All My Sons: Ann lines

All of Ann Deever's lines from Arthur Miller's "All My Sons".

I didn’t say you had anything to hide, I’m just telling you to stop it! Now stop it!

Hya, Joe!

Annie, where did you get that dress!

I couldn’t resist. I’m taking it right off before I ruin it. How’s that for three weeks’ salary?

You gained a little weight, didn’t you, darling?

It comes and goes.

Look how nice her legs turned out!

Boy, the poplars got thick, didn’t they?

How does Mom like New York?

Why’d they take our hammock away?

What broke? He had one of his light lunches and flopped into it.

Oh, excuse me!

Ann, this is Jim… Doctor Bayliss.

Oh sure, he writes a lot about you.

Don’t believe it. He likes everybody. In the Battalion he was known as Mother McKeller.

I can believe it… You know—? It’s so strange seeing him come out of that yard, I guess I never grew up. It almost seems that Mom and Pop are in there now. And you and my brother doing algebra, and Larry trying to copy my homework. Gosh, those dear dead days beyond recall.

I told her to take up the guitar. It’d be a common interest for them. Well, he loves the guitar!

Let’s eat at the shore tonight! Raise some hell around here, like we used to before Larry went!

You think of him! You see? She thinks of him!

What do you mean, Kate?

Nothing. Just that you…remember him, he’s in your thoughts.

That’s a funny thing to say; how could I help remembering him?

Did you hang up your things?

Yeah… Say, you’ve sure gone in for clothes. I could hardly find room in the closet.

No, don’t you remember? That’s Larry’s room.

You mean…they’re Larry’s?

Didn’t you recognize them?

Well, it never occured to me that you’d…I mean the shoes are all shined.

Yes, dear. For so long I’ve been aching for a nice conversation with you, Annie. Tell me something.

What?

Askin’ is all right, but don’t beat her over the head. You’re beatin’ her, you’re beatin’ her.

Don’t let them bulldoze you. Ask me anything you like. What do you want to know, Kate? Come on, let’s gossip.

She’s the only one is got any sense. Your mother…she’s not getting a divorce, heh?

No, she’s calmed down about it now. I think when he gets out they’ll probably live together. In New York, of course.

That’s fine. Because your father is still…I mean he’s a decent man after all is said and done.

I don’t care. She can take him back if she likes.

And you? You… …go out much?

You mean am I still waiting for him?

Well, no, I don’t expect you to wait for him but…

But that’s what you mean, isn’t it?

…Well…yes.

Well, I’m not, Kate.

You’re not?

Isn’t it ridiculous? You don’t really imagine he’s…?

You can have a helluva time in Burma.

So I’ve heard.

Don’t be so damned smart! Now stop it! There are just a few things you don’t know. All of you. And I’ll tell you one of them, Annie. Deep, deep in your heart you’ve always been waiting for him.

No, Kate.

Don’t let them tell you what to think. Listen to your heart. Only your heart.

Why does your heart tell you he’s alive?

Because certain things have to be, and certain things can never be. Like the sun has to rise, it has to be. That’s why there’s God. Otherwise anything could happen. But there’s God, so certain things can never happen. I would know, Annie—just like I knew the day he went into that terrible battle. Did he write me? Was it in the papers? No, but that morning I couldn’t raise my head off the pillow. Ask Joe. Suddenly I knew. I knew! And he was nearly killed that day. Ann you know I’m right!

No, Kate.

Annie! How are you, gee whiz!

Why, Frank, your hair’s greying.

Take it easy, Frank, you’re a married man.

You still haberdashering?

Why not? Maybe I too can get to be president. How’s your brother? Got his degree, I hear.

Oh, George has his own office now!

Don’t say! And your dad? Is he…?

Fine. I’ll be in to see Lydia.

How about it, does Dad expect a parole soon?

I really don’t know, I…

That’s all right, I’ll… I’ll finish the horoscope tonight, Kate. See you later, Ann, you look wonderful.

Haven’t they stopped talking about Dad?

Gone and forgotten, kid.

Tell me. Because I don’t want to meet anybody on the block if they’re going to…

I don’t want you to worry about it.

Do they still remember the case, Joe? Do they talk about you?

Except that they didn’t get it confused. He hands out police badges from the Post Toasties boxes.

Gosh, it’s wonderful to hear you laughing about it.

Why, what’d you expect?

The last thing I remember on this block was one word—”Murderers!” Remember that, Kate? …Mrs. Hammond standing in front of our house and yelling that word… She’s still around, I suppose?

