The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form (5 page)

BOOK: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form

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Black		Oh Lord have mercy oh save us Jesus. The professor’s done blasphemed all over us. We aint never gone be saved now.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head, laughing silently.

White		You dont find that an evil thing to say.
Black		Oh Mercy. No, Professor. I dont. But you does.
White		No I dont. It’s simply a fact.
Black		No it aint no simply a fact. It’s the biggest fact about you. It’s just about the only fact.
White		But you dont seem to think that it’s so bad.
Black		Well, I know it to be curable. So it aint that bad. If you talkin about what that man up there thinks about it I figure he’s probably seen enough of it that it dont bother him as bad as you might think. I mean, what if somebody told you that you didnt exist. And you settin there listenin to him say it. That wouldnt really piss you off, would it?
White		No. You’d just feel sorry for them.
Black		I think that’s right. You might even try to get some help for em. Now in my case he had to holler at me out loud and me layin on a slab in two pieces that they’d sewed back together where some nigger done tried to core me like a apple but still I got to say that if God is God then he can speak to your heart at any time and furthermore I got to say that if he spoke to me—which he did—then he can speak to anybody.
The black drums his fingers lightly three times on the table and looks at the professor.

Silence.
Black		Well. Wonder what this crazy nigger fixin to do. He liable to put the mojo on me. Be speakin in tongues here directly. I better get my ass out of here. He’s liable to try and steal my pocketbook. Need to get my ass down to the train depot fore somethin happen to me. What we goin to do with you, Professor?
White		I need to go.
Black		I thought you was goin to stay and visit with me some.
White		Look. I know I owe you a good deal. In the eyes of the world at least. Cant I just give you something and we’ll call it square? I could give you some money. Something like that.
The black studies him. He doesnt answer.

White		I could give you a thousand dollars. Well. That’s not very much, I guess. I could give you three thousand, say.
Black		You dont have no notion the trouble you in, do you?
White		I dont know what you mean.
Black		I know you dont.
White		I’d just like to settle this someway.
Black		It aint me you got to settle with.
White		Do you really believe I was sent to you by God?
Black		Oh it’s worse than that.
White		How do you mean?
Black		Belief aint like unbelief. If you a believer then you got to come finally to the well of belief itself and then you dont have to look no further. There aint no further. But the unbeliever has got a problem. He has set out to unravel the world, but everthing he can point to that aint true leaves two new things layin there. If God walked the earth when he got done makin it then when you get up in the mornin you get to put your feet on a real floor and you dont have to worry about where it come from. But if he didnt then you got to come up with a whole other description of what you even mean by real. And you got to judge everthing by that same light. If light it is. Includin yourself. One question fits all. So what do you think, Professor? Is you real?
White		I’m not buying it.
Black		That’s all right. It’s been on the market a long time and it’ll be there a while yet.
White		Do you believe everything that’s in there? In the bible?
Black		The literal truth?
White		Yes.
Black		Probably not. But then you already know I’m a outlaw.
White		What is it you would disagree with?
Black		Maybe the notion of original sin. When Eve eat the apple and it turned everbody bad. I dont see people that way. I think for the most part people are good to start with. I think evil is somethin you bring on your own self. Mostly from wantin what you aint supposed to have. But I aint goin to set here and tell you about me bein a heretic when I’m tryin to get you to quit bein one.
White		Are you a heretic?
Black		You tryin to put me in the trick bag, Professor.
White		No I’m not. Are you?
Black		No more than what a man should be. Even a man with a powerful belief. I aint a doubter. But I am a questioner.
White		What’s the difference?
Black		Well, I think the questioner wants the truth. The doubter wants to be told there aint no such thing.
White		(Pointing at bible) You dont think you have to believe everything in there in order to be saved?
Black		No. I dont. I dont think you even have to read it. I aint for sure you even got to know there is such a book. I think whatever truth is wrote in these pages is wrote in the human heart too and it was wrote there a long time ago and will still be wrote there a long time hence. Even if this book is burned ever copy of it. What Jesus said? I dont think he made up a word of it. I think he just told it. This book is a guide for the ignorant and the sick at heart. A whole man wouldnt need it at all. And of course if you read this book you goin to find that they’s a lot more talk in here about the wrong way than they is about the right way. Now why is that?
White		I dont know. Why is it?
Black		I’d rather hear from you.
White		I’ll have to think about it.
Black		Okay.
Silence.

