Baby Doll & Tiger Tail Read Online Free PDF Page A

that you’d be bringing those twenty-seven wagons full of cottonstraight to my door, and I want you to know that you’re a very lucky fellow.
    ROCK [
dryly
]: How come?
    ARCHIE : I mean that I am in a position to hold back other orders and give you a priority. Well! Come on out of that truck and have some coffee.
    SILVA : What’s your price?
    ARCHIE : You remember my price. It hasn’t changed.
    [
Silence. The sense that Silva is inspecting him
.]
    ARCHIE : Hey, now looka here. Like you take shirts to a laundry. You take them Friday and you want them Saturday. That’s special. You got to pay special.
    SILVA : How about your equipment? Hasn’t changed either?
    ARCHIE : A-1 shape! Always was! You ought to remember.
    SILVA : I remember you needed a new saw-cylinder. You got one?
    ARCHIE : Can’t find one on the market to equal the old one yet. Come on down and have a cup of coffee. We’re all ready for you.
    SILVA : I guess when you saw my gin burning down last night you must’ve suspected that you might get a good deal of business thrown your way in the morning.
    ARCHIE : You want to know something?
    SILVA : I’m always glad to know something when there’s something to know.
    [
Rock laughs wildly
.]
    ARCHIE : I never seen that fire of yours last night! Now come on over to my house and have some coffee.
    [
The men get out of the truck. Archie speaks to Rock
.]
    ARCHIE : You come too, if you want to. . . . No, sir, I never seen that fire of yours last night. We hit the sack right after supper and didn’t know until breakfast time this morning that your cotton gin had burned down.
    [
They go up on the porch
.]
    Yes sir, it’s providential. That’s the only word for it. Hey, Baby Doll! It’s downright providential. Baby Doll! Come out here, Baby Doll!
    [
Enter Baby Doll
.]
    You come right over here and meet Mr. Vacarro from the Syndicate Plantation.
    BABY DOLL : Oh hello. Has something gone wrong, Archie Lee?
    ARCHIE : What do you mean, Baby Doll?
    BABY DOLL : I just thought that maybe something went—
    ARCHIE : What is your first name, Vacarro?
    SILVA : Silva.
    ARCHIE : How do you spell it?
    [
Silva spells it. “Capital S-I-L-V-A.” Meantime, his eyes are on Baby Doll
.]
    ARCHIE : Oh. Like a silver lining? Every cloud has got a silver lining.
    BABY DOLL : What is that from? The Bible?
    SILVA : No, the Mother Goose book.
    BABY DOLL : That name sounds foreign.
    SILVA : It is, Mrs. Meighan. I’m known as the wop that runs the Syndicate Plantation.
    [
Archie Lee claps him heartily on the back. Silva stiffly withdraws from the contact
.]
    ARCHIE : Don’t call yourself names. Let other folks call you names! Well, you’re a lucky little fellow, silver, gold, or even nickel-plated, you sure are lucky that I can take a job of this size right now. It means some cancellations, but you’re my closest neighbor. I believe in the good neighbor policy, Mr. Vacarro. You do me a good turn and I’ll do you a good turn. Tit for tat. Tat for tit is the policy we live on.
Aunt Rose Comfort!
Baby Doll, git your daddy’s ole maid sister to break out a fresh pot of coffee for Mr. Vacarro.
    BABY DOLL : You get her.
    ARCHIE : And honey, I want you to entertain this gentleman. Ha! Ha! Look at her blush. Haha! This is my baby. This is my little girl, every precious ounce of her is mine, all mine.
    [
He exits—crazily elated, calling
“
Aunt Rose
.”
    [CUT BACK
to Baby Doll. She emits an enormous yawn
.]
    BABY DOLL : Excuse my yawn. We went to bed kinda late last night.
    [CUT TO SILVA.
He notices the discrepancy. He looks at Rock, who also noticed
.
    [
As if she were talking of a title of great distinction
.]
    So. You’re a wop?
    SILVA [
with ironic politeness
]: I’m a Sicilian, Mrs. Meighan. A very ancient people. . . .
    BABY DOLL [
trying out the word
]: Sish! Sish!
    SILVA : No Ma’am. Siss! Sicilian.
    BABY DOLL : Oh, how unusual.
    [
Archie Lee bursts back out on the porch
.]
    ARCHIE : And honey, at noon, take Mr. Vacarro