It ain’t gonna end till they move back! Till people play cards with him again, and talk with him, and smile with him—you play cards with a man you know he can’t be a murderer. And the next time you write him I like you to tell him just what I said. You hear me?

Don’t you hold anything against him?

Annie, I never believed in crucifying people.

But he was your partner, he dragged you through the mud…

Well, he ain’t my sweetheart, but you gotta forgive, don’t you?

You, either, Kate? Don’t you feel any…?

The next time you write Dad…

I don’t write him.

Well every now and then you…

No, I’ve never written to him. Neither has my brother. Say, do you feel this way, too?

Tha't’s not a thing to say about a man.

What else can you say? When they took him away I followed him, went to him every visiting day. I was crying all the time. Until the news came about Larry. Then I realized. It’s wrong to pity a man like that. Father or no father, there’s only one way to look at him. He knowingly shipped out parts that would crash an airplane. And how do you know Larry wasn’t one of them?

I was waiting for that. As long as you’re here, Annie, I want to ask you never to say that again.

You surprise me. I thought you’d be mad at him.

What your father did had nothing to do with Larry. Nothing.

But we can’t know that.

As long as you’re here!

But, Kate…

The man was a fool, but don’t make a murderer out of him. You got no sense? Look what it does to her! Listen, you gotta appreciate what was doin’ in that shop in the war. The both of you! It was a madhouse. Every half-hour the Major callin’ for cylinder heads, they were whippin’ us with the telephone. The trucks were hauling them away hot, damn near. I mean just try to see it human, see it human. All of a sudden a batch comes out with a crack. That happens, that’s the business. A fine, hairline crack. All right, so…so he’s a little man, your father, always scared of loud voices.What’ll the Major say?—Half a day’s production… What’ll I say? You know what I mean? Human. So he takes out his tools and he…covers over the cracks. All right…that’s bad, it’s wrong, but that’s what a little man does. If I could have gone in that day I’d-a told him—junk ‘em, Steve, we can afford it. But alone he was afraid. But I know he meant no harm. He believed they’d hold up a hundred percent. That’s a mistake, but it ain’t murder. You mustn’t feel that way about him. You understand me? It ain’t right.

Joe, let’s forget it.

Annie, the day the news came about Larry he was in the next cell to mine…Dad. And he cried, Annie…he cried half the night.

He shoulda cried all night.

Are you going to stop it?!

Don’t yell at him. He just wants everybody happy.

Now you’re operatin’! I’ll call Swanson’s for a table! Big time tonight, Annie!

Can’t scare me.

Drink your tea, Casanova. Isn’t he a great guy?

You’re the only one I know who loves his parents!

I know. It went out of style, didn’t it?

It’s all right. It’s a good thing. You know? It’s lovely here. The air is sweet.

You’re not sorry you came?

Not sorry, no. But I’m…not going to stay…

Why?

In the first place, your mother as much as told me to go.

Well…

You saw that…and then you…you’ve been kind of…

What?

Well…kind of embarrassed ever since I got here.

The trouble is I planned on kind of sneaking up on you over a period of a week or so. But they take it for granted that we're all set.

I knew they would. Your mother anyway.

How did you know?

From her point of view, why else would I come?

Well…would you want to? I guess you know this is why I asked you to come.

I guess this is why I came.

Ann, I love you. I love you a great deal. I love you. I have no imagination...that's all I know to tell you. I'm embarrassing you. I didn't want to tell it to you here. I wanted some place we'd never been; a place where we'd be brand new to each other... You feel it's wrong here, don't you? This yard, this chair? I want you to be ready for me. I don't want to win you away from anything.

Oh, Chris, I’ve been ready a long, long time!

Then he’s gone forever. You’re sure.

I almost got married two years ago.

…why didn’t you?

You started to write to me…

You felt something that far back?

Every day since!

Ann, why didn’t you let me know?

I was waiting for you, Chris. Till then you never wrote. And when you did, what did you say? You sure can be ambiguous, you know.

Give me a kiss, Ann. Give me a... God, I kissed you, Annie, I kissed Annie. How long, how long I've been waiting to kiss you!

I'll never forgive you. Why did you wait all these years? All I've done is sit and wonder if I was crazy for thinking of you.

Annie, we’re going to live now! I’m going to make you so happy.

Not like that you’re not.

I kissed you…

Like Larry’s brother. Do it like you, Chris. What is it, Chris?

