BLANCHE: And you’re going to stay here pouring that sickening blood red goo into jars all night, are you? The odor of it is suffocating, Grace! That’s why my nerves are—God! Is the window open?

GRACE: I didn’t know you minded it. Why didn’t you say so?

BLANCHE: It isn’t my place, it’s yours and Mr. Kiefaber’s! I’m just a—visiting relation! Whose welcome has been out-worn!

GRACE: You know that’s not true.

BLANCHE: Go on with your jelly making—if that’s what it is!

GRACE: Oh, Blanche, you make me feel dizzy. [She crosses tiredly back upstage: leans thoughtfully on the ironing board. Starts putting the filled jars away. Through the closed door of the bathroom comes a voice.]

THE VOICE: Let’s have—intimate—relations! Let’s have—intimate— relations!

[Blanche faces it and advances a few steps with clenched hands.]

THE VOICE: Let’s have—intimate—relations!

[The door opens and Jack comes out drying face with towel. Blanche stares at him with a fixity, which he ignores. He turns his back on her.]

GRACE [from kitchen]: Is this game part of the tournament?

JACK: Semi-finals.

GRACE: Who are you bowling with?

JACK: Crescent City Grain Packers.

GRACE: Are they good?

JACK: Champions last season. [He bends over to change shoes.]

THE VOICE: Let’s have—intimate—relations. Let’s have—

GRACE: Think you’ll beat them?

JACK: Well, there’s two possibilities, honey. They’ll beat us or we’ll beat them! Damn!

GRACE: What’s the trouble?

JACK: Broke a shoelace.

GRACE: —Oh.

JACK: What’s that sweet smell in here?

BLANCHE [suddenly]: Death!

JACK [looking up, startled]: Huh?

BLANCHE: I said, Death! Didn’t you know death smelled like sugar-candy?

JACK: Huh! That’s a pleasant little thought!

GRACE: Blanche doesn’t like the odor of my jelly.

JACK: Jelly, huh? Crab apple?

BLANCHE: —There was a body found on our plantation that had been lying out dead for a few days in summer. Yes, at Belle Reve, when Grace and I were children, before—Belle Reve was lost. And we noticed a smell that was sweet like that in back of the house toward the Bayou and somebody said—I think it was our old nurse—Ozzie—said— “That’s something dead back there that isn’t buried!” [She laughs.] Something dead back there that isn’t buried. And sure enough. They looked around and they found an old colored man’s body . . .

[Jack is repairing his shoe-lace: he looks up with a shrug.]

GRACE: I had forgotten that, Blanche.

BLANCHE: You forget everything about Belle Reve so that you can fully appreciate the refinements of your present ménage!

JACK: At least we don’t have dead bodies lying around anywhere. Do we, Grace?

BLANCHE: Have you looked closely?