Odd Woman Out_ and _A Streetcar Named Desire._ # **I** There was a black cat in the park. It was a little one, and it was walking all alone. A big, fat, rich banker was walking along the shady path. He stopped suddenly and stared at the little black cat. Then he crouched down and said in a low, soft voice: "My! That cat has got a lovely, long, long tail! Maybe it is for me!" Just then the cat turned around and looked at the fat man. Then it mewed and ran away, and the fat man picked it up and put it in his pocket and walked away. The cat was warm. The big man took it to his apartment and put it in a bowl of warm milk and sat down to watch. He waited, holding his breath. His eyes shone in the darkness as he stared at the cat. The cat sat very still and stared at him. The fat man reached for the cat and scratched it behind the ear. The cat purred. The fat man picked up the cat and started to go out the door. As he passed the cat a string that was on the carpet gave a little jerk and the cat jumped up. The fat man opened the door and went out. There was a tiny splash in the middle of the tub. It was very tiny, but it was there. A man heard a little laugh that was like the fluttering of wings. He looked up, but there was nobody there, and he listened again. He saw a little man leaning against a tree, watching him. He went to his apartment and there was a white box on the table. Inside the box was the cat, alive and well, purring as if it were laughing at the man's face. He put the cat in the box and threw it out in the park. # **II** There were three people sitting at the end of the pier. The first one was a fat man with a very fat wife. The wife was very fat, too. She was a little, fat, old lady. She did not have a fat husband; she had a fat son, who went around all day and laughed. The son did not laugh himself; he had a wife who sat down at the end of the pier, too, and laughed. Then there was a man who had just come into a lot of money. He had it in a cigar box and he always carried it around. The son looked at the cigar box and laughed. Then there was a little, thin, thin man with a cigar in his mouth. He looked at the cigar and laughed and laughed until he had to stop. He stopped laughing just long enough to put his hand over his mouth. The fat man looked at the man with the cigar in his mouth. He wanted to laugh, too. The man went home, and his wife and son went home, and they left the cigar box there, and that night they went to a movie. They had a large box in the orchestra pit. The box was made of lead and was painted black. It was called "The Black Cat." # **III** It was three people at the end of the pier, only this time there was no woman, and there was no man. There was only one man, and he went to get something from the big black box. It was just as large as a cigar box and it was called "The Black Cat," but it had a little window in it. Through the window was a black cat's head. The man was very surprised. He leaned down and looked in the box. Then he felt underneath the box for the string. He pulled on the string, but the box did not open. It was a very good box. The man went back to his big, black box, which was tied to the end of the pier. He sat down and began to think. Soon he decided that he would get the cat. He would open the box and take out the cat. He had been waiting for that cat for a long, long time. He wanted to see it and stroke its soft fur and see it sit and look at him with soft, green, gentle eyes. # **IV** There was a young man in the park. He was thin and tall and sad, and he sat by himself under a tree. He thought of the years ahead of him. He thought of the old, old lady with the white hair that had died last winter. He thought of her lying on the grass in a little corner of the yard. There were no stones on her face anymore, but he thought she might have been happier if they had been put there once in a while. The young man thought of the old gentleman who had laughed so much, and the young man also thought of the cigar box and the fat, good-looking woman who laughed and laughed. He thought of the laughing son who wanted his cigar box. He wished the cigar box had been his, instead of being in the black box. But, then, the laughing son had never heard the laugh from the mouth of the black box. The young man looked at the ground and sighed and sighed. Then he got up and walked away, slowly. # **V** He was sitting on a bench by the lake. It was a dark lake and no one ever came to bathe in it. There was a piece of paper near him. On the piece of paper was written: "I was at the window of the room where the young man was waiting for the black cat, but I never saw it. Perhaps he went somewhere else. Perhaps he never wanted a cat at all." The young man took the piece of paper and read it very carefully. Then he looked out at the dark lake. The dark was very dark, and nobody had ever seen the black cat on the shore. But perhaps there was a black cat hidden in the lake, too, and he could find it if he sat here and thought about it for a long, long time. There was another piece of paper nearby. It was very long, and the young man rolled it up very tight. He placed the paper in his pocket, which was very tight. He turned around, took one more look at the dark lake, and started back toward the bench where he had left his suitcase. # **VI** There was a fat man in a park who lived in an apartment at the end of the pier. He sat on a bench and cried. He cried because he wanted a son. He cried and cried and never stopped until his wife gave him a black box. It was shaped like a cigar box, and it had a little hole in the side. When the man opened the lid, the black cat was inside. It was named Patches. The man went home with the cat, and his wife put the black box on the floor in the living room. Every night Patches sat on the bench with him and every night the man cried about the son that would never come. But after a while he started to sing again. He sang very softly so that his wife would not hear. # **VII** The young man was no longer sitting by the lake. He was back home. There was a man there with the same kind of black box. He opened it and a black cat jumped out and jumped into the young man's lap. He jumped very fast and she landed on the young man's knee. He picked her up and put her on his shoulder and took her out of the room. The lady looked at the man and wondered why he had given her a little silver box last year. She looked at her husband and smiled a little smile that seemed as if it were saying, "Well, she has taken him. It doesn't matter now. He is all hers now." But she was not sure that the cat was going to stay with him. The young man was very slender and the cat was a black cat. The cat walked across the room very slowly and walked into a closet. The young man waited and then opened the door of the closet. He opened the door a little wider. He looked inside the closet and there was the cat fast asleep. Then he sat down in a chair and waited. After a long time the cat came out again, slowly, from inside the closet. The young man was very pleased to see that the cat was still asleep. # **VIII** The young man got home, late at night, and his wife had the black box on the table, in a little box in the middle of the table, with a little light. He picked up the box and there was a cat in it, which jumped out and landed on the young man's shoulder. The young man picked her up and started to leave, but there was a train going into the station and there was a woman getting off of it. The young man took the cat with him, and, when the woman looked up, the cat turned around and looked at her and smiled. She was very thin and very old. She picked up her white shawl and walked into the house. There was no one to say good night to her. # **IX** It was very late at night when the young man reached home. He went inside and found his wife asleep on