Alfred Uhry - Driving Miss Daisy Read Online Free Page B

briefcase and a small wrapped package.
     
     
    Well, you nearly missed us!
    BOOLIE: I thought you were leaving at quarter of.
    HOKE: She takin’ on.
    DAISY: Be still.
    BOOLIE: Florine sent this for Uncle Walter. ( Daisy. recoils from it ) Well, it’s not a snake, Mama. I think it’s notepaper.
    DAISY: How appropriate. Uncle Walter can’t see!
    BOOLIE: Maybe it’s soap.
    DAISY: How nice that you show such an interest in your uncle’s ninetieth birthday.
    BOOLIE: Don’t start up, Mama. I cannot go to Mobile with you. I have to go to New York tonight for the convention. You know that.
    DAISY: The convention starts Monday. And I know what else I know.
    BOOLIE: Just leave Florine out of it. She wrote away for those tickets eight months ago.
    DAISY: I’m sure My Fair Lady is more important than your own flesh and blood.
    BOOLIE: Mama!
    DAISY: Those Christians will be mighty impressed!
    BOOLIE: I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.
    Daisy has climbed into the car. Boolie draws Hoke aside.
     
     
    I’ve got to talk to Hoke.
    DAISY: They expect us for a late supper in Mobile.
    BOOLIE: You’ll be there.
    DAISY: I know they’ll fix crab. All that trouble!
    BOOLIE ( To Hoke ): I don’t know how you’re going to stand all day in the car.
    HOKE: She doan’ mean nothin’. She jes’ worked up.
    BOOLIE: Here’s fifty dollars in case you run into trouble. Don’t show it to Mama. You’ve got your map?
    HOKE: She got it in wid her. Study every inch of the way.
    BOOLIE: I’ll be at the Ambassador Hotel in New York. On Park Avenue.
    DAISY: It’s seven sixteen.
    BOOLIE: You should have a job on the radio announcing the time.
    DAISY: I want to miss rush hour.
    BOOLIE: Congratulate Uncle Walter for me. And kiss everybody in Mobile.
    DAISY ( To Hoke ): Did you have the air condition checked? I told you to have the air condition checked!
    HOKE: Yassum. I got the air condition checked but I doan’ know what for. You doan’ never ’low me to turn it on.
    DAISY: Hush up.
    BOOLIE: Good-bye! Good luck! (Light out on the car) Good God!
    Light out on Boolie and back up on the car. It’s lunchtime. Daisy and Hoke are both eating. Hoke eats while he drives.
     
    HOKE: Idella stuff eggs good.
    DAISY: You stuff yourself good. I’m going to save the rest of this for later.
    HOKE: Yassum.
    DAISY: I was thinking about the first time I ever went to Mobile. It was Walter’s wedding, 1888.
    HOKE: 1888! You weren’t nothin’ but a little child.
    DAISY: I was twelve. We went on the train. And I was so excited. I’d never been on a train, I’d never been in a wedding party and I’d never seen the ocean. Papa said it was the Gulf of Mexico and not the ocean, but it was all the same to me. I remember we were at a picnic somewhere—somebody must have taken us all baching—and I asked Papa if it was all right to dip my hand in the water. He laughed because I was so timid. And then I tasted the salt water on my fingers. Isn’t it silly to remember that?
    HOKE: No sillier than most of what folks remember. You talkin’ ’bout first time. I tell you ’bout the first time I ever leave the state of Georgia?
    DAISY: When was that?
    HOKE: ’Bout twenty-five minutes back.
    DAISY: Go on!
    HOKE: Thass right. First time. My daughter, she married to Pullman porter on the N.C. & St. L., you know, and she all time goin’—Detroit, New York, St. Louis—talkin’ ‘bout snow up aroun’ her waist and ridin’ in de subway car and I say, “Well, that very nice Tommie Lee, but I jes’ doan’ feel the need.” So dis it, Miz Daisy, and I got to tell you, Alabama ain’ lookin’ like much so far.
    DAISY: It’s nicer the other side of Montgomery.
    HOKE: If you say so. Pass me up one of them peaches, please ma’am.
    She looks out the window. Suddenly she starts,
     
    DAISY: Oh my God!
    HOKE: What happen?
    DAISY: That sign said Phenix City—thirty miles. We’re not supposed to go to Phenix City. We’re going the wrong way. Oh my