Page:Zora Neale Hurston - Meet the Mamma.pdf/4

 BOSS: Nope, that wont do. Every time I mention bones I get the shinny in my wrist. I'm trying to fool her, boy, not tell where I was. I have been out having a yellow time.

BELL-HOP: What kind of a time is that?

BOSS: Well, I been riding in a yellow taxi with yellow girls and spending yellow money and drinking yellow whiskey. Can't none of you men (to the audience) help out a fellow? I could kill that smart aleck Peter.

ANOTHER: What Peter?

BOSS: The one that killed Ananias.

SONG: "Now why did he kill Ananias"

(As the song ends, the mother-in-law enters (Right). Boss sees her

and steps backward into the open door of the elevator and is flashed upward.)

MOTHER-IN-LAW: (Advancing to center downstage) Where is your boss? (She glares about and puts ear trumpet to ear.)

CHORUS: I don't know.

MOTHER-IN-LAW: Just you let me lay my eyes on him! (She exits left). (Giggling by the chorus. Reenter Mother, left, and proceeds quickly to the elevator which is coming down.)

MOTHER-IN-LAW: I'll go upstairs and wait for him. (She pauses beside the elevator, but not where she can be seen by persons on the elevator. As it reaches the floor, the door flies open and the boss dashes out toward exit, left, as she hurries toward elevator. They collide and both sit flat on the floor with feet and legs entangled. They sit there facing and glaring at each other for two full minutes. He speaks).