How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
"Amazing thing is, neither one a' you look a bit familiar to me. Can't figure that one out. I don't recognize myself in either one a' you. Never did. 'Course your mothers both put their stamp on ya'. That's plan to see. But my whole side a' the issue is absent, in my opinion. Totally unrecognizable. You could be anybody's. Probably are. I can't even remember the original circumstances. Been so long. Probably a lot a' things I forgot. Good thing I got out when I did though. Best thing I ever did." (321)
This is the moment we get the play's big bombshell: the Old Man is Eddie and May's father. Also, we get the message loud and clear that the Old Man was kind of a jerk—not only did he abandon May and Eddie's respective mothers, but he thinks that getting out early was the "best thing" ever. How did this charmer get one wife, much less two?
Quote #8
MARTIN: Well, how come you didn't know each other until high school then?
EDDIE: He had two separate lives. That's how come. Two completely separate lives. He'd live with me and my mother for a while and then he'd disappear and go live with her and her mother for a while.
THE OLD MAN: Now don't be too hard on me, boy. It can happen to the best of us. (495-497)
Here Eddie is explaining his father's bigamy-loving ways to Martin, including how his pops managed to keep up two families by simply disappearing from time to time. No wonder our two protagonists have so many issues, including abandonment (particularly on May's part).
Quote #9
"The funny thing was, that almost as soon as we'd found him—he disappeared. She was only with him about two weeks before he just vanished. Nobody saw him after that. Ever. And my mother—just turned herself inside out. I never could understand that. I kept watching her grieve, as though somebody'd died. She'd pull herself up into a ball and just stare at the floor. And I couldn't understand that because I was feeling the exact opposite feeling. I was in love, see. I'd come home after school, after being with Eddie, and I was filled with this joy and there she'd be—standing in the middle of the kitchen staring at the sink. Her eyes looked like a funeral. And I didn't know what to say. I didn't even feel sorry for her. All I could think of was him." (553)
These are May's memories of how her mom reacted when the Old Man finally disappeared for good—after mama had found out about the whole other family thing. Doesn't sound like life was too great for May's mother right about then, but May had found comfort in her forbidden passion for her half brother.