One of those no-neck monsters hit me with a hot buttered biscuit so I have to change! Well, I! – justremarked that! – one of th’ no-neck monsters messed up my lovely lace dress so I got tocha-a-ange! I swear they’ve got no necks. None visible. Their fat little heads are stuck on theirfat little bodies without a bit of connection.
An’ it’s too bad, ?cause you can’t wring their necks ifthey’ve got no necks to wring! Yep, they’re monsters, all right. All no-neck people are monsters. Hear them? Hear them screaming? I don’t know where their voice boxes are located since theydon’t have necks. I tell you I got so nervous at that table tonight I thought I would throw back myhead and utter a scream you could hear clear across the Arkansas border and parts of Louisianaand Tennessee. I said to your charming sister-in-law, ?Mae, honey couldn’t you feed thoseprecious little thing at a separate table? They make such a mess and the lace cloth looks soooopretty.
. . ‘she made enormous eyes at me and said, ? Ohhhhhh, no! On Big Daddy’s birthday?Why, he would never forgive me!? Well, I want you to know, Big Daddy hadn’t been at that tabletwo minutes with them no-neck monsters slobbering an’ drooling over their food before he threwdown his fork and shouted’ ? Fo’ God’s sake, Gooper! Why don’t you feed them pigs at a trough inthe kitchen?!? Well, I swear, I simply could have dii-ie-ed! -Big Daddy shares my attitude towardsBrother man and that monster of fertility Mae! As for me, well – I give him a laugh now and thenand he tolerates me. In fact, – I sometimes suspect that Big Daddy harbors a little unconsciouslech for me. Way he always drops his eyes down my body when I’m talking to him, drops his eyesto my boobs an’ licks his old chops! Ha ha! – Why are you looking at me like that? The way youwere lookin’ at me just now , befo’ I caught you eyein’ the mirror? I don’t know how t’ describe it,but it froze my blood! – I’ve caught you looking at me like that so often lately. Don’t you think Iknow that-? Don’t you-? – Think I know that-? That I’ve gone through this – hideous! -transformation, become – hard! Frantic! —–cruel! That’s what you’ve been observing in me lately.
How could y’ help but observe it? That’s all right. I’m not – thin-skinned anymore, can’t afford t’ bethin-skinned anymore. – But, Brick? Brick? I was goin’ to say something: that I get – lonely. Very! Living with someone you love can be lonelier – than living entirely alone! – if the one that y’ lovedoesn’t love you. .
. . You used to be such a wonderful lover. . .
such a wonderful person to go to bedwith, and I think mostly because you were really indifferent to it. Isn’t that right? Never had anyanxiety about it, did it naturally, easily, slowly, with absolute confidence and perfect calm. Morelike opening a door for a lady or seating her at a table than giving any expression of longing forher. Your indifference made you wonderful at lovemaking. Strange? – but true. .
. . You know if Ithought you would never, never, never make love to me again, I would go down to the kitchen andpick out the longest sharpest knife I could find and stick it straight into my heart, I swear that Iwould! But the one thing I don’t have is the charm of the defeated, my hat is still in the ring and Iam determined to win! What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? – I wish I knew. . .
. just stayingon it, I guess, as long as she can…Bibliographyjust the scriptTheater Essays
