Blanche lines

START

I've got to keep hold of myself!

STELLA [calling out joyfully]:
Blanche!

Stella, oh, Stella, Stella! Stella for Star!

Now, then, let me look at you. But don't you look at me, Stella, no, no, no, not till later, not till I've bathed and rested! And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!

Come back here now! Oh, my baby! Stella! Stella for Star!

I thought you would never come back to this horrible place! What am I saying? I didn't mean to say that. I meant to be nice about it and say--Oh, what a convenient location and such--Haa-ha! Precious lamb! You haven't said a word to me.

STELLA:
You haven't given me a chance to, honey!

Well, now you talk. Open your pretty mouth and talk while I look around for some liquor! I know you must have some liquor on the place! Where could it be, I wonder? Oh, I spy, I spy!

STELLA [noticing]:
Blanche, you sit down and let me pour the drinks. I don't know what we've got to mix with. Maybe a coke's in the icebox. Look'n see, honey, while I'm--

No coke, honey, not with my nerves tonight! Where--where--where is--?

STELLA:
Stanley? Bowling! He loves it. They're having a--found some soda!--tournament…

Just water, baby, to chase it! Now don't get worried, your sister hasn't turned into a drunkard, she's just all shaken up and hot and tired and dirty! You sit down, now, and explain this place to me! What are you doing in a place like this?

STELLA:
Now, Blanche--

Oh, I'm not going to be hypocritical, I'm going to be honestly critical about it! Never, never, never in my worst dreams could I picture--Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe!--could do it justice! Out there I suppose is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir!
[She laughs.]

STELLA:
No, honey, those are the L & N tracks.

No, now seriously, putting joking aside. Why didn't you tell me, why didn't you write me, honey, why didn't you let me know?

STELLA [carefully, pouring herself a drink]:
Tell you what, Blanche?

Why, that you had to live in these conditions!

STELLA:
Aren't you being a little intense about it? It's not that bad at all! New Orleans isn't like other cities.

This has got nothing to do with New Orleans. You might as well say--forgive me, blessed baby! [She suddenly stops short]
The subject is closed!

STELLA [a little drily]:
Thanks.

You're all I've got in the world, and you're not glad to see me!

STELLA [sincerely]:
Why, Blanche, you know that's not true.

No?--I'd forgotten how quiet you were.

STELLA:
You never did give me a chance to say much, Blanche. So I just got in the habit of being quiet around you.

A good habit to get into…
[then, abruptly]
You haven't asked me how I happened to get away from the school before the spring term ended.

STELLA:
Well, I thought you'd volunteer that information--if you wanted to tell me.

You thought I'd been fired?

STELLA:
No, I--thought you might have--resigned…

I was so exhausted by all I'd been through my--nerves broke.

I was on the verge of--lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves--Mr. Graves is the high school superintendent--he suggested I take a leave of absence. I couldn't put all of those details into the wire…
[She drinks quickly]
Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels so good!

STELLA:
Won't you have another?

No, one's my limit.

STELLA:
Sure?

You haven't said a word about my appearance.

STELLA:
You look just fine.

God love you for a liar! Daylight never exposed so total a ruin! But you--you've put on some weight, yes, you're just as plump as a little partridge! And it's so becoming to you!

STELLA:
Now, Blanche--

Yes, it is, it is or I wouldn't say it! You just have to watch around the hips a little. Stand up.

STELLA:

Not now.

You hear me? I said stand up!

You messy child, you, you've spilt something on the pretty white lace collar! About your hair-- you ought to have it cut in a feather bob with your dainty features. Stella, you have a maid, don't you?

STELLA:
No. With only two rooms it's--

What? Two rooms, did you say?

STELLA:
This one and--

The other one?

I am going to take just one little tiny nip more, sort of to put the stopper on, so to speak…. Then put the bottle away so I won't be tempted.

I want you to look at my figure!

You know I haven't put on one ounce in ten years, Stella? I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Belle Reve. The summer Dad died and you left us….

STELLA [a little wearily]:
It's just incredible, Blanche, how well you're looking.

[They both laugh uncomfortably]
But, Stella, there's only two rooms, I don't see where you're going to put me!

STELLA:
We're going to put you in here.

What kind of bed's this--one of those collapsible things?

STELLA: Does it feel all right?

