By Arthur Miller
Act One
(Eddie goes into the house, as light rises in the apartment. Catherine is waving to Louis from the window and turns to him. )
Catherine: Hi, Eddie!
(Eddie is pleased and therefore shy about it; he hangs up his cap and jacket.) Eddie: Where you goin’ all dressed up?
Catherine: (running her hands over her skirt) I just got it. You like it?
Eddie: Yeah, it’s nice. And what happened to your hair?
Catherine: You like it? I fixed it different. (Calling to kitchen.) He’s here, B!
Eddie: Beautiful. Turn around, lemme see in the back. (She turns for him.) Oh, if your mother was alive to see you now! She wouldn’t believe it.
Catherine: You like it, huh?
Eddie: You look like one of them girls that went to college. Where you goin’?
Catherine: (taking his arm) Wait’ll B comes in, I’ll tell you something. Here, sit down. (She is walking him to the armchair.) ( Calling offstage) Hurry up, will you, B?
Eddie: (sitting) What’s goin’ on?
Catherine: I’ll get you a beer, all right?
Eddie: Well, tell me what happened. Come over here, talk to me.
Catherine: I want to wait till B comes in. (She sits on her heels beside him.) Guess how much we paid for the skirt.
Eddie: I think it’s too short, ain’t it?
Catherine: (standing) No! not when I stand up.
Eddie: Yeah, but you gotta sit down sometimes.
Catherine: Eddie, it’s the style now. (She walks to show him.) I mean, if you see me walkin’ down the street –
Eddie: Listen, you been givin’ me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it.
Catherine: Why?
Eddie: Catherine, I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m tellin’ you you’re walkin’ wavy.
Catherine: I’m walkin’ wavy?
Eddie: Now don’t aggravate me, Katie, you are walkin’ wavy! I don’t like the looks they’re givin’ you in the candy store. And with them new high heels on the sidewalk – clack, clack, clack. The heads are turnin’ like windmills.
Catherine: But those guys look at all the girls, you know that.
Eddie: You ain’t ‘all the girls’.
Catherine: (almost in tears because he disapproves) What do you want me to do? You want me to –
Eddie: Now don’t get mad, kid.
Catherine: Well, I don’t know what you want from me.
Eddie: Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed. I’m responsible for you. You’re a baby, you don’t understand these things. I mean like when you stand here by the window, wavin’ outside.
Catherine: I was wavin’ to Louis!
Eddie: Listen, I could tell you things about Louis which you wouldn’t wave to him no more.
Catherine: (trying to joke him out of his warning) Eddie, I wish there was one guy you couldn’t tell me things about!
Eddie: Catherine, do me a favor, will you? You’re gettin’ to be a big girl now, you gotta keep yourself more, you can’t be so friendly, kid. (Calls) Hey, B, what’re you doin’ in there? (To Catherine.) Get her in here, will you? I got news for her.
Catherine: (starting out) What?
Eddie: Her cousins landed.
Catherine: (clapping her hands together) No! (She turns instantly and starts for the kitchen.) B! Your cousins!
(Beatrice enters, wiping her hands with a towel.)
Beatrice: (in the face of Catherine’s shout) What?
Catherine: Your cousins got in!
Beatrice: (astounded, turns to Eddie) What are you talkin’ about? Where?
Eddie: I was just knockin’ off work before and Tony Bereli come over to me; he says the ship is in the North River.
Beatrice: (her hands are clasped at her breast; she seems half in fear, half in unutterable joy) They’re all right?
Eddie: He didn’t see them yet, they’re still on board. But as soon as they get off he’ll meet them. He figures about ten o’clock they’ll be here.
Beatrice: (sits, almost weak from tension) And they’ll let them off the ship all right? That’s fixed, heh?
Eddie: Sure, they give them regular seamen papers and they walk off with the crew. Don’t worry about it, B, there’s nothin’ to it. Couple of hours they’ll be here.
Beatrice: What