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title: THE OCTOBER STORM

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[MUSIC]

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## WOMAN'S VOICE: 

Hello everyone, thank you for joining us at Raven Theatre for _The October Storm_. 

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This is the perfect moment to check your cell phone and ensure that it is silenced or shut off for the duration of the performance. 

---

If you have a beverage or a snack from our concessions stand, we hope you enjoy it. 

---

However, we do ask that all patrons keep their masks on over their nose and mouth throughout the show when not sneaking in a sip or a bite. 

---

We are thrilled to share this work and this room with you and look forward to you sharing your reactions with us. 

---

We encourage our audiences to express their emotions, so if you want to laugh: laugh, if you want to cry: cry. 

---

Finally, Raven is honored to be producing the entirety of Joshua Allen’s seminal Chicago story: _The Grand Boulevard Trilogy_. 

---

Tonight, you will see the second installment. 

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To witness the final chapter, please join us as a subscriber for next season by speaking with our box office personnel after the performance. 

---

Thank you for your attention and enjoy _The October Storm_.

---

[MUSIC]

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Gloria! Hurry up!

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Who is it? 

---

## CRUTCH:
It’s Charles, ma’am. 

---


## MRS. ELKINS:
Good morning, Crutch. 

---

## CRUTCH:

Good morning! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Fix your shirt, Crutch. Who let you out the house lookin’ like that? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Oh. It got messed up ‘cuz I was running. This was outside. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
So, uh…Mrs. Elkins? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Mrs…Mrs. Elkins? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Yes, Crutch. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Um, er, uh…I was wondering… 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Yes? 

---


## CRUTCH: 
Well, uh…you know we ain’t got no TV at my house, right? 

---

 
## MRS. ELKINS:
No, I didn’t know that. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Well, we ain’t got no TV, and I was, er, 

---

## CRUTCH:
uh…you heard Ike and Tina gonna be on Bandstand today? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Who? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Well, it’s the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. They got this song called “A Fool in Love.” 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
And they gonna be on Bandstand? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Yeah. And, seein’ as how I ain’t got no TV at home, I was wonderin’…um…uh… 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You wanna come and watch it here. In my house. With my granddaughter.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
What time does American Bandstand come on, Crutch? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Three o’clock. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
And what time do you get out of school? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Two-thirty.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Two-thirty. And do you know what time I get off work? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
No, ma’am, I don’t believe I do. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Five o’clock. Do you see where I’m going with this, Crutch? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I can’t say I do, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
When American Bandstand comes on, I will still be at work. So in order for you to watch American Bandstand in my house,

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
you would have to be here. Alone. With Gloria. Now how do you think I’m gonna feel about that? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Not too good, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Not too good is right, son. Not too good at all. 

---


## MRS. ELKINS: 
But lucky for you, I’m in a rare good mood, so I’m gonna let you come on over and watch your little program. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
But there’s two conditions. You listening? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Yes, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m gonna have Lucille from upstairs come down and watch it with y’all. She gonna sit right on this couch between the two of you. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Yes, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
So don’t try to be slick. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Yes, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Alright then. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
You said there was two conditions, ma’am? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Second condition is bring me a pack of Parliaments. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
That’s it, ma’am? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Yeah, that’s it. Now hurry up and get out of here before I change my mind. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Thank you, ma’am! 

---

## CRUTCH:
Hey, Glo! We gotta kick rocks! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
And Crutch? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Yes? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t tell Gloria about this package. It’s a surprise. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Hey, Glorious! 

---

## GLORIA: 
Hi, Crutch. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
We thought you up and died in there. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I couldn’t find my P.E. shirt. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Crutch here was tellin’ me all about Spike and Lena. 

---

## CRUTCH 
Ike and Tina, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Sure. He was telling me all about your little American Bandstand party today. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Um, er, uh. I’ll be waitin’ outside. Have a nice day, Mrs. Elkins. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Excuse me?

---

## GLORIA:

I’m about to be late. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’ll write you a note. You can’t be looking crazy around them white folks. 

---

## GLORIA:
I’m gonna look real crazy if you burn my forehead. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Sit still and you got nothing to worry about. So. American Bandstand, huh? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
It’s a shame I won’t be able to join you. But Lucille will be here in my place. 

---

## GLORIA:
Yes, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t bring no C’s in this house on that English test, neither. 

---

## GLORIA: 
If I get an A, can I have five dollars? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You don’t get no money for doing what you supposed to do. I give you room and board in exchange for good marks. 

---

## GLORIA: 
If I get an A, can I stay out late Friday AND Saturday? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Ain’t gonna be no stayin’ out late. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Aww, come on! You know it’s my birthday. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Supposed to storm on Friday. 

