Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams

grades of school and no skill training from the Mississippi sticks?
    JANE : You could find something less— publicly embarrassing, like a— filling station attendant.
    TYE : Ha!
    JANE : But of course your choice of employment is no concern of mine now.
    TYE : Why not, Babe?
    JANE : I’m not “Babe” and not “Chick”!
    TYE : You say you’re not my chick?
    JANE : I say I’m nobody’s chick.
    TYE : Any chick who shacks with me’s my chick.
    JANE : This is my place. You just— moved in and stayed.
    TYE : I paid the rent this month.
    JANE : Half of it, for the first time, my savings being as close to exhaustion as me.
    [
There is the sound of a funky piano and a voice on the Bourbon Street corner: “I’ve stayed around and played around this old town too long.” Jane’s mood softens under its influence
.]
    Lord, I don’t know how I managed to haul you to bed.
    TYE : Hey, you put me to bed last night?
    JANE : It was much too much exertion for someone in my— condition.
    TYE [
focusing on her more closely
]: —Honey, are you pregnant?
    JANE : No, Lord, now who’d be fool enough to get pregnant by a Bourbon Street stripshow barker?
    TYE : When a chick talks about her condition, don’t it mean she’s pregnant?
    JANE : All female conditions are not pregnancy, Tye. [
She staggers, then finishes her coffee
.] Mine is that of a desperate young woman living with a young bum employed by gangsters and using her place as a depository for hot merchandise. Well, they’re all packed. You’re packed too.
    TYE : —Come to bed.
    JANE : No, thank you. Your face is smeared with lipstick; also other parts of you. I didn’t know lip rouge ever covered so much— territory.
    TYE : I honestly don’t remember a fuckin’ thing after midnight.
    JANE : That I do believe. Now have some coffee, I’ve warmed it. It isn’t instant, it’s percolated.
    TYE : Who’s birthday is it?
    JANE : It’s percolated in honor of our day of parting.
    TYE : Aw, be sweet, Babe, please come back to bed. I need comfort, not coffee.
    JANE : You broke a promise to me.
    TYE : Which?
    JANE : Among the many? You used a needle last night. I saw the mark of it on you.
    TYE : No shit. Where?
    JANE [
returning to the bedside
]: There, right there on your— [
He circles her with his arm and pulls her onto the bed
.] I’ve been betrayed by a— sensual streak in my nature. Susceptibility to touch. And you have skin like a child. I’d gladly support you if I believed you’ d— if I had the means to and the time to. Time. Means. Luck. Things that expire, run out. And all at once you’re stranded.
    TYE : Jane you— lie down with me and hold me.
    JANE : I’m afraid, Tye, we’ll just have to hold each other in our memories from now on.
    TYE [
childishly
]: Don’t talk that way. I never had a rougher night in my life. Do I have to think and remember?
    JANE : Tye, we’ve had a long spell of dreaming, but now we suddenly have to.
    TYE : Got any aspirin, Babe?
    JANE : You’re past aspirin, Tye. I think you’ve gone past all legal— analgesics.
    TYE : You say words to me I’ve never heard before.
    JANE : Tye, I’ve been forced to make an urgent phone call to someone I never wanted to call.
    TYE : Call?
    JANE : And then I packed your personal belongings and all that loot you’ve been holding here. Exertion of packing nearly blacked me out. Trembling, sweating— had to bathe and change.
    TYE : Babe?
    JANE : You’re vacating the premises, “Babe.” It’s
afternoon
.
    TYE : Look, if you’re knocked up, have the kid. I’m against abortion.
    JANE : On moral principles?
    TYE : Have the kid, Babe. I’d pull myself together for a kid.
    JANE : You didn’t for me.
    TYE : A baby would be a livin’ thing between us, with both our blood.
    JANE : Never mind.
    [
Voices in the