From Dividing the Estate

Abstract

From Dividing the Estate* Horton Foote Characters Son Stella Gordon Lucille Mildred Dougl Lewis Gordon Pauline Cathleen Sissie Emily Mary Jo Bob Irene Ratliff Act I—Scene 1: [1987, Harrison, Texas. A living room in the Gordon house. It is an old-fashioned, comfortable room. Through double doors you can see the dining room with a table being set for dinner by three black servants, a man and two women. They appear and reappear at different times setting the table, arranging flowers. SON, is alone in the room reading a paper. His mother, LUCILLE, and his grandmother, STELLA, enter. LUCILLE, a noticeably nervous woman, has Stella by the arm. Son rises when they enter.] SON: Grandmother, here—take your chair. STELLA: No, Son, I’ll sit over here. [End Page 15] LUCILLE: Now, Mama, Son doesn’t mind you having that chair. He knows it’s where you always sit. [SON goes to STELLA and leads her to the chair he was sitting in. MILDRED, one of the black women, comes into the room.] MILDRED: How many coming for dinner? LUCILLE: Let’s see...Mama and me and Son and Brother, and... STELLA: Where is Brother? LUCILLE: I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since breakfast. Go see if you can find him, Sonny. Tell him Mama was asking for him. SON: Yes, Ma’am. [SON goes.] MILDRED: You still haven’t answered my question, Miss Lucille. How many are coming to dinner? LUCILLE: Well, let’s see. There are the four of us, and Sister and her two children, and Bob... STELLA: Are Mary Jo’s girls bringing their husbands? LUCILLE: No, Mama. Heavens, they are both divorced. Now, you remember that. STELLA: I don’t remember it at all. LUCILLE: My God, Mama. Of course, you do. Sissie divorced her husband last fall, and Mary Jo and Bob had Emily’s marriage annulled a week after she was married. STELLA: Did they marry boys from here? LUCILLE: No, they were both Houston boys. STELLA: Were they well connected? LUCILLE: Who? STELLA: The boys my granddaughters married. [End Page 16] LUCILLE: They were both lazy and no good, according to Mary Jo and Bob, but they came from lovely families. STELLA: Which child was it had that awful tragedy on the night of her wedding? LUCILLE: I don’t know what you are talking about, Mama. STELLA: Yes, you do, too. One of the girls’ husbands blew his brains out on their wedding night. LUCILLE: No, Mama. That wasn’t Sissy or Emily’s husband. STELLA: Whose husband was it? LUCILLE: That was Cousin Gert Stewart’s daughter’s husband—I forget her name. STELLA: Clara Belle? LUCILLE: No, that’s the oldest girl. STELLA: Catherine Lee? LUCILLE: Yes, she is the one. STELLA: Why did that happen? Did he leave a note? LUCILLE: No. Gert just said it was an accident. STELLA: An accident? LUCILLE: Yes—that he was cleaning his gun, and he was laughing, and he said, “If I didn’t think you loved me, I’d kill myself,” and the gun accidentally went off and she ran to him screaming, and held him and blood was running all over her beautiful wedding gown – you remember, that wedding gown had been in Gert’s family for generations. Her great, greatgrandmother had brought it with her from Virginia. STELLA: What was he doing cleaning his gun on his wedding night? LUCILLE: No one knows, Mama. That is just one of those great mysteries. MILDRED: Wasn’t Miss Pauline invited for dinner? [End Page 17] LUCILLE: Oh, yes. That’s right. MILDRED: And that will make nine. LUCILLE: Yes. [MILDRED starts away.] Mildred... MILDRED: Yes’m. LUCILLE: You had better set ten places, just in case. I keep thinking I’ve invited someone else. MILDRED: You probably invited five more, if I know you. LUCILLE: Oh, I hope not. Well, we always have plenty of food, that’s one thing. MILDRED: Mr. Son is after me about the grocery bills again. I said, “Mr. Son, I don’t make up the menu. Speak to your Mama.” STELLA: There is only one way to economize, and that...