A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur Read Online Free PDF

me, I was tired, too, after my work at International Shoe and shopping, but out I hoofed it to Liggett’s and forked out the forty-nine cents for the medium size Golden Glow from my own pockets, money I set aside for incidentals at the Creve Coeur picnic. There’s always—
    HELENA [
cutting in
]: Miss Bodenheifer, you certainly have a gift for the felicitous phrase such as “out you hoofed it to Liggett’s,” sorry, sorry, but it does evoke an image.
    BODEY: I know what you mean by “hoof it” since you keep repeating “heifer” for “hafer.” I’m not too dumb like whichyou regard me to know why you’re struck so funny by “hoof it.”
    HELENA: You said you “hoofed it,” not me.
    BODEY: You keep saying “heifer” for “hafer.” Me, I’m a sensitive person with feelings I feel, but sensitive to you I am not. Insults from you bounce off me. I just want you to know that you come here shaking your tin cup at the wrong door.
    [
As a soft but vibrant counterpoint to this exchange, Sophie, sobbing and rolling her eyes like a
religieuse
in a state of sorrowful vision, continues her slow shuffle toward Dorothea as she repeats in German an account of her violent ejection by Helena
.]
    DOROTHEA [
breathlessly
]: Bodey, what is she saying? Translate and explain to her I have no knowledge of German.
    HELENA: Babbling, just lunatic babbling!
    BODEY: One minute, one minute, Dotty. I got to explain to this woman she’s wasting her time here and yours—and had the moxie to slam Sophie out of the door.
    HELENA: Miss Bodenheifer, it’s useless to attempt to intimidate me. . . . I would like the use of your phone for a moment. Then—
    DOROTHEA: No calls on the phone!
    BODEY: Dotty don’t want this phone used; she’s expecting a call to come in, but there is a pay phone at Liggett’s three blocks east on West Pine and Pearl.
    HELENA: Drugstores are shut on Sundays!
    DOROTHEA: Quiet! Listen! All! This thing’s getting out of hand!
    HELENA: I want only to call a taxi for myself and for Dorothea. She’s trapped here and should be removed at once. You may not know that just two weeks after she came to Blewett she collapsed on the staircase, and the staff doctor examined her and discovered that Dorothea’s afflicted with neuro-circulatory asthenia.
    [
Dorothea has disappeared behind the sofa. Miss Gluck is looking down at her with lamentations
.]
    MISS GLUCK : BODEY.
    BODEY: Moment, Sophie.
    MISS GLUCK: Dotty, Dotty . . .
    HELENA: What is she saying? Where’s Dorothea?
    BODEY: Dotty?
    MISS GLUCK:
Hier, auf dem Fussboden. Ist fallen
.
    HELENA: This Gluck creature has thrown Dorothea onto the floor.
    BODEY: Gott im
—!
Wo ist
—Dotty?
    HELENA: The Gluck has flung her to the floor behind the sofa!
    BODEY: Dotty!
    HELENA: Dorothea, I’m calling us a cab. Is she conscious?
    DOROTHEA: Mebaral—tablet—quick!
    BODEY: Mebarals, where?
    [
Sophie wails loudly
.]
    DOROTHEA: My pocketbook!
    BODEY: Hold on now, slowly, slowly—
    DOROTHEA: Mebaral! Tablets!
    HELENA: My physician told me those tablets are only prescribed for persons with—extreme nervous tension and asthenia.
    BODEY: Will you goddam shut up? —Dotty , you just need to—
    HELENA: What she needs is to stop these strenuous exercises and avoid all future confrontations with that lunatic from upstairs!
    BODEY: Dotty, let me lift you.
    DOROTHEA: Oh, oh, noooo, I—can’t, I—I am
paralyzed, Bodey!
    BODEY: HEY, YOU BROOKS-IT , TAKE DOTTY’S OTHER ARM. HELP ME CARRY HER TO HER BED WILL YUH?
    [
Sophie is moaning through clenched fists
.]
    HELENA: All right, all right, but then I shall call my physician!
    [
Dorothea is carried into the bedroom and deposited on the bed. Sophie props pillows behind her
.]
    DOROTHEA: Meb—my meb . . .
    BODEY: Tablets. Bathroom. In your pocketbook.
    [
Bodey rushes into the bathroom, then out with a small bottle. Dorothea raises a hand weakly and Bodey drops tablets in it
.]
    Dotty, don’t swallow, that’s three