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Authors: Cormac McCarthy

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BOOK: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form
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White
   
Yes.
Black
   
What did he die of?
White
   
Cancer.
Black
   
Cancer. So he was sick for a while.
White
   
Yes. He was.
Black
   
Did you go see him?
White
   
No.
Black
   
How come?
White
   
I didnt want to.
Black
   
Well how come you didnt want to?
White
   
I dont know. I just didnt. Maybe I didnt want to remember him that way.
Black
   
Bullshit. Did he ask you to come?
White
   
No.
Black
   
But your mama did.
White
   
She may have. I dont remember.
Black
   
Come on, Professor. She asked you to come.
White
   
Okay. Yes.
Black
   
And what did you tell her?
White
   
I told her I would.
Black
   
But you didnt.
White
   
No.
Black
   
How come?
White
   
He died.
Black
   
Yeah, but that aint it. You had time to go see him and you didnt do it.
White
   
I suppose.
Black
   
You waited till he was dead.
White
   
Okay. So I didnt go and see my father.
Black
   
Your daddy is layin on his deathbed dyin of cancer. Your mama settin there with him. Holdin his hand. He in all kinds of pain. And they ask you to come see him one last time fore he dies and you tell em no. You aint comin. Please tell me I got some part of this wrong.
White
   
If that’s the way you want to put it.
Black
   
Well how would you put it?
White
   
I dont know.
Black
   
That’s the way it is. Aint it?
White
   
I suppose.
Black
   
No you dont suppose. Is it or aint it?
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
Well. Let me see if I can find my train schedule.
He opens the table drawer and rummages through it.
Black
   
See when that next uptown express is due.
White
   
I’m not sure I see the humor.
Black
   
I’m glad to hear you say that, Professor. Cause I aint sure either. I just get more amazed by the minute, that’s all. How come you cant
see
yourself, honey? You plain as glass. I can see the wheels turnin in there. The gears. And I can see the light too. Good light. True light. Cant you see it?
White
   
No. I cant.
Black
   
Well bless you, brother. Bless you and keep you. Cause it’s there.
They sit.
White
   
When were you in the penitentiary?
Black
   
Long time ago.
White
   
What were you in for?
Black
   
Murder.
White
   
Really?
Black
   
Now who would claim to be a murderer that wasnt one?
White
   
You called it the jailhouse.
Black
   
Yeah?
White
   
Do most blacks call the penitentiary the jailhouse?
Black
   
Naw. Just us old country niggers. We kind of make it a point to call things for what they is. I’d hate to guess how many names they is for the jailhouse. I’d hate to have to count em.
White
   
Do you have a lot of jailhouse stories?
Black
   
Jailhouse stories.
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
I dont know. I used to tell jailhouse stories some but they kindly lost their charm. Maybe we ought to talk about somethin more cheerful.
White
   
Have you ever been married?
Black
   
Married.
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
(Softly)
Oh man.
White
   
What.
Black
   
Maybe we ought to take another look at them jailhouse stories.
(He shakes his head, laughing soundlessly. He pinches the bridge of his nose, his eyes shut.)
Oh my.
White
   
Do you have any children?
Black
   
Naw, Professor, I aint got nobody. Everbody in my family is dead. I had two boys. They been dead for years. Just about everbody I ever knowed is dead, far as that goes. You might want to think about that. I might be a hazard to your health.
White
   
You were always in a lot of trouble?
Black
   
Yeah. I was. I liked it. Maybe I still do. I done seven years hard time and I was lucky not to of done a lot more. I hurt a lot of people. I’d smack em around a little and then they wouldnt get up again.
White
   
But you dont get in trouble now.
Black
   
No.
White
   
But you still like it?
Black
   
Well, maybe I’m just condemned to it. Bit in the ass by my own karma. But I’m on the other side now. You want to help people that’s in trouble you pretty much got to go where the trouble is at. You aint got a lot of choice.
White
   
And you want to help people in trouble.
Black
   
Yeah.
White
   
Why is that?
The black tilts his head and studies him.
Black
   
You aint ready for that.
White
   
How about just the short answer.
Black
   
That is the short answer.
White
   
How long have you been here?
Black
   
You mean in this buildin?
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
Six years. Seven, almost.
White
   
