27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (13 page)

E
LOI:
(
intensely
)
You—just—don't—
know!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Know what?

E
LOI:
Your world is so simple, you live in a fool's paradise!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Do I indeed!

E
LOI:
Yes, Mother, you do indeed! I stand in your presence a stranger, a person unknown! I live in a house where nobody knows my name!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You tire me, Eloi, when you become so excited!

E
LOI:
You just don't know. You rock on the porch and talk about clean white curtains! While I'm all flame, all burning, and no bell rings, nobody gives an alarm!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What are you talking about?

E
LOI:
Intolerable burden! The conscience of all dirty men!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
I don't understand you.

E
LOI:
How can I speak any plainer?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You go to confession!

E
LOI:
The priest is a cripple in skirts!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
How can you say that!

E
LOI
: Because I have seen his skirts and his crutches and heard his meaningless mumble through the wall!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Don't speak like that in my presence!

E
LOI:
It's worn-out magic, it doesn't burn any more!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Burn any more? Why should it!

E
LOI:
Because there needs to be burning!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
For what?

E
LOI:
(
leaning against the column
)
For the sake of burning, for God, for the purification! Oh, God, oh, God. I can't go back in the house, and I can't stay out on the porch! I can't even breathe very freely, I don't know what is about to happen to me!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You're going to bring on an attack. Sit down! Now tell me quietly and calmly what is the matter? What have you had on your mind for the last ten days?

E
LOI
: How do you know that I've had something on my mind?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You've had something on your mind since a week ago Tuesday.

E
LOI:
Yes, that's true. I have. I didn't suppose you'd noticed . . .

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What happened at the post-office?

E
LOI:
How did you guess it was there?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Because there is nothing at home to explain your condition.

E
LOI:
(
leaning back exhaustedly
)
No.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Then obviously it was something where you work.

E
LOI:
Yes . . .

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What was it, Eloi? (
Far down the street a tamale vendor cries out in his curiously rich haunting voice: “Re-ed ho-ot, re-ed ho-ot, re-e-ed!” He moves in the other direction and fades from hearing.
)
What
was
it, Eloi?

E
LOI:
A letter.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You got a letter from someone? And that upset you?

E
LOI:
I didn't get any letter.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Then what did you mean by “a letter"?

E
LOI
: A letter came into my hands by accident, Mother.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
While you were sorting the mail?

E
LOI:
Yes.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What was there about it to prey on your mind so much?

E
LOI:
The letter was mailed unsealed, and something fell out.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Something fell out of the unsealed envelope?

E
LOI:
Yes!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What was it fell out?

E
LOI:
A picture.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
A what?

E
LOI:
A picture!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What kind of a picture? (
He does not answer. The juke-box starts playing again the same tune with its idiotic gaiety in the distance.
)
Eloi, what kind of a picture fell out of the envelope?

E
LOI:
(
gently and sadly
)
Miss Bordelon is standing in the hall and overhearing every word I say.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
(
turning sharply
)
She's not in the hall.

E
LOI:
Her ear is clapped to the door!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
She's in her bedroom reading.

E
LOI:
Reading what?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
How do I know what she's reading? What difference does it make what she is reading!

E
LOI:
She keeps a journal of everything said in the house. I feel her taking short-hand notes at the table!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Why, for what purpose, would she take shorthand notes on our conversation?

E
LOI:
Haven't you heard of hired investigators?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Eloi, you're talking and saying such horrible things!

E
LOI:
(
gently
)
I may be wrong. I may be wrong.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Eloi, of course you're mistaken! Now go on and tell me what you started to say about the picture.

E
LOI:
A lewd photograph fell out of the envelope.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
A what?

E
LOI:
An indecent picture.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Of whom?

E
LOI:
Of two naked figures.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Oh! . . . That's all it was?

E
LOI:
You haven't looked at the picture.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Was it so bad?

E
LOI:
It passes beyond all description!

