Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [40]
(The bell rings)
BENEATHA That couldn’t be the movers … it’s not hardly two good yet—
(BENEATHA goes into her room. MAMA starts for door)
WALTER (Turning, stiffening) Wait—wait—I’ll get it.
(He stands and looks at the door)
MAMA You expecting company, son?
WALTER (Just looking at the door) Yeah—yeah …
(MAMA looks at RUTH, and they exchange innocent and unfrightened glances)
MAMA (Not understanding) Well, let them in, son.
BENEATHA (From her room) We need some more string.
MAMA Travis—you run to the hardware and get me some string cord.
(MAMA goes out and WALTER turns and looks at RUTH. TRAVIS goes to a dish for money)
RUTH Why don’t you answer the door, man?
WALTER (Suddenly bounding across the floor to embrace her) ’Cause sometimes it hard to let the future begin!
(Stooping down in her face)
I got wings! You got wings!
All God’s children got wings!
(He crosses to the door and throws it open. Standing there is a very slight little man in a not too prosperous business suit and with haunted frightened eyes and a hat pulled down tightly, brim up, around his forehead. TRAVIS passes between the men and exits. WALTER leans deep in the man’s face, still in his jubilance)
When I get to heaven gonna put on my wings, Gonna fly all over God’s heaven …
(The little man just stares at him)
Heaven—
(Suddenly he stops and looks past the little man into the empty hallway) Where’s Willy, man?
BOBO He ain’t with me.
WALTER (Not disturbed) Oh—come on in. You know my wife.
BOBO (Dumbly, taking off his hat) Yes—h’you, Miss Ruth.
RUTH (Quietly, a mood apart from her husband already, seeing BOBO) Hello, Bobo.
WALTER You right on time today … Right on time. That’s the way! (He slaps BOBO on his back) Sit down … lemme hear.
(RUTH stands stiffly and quietly in back of them, as though somehow she senses death, her eyes fixed on her husband)
BOBO (His frightened eyes on the floor, his hat in his hands) Could I please get a drink of water, before I tell you about it, Walter Lee?
(WALTER does not take his eyes off the man. RUTH goes blindly to the tap and gets a glass of water and brings it to BOBO)
WALTER There ain’t nothing wrong, is there?
BOBO Lemme tell you—
WALTER Man—didn’t nothing go wrong?
BOBO Lemme tell you—Walter Lee. (Looking at RUTH and talking to her more than to WALTER) YOU know how it was. I got to tell you how it was. I mean first I got to tell you how it was all the way … I mean about the money I put in, Walter Lee …
WALTER (With taut agitation now) What about the money you put in?
BOBO Well—it wasn’t much as we told you—me and Willy—(He stops) I’m sorry, Walter. I got a bad feeling about it. I got a real bad feeling about it …
WALTER Man, what you telling me about all this for? … Tell me what happened in Springfield …
BOBO Springfield.
RUTH (Like a dead woman) What was supposed to happen in Springfield?
BOBO (To her) This deal that me and Walter went into with Willy— Me and Willy was going to go down to Springfield and spread some money ’round so’s we wouldn’t have to wait so long for the liquor license … That’s what we were going to do. Everybody said that was the way you had to do, you understand, Miss Ruth?
WALTER Man—what happened down there?
BOBO (A pitiful man, near tears) I’m trying to tell you, Walter.
WALTER (Screaming at him suddenly) THEN TELL ME, GODDAMMIT … WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?
BOBO Man … I didn’t go to no Springfield, yesterday.
WALTER (Halted, life hanging in the moment) Why not?
BOBO (The long way, the hard way to tell) ’Cause I didn’t have no reasons to …
WALTER Man, what are you talking about!
BOBO I’m talking about the fact that when I got to the train station yesterday morning—eight o’clock like we planned … Man—Willy didn’t never show up.
WALTER Why … where was he … where is he?
BOBO That’s what I’m trying to tell you … I don’t know … I waited six hours … I called his house … and I waited … six hours … I waited in that train station six hours … (Breaking into tears) That was all the extra money I had