Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [33]
JOHNSON He sure did.
MAMA Well, it sounds just like him. The fool.
JOHNSON (Indignantly) Well—he was one of our great men.
MAMA Who said so?
JOHNSON (Nonplussed) You know, me and you ain’t never agreed about some things, Lena Younger. I guess I better be going—
RUTH (Quickly) Good night.
JOHNSON Good night. Oh—(Thrusting it at her) You can keep the paper! (With a trill) ’Night.
MAMA Good night, Mis’ Johnson.
(MRS. JOHNSON exits)
RUTH If ignorance was gold …
MAMA Shush. Don’t talk about folks behind their backs.
RUTH You do.
MAMA I’m old and corrupted. (BENEATHA enters) You was rude to Mis’ Johnson, Beneatha, and I don’t like it at all.
BENEATHA (At her door) Mama, if there are two things we, as a people, have got to overcome, one is the Ku Klux Klan—and the other is Mrs. Johnson. (She exits)
MAMA Smart aleck.
(The phone rings)
RUTH I’ll get it.
MAMA Lord, ain’t this a popular place tonight.
RUTH (At the phone) Hello—Just a minute. (Goes to door) Walter, it’s Mrs. Arnold. (Waits. Goes back to the phone. Tense) Hello. Yes, this is his wife speaking … He’s lying down now. Yes … well, he’ll be in tomorrow. He’s been very sick. Yes—I know we should have called, but we were so sure he’d be able to come in today. Yes—yes, I’m very sorry. Yes … Thank you very much. (She hangs up. WALTER is standing in the doorway of the bedroom behind her) That was Mrs. Arnold.
WALTER (Indifferently) Was it?
RUTH She said if you don’t come in tomorrow that they are getting a new man …
WALTER Ain’t that sad—ain’t that crying sad.
RUTH She said Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days … Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where you been, Walter Lee Younger? (WALTER looks at her and starts to laugh) You’re going to lose your job.
WALTER That’s right … (He turns on the radio)
RUTH Oh, Walter, and with your mother working like a dog every day—
(A steamy, deep blues pours into the room)
WALTER That’s sad too— Everything is sad.
MAMA What you been doing for these three days, son?
WALTER Mama—you don’t know all the things a man what got leisure can find to do in this city … What’s this—Friday night? Well—Wednesday I borrowed Willy Harris’ car and I went for a drive … just me and myself and I drove and drove … Way out … way past South Chicago, and I parked the car and I sat and looked at the steel mills all day long. I just sat in the car and looked at them big black chimneys for hours. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And Thursday—Thursday I borrowed the car again and I got in it and I pointed it the other way and I drove the other way—for hours—way, way up to Wisconsin, and I looked at the farms. I just drove and looked at the farms. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And today—today I didn’t get the car. Today I just walked. All over the Southside. And I looked at the Negroes and they looked at me and finally I just sat down on the curb at Thirty-ninth and South Parkway and I just sat there and watched the Negroes go by. And then I went to the Green Hat. You all sad? You all depressed? And you know where I am going right now—
(RUTH goes out quietly)
MAMA Oh, Big Walter, is this the harvest of our days?
WALTER You know what I like about the Green Hat? I like this little cat they got there who blows a sax … He blows. He talks to me. He ain’t but ’bout five feet tall and he’s got a conked head and his eyes is always closed and he’s all music—
MAMA (Rising and getting some papers out of her handbag) Walter—
WALTER And there’s this other guy who plays the piano … and they got a sound. I mean they can work on some music … They got the best little combo in the world in the Green Hat … You can just sit there and drink and listen to them three men play and you realize that don’t nothing matter worth a damn, but just being there—
MAMA I’ve helped do it to you, haven’t I, son? Walter I been wrong.
WALTER Naw—you ain’t never been wrong about nothing, Mama.
MAMA Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing