Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) (25 page)

GARGA:
I want to slaughter them all now. I know that. I think I’ll get the jump on you. And now I understand why you’ve fattened them on what you earn hauling coal. I won’t let you do me out of my fun. And now I’m taking delivery of this little animal that you’ve been keeping for me.

JANE:
I refuse to be insulted. I stand on my own feet, I support myself.

GARGA:
And now I request you to hand over the money you made selling that lumber twice. I hope you’ve been keeping it for me. The time has come.

Shlink takes out the money and gives it to Garga
.

GARGA:
I’m dead drunk. But drunk or sober, I’ve got a good idea, Shlink, a very good idea.
Goes out with Jane
.

BABOON:
That was your last money, sir. And where did it come from? They’ll be asking you about it. Broost & Co. have demanded delivery of the lumber they paid for.

SHLINK
not listening to him
: A chair.
They have occupied the chairs and do not stand up
. My rice and water.

WORM:
There’s no more rice for you, sir. Your account is overdrawn.

Lake Michigan

The end of September
Woods: Shlink and Mary
.

MARY:
The trees look draped in human dung, the sky is close enough to touch, but what is it to me? I’m cold. I’m like a half-frozen quail. I can’t help myself.

SHLINK:
If it will do you any good, I love you.

MARY
: I’ve thrown myself away. Why has my love turned to bitter fruit? Others have their summer when they love, but I’m withering away and tormenting myself. My body is soiled.

SHLINK:
Tell me how low you feel. It will relieve you.

MARY
: I lay in bed with a man who was like an animal. My whole body was numb, but I gave myself to him, many times, and I couldn’t get warm. He smoked stogies in between, a seaman. I loved you every hour I spent between those papered walls, I was so obsessed that he thought it was love and wanted to stop me. I slept into the black darkness. I don’t owe you anything, but my conscience cries out to me that I’ve soiled my body, which is yours even if you scorned it.

SHLINK:
I’m sorry you’re cold. I thought the air was warm and dark. I don’t know what the men of this country say to the women they love. If it will do you any good: I love you.

MARY:
I’m such a coward, my courage has gone with my innocence.

SHLINK:
You’ll wash yourself clean.

MARY
: Maybe I ought to go down to the water, but I can’t. I’m not ready yet. Oh, this despair! This heart that won’t be appeased! I’m never anything more than half, I can’t even love, it’s only vanity. I hear what you say, I have ears and I’m not deaf, but what does it mean? Maybe I’m asleep, they’ll come and wake me, and maybe it’s just that I’d do the most shameful things to get a roof over my head, that I lie to myself and close my eyes.

SHLINK:
Come, it’s getting cold.

MARY:
But the leaves are warm and shelter us from the sky that’s too close.
They go out
.

MANKY
enters
: Her tracks point this way. You need a good sense of humour in a September like this. The crayfish are mating, the rutting cry of the deer is heard in the thicket, and the badger season is open. But my flippers are cold and
I’ve wrapped my black stumps in newspaper. Where can she be living? That’s the worst of it. If she’s lying around like a fishbone in that greasy saloon, she’ll never have a clean petticoat again. Only stains. Oh, Pat Mankyboddle, I’m going to court-martial you. Too weak to defend myself, I’d better attack. I’ll devour the no-good with skin and bones, I’ll speed up my digestion with prayers, the vultures will be shot at sunrise and hung up in the Mankyboddle Museum. Brrr! Words! Toothless phrases!
He takes a revolver from his pocket
. This is the coldest answer! Stalk through the jungle looking for a woman, will you, you old swine! Down on all fours! Damn, this underbrush is suicide. Watch yourself, Paddy. Where can a woman go when it’s all up with her? Let her go, Paddy boy, have a smoke, take a bite to eat, put that thing away. Forward, march!
Goes out
.

MARY
coming back with Shlink
: It’s loathsome before God and man. I won’t go with you.

SHLINK:
Mouldy sentiments. Air out your soul.

MARY:
I can’t. You’re making a sacrifice of me.

SHLINK:
You’ve always got to have your head in some man’s armpits, no matter whose.

MARY:
I’m nothing to you.

SHLINK
: You can’t live alone.

MARY
: You took me so quickly, as if you were afraid I’d get away. Like a sacrifice.

SHLINK:
You ran into the bushes like a rabid bitch and now you’re running out again like a rabid bitch.

MARY:
Am I what you say? I’m always what you say. I love you. Never forget that, I love you. I love you like a bitch in heat. That’s what you said. But now pay me. Yes, I’m in the mood to get paid. Give me your money, I’ll live on it. I’m a whore.

SHLINK:
Something wet is running down your face. What kind of a whore is that?

MARY
: Don’t make fun of me, just give me the money. Don’t look at me. It’s not tears that make my face wet, it’s the fog.
Shlink gives her paper money
. I won’t thank you, Mr Shlink from Yokohama. It’s a straight business deal, no need for thanks.

SHLINK:
You’d better be going. You won’t make money here.
Goes out
.

The Garga Family’s Living-room

29 September 1912
The room is full of new furniture. John Garga, Mae, George, Jane, Manky, all dressed in new clothes for the wedding dinner
.

JOHN
: Ever since that man we don’t like to speak of, who has a different skin but who goes down to the coal yards to work night and day for a family he knows; ever since the man in the coal yards with the different skin has been watching over us, things have been getting better for us every day, in every way. Today, without knowing of the wedding, he’s made it possible for our son George to have a wedding worthy of the director of a big business. New ties, black suits, the breath of whisky on our lips – amid new furniture.

MAE:
Isn’t it strange that the man in the coal yards should make so much hauling coal?

GARGA:
I make the money.

MAE:
From one day to the next you decided to get married. Wasn’t it a little sudden, Jane?

JANE
: The snow melts, and where is it then? And you can pick the wrong man, it often happens.

MAE:
Right man, wrong man, that’s not the question. The question is whether you stick to him.

JOHN
: Nonsense! Eat your steak and give the bride your hand.

GARGA
takes Jane by the wrist
: It’s a good hand. I’m all right here. Let the wallpaper peel, I’ve got new clothes, I eat steak, I can taste the plaster, I’ve got half an inch of mortar all over me, I see a piano. Hang a wreath on the picture of our dear sister, Mary Garga, born twenty years ago on the prairies. Put everlastings under glass. It’s good to sit here, good to lie here, the black wind doesn’t come in here.

JANE
stands up
: What’s the matter, George? Have you a fever?

GARGA:
I feel fine in my fever, Jane.

JANE:
I keep wondering what your plans are for me, George.

GARGA
: Why are you so pale, mother? Isn’t your prodigal son back again under your roof? Why are you all standing against the wall like plaster statues?

MAE:
Perhaps because of the fight you keep talking about.

GARGA:
It’s only flies in my brain. I can shoo them away.
Shlink enters
. Mother, get a steak and a glass of whisky for our welcome guest. I was married this morning. My dear wife, tell him!

JANE
: Fresh out of bed this morning, my husband and I went to the sheriff and said: Can we be married here? He said: I know you, Jane – will you always stay with your husband? But I saw that he was a good man with a beard, he had nothing against me, so I said: Life isn’t exactly the way you think.

SHLINK:
Congratulations, Garga. You’re a vindictive man.

GARGA
: There’s a hideous fear in your smile! For good reason. Don’t eat too fast. You have plenty of time. Where’s Mary? I hope she’s being taken care of. Your satisfaction must be complete. Unfortunately there’s no chair for you at the moment, Shlink. We’re one chair short. Otherwise our furnishings are new and complete. Look at the piano. A delightful place. I mean to spend my evenings here with my family. I’ve started a new life. Tomorrow I’m going back to C. Maynes’s lending library.

