Scene Two
Molly's dressing room a minute later. Outside we can hear muffled
sounds of the barroom brawl. The room is bursting with bouquets of flowers
of all sizes and shapes. MOLLY is being helped out of her sequined gown
and into a feather-boa peignoir by her fat jolly black maid, ANNIE MAY,
who, like all black maids of the period, chuckles a lot.
ANNIE MAY
Miz Molly, you done gets so many flowers there ain't gonna be no room
fo' us.
MOLLY
Flowers are like love, Annie May. The only ones that last are the artificial
kind. Take them away. Give them to the leper colony.
ANNIE MAY
Now, Miz Molly, what's dem lepers gonna do wid seventy-five bouquets
o' flowers.
MOLLY
They can play, "I'll lose it, I'll lose it not", with the petals.
ANNIE MAY
Miz Molly, yo' sho is somethin'.
MOLLY
What do we have here?
(from one of the baskets, SHE extracts a tiny white puppy hidden in a spray
of orchids)
Hello, little one.
(glancing at the card in the spray)
"Farewell, Bruno." Bruno? Is he the stevedore who decided to go
to Black Fever country to atone for his sins?
ANNIE MAY
No, he da munitions manufacturer who done hanged hisself last night.
MOLLY
What's the matter? He didn't trust his own product?
ANNIE MAY
Oh, Miz Molly!
MOLLY
(holding the puppy close to her face, then when it begins
nibbling on her finger, SHE puts it down)
The principal difference between a man and a dog, Annie May, is
if you pick up either one and make him prosperous, he'll bite you in different
places.
ANNIE MAY
Miz Molly, yo' is somethin' else!
MOLLY
(glancing at a bouquet combining flowers with colored balloons)
Who sent these---a circus-vendor? I'm used to diamonds, and some bimbo
sends balloons. Balloons are like men, Annie May. The harder you blow,
the bigger they get.
ANNIE MAY
Oh, Miz Molly!
(MOLLY sits down before the makeup table. A knock at the door.)
MOLLY
Whoever it is send them away.
ANNIE MAY
(going to the door stage left)
I'se sorry, but Miz Molly, she ain't seein' nobody.
(ARMAND pushes past her and enters the room.)
MOLLY
Who are you? Get out of here.
DUVAL
I am Chief Inspector Armand Duval of the French Secret Service. Would
you care to see my credentials?
MOLLY
I didn't know they were removable.
DUVAL
I shall come straight to the point, Mandalay Molly.
MOLLY
I don't mind the coming. It's the point that worries me.
DUVAL
You have been selected, madame, to deliver imperative documents behind
enemy lines in China. You will leave tomorrow on the S. S. Sonoma booking
passage for Singapore.
(HE unfolds an enormous map which HE tacks on the
wall, then pulls out a collapsible pointer to illustrate.)
DUVAL
You will not, however, arrive at your destination. You will instead
be met when you dock in Manila by a sea plane which will deposit you in
the South China Sea ten miles outside of Canton. You will recognize the
pilot by the jade medallion he will wear about his neck. You will then
take a junk up the coast to Suchow where you will disembark in favor of
a roomette on the Shanghai Express. You will, however, never reach Shanghai.
Instead, you will get off the train when it pauses at a siding on the outskirts
of Hangchow. You will then proceed by mule to Nanking. At Nanking one of
your mules will collapse from sunstroke, and you will be met by a rickshaw
driver named Choong Foo who will take you to Chungchow. He will go no further,
because by that time his hernia will be acting up, but you will proceed
due north behind enemy lines until you come to the Inn of the Five Winds
in the province of Senshi. There, behind a mulberry tree, you will meet
General Wing Fang disguised as a Buddhist monk. It is to him you must give
the password: "While crossing the ice, the little fox gets his tail wet."
He will answer, "It must be checked with a brake of bronze." You will hand
over this briefcase. You must arrive by the 25th.
( MOLLY has been staring at him openmouthed.)
MOLLY
Get this jackass out of here.
(ANNIE MAY makes a move toward him.)
DUVAL
Then I take it your answer is no, Mandalay Molly. Or should I say, Marie
Le Fleur?
(A sting of ominous music. MOLLY stops powdering her
nose instantly, turns away.)
DUVAL
(to Annie May)
You had better leave us.
MOLLY
No. She is my only friend. She should know everything. How did you find
me?
DUVAL
That shall remain my secret. I can only say I have searched years for
the murderess of the Marquis de Longtemps.
MOLLY
I was framed.
DUVAL
We will let our French judicial system judge that, madam.
MOLLY
You can show me your credentials now, Inspector.
DUVAL
You dare play tricks with an Inspector from the French Secret Service?
MOLLY
I cannot go back. I was framed by the only man I ever loved.
DUVAL
Whose name is…?
MOLLY
I would die before I tell.
DUVAL
Then you have no alternative, madame.
MOLLY
Why me? Why did you choose me?
DUVAL
Because as Mandalay Molly you are known throughout the Orient as a woman
of no convictions, no scruples, no heart and no allegiances. You will be
the last one in the world suspected of carrying documents which will penetrate
enemy lines to save the Republic.
MOLLY
What Republic? What enemy? What lines?
DUVAL
I leave you this map, madame. Study it carefully. The instructions are
written on the back. It must never fall into enemy hands. If necessary
you must eat it. Adieu, madame. And bon chance.
(HE bows, kisses her hand, executes a military turn,
walks out the door. All at once HE rushes back,
placing a briefcase on her dressing table.)
DUVAL
Oops. Almost forgot.
(HE rushes back out the door. ANNIE MAY bursts into sobs.)
MOLLY
Stop crying, Annie May, and pack my bags.
ANNIE MAY
You ain't goin' alone, Miz Molly. I'se goin' wid you.
MOLLY
Impossible. You will attract too much attention.
ANNIE MAY
Who gonna notice me, Miz Molly, when I'se wid you? Who ever noticed
me when I'se wid you.
MOLLY
Out of a hundred million skinny yellow people, one fat black one will
be a little conspicuous.
ANNIE MAY
Den I disguises myself. I goes as a thin yeller one. I loses weight
and puts on tons o' yeller makeup. Why fo' years all dem udder folks been
disguisin' themselves as black ones. Why cain't a black one disguise hisself
as another color?
MOLLY
You have a point.
ANNIE MAY
And I changes mah voice, Miz Molly. Dis here ain't mah real voice, anyway
(lowering her voice several octaves so it sounds just like Molly's)
This is my real voice.
MOLLY
I prefer the other one.
ANNIE MAY
I also changes mah name, Miz Molly.
MOLLY
Yes, that might do. But I am so used to Annie May. Let me see. What
if we keep Annie May, but add something Oriental to it?
(after a moment, her eyes brightening)
What about Wong?
BLACKOUT