---

## GLORIA:
What about Saturday? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’ll think about it. But for now, I want you in this house by six o’clock. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Six o’clock?!?!? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It’s dark by six now’days. Or would you rather I make it four o’clock? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I bet you used to stay out later than six o’clock.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I sure did. So I know what goes on. I don’t see why you wanna be in the streets anyway. You gonna end up like George Watkins from down the street. 

---

## GLORIA:
Who is George Watkins? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Don’t matter. He stayed out late. Was at some party, drinking and carrying on. 

---

## MRS.ELKINS:
And while he was in the bathroom, somebody put something in his drink. And he wasn’t never right again. 

---

## GLORIA:
Who would do that to him? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS 
Somebody he thought was his friend. Now get on. I gotta get cleaned up before this man come to look at the second floor flat.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Gloria Elkins! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS 
I know you’re not leaving this house without saying goodbye to Jesus and Paw-Paw. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Goodbye, Jesus. Goodbye, Paw-Paw. Y’all have a good day. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So I don’t get no good day? Figures. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It’s fifty dollars every month. And it’s due on the first. Not the third. Not the fifth. The first.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You put it right under my door and that’s one more month I don’t have to put you out, you understand? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Yes, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKIN:S 
You can use that furniture the last folks left up there. If you move out and wanna take it with you, we could work out a price 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
This one for the front door. And this one for the second floor. Don’t lose ‘em. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Now I don’t stand for a whole lotta carousing and carryin’ on, so if you think you gonna be runnin’ some kinda roadhouse— 
 
## LOUIS: 
I just need a quiet place. I gotta lay low. 

---

 
## MRS. ELKINS: 
Lay low? Who you running from? I don’t take in no fugitives. 

---

## LOUIS: 
We all fugitives, ma’am. Running from one thing or another. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You gettin’ cute with me? 

---

## LOUIS
No, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I mean it. If the leesey-po come looking for you, don’t expect me to keep quiet. I’mma sing like a sparrow in church.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Man come out of nowhere with two duffel bags and nervous eyes, people might naturally get a little suspicious. You understand. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m giving you the opportunity to tell me about any craziness might be followin’ you here. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
See, I can maybe help you out if you up front. But if I find out you ain’t been forthright, I’m less inclined to help. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You understand. Thank you. 

---

## LOUIS:
No trouble, ma’am. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
That’s a lotta “ma’am” in your mouth. It’s makin’ me feel old. I’m only fifty. Barely fifty. Fifty-one. 

---

## LOUIS:
Apologies. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
And I don’t wanna feel old today. I wanna feel young. I wanna feel full of possibility. You understand. 

---

[A knock on the door.]

---

 
## MRS. ELKINS:

Come in. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Oh. Hello. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Hi. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
This is Lucille. She live on the first floor. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Are you moving in? 

---

## LOUIS:
Yes, ma’am. I’m Louis. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Welcome. 

---

## LOUIS:
Thank you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Well. I think that oughta cover everything. 

---

## LOUIS:
Thank you. Y’all have a good day. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Where you find him? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
He Charlene’s cousin. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Where he come from, though? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Down south somewheres. Alabama, I think. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Well, he seems. Healthy.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
He was in the war. Korea. Charlene say he was having trouble down south finding a decent job. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Damn shame if you ask me. Excuse my language. Least we could give these people when they get back is a decent job. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Ain’t that the truth. Did you get the earrings? I gotta get outta here. I’m late as it is.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Alright. Here.

---

## LUCILLE: 
He gave me a discount. Twenty percent. I think it’s ‘cause he kinda like old Lucille. He “warm for my form,” as the young folks say.

---

## LUCILLE:
Didn’t he do good?

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Good? They look new. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
He replaced the backing free of charge. Try ‘em on.

---


## MRS. ELKINS:
Bad luck. They’re not for me.

---


## LUCILLE:
I can’t wait to see her face. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You think she gon like ‘em? They prob’ly too old-fashioned, huh?

---

## LUCILLE: 
Stuff always come back around in fashion, honey, hush. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You right. And we'll have a cake. And a nice time. Just me. And her. I told her to be home by six. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Child, don’t nobody wanna be trapped up in they house on they birthday. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well, that’s too bad. Too much craziness out in them streets. Besides. All this rain? 

---

## LUCILLE:
So you about to keep her trapped in here. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You make it sound like it’s Alcatraz.

---

## LUCILLE: 
I ain’t sayin that. But she need to have some fun.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I’m fun!

