Mr. Mendoza
from Unseen Character
(MR. MENDOZA sits on the garbage can on the fire escape. One leg is propped up on a chair, one on the rungs of the ladder. He speaks to JIM.)
Speak to him, Jim. I think you’re the only one. He won’t listen. He got the listener’s disease.
I keep my eyes on him every morning. Thinks he gets away with it. But I watch him. I see him. I know he is always late. Smelling of the smoke and the liquor and the real bad breath.
Lots of stuff he ain’t doing right. Falls asleep every day—snoring. Makes a lot of noise, he does with the snores. Least two times a day on job. Not so funny. No reason for the laugh, okay, Jim?
He comes in yawning and coughing and rubbing his eyes. That kind of behavior lasts almost three hours. Then it’s time for the lunch break. He takes long lunch break. Longer than everyone else. And after lunch break, he comes in smelling of more smoke and more liquor and more bad breath. I can’t afford to keep him. Unless he change his ways.
I feel bad for him. Bachelor life without the bachelor lifestyle. Living with his mother. Grown men living with their mothers is unnatural act.
If God intended for us to always live with our mothers, He would have made it impossible to cut the cord. First, we cut the cord, then we cut the strings.
But Shakespeare, as you call him, he doesn’t have the will to cut these strings.
Mother’s boy working at a factory. I don’t have room for mother’s boys. Not good workers. Not good friends. Not good company.
If this continues, I’ll have to cut him myself. 
Unseen Character (part 2): Introduction and Menu
Review | My Friend Tom: The Poet-Playwright Tennessee Williams by William Jay Smith