Wonderful, honey. I don't like a bed that gives much. But there's no door between the two rooms, and Stanley--will it be decent?

STELLA:
Stanley is Polish, you know.

Oh, yes. They're something like Irish, aren't they?

STELLA:
Well--

Only not so--highbrow?
[They both laugh again in the same way.]
I brought some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends in.

STELLA:
I'm afraid you won't think they are lovely.

What are they like?

STELLA:
They're Stanley's friends.

Polacks?

STELLA:
They're a mixed lot, Blanche.

Heterogeneous--types?

STELLA:
Oh, yes. Yes, types is right!

Well--anyhow--I brought nice clothes and I'll wear them. I guess you're hoping I'll say I'll put up at a hotel, but I'm not going to put up at a hotel. I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone! Because--as you must have noticed--I'm-not very well….
[Her voice drops and her look is frightened.]

STELLA:
You seem a little bit nervous or overwrought or something.

Will Stanley like me, or will I just be a visiting in-law, Stella? I couldn't stand that

STELLA:
You'll get along fine together, if you'll just try not to--well--compare him with men that we went out with at home.

Is he so--different?

STELLA:
Yes. A different species.

In what way; what's he like?

STELLA: Oh, you can't describe someone you're in love with! Here's a picture of him!

An officer?

STELLA:
A Master Sergeant in the Engineers' Corps. Those are decorations!

He had those on when you met him?

STELLA:
I assure you I wasn't just blinded by all the brass.

That's not what I--

STELLA:
But of course there were things to adjust myself to later on.

Such as his civilian background!
[Stella laughs uncertainly]
How did he take it when you said I was coming?

STELLA:
Oh, Stanley doesn't know yet.

You--haven't told him?

STELLA:
He's on the road a good deal.

Oh. Travels?

STELLA:
Yes.

Good. I mean--isn't it?

STELLA [half to herself]:
I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night…

Why, Stella!

STELLA:
When he's away for a week I nearly go wild!

Gracious!

STELLA:
And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…

I guess that is what is meant by being in love….

Stella--

STELLA:
What?

I haven't asked you the things you probably thought I was going to ask. And so I'll expect you to be understanding about what I have to tell you.

STELLA:
What, Blanche?

Well, Stella--you're going to reproach me, I know that you're bound to reproach me--but before you do--take into consideration--you left! I stayed and struggled! You came to New Orleans and looked out for yourself. I stayed at Belle Reve and tried to hold it together! I'm not meaning this in any reproachful way, but all the burden descended on my shoulders.

STELLA:
The best I could do was make my own living, Blanche.

I know, I know. But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it!

STELLA:
Stop this hysterical outburst and tell me what's happened! What do you mean fought and bled? What kind of--

I knew you would, Stella. I knew you would take this attitude about it!

STELLA:
About--what?--please!

The loss--the loss…

STELLA:
Belle Reve? Lost, is it? No!

Yes, Stella.

STELLA:
But how did it go? What happened?

You're a fine one to ask me how it went!

STELLA: Blanche!

You're a fine one to sit there accusing me of it!

STELLA: Blanche!

I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! So big with it, it couldn't be put in a coffin! But had to be burned like rubbish! You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths--not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go!" Even the old, sometimes, say, "Don't let me go." As if you were able to stop them! But funerals are quiet, with pretty flowers. And, oh, what gorgeous boxes they pack them away in! Unless you were there at the bed when they cried out, "Hold me!" you'd never suspect there was the struggle for breath and bleeding. You didn't dream, but I saw! Saw! Saw! And now you sit there telling me with your eyes that I let the place go! How in hell do you think all that sickness and dying was paid for? Death is expensive, Miss Stella! And old Cousin Jessie's right after Margaret's, hers! Why, the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep!… Stella. Belle Reve was his headquarters! Honey--that's how it slipped through my fingers! Which of them left us a fortune? Which of them left a cent of insurance even? Only poor Jessie--one hundred to pay for her coffin. That was all, Stella! And I with my pitiful salary at the school. Yes, accuse me! Sit there and stare at me, thinking I let the place go! I let the place go? Where were you! In bed with your--Polack!

STELLA [springing]:
Blanche! You be still! That's enough!

Where are you going?

STELLA:
I'm going into the bathroom to wash my face.

Oh, Stella, Stella, you're crying!

STELLA:
Does that surprise you?

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