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Ain’t I fun? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Yeah. You a barrel of fun.

---


## MRS. ELKINS:
This came. For Gloria.

---

 
## LUCILLE:
A birthday present? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Look at the postmark. 

---

## LUCILLE:
California? 

---

## LUCILLE:
You don’t think…? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Go bring me a knife, would you?

---


## LUCILLE:
That package ain’t for you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You can watch me open it or you can step outside. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Oh, my Lord. This is pure silk.

---

## LUCILLE:
Well. She got some nerve. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Who the hell does she think she is? 

---

## LUCILLE:
At least she remembered. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Oh, so she supposed to get a gold medal for that? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
She must be doing alright out there if she could afford something like this.

---

 
## MRS. ELKINS: 
Who even knows what she doing out there to afford something like this? I know I for damn sure ain’t seen her in no movies. Have you? 

---

 
## LUCILLE: 
Maybe she found her some man with a whole lot of money.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well, I guess wherever she is, can’t nobody afford no phone bill, huh? 

---

## LUCILLE:
She probably scared you’ll answer the phone. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
What I care about her being scared? She not the only one. When her birthday roll around, I oughta send Gloria to her in the mail.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Lucille, I need you to do something for me. Keep this upstairs with you. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Excuse me? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Just til I figure out what to do. 

---

## LUCILLE:
I know what to do. Give Gloria her present. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
And say what? “This is from your mother, who can’t even bother to pick up the phone”? 

---

## LUCILLE
You can’t just keep this from her forever. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I ain’t asking for your advice, Lucille. Now are you gonna help me or not? 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## LUCILLE:
I love that song. “You just a fool…you know you in love. Hey Hey Hey Heeeeeeeey!!!” 

---

## LUCILLE:
I can’t wait to see them. My niece Sharetha said she saw them in San Antonio and she said she danced about three hours straight.

---

## LUCILLE:
I wish I was in Philadelphia to see them up close. I would dance. I really would. I would dance a lot. I’d be pushing all them kids right on out the way. I swear I would. 

---

## LUCILLE:
They’d have to make room for old Lucille, honey, hush. They would have to make ROOM!! 

---

## LUCILLE:
I forgot how hot it get down here. 

---

## GLORIA: 
It’s the radiator. 

---

## LUCILLE:
I don’t know why she got it so hot down here. 

---

## GLORIA: 
It’s. The. Radiator. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
It’s only October. It ain’t even that cold out. But she got it so hot down here.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Can y’all hear this TV set? I can’t hardly hear it. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I hear it just fine. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Maybe I can’t hear ‘cause it’s so hot. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
It’s just a Brylcreem commercial, Ms Lucille. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Ooh, turn that up.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Thank you. Y’all sure y’all ain’t hot? I just love that little song. “A little dab’ll do ya.” HAHAHAHAHA!!! 

---

[A pounding on the ceiling coming from upstairs.] 

---

## LUCILLE:
WHAT IS IT, WANDA????? 

---

## FEMALE VOICE:
(Offstage) PHONE!!!!

---

## LUCILLE:
WHO IS IT????? 

---

## FEMALE VOICE:
(offstage) THE RADIO STATION!!!! 

---

## LUCILLE:
OH LORD!! HERE I COME, WANDA!!! KEEP ‘EM ON THE PHONE!!!!

---

## LUCILLE:
Oh Lord. Oh LORD!!! I bet I done won. I bet I done WON!! Twenty-five DOLLARS!! I’m gonna buy that record player!

---

## GLORIA: 
What if she come back right now? How's it going to look, you grabbing all up on me? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
She’ll be on the phone for a while. I gave Johnny a dollar to call her and pretend to be the radio station. He gon’ keep her on the phone for at least ten minutes. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You a clever old crocodile, Crutch. 

---

## CRUTCH:
What’s the matter? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You gotta stop conking your hair. I feel like I’m kissing Chuck Berry. 

---

## CRUTCH:
My daddy conk my hair. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Well I ain’t trying to run my fingers through no white boy hair. I’m like Langston Hughes.

---

## GLORIA:
“I intend to express my individual dark-skinned self without fear or shame. We stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves!”

---

## CRUTCH: 
You smart. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
You know we get outta school early on Friday. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Yeah. We should get all day off on my birthday. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Whatchu fixing to do after school? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You wanna take me out for my birthday, Charles? 

---

## CRUTCH:
I like when you call me Charles.

---

## GLORIA:
Where you wanna take me? 

---

## CRUTCH:
You wanna go to Woolworth’s? 

---

## GLORIA:
Uh, you suddenly got Woolworth’s money? You know I can eat. I ain’t like these girls who eat two carrot sticks and then be talking about they full. 

