A Raisin in the Sun (8 page)

(
He exits
)

MAMA
(
After him
) Lord, that’s a pretty thing just went out here! (
Insinuatingly, to her daughter
) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa ’round here. Missionaries my aunt Jenny!

(
She exits
)

BENEATHA
Oh, Mama! …

(
She picks up the Nigerian dress and holds it up to her in front of the mirror again. She sets the headdress on haphazardly and then notices her hair again and clutches at it and then replaces the headdress and frowns at herself. Then she starts to wriggle in front of the mirror as she thinks a Nigerian woman might
.
TRAVIS
enters and stands regarding her
)

TRAVIS
What’s the matter, girl, you cracking up?

BENEATHA
Shut up.

(
She pulls the headdress off and looks at herself in the mirror and clutches at her hair again and squinches her eyes as if trying to imagine something. Then, suddenly, she gets her raincoat and kerchief and hurriedly prepares for going out
)

MAMA
(
Coming back into the room
) She’s resting now. Travis, baby, run next door and ask Miss Johnson to please let me have a little kitchen cleanser. This here can is empty as Jacob’s kettle.

TRAVIS
I just came in.

MAMA
Do as you told. (
He exits and she looks at her daughter
) Where you going?

BENEATHA
(
Halting at the door
) To become a queen of the Nile!

(
She exits in a breathless blaze of glory
.
RUTH
appears in the bedroom doorway
)

MAMA
Who told you to get up?

RUTH
Ain’t nothing wrong with me to be lying in no bed for. Where did Bennie go?

MAMA
(
Drumming her fingers
) Far as I could make out—to Egypt. (
RUTH
just looks at her
) What time is it getting to?

RUTH
Ten twenty. And the mailman going to ring that bell this morning just like he done every morning for the last umpteen years.

(
TRAVIS
comes in with the cleanser can
)

TRAVIS
She say to tell you that she don’t have much.

MAMA
(
Angrily
) Lord, some people I could name sure is tight-fisted! (
Directing her grandson
) Mark two cans of cleanser down on the list there. If she that hard up for kitchen cleanser, I sure don’t want to forget to get her none!

RUTH
Lena—maybe the woman is just short on cleanser—

MAMA
(
Not listening
)—Much baking powder as she done borrowed from me all these years, she could of done gone into the baking business!

(
The bell sounds suddenly and sharply and all three are stunned—serious and silent—mid-speech. In spite of all the other conversations and distractions of the morning, this is what they have
been waiting for, even
TRAVIS
who looks helplessly from his mother to his grandmother
.
RUTH
is the first to come to life again
)

RUTH
(
To
TRAVIS
) Get down them steps, boy!

(
TRAVIS
snaps to life and flies out to get the mail
)

MAMA
(
Her eyes wide, her hand to her breast
) You mean it done really come?

RUTH
(
Excited
) Oh, Miss Lena!

MAMA
(
Collecting herself
) Well … I don’t know what we all so excited about ’round here for. We known it was coming for months.

RUTH
That’s a whole lot different from having it come and being able to hold it in your hands … a piece of paper worth ten thousand dollars … (
TRAVIS
bursts back into the room. He holds the envelope high above his head, like a little dancer, his face is radiant and he is breathless. He moves to his grandmother with sudden slow ceremony and puts the envelope into her hands. She accepts it, and then merely holds it and looks at it
) Come on! Open it … Lord have mercy, I wish Walter Lee was here!

TRAVIS
Open it, Grandmama!

MAMA
(
Staring at it
) Now you all be quiet. It’s just a check.
RUTH
Open it …

MAMA
(
Still staring at it
) Now don’t act silly … We ain’t never been no people to act silly ’bout no money—

RUTH
(
Swiftly
) We ain’t never had none before—OPEN IT!

(
MAMA
finally makes a good strong tear and pulls out the thin blue slice of paper and inspects it
closely. The boy and his mother study it raptly over
MAMA’S
shoulders
)

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 me sick to my stomach! (
She flings her coat against him and exits to bedroom
)

WALTER
(
Violently flinging the coat after her
) And you turn mine too, baby! (
The door slams behind her
) That was my biggest mistake—

MAMA
(
Still quietly
) Walter, what is the matter with you?

WALTER
Matter with me? Ain’t nothing the matter with
me!

MAMA
Yes there is. Something eating you up like a crazy man. Something more than me not giving you this money. The past few years I been watching it happen to you. You get all nervous acting and kind of wild in the eyes—(
WALTER
jumps up impatiently at her words
) I said sit there now, I’m talking to you!

WALTER
Mama—I don’t need no nagging at me today.

MAMA
Seem like you getting to a place where you always tied up in some kind of knot about something. But if anybody ask you ’bout it you just yell at ’em and bust out the house and go out and drink somewheres. Walter Lee, people can’t live with that. Ruth’s a good, patient girl in her way—but you getting to be too much. Boy, don’t make the mistake of driving that girl away from you.

WALTER
Why—what she do for me?

MAMA
She loves you.

WALTER
Mama—I’m going out. I want to go off somewhere and be by myself for a while.

MAMA
I’m sorry ’bout your liquor store, son. It just wasn’t the thing for us to do. That’s what I want to tell you about—

WALTER
I got to go out, Mama—

(
He rises
)

MAMA
It’s dangerous, son.

WALTER
What’s dangerous?

MAMA
When a man goes outside his home to look for peace.

WALTER
(
Beseechingly
) Then why can’t there never be no peace in this house then?

MAMA
You done found it in some other house?

WALTER
No—there ain’t no woman! Why do women always think there’s a woman somewhere when a man gets restless. (
Picks up the check
) Do you know what this money means to me? Do you know what this money can do for us? (
Puts it back
) Mama—Mama—I want so many things …

MAMA
Yes, son—

WALTER
I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy … Mama—look at me.

MAMA
I’m looking at you. You a good-looking boy. You got a job, a nice wife, a fine boy and—

WALTER
A job. (
Looks at her
) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, “Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?” Mama, that ain’t no kind of job … that ain’t nothing at all. (
Very quietly
) Mama, I don’t know if I can make you understand.

MAMA
Understand what, baby?

WALTER
(
Quietly
) Sometimes it’s like I can see the future stretched out in front of me—just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me—a big, looming blank space—full of
nothing
. Just waiting for
me
. But it don’t
have to be. (
Pause. Kneeling beside het chair
) Mama—sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ’bout things … sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars … sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me—

MAMA
Son—how come you talk so much ’bout money?

WALTER
(
With immense passion
) Because it is life, Mama!

MAMA
(
Quietly
) Oh—(
Very quietly
) So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change …

WALTER
No—it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it.

MAMA
No … something has changed. (
She looks at him
) You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too … Now here come you and Beneatha—talking ’bout things we ain’t never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar— You my children—but how different we done become.

WALTER
(
A long beat. He pats her hand and gets up
) You just don’t understand, Mama, you just don’t understand.

MAMA
Son—do you know your wife is expecting another baby? (
WALTER
stands, stunned, and absorbs what his mother has said
) That’s what she wanted to
talk to you about, (
WALTER
sinks down into a chair
) This ain’t for me to be telling—but you ought to know. (
She waits
) I think Ruth is thinking ’bout getting rid of that child.

WALTER
(
Slowly understanding) No
—no—Ruth wouldn’t do that.

MAMA
When the world gets ugly enough—a woman will do anything for her family.
The part that’s already living
.

WALTER
You don’t know Ruth, Mama, if you think she would do that.