More Portmanteau Plays - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
Oh, look at your shadow!
[_Mlle. Perrault turns and sees her shadow on the wall._
I can make a bigger one than that.
MARY
Oh, come on, ma'mselle, let's all make shadows.
[_The three of them stand in front of the wall._
JOHN III
Boy, you come, too.
MLLE. PERRAULT
Come, boy.
[_Jonathan joins them standing so that his deformity doesn't show in the shadow._
Now, let's dance--Give me your hand--so.
[_The four dance, while Mlle. Perrault hums "All on a Summer's Day." They are having a very good time when Susan and Albert enter._
_Jonathan is a little conscious of Susan and Albert, and he manages to make several awkward moves._
MLLE. PERRAULT
Now, let's make everybody's shadow dance by itself.
MARY
Oh, come on.
JOHN III
You first, Mlle.
MARY
It's your turn, Mlle.
[_Mlle. Perrault stands before the wall and makes a very lovely shadow._
John, you do it now.
JOHN III
I won't. I'm going to be next to last.... He's going to be last.
[_Mary makes a pretty "statue."_
MARY
Now, John--
[_John III, holding a staff, stands bow-legged and pigeon-toed._
_All of them laugh._
MLLE. PERRAULT (_to John III_)
You little Jackanapes! You!
JOHN III (_to Jonathan_)
You can't do that.
[_Jonathan, still conscious of Susan, but more in the spirit of the game nevertheless, laughs almost gleefully._
JONATHAN
You just wait.
[_He stands in front of the wall and does some comical movements with his feet and legs, then he turns in such a way that for the first time the shadow of his hump is thrown into a pitiful distortion on the wall. He doesn't see it at first, for he is lost in the game with the children._
JOHN III (_yelling suddenly_)
Oh, look!
[_The children laugh immoderately, and Jonathan turns his head quickly, but in so doing alters the shadow. He smiles joyfully and then once more falls into the distorted picture._
MARY
Ooh--
JOHN III
That's funnier than mine.
[_Jonathan turns his head this time and sees the full horror of the thing._
_Mlle. Perrault and Susan have realized too late to protect Jonathan._
MLLE. PERRAULT
John! Mary! Tell the little boy good-bye. We must go.
