This Property Is Condemned Page #3

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- I don't doubt that.

- Lots of men think I'm beautiful.

- Listen, Miss Starr...

...l've been travelling

since six this morning.

Gotta get up early tomorrow

and do some work.

If you come with the room, and with

the two meals, then let's get on with it.

- Let's not play around.

- What do you think I am?

What do you think you are?

I hope you suffocate!

Hey, Alva. Goodnight now.

- What's the matter?

- Don't turn the light on, honey.

Crazy doll's hair needs washing.

I'm scared to do it, though.

Head might come unglued where she got

that compound fracture of the skull.

I think most of her brains fell out.

- Come on, Hazel.

- You never stop. My birthday's over.

Go along to my room. I'll be right there.

Mama, don't turn the light on.

It just makes it hotter.

You been crying?

You just go and take your dress off

and I'll cool you down.

There.

Now, you lay still.

Mr Johnson speak to you

about tomorrow night?

Feel that evaporating?

Doesn't that feel good?

Were you nice to Mr Johnson, honey?

Yes, Mama.

I wouldn't like it if he got dissatisfied

and moved out right now.

Nobody but a conductor can afford to pay

what he does for that big old north room.

I wanna go away, Mama.

- Maybe to New Orleans.

- I know you do, honey.

We all do, and we're going to.

But not right now.

You can't tell what those old fools'll do

if they're sweet on a pretty girl like you.

Maybe you'll get off with a Packard car!

Wouldn't that be something else?

I'd just love to drive up in a Packard car

and see that Sally.

I'd say, Miss Snotty, you were so damn

cute about your Chevrolet roadster.

What do you think about my little car?

I can just see Sally's face now.

Plop!

All those bags would just drop

right into that double chin. Plop!

- You feeling better, honey?

- I'm feeling better, Mama.

Well... sleep tight...

...and don't let the bed bugs bite.

Willie, you just stop playing possum

and go to sleep.

I am asleep, Mama.

Alva...

...what does Mardi gras mean?

Mardi gras means carnival.

I'm gonna go next year,

even if I have to ride the rails.

I'm gonna design my own costume...

...out of black shiny sequins,

so that my skin'll look white against it

and I'll glitter when I walk,

sparkle when I dance

with all those men in masks.

And I'll never know who they are.

And they'll never know who I am.

And I'll dance and dance and dance.

When people die in New Orleans,

they bury them above the ground.

Did you know that, Willie?

Willie?

- Hey! How are you?

- Are you going down to the yards?

- Yes.

- Well, I can sneak you in.

- No. No, I can manage, thank you.

- Well, I'm a good guy to know.

- What about Vacation Bible School?

- What about it? The refreshments stink.

Anyway, boy, have I got a hangover!

You didn't see me last night,

but I drank the whole of Alva's beer.

- You're headed for ruin, you know?

- Oh, I know.

Know what the Orientals say?

"A man takes a drink, the drink takes

a drink, the drink takes the man."

Could be. Took my Papa all right,

right out of Dodson.

Maybe it'll do the same for me.

- I gotta get some cigarettes.

- Oh, OK. I'll wait.

- Can I help you, sir?

- Luckies and two strawberry cones.

Miss Starr! Where's that sister

of yours this fine day?

- Get away from me.

- You ask Alva.

What'll she do with that hot stuff

once the line closes?

Alva's got better things to do

than waste her time on you!

Look what I got! Listen, Miss Uppity!

Once that line shuts down,

she'll have to start looking for somebody.

And I'll tell you, she'll have to crawl!

You'll never get Alva

and that line ain't never closing!

You hear that, Tiny?

She really tells a story!

- Who are you?

- A friend of Willie's.

You're drumming up trade for Alva now?

Yeah, I guess that's what

the ice-cream cones are for.

Go and wash up, boy. Your face is dirty.

Just you wait, mister! I'll get you!

What are you laughing about?

Old Lindsay Tate just standing there!

- I hear strawberry's good for hangovers.

- Boy! He's just a plain damn mess!

- You sure are tough.

- I sure am.

If you hadn't come out,

I'd have killed him.

- Not afraid of nothing, are you?

- Nope.

What if everything was to change?

I mean, say something happened

and Dodson changed overnight.

- Dodson ain't never gonna change.

- No, but what if it did?

How did you know strawberry

was my favourite?

You look like a strawberry girl to me.

What do you think of my sister Alva?

She hates strawberry.

I suspect your sister's

a mighty potent force.

She don't think much of you, neither.

She says you're a smart Alec.

See you later. I gotta work.

Oh, OK... Hey!

- Thanks for the ice-cream cone.

- You bet.

Step on a crack,

break your mother's back.

Step on a crack,

break your mother's back.

- Mr Knopke?

- Yes.

- My name is Legate.

- I was hoping you'd be somebody else.

Sit down.

Hey, JJ, what do you think?

Well...

...I just don't know.

Come on, pump that thing.

We always done what was asked. You

can't trace no breakdowns to Dodson.

To the bale, here's what we were

railroading through here in '30.

- This is what's going through here now.

- How about this year's crop?

Who'll pick them, Mr Knopke? You?

Thirty-five cents a hundred pounds?

- How many trains they taking off?

- We'll start at three.

- How many men?

- 15. Maybe more.

I'm gonna want a list of the names,

the dates that they came on

and I'd like to know who's married

and who has kids.

You won't be popular

at the Starr Boarding House.

I know.

I've been not very popular before.

Southern Pacific, CB & O, C & E...

- Hey!

- Hi.

- Where are you going?

- Mama said I gotta make the beds.

Willie!

He made it himself.

- You skipped Vacation Bible School.

- He bought me an ice cream.

Strawberry?

Did he... make any mention of me?

No, not much.

Nothing?

Well, not after I told him

you thought he was a smart Alec.

- Willie, you didn't!

- You said he was.

I don't care!

You tell him different, you hear?

OK, OK. You stuck on him, Alva?

No.

Well, I don't think you should be.

Not after what he said about you.

Why? What did he say about me?

He said he suspects

you're a mighty potent force.

- He did?

- You mean it could be good?

Well, it could be.

Alva, how many times have you done it?

Willie Starr!

Five? Ten maybe?

- Whoever said I done it at all?

- Lindsay Tate.

- Well, I never did it with Lindsay Tate!

- That's probably why he's so sore.

Afterward, do they love you?

I guess they're supposed to.

Does it look like Lindsay Tate loves me,

screeching my name all over town?

No.

- I bet you Owen Legate...

- I'm gonna knock your teeth in!

Actually, Mr Owen Legate

doesn't mean a thing in my life.

Just a nothing dream

I won't remember after I'm married.

- You gonna get married?

- Well, some day.

- To Mr Johnson?

- No, dummy!

Willie, I haven't met him yet.

When I do, he'll say to me:

"Miss Starr, Miss Alva Starr,

I love you and I'm gonna carry you away

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