I dont understand why you live here.
Black
   
As compared to where?
White
   
Anywhere.
Black
   
Well I’d say this pretty much is anywhere. I could live in another buildin I reckon. This is all right. I got a bedroom where I can get away. Got a sofa yonder where people can crash. Junkies and crackheads, mostly. Of course they goin to carry off your portables so I dont own nothin. And that’s good. You hang out with the right crowd and you’ll finally get cured of just about ever cravin. They took the refrigerator one time but somebody caught em on the stairs with it and made em bring it back up. Now I got that big sucker yonder. Traded up. Only thing I miss is the music. I aim to get me a steel door for the bedroom. Then I can have me some music again. You got to get the door and the frame together. I’m workin on that. I dont care nothin about television but I miss that music.
White
   
You dont think this is a terrible place?
Black
   
Terrible?
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
What’s terrible about it?
White
   
It’s horrible. It’s a horrible life.
Black
   
Horrible life?
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
Damn, Professor. This aint a horrible life. What you talkin bout?
White
   
This place. It’s a horrible place. Full of horrible people.
Black
   
Oh my.
White
   
You must know these people are not worth saving. Even if they could be saved. Which they cant. You must know that.
Black
   
Well, I always liked a challenge. I started a ministry in prison fore I got out. Now that was a challenge. Lot of the brothers’d show up that they didnt really care nothin bout it. They
couldnt of cared less bout the word of God. They just wanted it on their resumé.
White
   
Resumé?
Black
   
Resumé. You had brothers in there that had done some real bad shit and they wasnt sorry about a damn thing cept gettin caught. Of course the funny thing was a lot of em did believe in God. Maybe even more than these folks here on the outside. I know I did. You might want to think about that, Professor.
White
   
I think I’d better go.
Black
   
You dont need to go, Professor. What am I goin to do, you leave me settin here by myself?
White
   
You dont need me. You just dont want to feel responsible if anything happens to me.
Black
   
What’s the difference?
White
   
I dont know. I just need to go.
Black
   
Just stay a while. This place is got to be more cheerful than you own.
White
   
I dont think you have any idea how strange it is for me to be here.
Black
   
I think I got some idea.
White
   
I have to go.
Black
   
Let me ask you somethin.
White
   
All right.
Black
   
You ever had one of them days when things was just sort of weird all the way around? When things just kindly fell into place?
White
   
I’m not sure what you mean.
Black
   
Just one of them days. Just kind of magic. One of them days when everthing turns out right.
White
   
I dont know. Maybe. Why?
Black
   
I just wondered if maybe it aint been kindly a long dry spell for you. Until you finally took up with the notion that that’s the way the world is.
White
   
The way the world is.
Black
   
Yeah.
White
   
And how is that?
Black
   
I dont know. Long and dry. The point is that even if it might seem that way to you you still got to understand that the sun dont shine up the same dog’s ass ever day. You understand what I’m sayin?
White
   
If what you’re saying is that I’m simply having a bad day that’s ridiculous.
Black
   
I dont think you havin a bad day, Professor. I think you havin a bad life.
White
   
You think I should change my life.
Black
   
What, are you shittin me?
White
   
I have to go.
Black
   
You could hang with me here a little while longer.
White
   
What about my jailhouse story?
Black
   
You dont need to hear no jailhouse story.
White
   
Why not?
Black
   
Well, you kind of suspicious bout everthing. You think I’m fixin to put you in the trick bag.
White
   
