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The Dreamy Kid tells the story of a Negro gangster named Dreamy who has killed a white man the night before, but whose grandmother is dying and he risks coming to see her rather than live with a curse on his life. The play opens with his grandmother, Mammy Saunders, in her death bed and asking her daughter Ceely Ann where Dreamy is. Ceely Ann has put the word out and assures her he'll come. Irene, one of Dreamy's girlfriends, pushes her way into the room and demands she speak to him right away. When she realizes he's not there, Irene tells Ceely that if Dreamy shows up there, “it's good-bye to de Dreamy,” and he should “git out quick and hide, he don't wanter git pinched.” Dreamy does show up, clearly afraid he's been followed or is being watched, and carrying a revolver. When Mammy sees Dreamy, she declares she “ain't skeered no mo',” and Ceely leaves to go home, saying she'll return soon. Irene comes back and tells Dreamy she's seen the men looking for him across the street and tries to get him to leave that minute. When he tells Mammy he's going to leave for “jest for a moment,” she tells him “Don' you move one step out er yere or yo'll be sorry, Dreamy.” She tells him if he leaves “yo' ain't gwine git no bit er luck s'long's you' live, I tells yo' dat!” Once he decides he can't leave, he forces Irene to go, though she initially resists. As he begins to barricade himself in the room, Mammy tells Dreamy how he got his name, how she gave it to him when he was a baby, “An yo' was always—a-lookin'—an' a-thinkin' ter yo'se'f—an' yo big eyes jest a-dreamin' an' a-dreamin'. . .” While she's talking, Dreamy has been simultaneously muttering how they aren't going to take him alive, and that he's sure they're sneaking up the stairs at that moment. When Mammy's afraid he's left again, he comes to the bed and takes her hand and she asks him to kneel down and pray for her, which he does, but first he goes and gets his revolver. Sounds of steps begin to come from the hallway and Dreamy declares “Dey don't git de Dreamy! Not while he's 'live! Lawd Jesus, no suh!” Mammy, thinking his praying, says “Dat's right—yo' pray—Lawd Jesus—Lawd Jesus” and we hear more sounds of movement in the hallway as the play ends.
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