Contemporary One-Act Plays Part 44

[_Impatiently._] He can't find the wire this minute--soon's he eats his dinner.

BAUER. [_Doggedly._] You'll see....

MRS. BAUER. [_Soothingly._] Come now, Fritz, give me your hat. [_She takes his hat from him._

VOICES IN THE STREET. [_Receding from the front area._] Who killed the cat! Who killed the cat!

[BAUER _rushes toward the window in a fury of excitement_.

BAUER. [_Shouting at the top of his voice._] _Verdammte_ loafers!

_Schweine!_

MRS. BAUER. [_Goes up to him._] Fritz! Fritz!

BAUER. [_Collapses and drops into chair._] You hear 'em.

MRS. BAUER. Don't pay no attention, then they'll get tired.

BAUER. Miene, we must go away. I can't stand it here no longer.

MRS. BAUER. But there's not such another good place, Fritz--and the movin'....

BAUER. I say I can't stand it.

MRS. BAUER. [_Desperately._] It ... it would be just the same any other place.

BAUER. Just the same?

MRS. BAUER. Yes, something'd go wrong anyhow.

BAUER. You think I'm a regular Jonah.

[_He shakes his head repeatedly in the affirmative, as though wholly embracing her point of view._

MRS. BAUER. Folks don't get to know you. They hear you hollerin' 'round and they think you beat the children and kick the dogs and cats.

BAUER. Do I ever lick the children when they don't need it?

MRS. BAUER. Not Fritzi.

BAUER. You want to spoil Karl. I just touch him with the strap once, a little--like this [_ill.u.s.trates with a gesture_] to scare him, and he howls like h.e.l.l.

MRS. BAUER. Yes, and then he don't mind you no more because he knows you don't mean it.

BAUER. [_To himself._] That's the way it goes ... a man's own wife and children ...

MRS. BAUER. [_Attending to the dinner. Irritably._] Fritz, if you would clean that up out there--and Mrs. Carroll wants her waste-basket. You musta forgot to send it up again.

BAUER. All right.

[_He goes out and leaves the door open. She stands her flat-iron on the ledge of the range to cool and puts her ironing-board away, watching him at the dumb-waiter while he picks up the gla.s.s and cleans up the milk on the cement floor. He disappears for a moment, then he comes in again, goes to a drawer and takes out rags and a bottle of polish._

MRS. BAUER. [_Pushing the clothes-basket out of the way._] This ain't cleanin' day, Fritz.

BAUER. [_Dully, putting the polish back into the drawer._] That's so.

MRS. BAUER. [_Comforting him._] You've got to eat a good dinner and then go up-stairs and fix that sink for Mrs. Mohler and the drain for Mrs.

McAllister.

BAUER. [_In a tense voice._] I tell you I can't stand it.... I tell you, Miene....

MRS. BAUER. What now, Fritz?

BAUER. People laugh in my face. [_Nods in the direction of the street._]

Frazer's boy standin' on the stoop calls his dog away when it runs up to me like it always does.

MRS. BAUER. Dogs know better'n men who's good to them.

BAUER. He acted like he thought I'd kick it.

MRS. BAUER. You've got all kinds of foolishness in your head now.... You sent up Carroll's basket?

BAUER. No.

MRS. BAUER. Well---- [_She checks herself._

BAUER. All right. [_He gets up._

MRS. BAUER. It's settin' right beside the other dumb-waiter, [_He goes out._] Oh, Gott!--Oh, Gott!--Oh, Gott!

[_Enter_ KARL, _and_ FRITZI. FRITZI _is crying_.

MRS. BAUER. [_Running to them._] What's the matter?

[_She hushes them and carefully closes the door._

KARL. The boys make fun of us; they mock us.

FRITZI. They mock us--"Miau! Miau!" they cry, and then they go like this----

[FRITZI _imitates kicking and breaks out crying afresh_.

MRS. BAUER. Hush, Fritzi, you mustn't let your father hear.

FRITZI. He'd make them shut up.

KARL. I don't want to go to school this afternoon.

[_He doubles his fists._