---

## GLORIA:
I can eat a whole BLT by myself. And a banana split. Super jumbo. 

---

## CRUTCH:
I mean. I been saving.

---

## GLORIA: 
How you been saving? You giving all your dollars to Johnny so he can call up Lucille and pretend to be the radio station. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
So what you say, baby? I might could get my brother’s Vette. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Your brother ain’t got no Corvette. And you ain’t got no license. Besides, what it look like, we driving a Corvette two blocks to Woolworth’s?

---

## CRUTCH: 
I ain’t mean this Woolworth’s. I meant the one on 79th. 

---

## GLORIA: 
79th? Why we gotta go all the way to— 

You think I’m Boo Boo the Fool. 

---

## CRUTCH:
What? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I know who hang out at that Woolworth’s. Barbara McDonald. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Psssh! This ain’t got nothing to do with her.

---

## GLORIA: 
Oh, it don’t? “I might could get my brother’s Vette.” I ain’t know this whole time you just wanted to make Barbara jealous. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
That ain’t it! 

---

## GLORIA:
Mm-hmm. She left you all busted and disgusted at the Bud Billiken Parade and now you trying to get back at her. 

---

## CRUTCH:
You found out about that? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Everybody know that. And here I am, thinking you wanted to be with me. I bet you if Barbara had a TV you’d be watching Ike and Tina at her house. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Barbara is ancient history. Honest! 

---

## GLORIA: 
If you think I’m spending my birthday at Woolworth’s just so you can feel like some kinda big man, you got another thing coming.

---

## CRUTCH: 
Don’t be like that, Glo!

---

## GLORIA: 
I am not speaking to you. Crutch. I expect you to be gone when I come out.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Ooh wee! First thing tomorrow I’mma go put that record player in layaway!!!

---

## LUCILLE:
What’s wrong with you, little boy?

---

## CRUTCH: 
Nothing. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Where’s Gloria? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
In there.

---

## LUCILLE:
Why? 

---

## CRUTCH:
She sore at me. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Well, that’s too bad. You can’t be shut up in your room while you got guests. It’s rude. GLORIA! Get your little narrow behind out here.

---

## LUCILLE: 
I swear, y’all are the moodiest little children in creation.

---

## GLORIA: 
Nobody’s moody. And I ain’t sore, neither. Crutch ain’t even worth getting sore about.

---

## LUCILLE:
I meant to ask you. Crutch ain’t really your real name, is it? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
My name is Charles. I wish people would stop calling me Crutch. I broke my leg when I was nine. I’m fifteen now. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
People call you that because you broke your leg? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Yes. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
That’s silly. I think Charles is a nice name. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
So. Do. I. 

---

## GLORIA:
He get sensitive about his nickname. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
ANYWAY. Did you win, Ms Lucille? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Oh yes, child. I’mma go down there to the radio station tomorrow and get my money. You’d be surprised how many people just giving money away nowadays. 

---

## LUCILLE:
All you gotta do is listen to the radio, child, and I listen. I listen and I call and I leave my number and watch God work. 

---

## LUCILLE:
My whole house gonna be furnished by WTPR, honey, as long as the Lord is still in the miracle working business. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I wonder what’s on tonight.

---

## CRUTCH: 
I heard channel 2 got a new show coming on. Something about a sheriff named Andy Griffith. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Andy Griffith? Who is that? Ain’t nobody gonna watch that. We already got Gunsmoke. Ain’t nobody trying to watch no more sheriff shows. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
He a marshal, not a sheriff.

---

## LUCILLE:
Who? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Matt Dillon. On Gunsmoke. He a U.S. Marshal.

---

## LUCILLE: 
You sure do know a lot for somebody ain’t got no TV. Either way, that uh…what’s his name? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Andy Griffith. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Andy Griffith. He ain’t gonna be on for long. Trust me. 

---

## GLORIA: 
That’s okay. Just act like I’m not even here. I’m the only one on this couch who actually lives here, but I guess that ain’t important. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Now who sensitive? 

---

## GLORIA:
Oh shut up I’ll go to Woolworth’s!!! 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Yes! 

---

## GLORIA: 
But you gotta buy me whatever I want. And bring two extra dollars in case I decide I want a hamster. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Don’t you think it’s time for you to be going, young man? Ain’t y’all both got homework? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Yes, Ms Lucille. Thank you very much for sitting with us. Congratulations on your record player.

