The Skin of Our Teeth (5 page)

ANTROBUS:

Sabina, I want you to go in the kitchen and make a lot of coffee. Make a whole pail full.

SABINA:

Pail full!!

ANTROBUS:

With gesture.

And sandwiches . . . piles of them . . . like this.

SABINA:

Mr. An . . . !!

Suddenly she drops the play, and says in her own person as
MISS SOMERSET
, with surprise.

Oh,
I
see what this part of the play means now! This means refugees.

She starts to cross to the proscenium.

Oh, I don't like it. I don't like it.

She leans against the proscenium and bursts into tears.

ANTROBUS:

Miss Somerset!

Voice of the
STAGE MANAGER
.

Miss Somerset!

SABINA:

Energetically, to the audience.

Ladies and gentlemen! Don't take this play serious. The world's not coming to an end. You know it's not. People exaggerate! Most people really have enough to eat and a roof over their heads. Nobody actually starves—you can always eat grass or something. That ice-business—why, it was a long, long time ago. Besides they were only savages. Savages don't love their families—not like we do.

ANTROBUS
and
STAGE MANAGER
:

Miss Somerset!!

There is renewed knocking at the door.

SABINA:

All right. I'll say the lines, but I won't think about the play.

Enter
MRS. ANTROBUS
.

SABINA:

Parting thrust at the audience.

And I advise
you
not to think about the play, either.

Exit
SABINA
.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

George, these tramps say that you asked them to come to the house. What does this mean?

Knocking at the door.

ANTROBUS:

Just . . . uh . . . .There are a few friends, Maggie, I met on the road. Real nice, real useful people. . . .

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Back to the door.

Now, don't you ask them in!

George Antrobus, not another soul comes in here over my dead body.

ANTROBUS:

Maggie, there's a doctor there. Never hurts to have a good doctor in the house. We've lost a peck of children, one way and another. You can never tell when a child's throat will get stopped up. What you and I have seen—!!!

He puts his fingers on his throat, and imitates diphtheria.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Well, just one person then, the Doctor. The others can go right along the road.

ANTROBUS:

Maggie, there's an old man, particular friend of mine—

MRS. ANTROBUS:

I won't listen to you—

ANTROBUS:

It was he that really started off the A.B.C.'s.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

I don't care if he perishes. We can do without reading or writing. We can't do without food.

ANTROBUS:

Then let the ice come!! Drink your coffee!! I don't want any coffee if I can't drink it with some good people.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Stop shouting. Who else is there trying to push us off the cliff?

ANTROBUS:

Well, there's the man . . . who makes all the laws. Judge Moses!

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Judges can't help us now.

ANTROBUS:

And if the ice melts? . . . and if we pull through? Have you and I been able to bring up Henry? What have we done?

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Who are those old women?

ANTROBUS:

Coughs.

Up in town there are nine sisters. There are three or four of them here. They're sort of music teachers . . . and one of them recites and one of them—

MRS. ANTROBUS:

That's the end. A singing troupe! Well, take your choice, live or die. Starve your own children before your face.

ANTROBUS:

Gently.

These people don't take much. They're used to starving.

They'll sleep on the floor.

Besides, Maggie, listen: no, listen:

Who've we got in the house, but Sabina? Sabina's always afraid the worst will happen. Whose spirits can she keep up? Maggie, these people never give up. They think they'll live and work forever.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Walks slowly to the middle of the room.

All right, let them in. Let them in. You're master here.

Softly.

—But these animals must go. Enough's enough. They'll soon be big enough to push the walls down, anyway. Take them away.

ANTROBUS:

Sadly.

All right. The dinosaur and mammoth—! Come on, baby, come on Frederick. Come for a walk. That's a good little fellow.

DINOSAUR:

It's cold.

ANTROBUS:

Yes, nice cold fresh air. Bracing.

He holds the door open and the
ANIMALS
go out. He beckons to his friends. The
REFUGEES
are typical elderly out-of-works from the streets of New York today.
JUDGE MOSES
wears a skull cap.
HOMER
is a blind beggar with a guitar. The seedy crowd shuffles in and waits humbly and expectantly.
ANTROBUS
introduces them to his wife who bows to each with a stately bend of her head.

