (Impatiently) Now, Ruth … you know better than that. Old Doctor Jones is strange enough in his way but there ain’t nothing ’bout him make somebody slip and call him “she”—like you done this morning.
RUTH Well, that’s what happened—my tongue slipped.
MAMA You went to see that woman, didn’t you?
RUTH (Defensively, giving herself away) What woman you talking about?
MAMA (Angrily) That woman who—
(WALTER enters in great excitement)
WALTER Did it come?
MAMA (Quietly) Can’t you give people a Christian greeting before you start asking about money?
WALTER (To RUTH) Did it come? (RUTH unfolds the check and lays it quietly before him, watching him intently with thoughts of her own. WALTER sits down and grasps it close and counts off the zeros) Ten thousand dollars—(He turns suddenly, frantically to his mother and draws some papers out of his breast pocket) Mama—look. Old Willy Harris put everything on paper—
MAMA Son—I think you ought to talk to your wife … I’ll go on out and leave you alone if you want—
WALTER I can talk to her later—Mama, look—
MAMA Son—
WALTER WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!
MAMA (Quietly) I don’t ’low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, and you know it—(WALTER stares at them in frustration and starts to speak several times) And there ain’t going to be no investing in no liquor stores.
WALTER But, Mama, you ain’t even looked at it.
MAMA I don’t aim to have to speak on that again.
(A long pause)
WALTER You ain’t looked at it and you don’t aim to have to speak on that again? You ain’t even looked at it and you have decided—(Crumpling his papers) Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living-room couch … (Turning to MAMA and speaking directly to her) Yeah—and tell it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else’s kids. And tell it to me, Mama, every time we need a new pair of curtains and I have to watch you go out and work in somebody’s kitchen. Yeah, you tell me then!
(WALTER starts out)
RUTH Where you going?
WALTER I’m going put!
RUTH Where?
WALTER Just out of this house somewhere—
RUTH (Getting her coat) I’ll come too.
WALTER I don’t want you to come!
RUTH I got something to talk to you about, Walter.
WALTER That’s too bad.
MAMA (Still quietly) Walter Lee—(She waits and he finally turns and looks at her) Sit down.
WALTER I’m a grown man, Mama.
MAMA Ain’t nobody said you wasn’t grown. But you still in my house and my presence. And as long as you are—you’ll talk to your wife civil. Now sit down.
RUTH (Suddenly) Oh, let him go on out and drink himself to death! He makes