And you’re not.
Black
   
Oh no. I am. I just dont want you to know about it.
White
   
Well, in any case I need to go.
Black
   
You know you aint ready to hit the street.
White
   
I have to.
Black
   
I know you aint got nothin you got to do.
White
   
And how do you know that?
Black
   
Cause you aint even supposed to be here.
White
   
I see your point.
Black
   
What if I was to tell you a jailhouse story? You stay then?
White
   
All right. I’ll stay for a while.
Black
   
My man. All right. Here’s my jailhouse story.
White
   
Is it a true story?
Black
   
Oh yeah. It’s a true story. I dont know no other kind.
White
   
All right.
Black
   
All right. I’m in the chowline and I’m gettin my chow and this nigger in the line behind me gets into it with the server. Says the beans is cold and he throws the ladle down in the beans. And when he done that they was beans splashed on me. Well, I wasnt goin to get into it over some beans but it did piss me off some. I’d just put on a clean suit—you know, khakis, shirt and trousers—and you only got two a week. And I did say somethin to him like hey man, watch it, or somethin like that. But I went on, and I’m thinkin, just let it go. Let it go. And then this dude says somethin to me and I turned and looked back at him and when I done that he stuck a knife in me. I never even seen it. And the blood is just flyin. And this aint no jailhouse shiv neither. It’s one of them italian switchblades. One of them black and silver jobs. And I didnt do a thing in the world but duck and step under the rail and I reached and got hold of the leg of this table and it come off in my hand just as easy. And it’s got this big long screw stickin out of the end of it and I went to wailin on this nigger’s head and I didnt quit. I beat on it till you couldnt hardly tell it was a head. And that screw’d stick in his head and I’d have to stand on him to pull it out again.
White
   
What did he say?
Black
   
What did he say?
White
   
I mean in the line. What did he say.
Black
   
I aint goin to repeat it.
White
   
That doesnt seem fair.
Black
   
Dont seem fair.
White
   
No.
Black
   
Hm. Well, here I’m tellin you a bonafide blood and guts tale from the Big House. The genuine article. And I cant get you to fill in the blanks about what this nigger said?
White
   
Do you have to use that word?
Black
   
Use that word.
White
   
Yes.
Black
   
We aint makin much progress here, is we?
White
   
It just seems unnecessary.
Black
   
You dont want to hear nigger but you about to bail out on me on account of I wont tell you some terrible shit the nigger said. You sure about this?
White
   
I just dont see why you have to say that word.
Black
   
Well it’s my story aint it? Anyway I dont remember there bein no Afro-Americans or persons of color there. To the best of my recollection it was just a bunch of niggers.
White
   
Go ahead.
Black
   
Well at some point I had pulled the knife out and I reckon I’d done dropped it in the floor. I’m wailin on this nigger’s head and all the time I’m doin that his buddy has got hold of me from behind. But I’m holdin on to the rail with one hand and I aint goin nowhere. Course what I dont know is that this other dude has picked up the knife and he’s tryin to gut me with it. I finally felt the blood and I turned around and busted him in the head and he went skitterin off across the floor, and by now they done pushed the button and the alarm is goin and everbody’s down on the floor and we’re in lockdown and the guard up on the tier is got a shotgun pointed at me and he hollers at me to put down my weapon and get on the floor. And he’s about to shoot me when the lieutenant comes in and hollers at him to hold his fire and he tells me to throw that club down and I looked around and I’m the only one standin. I seen the nigger’s feet stickin out from under the servin counter where he’d
crawled so I throwed the thing down and I dont remember much after that. They told me I’d lost about half my blood. I remember slippin around in it but I thought it was this other dude’s.
White
   
(Dryly)
That’s quite a story.
Black
   
Yeah. That’s really just the introduction to the actual story.
White
   
Did the man die?
Black
   
No he didnt. Everbody lived. They thought he was dead but he wasnt. He never was right after that so I never had no more trouble out of him. He was missin a eye and he walked around with his head sort of sideways and one arm hangin down. Couldnt talk right. They finally shipped him off to another facility.
White
   
But that’s not the whole story.
Black
   
No. It aint.
White
   
So what happened.
Black
   
I woke up in the infirmary. They had done operated on me. My spleen was cut open. Liver. I dont know what all. I come pretty close
to dyin. And I had two hundred and eighty stitches holdin me together and I was hurtin. I didnt know you could hurt that bad. And still they got me in leg irons and got me handcuffed to the bed. If you can believe that. And I’m layin there and I hear this voice. Just as clear. Couldnt of been no clearer. And this voice says: If it was not for the grace of God you would not be here. Man. I tried to raise up and look around but of course I couldnt move. Wasnt no need to anyways. They wasnt nobody there. I mean, they was somebody there all right but they wasnt no use in me lookin around to see if I could see him.
White
   
You dont think this is a strange kind of story?
Black
   
I do think it’s a strange kind of story.
White
   
What I mean is that you didnt feel sorry for this man?
Black
   
You gettin ahead of the story.
White
   
The story of how a fellow prisoner became a crippled one-eyed halfwit so that you could find God.
Black
   
Whoa.
White
   
Well isnt it?
Black
   
I dont know.
White
   
You hadnt thought of it that way.
BOOK: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form
9.36Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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