Betty’s Aunt
from Unseen Character
(BETTY’S AUNT speaks to BETTY as she sits up on the couch with multiple pillows supporting her.)
I need you to escort me to Centralia.
I may be under the weather, but the weather in Centralia calls. And I am sure that I can’t make that trip alone.
You probably have a date planned with that beau of yours, Jim. But Betty, family comes first. And if Centralia calls a member of your family, then Centralia, you go.
I have checked the train fares and the schedules. And we will be departing tomorrow at precisely two o’five. I will need you to cancel both my dentist and doctor’s appointments. I need you to pack at least three days of clothing and eighteen doses of my medicines. Remember to put the blue and white speckled pill in each of the compartments of my pill box for only once a day. That time we took the train to Columbus, you put three blue and white speckled pills in each compartment. Three blue and white speckled pills in one day could kill an old lady! Don’t kill me off . . . not yet.
I’m not ready to die unless I know you are married and settled. I can’t be your only next of kin and leave this world with you ill provided for. I would not be able to rest in Heaven or Centralia if that were the case.
If Jim is the right beau for you, he’ll understand your predicament. Men of that age should be inclined to understand. But sometimes it seems the older men get, the more they behave like children.
Isn’t it funny that we girls arrive at maturity more quickly and yet we remain there for longer spells as well? I’ve always thought that a healthy situation would be for healthy ladies to live together in one house while all their husbands lived in a different house next door. I think we would see a sudden rise in life expectancy! For both the women and the men.
I think a grown man living with a grown woman is hard on his physiognomy. And God forbid if he lives with two grown women! Could you imagine if Jim were to move in and live with both of us! Do you think he’d survive?
Do you think most men living with two women would survive? I would like an official study to be done on the matter. But don’t leave that study to the scientists. Leave it to the poets! Let the poets decide what is right and what is wrong! Oh, the world would be a vibrant place if science and church took a step back and allowed the poets to rule the world! 
Unseen Character (part 2): Introduction and Menu
Review | My Friend Tom: The Poet-Playwright Tennessee Williams by William Jay Smith