Act 1, Scene 2
[Grant]
[Narrative]
I came home from school that afternoon and saw my aunt and Miss Emma sitting at the table. I couldn’t stand to see Miss Emma, I knew what Jefferson’s sentence was going to be and didn’t want to look at her face. I went to my bedroom and sat down, thinking I could sneak out of the house to Bayonne. I heard Tante Lou coming up so I grabbed my satchel of papers to grade and pretended to read.
[Enters Tante Lou]
[Tante Lou]
Ain’t you go’n speak to Miss Emma? She want to talk to you.
[Grant]
What about?
[Tante Lou]
She can tell you.
[Grant]
I have to go to Bayonne, Tante Lou, something for the school. The store closes at five, it’s nearly four.
[Tante Lou]
It won’t take all day, you can spare a few minutes.
[Pause. Turns her head away from Grant then back to him.]
[Grant looks down at papers. Tante Lou watches him. Grant looks up and sees her. Grant gets up from the desk and follows Tante Lou to the kitchen. Tante Lou sits next to Miss Emma. Grant keeps standing.]
[Tante Lou]
[Points to chair.]
Sit down, Grant.
[Grant]
I can stand, Tante Lou.
[Tante Lou]
Sit down.
[Grant]
[Sits down]
How are you, Miss Emma?
[Miss Emma]
Making out.
[Pause. Looks away from table. Looks back at table.]
They called him a hog.
[Pause. Looks away from table again.]
I know he was trying to get him off. They didn’t pay that no mind, still gave him death.
[Slowly faces Grant. Speaks slowly but loudly.]
I don’t want them to kill no hog. I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet.
[Grant]
[Grant looks at Miss Emma. Then at Tante Lou. Starts to sit up.]
[Tante Lou]
Sit down.
[Grant]
Wait. Sit down for what?
[Tante Lou]
Just sit down.
[Miss Emma]
He don’t have to do it.
[Looks at Grant. Stares at Tante Lou.]
He don’t have to do it.
[Grant]
What do you want me to do? What can I do? I’ll be weeks, months, maybe. What can I do that you haven’t in the past twenty-one years?
[Miss Emma]
You the teacher.
[Grant]
Yes, I’m the teacher. I teach what the white folks tell me to teach- reading, writing, and ‘arithmetic. They never told me how to keep a black boy out of a liquor store!
[Backs away from table in a swift jerk.]
[Tante Lou]
You watch your tongue, sir! Listen Emma, he go’n do it. He going up there and talk to Mr. Henri.
[Grant]
Why would I talk to Henri Pichot?
[Tante Lou]
So you have a right to visit Jefferson. Henri Pichot’s brother-in-law is the sheriff, ain’t he?
[Grant turns around and begins to walk away.]
[Tante Lou]
Where you think you’re going?
[Grant]
To Bayonne to breathe, I can’t breathe here.
[Tante Lou]
You ain't going to no Bayonne till you go up to see Mr. Henri with me and Emma.
[Grant]
Listen, Jefferson is dead. It’s only a matter of weeks, maybe months- but he’s already dead. After twenty-one years, all we done is done. He’s dead now and I can’t raise the dead. There’s nothing I can do anymore, nothing any of us can do.
[Tante Lou]
You going with us to the quarter. You going up there with us, Grant, or you don’t sleep in this house tonight.
[Stands up from chair.]
I’m getting’ my coat and I’ll be ready to go.
PS If I already posted this, which I thought I did, then I'm sorry for reposting it but I don't see it anywhere else, or did somebody delete it? :S
