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)

                                          (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 25^th.

                                            ( 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