The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form (3 page)

Read The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form Online

Authors: Cormac McCarthy

BOOK: The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form

2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

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.

Other books

Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space by Victor Appleton II

Pirate's Price by Aubrey Ross

Beyond Armageddon: Book 03 - Parallels by Anthony Decosmo

Riptide by Lawton, John

'Tis the Season: A Collection of Mimi's Christmas Books by Barbour, Mimi

Inverted World by Christopher Priest

Broken by Megan Hart

Calculated Risk by Zoe M. McCarthy

Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig

Alex Armstrong: Awakening by Hayes Farley