This Property Is Condemned Page #2

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- Hey! Oh, out dancing.

- A beer, Miss Alva?

- No, thanks.

I told you before, lay off Alva.

It was real nice of you

to give Mama this lovely party.

Well, I didn't do it for her.

Alva, I asked your Mama.

She says it's OK for you to go with me

to the Moonlight Casino tomorrow.

- Well, let me think about it.

- They got a real good band.

A new one, Odel Otis,

and Kansas City Steaks.

Well, I really don't know. Sidney! Hi!

- I've got to know, so that...

- Did you see Sidney? Sidney!

Thank Mr Johnson for the lovely party.

Have you had a chance to talk?

- Who turned out the lights?

- Hey, turn the lights on!

Happy birthday to you

- JJ!

- Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday, dear Hazel

Happy birthday to you

- Make a wish!

- Shhh!

- I can't!

- You've gotta make a wish!

You wish. You make a wish, Alva.

Oh, Sal! Sally, it's my birthday!

I'm 43 years old!

It's a damn shame, Haze. Have a beer.

What slob remembered, anyway?

- Come on, Alva, it's your turn!

- Make a wish, Alva.

- Wish it up, Alva!

- OK.

- Hey, Alva, how about a birthday kiss?

- Oh, hey!

That's enough for you, Hank, boy!

How about one for me?

- Here's one to grow on!

- Here comes old Sidney, wandering in.

Wouldn't you like a piece of cake?

I'd just love some.

- What kind of work will you do here?

- Who was that blowing out the candles?

Oh, that's my sister Alva.

She's the main attraction.

You say you do or didn't work

with the railroad?

Well, I didn't say. Okey-doke?

Okey-doke.

It's hot out there!

It's just practically like breathing fire.

Just been dying for a piece of ice.

Oh! My, that's cooling!

If not the railroad, what do you do?

Willie! Let the gentleman

eat his supper in peace.

Who's stopping him?

You don't even know him.

- My name is Owen Legate, ma'am.

- My name's Alva Starr.

Two R's in Starr.

- He's from New Orleans.

- Oh!

- I've been to New Orleans.

- When?

- As a child.

- First I heard of it.

- Wonderful party, Alva. Much obliged.

- We're just delighted.

- Bye now. See you later.

- Here's your cake, Alva.

Thank you, Sidney.

- Your mama said to fill up the beer tub.

- It's in the icebox.

OK.

- You're the new boarder, huh?

- Yeah.

You gonna be looking for work

around here? We ain't got none.

That's all right, I'm not looking.

- We ain't got no work.

- He ain't looking. He just told you.

- I want him to know there ain't none.

- He knows.

See you later.

If you're not looking for work,

what are you doing here?

Now, I said stop asking questions

and let him eat his dinner in peace.

OK.

- Thank you.

- That's all right. They're all so nosy!

What are you doing here?

Mama says what are you doing

back here and Mr Johnson's leaving.

You tell your mama that after all

the dancing I done tonight with Sidney,

I am resting and unavailable.

Sidney took you dancing? Where to?

Oh, no place much.

- Just the Peabody Hotel.

- The Peabody Hotel!

Sidney took you all the way

to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis? Wow!

- Did he buy you dinner?

- Willie, you don't start with dinner.

They have cocktails or highballs.

Or French champagne,

which is sweet and exceedingly bubbly.

And when you drink it and start dancing,

the whole place,

with its diamond-crystal chandeliers

and the waiters in the red jackets

and the menus with tassels on them,

all get dizzy and shaky,

like it'll all come down on you.

But you have to hide it and so you say,

"Tipsy? I'm not the slightest bit tipsy.

"It is just your magnificent dancing

makes me breathless!"

Then he stops and holds your blushing,

soft face in his hands and he says:

"Miss Starr, Miss Willie Starr,

"surely you are the most beautiful

creature I have ever seen."

That the same Peabody Hotel

in Memphis

where they have the alligators and ducks

swimming in that pond in the lobby?

Yes, the very same one.

Yeah, I'd like to see that.

Thank you for the supper, Willie.

I'd like to see how they stop the alligators

eating the ducks

in that little pond that they all swim in.

Makes you think... doesn't it?

Smart Alec!

Hey, Alva.

What you so grumpy about?

Nothing. I just need some air.

Hey, Max.

Max! You taking me home?

I can't. I got an early run tomorrow.

My goodness, there isn't any breeze

out here, either.

Just like Papa used to say,

if the breeze does not come

from the river, it just is not a breeze.

Hey, Alva...

- Goodnight, Alva.

- Thanks for the party.

Goodnight.

Hey, Alva...

That's the Hummingbird Express.

It surely is a long train.

What?

It's a long train. And an empty one.

You know, that train is going

to New Orleans.

God, I'd like to get out of here

and see a place like New Orleans.

Alva, maybe you could.

I think more than any place

in the whole world, I'd like to go there.

Get out of this place,

this sad old house.

It's gonna fall apart anyway.

And go to New Orleans.

Maybe when it's Mardi gras.

I just wish sometimes that old express

would jump off those old tracks,

right up here, right through the grass,

right through me

and carry me off to points unknown.

I'd better go on in now, Sidney.

Are you all right?

I'm all right.

I just can't find a cool place.

It's just as hot outside as it is in here.

I'm going to bed.

Willie...

...how come you've put Mr Legate

in Papa's room?

Mama told me to.

Goodnight.

Goodnight.

Willie, you in there?

Willie!

- I don't think Willie's here.

- Excuse me. I thought she might be.

Nope.

Well, goodnight.

Goodnight.

I've never been to the Peabody Hotel.

- Neither have I.

- They do have ducks in the lobby.

So I'm told, but no alligators.

Certain times they do run the ducks

up and down the halls.

I know that to be a fact. And the menus

do have a tassel on them.

There was a man brought me one once.

Besides, I felt like I was there

and that's just as good as being there.

Not exactly.

Do you know there was a cat once

who fell asleep in the sun

and dreamt that he was a man

who fell asleep and dreamt he was a cat.

When he woke up, he didn't know

whether he was a man or a cat.

Goodness! I don't know how you'll sleep

with that streetlight shining in your eyes.

I'd better tell Mama to get

a new shade in the morning.

Thank you.

You know,

if you concentrate on this thing,

you can just about think it's February

and it won't be so hot.

When my Papa was here,

hot summer nights,

we used to sit together

and pretend we got inside there.

I'd practically have to get out

my fur-lined gloves.

You wanna try?

You got an extra pair?

- And some flannel underwear?

- You made a rhyme! Give me a dime.

Well, that tells a lot about you,

that you have a poetic nature.

- I have a poetic nature, too.

- I noticed that.

What else have you noticed about me,

Mr Legate?

You don't have to answer.

I'm not interested in compliments.

What else? You know, I am a very

important person in Dodson, Mississippi.

- Is that so?

- Plus, I have been to Biloxi.

- I'm even famous in my own way.

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