Read Long Day's Journey into Night (Yale Nota Bene) for Free Online Page B

tell you, Jamie.
    His son looks at him, for the first time with an understanding sympathy. It is as if suddenly a deep bond of common feeling existed between them in which their antagonisms could be forgotten.
JAMIE
    Almost gently.
    I’ve felt the same way, Papa.
TYRONE
    Yes, this time you can see how strong and sure of herself she is. She’s a different woman entirely from the other times. She has control of her nerves—or she had until Edmund got sick. Now you can feel her growing tense and frightened underneath. I wish to God we could keep the truth from her, but we can’t if he has to be sent to a sanatorium. What makes it worse is her father died of consumption. She worshiped him and she’s never forgotten. Yes, it will be hard for her. But she can do it! She has the will power now! We must help her, Jamie, in every way we can!
JAMIE
    Moved.
    Of course, Papa.
    Hesitantly.
    Outside of nerves, she seems perfectly all right this morning.
TYRONE
    With hearty confidence now.
    Never better. She’s full of fun and mischief.
    Suddenly he frowns at Jamie suspiciously.
    Why do you say, seems? Why shouldn’t she be all right? What the hell do you mean?
JAMIE
    Don’t start jumping down my throat! God, Papa, this ought to be one thing we can talk over frankly without a battle.
TYRONE
    I’m sorry, Jamie.
    Tensely.
    But go on and tell me—
JAMIE
    There’s nothing to tell. I was all wrong. It’s just that last night—Well, you know how it is, I can’t forget the past. I can’t help being suspicious. Any more than you can.
    Bitterly.
    That’s the hell of it. And it makes it hell for Mama! She watches us watching her—
TYRONE
    Sadly.
    I know.
    Tensely.
    Well, what was it? Can’t you speak out?
JAMIE
    Nothing, I tell you. Just my damned foolishness. Around three o’clock this morning, I woke up and heard her moving around in the spare room. Then she went to the bathroom. I pretended to be asleep. She stopped in the hall to listen, as if she wanted to make sure I was.
TYRONE
    With forced scorn.
    For God’s sake, is that all? She told me herself the foghorn kept her awake all night, and every night since Edmund’s been sick she’s been up and down, going to his room to see how he was.
JAMIE
    Eagerly.
    Yes, that’s right, she did stop to listen outside his room.
    Hesitantly again.
    It was her being in the spare room that scared me. I couldn’t help remembering that when she starts sleeping alone in there, it has always been a sign—
TYRONE
    It isn’t this time! It’s easily explained. Where else could she go last night to get away from my snoring?
    He gives way to a burst of resentful anger.
    By God, how you can live with a mind that sees nothing but the worst motives behind everything is beyond me!
JAMIE
    Stung.
    Don’t pull that! I’ve just said I was all wrong. Don’t you suppose I’m as glad of that as you are!
TYRONE
    Mollifyingly.
    I’m sure you are, Jamie.
    A pause. His expression becomes somber. He speaks slowly with a superstitious dread.
    It would be like a curse she can’t escape if worry over Edmund—It was in her long sickness after bringing him into the world that she first—
JAMIE
    She didn’t have anything to do with it!
TYRONE
    I’m not blaming her.
JAMIE
    Bitingly.
    Then who are you blaming? Edmund, for being born?
TYRONE
    You damned fool! No one was to blame.
JAMIE
    The bastard of a doctor was! From what Mama’s said, he was another cheap quack like Hardy! You wouldn’t pay for a first-rate—
TYRONE
    That’s a lie!
    Furiously.
    So I’m to blame! That’s what you’re driving at, is it? You evil-minded loafer!
JAMIE
    Warningly as he hears his mother in the dining room.
    Ssh!
    Tyrone gets hastily to his feet and goes to look out the windows at right. Jamie speaks with a complete change of tone.
    Well, if we’re going to cut the front hedge today, we’d better go to work.
    Mary comes in from the back parlor. She gives a quick, suspicious glance from one to the other, her manner