Let’s drive someplace… I want to be alone with you.

No…what is it, Chris, your mother?

No…nothing like that…

Then what’s wrong? …Even in your letters, there was something ashamed.

Yes. I suppose I have been. But it’s going from me.

You’ve got to tell me—

I don’t know how to start.

It wouldn’t work this way.

It’s all mixed up with so many other things… You remember, overseas, I was in command of a company?

Yeah, sure.

Well, I lost them.

How many?

Just about all.

Oh, gee!

It takes a little time to toss that off. Because they weren't just men. For instance, one time it'd been raining several days and this kid came to me, and gave me his last pair of dry socks. Put them in my pocket. That's only a little thing...but...that's the kind of guys I had. They didn't die; they killed themselves for each other. I mean that exactly; a little more selfish and they'd've been here today. And I got an idea--watching them go down. Everything was being destroyed, see, but it seemed to me that one new thing was made. A kind of...responsibility. Man for man. You understand me?--To show that, to bring that onto the earth again like some kind of a monument and everyone would feel it standing there, behind him, and it would make a difference to him. And then I came home and it was incredible. I...there was no meaning in it here; the whole thing was kind of a--bus accident. I went to work with Dad, and that rat-race again. I felt...what you said...ashamed somehow. Because nobody was changed at all. It seemed to make suckers out of a lot of guys. I felt wrong to be alive, to open the bank-book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator. I mean you can take those things out of a war, but when you drive that car you've got to know that it came out of the love a man can have for a man, you've got to be a little better because of that. Otherwise what you have is really loot, and there's blood on it. I didn't want to take any of it. And I guess that included you.

And you still feel that way?

I want you now, Annie.

Because you mustn't feel that way anymore. Because you have a right to whatever you have. Everything, Chris, understand that? To me, too... And the money, there's nothing wrong in your money. Your father put hundreds of planes in the air, you should be proud. A man should be paid for that...

Hello… Yes. Sure.

What’ll I do with a fortune…?

All right, all right…

You shouldn’t burst out like that.

Well, as long as I know it’s Labor Day from now on, I’ll wear a bell around my neck.

He’s so subtle!

George!—hey, you kissed it out of my head—your brother’s on the phone.

My brother?

Yeah, George. Long distance.

What’s the matter, is anything wrong?

I don’t know, Kate’s talking to him. Hurry up, she’ll cost him five dollars.

I wonder if we ought to tell your mother yet? I mean I’m not very good in an argument.

Why? What is there to find out?

Why are you so excited, George? What happened there?

Dad…how could you think that of her?

But what did he say to you, for God’s sake?

Look, Chris, I’ll go to work on Mother for you. We’ll get her so drunk tonight we’ll all get married! There’s gonna be a wedding, kid, like there never was seen! Champagne, tuxedoes…!

Simply because when you get excited you don't control yourself... Well, what did he tell you for God's sake? All right, come then. Yes, they'll all be here. Nobody's running away from you. And try to get hold of yourself, would you? All right, all right. Goodbye.

He’s coming here?

On the seven o’clock. He’s in Columbus. I told him it would be all right.

Sure, fine! Your father took sick?

No, George didn’t say he was sick. I… I don’t know, I suppose it’s something stupid, you know my brother… Let’s go for a drive, or something…

Come on, Ann. Be back right away.

See you.

Look! She’s dressed already. I’ve just got to put on a shirt.

Are you feeling well, Kate?

You look nice.

We’re going to tell her tonight.

Absolutely, don’t worry about it.

I wish we could tell her now. I can’t stand scheming. My stomach gets hard.

Joe, are you going to sleep all day!

The only one who’s relaxed is your father. He’s fast asleep.

I’m relaxed.

Are you?

Is my husband…?

Oh!

I’m terribly sorry.

It’s all right, I…I’m a little silly about the dark.

It is getting dark.

Are you looking for your husband?

As usual. He spends so much time here, they’ll be charging him rent.

Nobody was dressed so he drove over to the depot to pick up my brother.

Oh, your brother’s in?

Yeah, they ought to be here any minute now. Will you have a cold drink?

I will, thanks. My husband. Too hot to drive me to beach.—Men are like little boys; for the neighbors they’ll always cut the grass.

People like to do things for the Kellers. Been that way since I can remember.

It’s amazing. I guess your brother’s coming to give you away, heh?

I don’t know. I suppose.

You must be all nerved up.

It’s always a problem getting yourself married, isn’t it?