M
ME.
D
UVENET: AS
bad as all that?

E
LOI:
No
.
Worse. I felt as though something exploded, blew up in my hands, and scalded my face with acid!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Who sent this horrible photograph to you, Eloi?

E
LOI:
It wasn't to me.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Who was it addressed to?

E
LOI:
One of those—opulent—antique dealers on—Royal . . .

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
And who was the sender?

E
LOI:
A university student.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Isn't the sender liable to prosecution?

E
LOI:
Of course. And to years in prison.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
I see no reason for clemency in such a case.

E
LOI:
Neither did I.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Then what did you do about it?

E
LOI:
I haven't done anything yet.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Eloi! You haven't reported it to the authorities yet?

E
LOI:
I haven't reported it to the authorities yet.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
I can't imagine one reason to hesitate!

E
LOI:
I couldn't proceed without some investigation.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Investigation? Of what?

E
LOI
: Of all the circumstances around the case.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What circumstances are there to think of but the fact that somebody used the mails for that purpose!

E
LOI:
The youth of the sender has something to do with the case.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
The sender was young?

E
LOI:
The sender was only nineteen.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
And are the sender's parents still alive?

E
LOI:
Both of them still living and in the city. The sender happens to be an only child.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
How do you know these facts about the sender?

E
LOI:
Because I've conducted a private investigation.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
How did you go about that?

E
LOI:
I called on the sender, I went to the dormitory. We talked in private and everything was discussed. The attitude taken was that I had come for money. That I was intending to hold the letter for blackmail.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
How perfectly awful.

E
LOI:
Of course I had to explain that I was a federal employee who had some obligation to his employers, and that it was really excessively fair on my part to even delay the action that ought to be taken.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
The action that has to be taken!

E
LOI:
And then the sender began to be ugly. Abusive. I can't repeat the charges, the evil suggestions! I ran from the room. I left my hat in the room. I couldn't even go back to pick it up!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Eloi, Eloi. Oh, my dear Eloi. When did this happen, the interview with the sender?

E
LOI:
The interview was on Friday.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Three days ago. And you haven't done anything yet?

E
LOI:
I thought and I thought and I couldn't take any action!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Now it's too late.

E
LOI:
Why do you say it's too late?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You've held the letter too long to take any action.

E
LOI
: Oh, no, I haven't. I'm not paralyzed any longer.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
But if you report on the letter now they will ask why you haven't reported on it sooner!

E
LOI:
I can explain the responsibility of it!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
No, no, it's much better not to do anything now!

E
LOI:
I've got to do something.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You'd better destroy the letter.

E
LOI:
And let the offenders go scot free?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
What else can you do since you've hesitated so long!

E
LOI:
There's got to be punishment for it!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Where is the letter?

E
LOI:
I have it here in my pocket.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You have that thing on your person?

E
LOI:
My inside pocket.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Oh, Eloi, how stupid, how foolish! Suppose something happened and something like that was found on you while you were unconscious and couldn't explain how you got it.

E
LOI:
Lower your voice! That woman is listening to us!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Miss Bordelon? No!

E
LOI:
She is, she is. She's hired as investigator. She claps her ear to the wall when I talk in my sleep!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Eloi, Eloi.

E
LOI:
They've hired her to spy, to poke and pry in the house!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Who do you mean?

E
LOI:
The sender, the antique-dealer!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
You're talking so wildly you scare me. Eloi, you've got to destroy that letter at once!

E
LOI:
Destroy it?

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Yes!

E
LOI:
How
?

M
ME
D
UVENET:
Burn it! (
Eloi rises unsteadily. For a third time the distant juke-organ begins to grind out “The New San Antonio Rose,” with its polka rhythm and cries of insane exultation.
)

E
LOI:
(
faintly
)
Yes, yes—burn it!

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
Burn it this very instant!

E
LOI:
I'll take it inside to burn it.

M
ME.
D
UVENET:
No, burn it right here in my presence.