White		Okay what?
Black		Okay go ahead and think about it.
White		It might take me a little longer than you to think about something.
Black		That’s all right.
White		That’s all right.
Black		Yes. I mean they’s two ways you can take that remark but I’m goin to take it the good way. It’s just my nature. That way I get to live in my world instead of yours.
White		What makes you think mine’s so bad?
Black		Oh I dont know as it’s so bad. I know it’s brief.
White		All right. Are you ready?
Black		I’m ready.
White		I think the answer to your question is that the dialectic of the homily always presupposes a ground of evil.
Black		Man.
White		How’s that.
Black		That’s strong as a mare’s breath, Professor. Wouldnt I love to lay some of that shit on the brothers? Whoa. Now. Just the two of us here talkin. In private. What did you just say?
White		Your question. The bible is full of cautionary tales. All of literature, for that matter. Telling us to be careful. Careful of what? Taking a wrong turn. A wrong path. How many wrong paths are there? Their number is legion. How many right paths? Only one. Hence the imbalance you spoke of.
Black		Man. I’ll tell you what, Professor. You could go on television. Goodlookin man such as yourself. Did you know that?
White		Stop.
Black		I’m serious. I wasnt even all that sure you was a professor till you laid that shit on me.
White		I think you’re having fun at my expense.
Black		Aint done no such a thing, Professor.
White		Well. I think you are.
Black		Honey, I swear I aint. I couldnt say a thing like you just got done sayin. I admire that.
White		And why do you keep calling me honey?
Black		That’s just the old south talkin. They aint nothin wrong with it. I’ll try and quit if it bothers you.
White		I’m just not sure what it means.
Black		It means you among friends. It means quit worryin bout everthing.
White		That might be easier said than done.
Black		Well yes it might. But we just talkin here. Just talkin.
White		What else?
Black		What else what?
White		Any other heresies?
Black		At this juncture?
White		At this juncture. Yes.
Black		Yeah, but I aint tellin you.
White		Why not?
Black		Cause I aint. Shouldnt of told you what I did.
White		Why not?
Black		You settin here at my table dead to God as the fallen angels and you waitin on me to lay another heresy on you to clutch to your bosom and help shore you up in your infidelity and I aint goin to do it. That’s all.
White		Dont then.
Black		Dont worry. I aint.
White		I have to go.
Black		Ever time the dozens gets a little heavy you got to go.
White		What’s the dozens?
Black		It aint really even the dozens. It’s really just a discussion.
White		What’s the dozens.
Black		It’s when two of the brothers stands around insultin one another and the first one gets pissed off loses.
White		What is the point of it?
Black		Winnin and losin is the point of it. Same as the point of everthing else.
White		And you win by making the other guy angry.
Black		That’s correct.
White		I dont get it.
Black		You aint supposed to get it. You white.
White		Then why did you tell me?
Black		Cause you asked me.
White		So if I find you a bit irritating and decide to leave then I lose.
Black		Well, like I said, this aint even the dozens. We just talkin.
White		But that’s what you think.
Black		Oh yeah, that’s what I think.
White		Well how long do you think I might have to stay before I could leave without losing?
Black		That’s kindly hard to say. I guess the best way to put it might be that you’d have to stay till you didnt want to leave.
White		Stay until I didnt want to leave.
Black		Yeah.
White		And then I could leave.
Black		Yeah.

The professor runs one hand alongside his head and then holds the back of his neck, his head down and his eyes closed. He looks up.

White		Why is it called the dozens?
Black		Dont know.
White		What sorts of insults?
Black		Oh, you might say somethin about the other man’s mama. That’s a sensitive area, you might say. And he might lose it and come after your ass but when he done that it’s like he’s sayin that what you just got done tellin about his mama was true. It’s like he sayin: You aint supposed to know that about my mama and you damn sure aint supposed to of told it and now I’m fixin to whip your ass. You see what I’m sayin?
White		I suppose.
Black		Well, probably not.
White		And is this something you do with your friends?
Black		Me? No. I dont play the dozens.
White		Tell me something.
Black		Sure.
White		Why are you here? What do you get out of this? You seem like a smart man.
Black		Me? I’m just a dumb country nigger from Louisiana. I done told you. I aint never had the first thought in my head. If it aint in here then I dont know it.

BOOK: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form

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