MAE
: Oh, George, aren’t you talking too much?

GARGA
: Do you hear that? My family doesn’t want me to
have anything more to do with you. Our acquaintance is at an end, Mr Shlink. It has been most profitable. The furniture speaks for itself. My family’s wardrobe speaks loud and clear. There’s plenty of cash. I thank you.

Silence
.

SHLINK:
May I ask just one favour of you? A personal matter. I have a letter here from the firm of Broost & Co. It bears the seal of the Attorney-General of the State of Virginia. I haven’t opened it yet. You would oblige me by doing so. Any news, even the worst, would be more acceptable to me from your lips.
Garga reads the letter
. Of course this is my own private affair, but a hint from you would make things much easier for me.

MAE:
Why don’t you say something, George? What are you planning to do, George? You look as if you were planning something. There’s nothing that frightens me more. You men hide behind your unknown thoughts as if they were smoke. And we wait like cattle before slaughter. You say: wait a while, you go away, you come back, and you’re unrecognizable. And we don’t know what you’ve done to yourselves. Tell me your plan, and if you don’t know what it is, admit it, so I’ll know what to do. I’ve got to plan my life too. Four years in this city of steel and dirt! Oh, George!

GARGA
: You see, the bad years were the best, and now they’re over. Don’t say anything to me. You, my parents, and you, Jane, my wife, I’ve decided to go to jail.

JOHN
: What are you saying? Is that where your money comes from? It was written on your face when you were five years old that you’d end up in jail. I never asked what went on between the two of you, I knew it was rotten. You’ve both lost the ground from under your feet. Buying pianos and going to jail, dragging in whole armloads of steak and robbing a family of its livelihood is all the same to you. Where’s Mary, your sister?
He tears off his jacket and throws it on the floor
. There’s my jacket, I never wanted to put it on. But I’m used to the kind of humiliations this city still has in store for me.

JANE
: How long will it be, George?

SHLINK
to John
: Some lumber was sold twice. Naturally that means jail, because the sheriff isn’t interested in the circumstances. I, your friend, could explain certain things to the sheriff as neatly and simply as Standard Oil explains its tax returns. I am prepared to listen to your son, Mrs Garga.

JANE:
Don’t let them talk you into anything, George, do what you see fit, regardless. I, your wife, will keep the house running while you’re gone.

JOHN
laughing loudly
: She’s going to keep the house running! A girl who was picked off the streets only yesterday. We’re to be fed by the wages of sin!

SHLINK
to George
: You’ve given me to understand that your family means a great deal to you. You’d like to spend your evenings among this furniture. You’ll have a thought or two for me, your friend, who is busy making things easier for you all. I am prepared to save you for your family’s sake.

MAE
: You can’t go to jail, George.

GARGA:
I know you don’t understand, Mother. It’s so hard to harm a man, to destroy him is utterly impossible. The world is too poor. We wear ourselves out cluttering it with things to fight about.

JANE
to Garga
: There you go philosophizing with the roof rotting over our heads.

GARGA
to Shlink
: Search the whole world, you’ll find ten evil men and not one evil action. Only trifles can destroy a man. No, I’m through. I’ll draw a line under the account, and then I’ll go.

SHLINK
: Your family would like to know if they mean anything to you. If you won’t hold them up, they’ll fall. One little word, Garga!

GARGA
: I give you all your freedom.

SHLINK:
They’ll rot, and you’ll be to blame. There aren’t many of them left. They might take a notion, just like you, to make a clean sweep, to cut up the dirty tablecloth and shake the cigar butts out of their clothes. The whole lot of
them might decide to imitate you, to be free and indecent, with slobber on their shirts.

MAE
: Be still, George, everything he says is true.

GARGA
: Now at last, if I half close my eyes, I see certain things in a cold light. Not your face, Mr Shlink, maybe you haven’t got one.

SHLINK
: Forty years have been written off as so much dirt, and now there will be a great freedom.