Читать книгу Desire Under the Elms - Eugene O'Neill - Страница 5

Table of Contents

The color fades from the sky. Twilight begins. The interior of the kitchen is now visible. A pine table is at center, a cook-stove in the right rear corner, four rough wooden chairs, a tallow candle on the table. In the middle of the rear wall is fastened a big advertizing poster with a ship in full sail and the word "California" in big letters. Kitchen utensils hang from nails. Everything is neat and in order but the atmosphere is of a men's camp kitchen rather than that of a home.

Places for three are laid. Eben takes boiled potatoes and bacon from the stove and puts them on the table, also a loaf of bread and a crock of water. Simeon and Peter shoulder in, slump down in their chairs without a word. Eben joins them. The three eat in silence for a moment, the two elder as naturally unrestrained as beasts of the field, Eben picking at his food without appetite, glancing at them with a tolerant dislike.

SIMEON--(suddenly turns to Eben) Looky here! Ye'd oughtn't t' said that, Eben.

PETER--'Twa'n't righteous.

EBEN--What?

SIMEON--Ye prayed he'd died.

EBEN--Waal--don't yew pray it? (a pause)

PETER--He's our Paw.

EBEN--(violently) Not mine!

SIMEON--(dryly) Ye'd not let no one else say that about yer Maw! Ha! (He gives one abrupt sardonic guffaw. Peter grins.)

EBEN--(very pale) I meant--I hain't his'n--I hain't like him--he hain't me!

PETER--(dryly) Wait till ye've growed his age!

EBEN--(intensely) I'm Maw--every drop o' blood! (A pause. They stare at him with indifferent curiosity.)

PETER--(reminiscently) She was good t' Sim 'n' me. A good Step-maw's scurse.

SIMEON--She was good t' everyone.

EBEN--(greatly moved, gets to his feet and makes an awkward bow to each of them--stammering) I be thankful t' ye. I'm her--her heir. (He sits down in confusion.)

PETER--(after a pause--judicially) She was good even t' him.

EBEN--(fiercely) An' fur thanks he killed her!

SIMEON--(after a pause) No one never kills nobody. It's allus somethin'. That's the murderer.

EBEN--Didn't he slave Maw t' death?

PETER--He's slaved himself t' death. He's slaved Sim 'n' me 'n' yew t' death--on'y none o' us hain't died--yit.

SIMEON--It's somethin'--drivin' him--t' drive us!

EBEN--(vengefully) Waal--I hold him t' jedgment! (then scornfully) Somethin'! What's somethin'?

SIMEON--Dunno.

EBEN--(sardonically) What's drivin' yew to Californi-a, mebbe? (They look at him in surprise.) Oh, I've heerd ye! (then, after a pause) But ye'll never go t' the gold fields!

PETER--(assertively) Mebbe!

EBEN--Whar'll ye git the money?

PETER--We kin walk. It's an a'mighty ways--Californi-a--but if yew was t' put all the steps we've walked on this farm end t' end we'd be in the moon!

EBEN--The Injuns'll skulp ye on the plains.

SIMEON--(with grim humor) We'll mebbe make 'em pay a hair fur a hair!

EBEN--(decisively) But t'ain't that. Ye won't never go because ye'll wait here fur yer share o' the farm, thinkin' allus he'll die soon.

SIMEON--(after a pause) We've a right.

PETER--Two thirds belongs t' us.

EBEN--(jumping to his feet) Ye've no right! She wa'n't yewr Maw! It was her farm! Didn't he steal it from her? She's dead. It's my farm.

SIMEON--(sardonically) Tell that t' Paw--when he comes! I'll bet ye a dollar he'll laugh--fur once in his life. Ha! (He laughs himself in one single mirthless bark.)

PETER--(amused in turn, echoes his brother) Ha!

SIMEON--(after a pause) What've ye got held agin us, Eben? Year arter year it's skulked in yer eye--somethin'.

PETER--Ay-eh.

EBEN--Ay-eh. They's somethin'. (suddenly exploding) Why didn't ye never stand between him 'n' my Maw when he was slavin' her to her grave--t' pay her back fur the kindness she done t' yew? (There is a long pause. They stare at him in surprise.)

SIMEON--Waal--the stock'd got t' be watered.

PETER--'R they was woodin' t' do.

SIMEON--'R plowin'.

PETER--'R hayin'.

SIMEON--'R spreadin' manure.

PETER--'R weedin'.

SIMEON--'R prunin'.

PETER--'R milkin'.

EBEN--(breaking in harshly) An' makin' walls--stone atop o' stone--makin' walls till yer heart's a stone ye heft up out o' the way o' growth onto a stone wall t' wall in yer heart!

SIMEON--(matter-of-factly) We never had no time t' meddle.

PETER--(to Eben) Yew was fifteen afore yer Maw died--an' big fur yer age. Why didn't ye never do nothin'?