Make yourself at home, Maggie, this the doctor . . . m . . . Coffee'll be here in a minute. . . . Professor, this is my wife. . . . And: . . . Judge . . . Maggie, you know the Judge.

An old blind man with a guitar.

Maggie, you know . . . you know Homer?—Come right in, Judge.—

Miss Muse—are some of your sisters here? Come right in. . . . Miss E. Muse; Miss T. Muse, Miss M. Muse.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Pleased to meet you.

Just . . . make yourself comfortable. Supper'll be ready in a minute.

She goes out, abruptly.

ANTROBUS:

Make yourself at home, friends. I'll be right back.

He goes out.

The
REFUGEES
stare about them in awe. Presently several voices start whispering “Homer! Homer!” All take it up.
HOMER
strikes a chord or two on his guitar, then starts to speak:

HOMER:

HOMER'S
face shows be is lost in thought and memory and the words die away on his lips. The
REFUGEES
likewise nod in dreamy recollection. Soon the whisper “Moses, Moses!” goes around. An aged Jew parts his heard and recites dramatically:

MOSES:

The same dying away of the words take place, and on the part of the
REFUGEES
the same retreat into recollection. Some of them murmur, “Yes, yes.”

The mood is broken by the abrupt entrance of
MR
. and
MRS. ANTROBUS
and
SABINA
bearing platters of sandwiches and a pail of coffee.
SABINA
stops and stares at the guests.

MR. ANTROBUS:

Sabina, pass the sandwiches.

SABINA:

I thought I was working in a respectable house that had respectable guests. I'm giving my notice, Mr. Antrobus: two weeks, that's the law.

MR. ANTROBUS:

Sabina! Pass the sandwiches.

SABINA:

Two weeks, that's the law.

MR. ANTROBUS:

There's the law. That's Moses.

SABINA:

Stares.

The Ten Commandments—FAUGH!!—(
To Audience
)

That's the worst line I've ever had to say on any stage.

ANTROBUS:

I think the best thing to do is just not to stand on ceremony, but pass the sandwiches around from left to right—Judge, help yourself to one of these.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

The roads are crowded, I hear?

THE GUESTS:

All talking at once.

Oh, ma'am, you can't imagine. . . . You can hardly put one foot before you . . . people are trampling one another.

Sudden silence.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Well, you know what I think it is,—I think it's sun-spots!

THE GUESTS:

Discreet hubbub.

Oh, you're right, Mrs. Antrobus . . . that's what it is. . . . That's what I was saying the other day.

Sudden silence.

ANTROBUS:

Well, I don't believe the whole world's going to turn to ice.

All eyes are fixed on him, waiting.

I can't believe it. Judge! Have we worked for nothing? Professor! Have we just failed in the whole thing?

MRS. ANTROBUS:

It is certainly very strange—well fortunately on both sides of the family we come of very hearty stock.—Doctor, I want you to meet my children. They're eating their supper now. And of course I want them to meet you.

MISS M. MUSE:

How many children have you, Mrs. Antrobus?

MRS. ANTROBUS:

I have two,—a boy and a girl.

MOSES:

Softly.

I understood you had two sons, Mrs. Antrobus.

MRS. ANTROBUS
in blind suffering; she walks toward the foot lights.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

In a low voice.

Abel, Abel, my son, my son, Abel, my son, Abel, Abel, my son.

The
REFUGEES
move with few steps toward her as though in comfort murmuring words in Greek, Hebrew, German, et cetera.

A piercing shriek from the kitchen,—
SABINA
's
voice.

All heads turn.

ANTROBUS:

What's that?

SABINA
enters, bursting with indignation, pulling on her gloves.

SABINA:

Mr. Antrobus—that son of yours, that boy Henry Antrobus—I don't stay in this house another moment!—He's not fit to live among respectable folks and that's a fact.

MRS. ANTROBUS:

Don't say another word, Sabina. I'll be right back.

Without waiting for an answer she goes past her into the kitchen.

SABINA:

Mr. Antrobus, Henry has thrown a stone again and if he hasn't killed the boy that lives next door, I'm very much mistaken. He finished his supper and went out to play; and I heard such a fight; and then I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes. And it looked to me like stark murder.