Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [29]
TRAVIS Yes’m—
MAMA Well—what you think your grandmama gone and done with that money?
TRAVIS I don’t know, Grandmama.
MAMA (Putting her finger on his nose for emphasis) She went out and she bought you a house! (The explosion comes from WALTER at the end of the revelation and he jumps up and turns away from all of them in a fury. MAMA continues, to TRAVIS) You glad about the house? It’s going to be yours when you get to be a man.
TRAVIS Yeah—I always wanted to live in a house.
MAMA All right, gimme some sugar then—(TRAVIS puts his arms around her neck as she watches her son over the boy’s shoulder. Then, to TRAVIS, after the embrace) Now when you say your prayers tonight, you thank God and your grandfather—’cause it was him who give you the house—in his way.
RUTH (Taking the boy from MAMA and pushing him toward the bedroom) Now you get out of here and get ready for your beating.
TRAVIS Aw, Mama—
RUTH Get on in there—(Closing the door behind him and turning radiantly to her mother-in-law) So you went and did it!
MAMA (Quietly, looking at her son with pain) Yes, I did.
RUTH (Raising both arms classically) PRAISE GOD! (Looks at WALTER a moment, who says nothing. She crosses rapidly to her husband) Please, honey—let me be glad … you be glad too. (She has laid her hands on his shoulders, but he shakes himself free of her roughly, without turning to face her) Oh Walter … a home … a home. (She comes back to MAMA) Well—where is it? How big is it? How much it going to cost?
MAMA Well—
RUTH When we moving?
MAMA (Smiling at her) First of the month.
RUTH (Throwing back her head with jubilance) Praise God!
MAMA (Tentatively, still looking at her son’s back turned against her and RUTH) It’s—it’s a nice house too … (She cannot help speaking directly to him. An imploring quality in her voice, her manner, makes her almost like a girl now) Three bedrooms—nice big one for you and Ruth.… Me and Beneatha still have to share our room, but Travis have one of his own—and (With difficulty) I figure if the—new baby—is a boy, we could get one of them double-decker outfits … And there’s a yard with a little patch of dirt where I could maybe get to grow me a few flowers … And a nice big basement …
RUTH Walter honey, be glad—
MAMA (Still to his back, fingering things on the table) ’Course I don’t want to make it sound fancier than it is … It’s just a plain little old house—but it’s made good and solid—and it will be ours. Walter Lee—it makes a difference in a man when he can walk on floors that belong to him …
RUTH Where is it?
MAMA (Frightened at this telling) Well—well—it’s out there in Clybourne Park—
(RUTH’S radiance fades abruptly, and WALTER finally turns slowly to face his mother with incredulity and hostility)
RUTH Where?
MAMA (Matter-of-factly) Four o six Clybourne Street, Clybourne Park.
RUTH Clybourne Park? Mama, there ain’t no colored people living in Clybourne Park.
MAMA (Almost idiotically) Well, I guess there’s going to be some now.
WALTER (Bitterly) So that’s the peace and comfort you went out and bought for us today!
MAMA (Raising her eyes to meet his finally) Son—I just tried to find the nicest place for the least amount of money for my family.
RUTH (Trying to recover from the shock) Well—well—’course I ain’t one never been ’fraid of no crackers, mind you—but—well, wasn’t there no other houses nowhere?
MAMA Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could.
RUTH (Struck senseless with the news, in its various degrees of goodness and trouble, she sits a moment, her fists propping her chin in thought, and then she starts to rise, bringing her fists down with vigor, the radiance spreading from cheek to cheek again) Well—well!—All I can say is—if this is my time in life—MY TIME