EBEN--(harshly) They was chores t' do, wa'n't they? (a pause--then slowly) It was on'y arter she died I come to think o' it. Me cookin'--doin' her work--that made me know her, suffer her sufferin'--she'd come back t' help--come back t' bile potatoes--come back t' fry bacon--come back t' bake biscuits--come back all cramped up t' shake the fire, an' carry ashes, her eyes weepin' an' bloody with smoke an' cinders same's they used t' be. She still comes back--stands by the stove thar in the evenin'--she can't find it nateral sleepin' an' restin' in peace. She can't git used t' bein' free--even in her grave.

SIMEON--She never complained none.

EBEN--She'd got too tired. She'd got too used t' bein' too tired. That was what he done. (with vengeful passion) An' sooner'r later, I'll meddle. I'll say the thin's I didn't say then t' him! I'll yell 'em at the top o' my lungs. I'll see t' it my Maw gits some rest an' sleep in her grave! (He sits down again, relapsing into a brooding silence. They look at him with a queer indifferent curiosity.)

PETER--(after a pause) Whar in tarnation d'ye s'pose he went, Sim?

SIMEON--Dunno. He druv off in the buggy, all spick an' span, with the mare all breshed an' shiny, druv off clackin' his tongue an' wavin' his whip. I remember it right well. I was finishin' plowin', it was spring an' May an' sunset, an' gold in the West, an' he druv off into it. I yells "Whar ye goin', Paw?" an' he hauls up by the stone wall a jiffy. His old snake's eyes was glitterin' in the sun like he'd been drinkin' a jugful an' he says with a mule's grin: "Don't ye run away till I come back!"

PETER--Wonder if he knowed we was wantin' fur Cali-forni-a?

SIMEON--Mebbe. I didn't say nothin' and he says, lookin' kinder queer an' sick: "I been hearin' the hens cluckin' an' the roosters crowin' all the durn day. I been listenin' t' the cows lowin' an' everythin' else kickin' up till I can't stand it no more. It's spring an' I'm feelin' damned," he says. "Damned like an old bare hickory tree fit on'y fur burnin'," he says. An' then I calc'late I must've looked a mite hopeful, fur he adds real spry and vicious: "But don't git no fool idee I'm dead. I've sworn t' live a hundred an' I'll do it, if on'y t' spite yer sinful greed! An' now I'm ridin' out t' learn God's message t' me in the spring, like the prophets done. An' yew git back t' yer plowin'," he says. An' he druv off singin' a hymn. I thought he was drunk--'r I'd stopped him goin'.

EBEN--(scornfully) No, ye wouldn't! Ye're scared o' him. He's stronger--inside--than both o' ye put together!

PETER--(sardonically) An' yew--be yew Samson?

EBEN--I'm gittin' stronger. I kin feel it growin' in me--growin' an' growin'--till it'll bust out--! (He gets up and puts on his coat and a hat. They watch him, gradually breaking into grins. Eben avoids their eyes sheepishly.) I'm goin' out fur a spell--up the road.

PETER--T' the village?

SIMEON--T' see Minnie?

EBEN--(defiantly) Ay-eh!

PETER--(jeeringly) The Scarlet Woman!

SIMEON--Lust--that's what's growin' in ye!

EBEN--Waal--she's purty!

PETER--She's been purty fur twenty year!

SIMEON--A new coat o' paint'll make a heifer out of forty.

EBEN--She hain't forty!

PETER--If she hain't, she's teeterin' on the edge.

EBEN--(desperately) What d'yew know--

PETER--All they is . . . Sim knew her--an' then me arter--

SIMEON--An' Paw kin tell yew somethin' too! He was fust!

EBEN--D'ye mean t' say he . . . ?

SIMEON--(with a grin) Ay-eh! We air his heirs in everythin'!

EBEN--(intensely) That's more to it. That grows on it! It'll bust soon! (then violently) I'll go smash my fist in her face! (He pulls open the door in rear violently.)

SIMEON--(with a wink at Peter--drawlingly) Mebbe--but the night's wa'm--purty--by the time ye git thar mebbe ye'll kiss her instead!

PETER--Sart'n he will! (They both roar with coarse laughter. Eben rushes out and slams the door--then the outside front door--comes around the corner of the house and stands still by the gate, staring up at the sky.)

SIMEON--(looking after him) Like his Paw.

PETER--Dead spit an' image!

SIMEON--Dog'll eat dog!

PETER--Ay-eh. (Pause. With yearning) Mebbe a year from now we'll be in Californi-a.

SIMEON--Ay-eh. (A pause. Both yawn.) Let's git t' bed. (He blows out the candle. They go out door in rear. Eben stretches his arms up to the sky--rebelliously)

EBEN--Waal--thar's a star, an' somewhar's they's him, an' here's me, an' thar's Min up the road--in the same night. What if I does kiss her? She's like t'night, she's soft 'n' wa'm, her eyes kin wink like a star, her mouth's wa'm, her arms're wa'm, she smells like a wa'm plowed field, she's purty . . . Ay-eh! By God A'mighty she's purty, an' I don't give a damn how many sins she's sinned afore mine or who she's sinned 'em with, my sin's as purty as any one on 'em! (He strides off down the road to the left.)