One of those no-neck monsters hit me with a hot buttered biscuit so I have to
change! Well, I! - just remarked that! - one of the no-neck monsters messed up
my lovely lace dress so I got to cha-a-ange! I swear they’ve got no necks.
None visible. Their fat little heads are stuck on their fat little bodies
without a bit of connection. An’ it’s too bad, ‘cause you can’t wring
their necks if they’ve got no necks to wring! Yep, they’re monsters, all
right. All no-neck people are monsters. Hear them? Hear them screaming? I
don’t know where their voice boxes are located since they don’t have necks.
I tell you I got so nervous at that table tonight I thought I would throw back
my head and utter a scream you could hear clear across the Arkansas border and
parts of Louisiana and Tennessee. I said to your charming sister-in-law, “Mae,
honey couldn’t you feed those precious little thing at a separate table? They
make such a mess and the lace cloth looks soooo pretty...” She made enormous
eyes at me and said, “ Ohhhhhh, no! On Big Daddy’s birthday? Why, he would
never forgive me!” Well, I want you to know, Big Daddy hadn’t been at that
table two minutes with them no-neck monsters slobbering an’ drooling over
their food before he threw down his fork and shouted’ “ Fo’ God’s sake,
Gooper! Why don’t you feed them pigs at a trough in the kitchen?!” Well, I
swear, I simply could have dii-ie-ed! -Big Daddy shares my attitude towards
Brother man and that monster of fertility Mae! As for me, well - I give him a
laugh now and then and he tolerates me. In fact, - I sometimes suspect that Big
Daddy harbors a little unconscious lech for me. Way he always drops his eyes
down my body when I’m talking to him, drops his eyes to my boobs an’ licks
his old chops! Ha ha! - Why are you looking at me like that? The way you were
lookin’ at me just now , befo’ I caught you eyein’ the mirror? I don’t
know how t’ describe it, but it froze my blood! - I’ve caught you looking at
me like that so often lately. Don’t you think I know that-? Don’t you-? -
Think I know that-? That I’ve gone through this - hideous! - transformation,
become - hard! Frantic! -----cruel! That’s what you’ve been observing in me
lately. How could y’ help but observe it? That’s all right. I’m not -
thin-skinned anymore, can’t afford t’ be thin-skinned anymore. - But, Brick?
Brick? I was goin’ to say something: that I get - lonely. Very! Living with
someone you love can be lonelier - than living entirely alone! - if the one that
y’ love doesn’t love you.... You used to be such a wonderful lover... such a
wonderful person to go to bed with, and I think mostly because you were really
indifferent to it. Isn’t that right? Never had any anxiety about it, did it
naturally, easily, slowly, with absolute confidence and perfect calm. More like
opening a door for a lady or seating her at a table than giving any expression
of longing for her. Your indifference made you wonderful at lovemaking. Strange?
- but true.... You know if I thought you would never, never, never make love to
me again, I would go down to the kitchen and pick out the longest sharpest knife
I could find and stick it straight into my heart, I swear that I would! But the
one thing I don’t have is the charm of the defeated, my hat is still in the
ring and I am determined to win! What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?
- I wish I knew.... just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can...