---

## CRUTCH: 
I’ll see you in the morning, Glorious. 

---

##  GLORIA: 
Bye. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Oh! I almost forgot.

---

## CRUTCH: 
These are for Mrs. Elkins.

---

## LUCILLE:
Well? Ain’t you got homework? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I did it on the trolley coach. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
All of it? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You wanna see? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
You ain’t gotta get smart. I was just asking. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’m on my P’s and Q’s this week. I’m hoping my grandma will let me stay out on Friday. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Ain’t likely. It’s supposed to rain and rain hard.

---

## GLORIA:
Only if you believe the radio.

---

## LUCILLE:
I think you oughta just mind your grandma and not worry about going out.

---

## LUCILLE:
What’s wrong with you?

---

## LUCILLE:
You hear me talking to you? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Please don’t tell my grandma you saw me crying. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Why would I tell her? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You tell her everything.

---

## LUCILLE:
I do not. 

---

## GLORIA:
You do too.

---

## LUCILLE:
Why are you crying in the first place? 

---

## GLORIA: 
It’s not important. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
People don’t cry for no reason, child. 

---

## GLORIA:
I…I wish my mother was here. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Your mother is here. Mrs. Elkins is your mother. 

---

## GLORIA:
Ms Lucille, you know what I mean. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Why you wish that, child? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t…I don’t remember what she look like anymore.

---

## LUCILLE:
Oh.

---

## GLORIA: 
Ain’t even no pictures of her up on the walls. It’s like she never even existed. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Gloria, honey— 
 
## GLORIA: 
Is that right? Do that seem right to you? 

---

## LUCILLE:
I don’t…I don’t know. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Do you remember her? Do you remember what she look like? Do I look like her?

---

## LUCILLE:
It’s hard to say, child. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I just. Wish I had one picture.

---

## LUCILLE:
Ask your grandmother. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I feel like I’m not even allowed to talk about her. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I don’t think that’s true. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You don’t know. You don’t have to live here. 

---

## GLORIA:
Do you think she remembers my birthday? 

---

## LUCILLE:
I don’t know. 

---

## GLORIA:
I guess it’s dumb to think about it, huh? 

---

## LUCILLE:
It’s not dumb. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I just remembered I have math problems I haven’t finished yet. I’m gonna go in my room. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Alright. Well. Until your Mrs. Elkins gets home, I’m just gonna sit out here. Just in case you need anything. 

---

## GLORIA:
I’m glad you won the contest. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## LUCILLE: 
I rode that trolley coach all the way downtown. And you saw how it was raining. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Yeah. I saw. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I even washed my stockings, child. You know you can’t be going downtown without no stockings on. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You sure can’t. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
So I get all the way to the radio station and there they are talking about they didn’t call me, they don’t know what I’m talking about. And I looked them dead in the face and I said, 

---

## LUCILLE:
“I’m old, but I ain’t that old. You told me I had won twenty-five dollars. I done already gone and put that record player in the layaway. What you expect me to do about that?” 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
And what they say to that? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
This snot nose girl. Couldn’t have been older than eighteen. Looked me in the face and said, “MADAM. Somebody already won that prize. And it wasn’t you.” 

---

## LUCILLE:
And I said, “Look here, little girl. I have been listening to this white folks station for the last three months trying to win this money. I know that man’s voice when I hear it and that man’s voice was coming through my receiver!” Child, you know I started getting loud. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You? Loud? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Yes, honey. I get loud when I feel my leg being pulled. I told that girl. I said, 

---

## LUCILLE:
“This is one old lady you better not even think about fleecing. I was born in eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, little girl. You gotta wake up pretty early in the morning to cheat me. 


---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So then what happened? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
She went and got her boss. And then I told her boss that if they didn’t do something I was gonna go to the Defender and tell them about the radio station downtown that hates Negroes. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You said that? 

---

## LUCILLE:
You think I didn’t? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So did they give you your money? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
No. But they did give me a toaster. I still got that record player in the layaway though. Just in case. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Smart. 

---

[A knock at the door.] 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Who is it? 

---

## LOUIS: 
(Offstage) It’s Louis.

---

## LOUIS:
Good morning. Am…am I interrupting…? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Only thing you’re interrupting is Lucille over here flapping her gums. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Good morning, Louis. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Good morning. I have a favor to ask. Could I use your iron to press this?

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Oh. Uh. Sure. The board is on the wall over there. 

---

## LUCILLE:
You going somewhere fancy? 

---

## LOUIS:
I, uh. Got a job. Actually. I start today. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Now look at that. That didn’t take long at all. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I was down at this place, Sadie’s. Yesterday morning. Having an egg. And I struck up a conversation with a man named Hank Brown. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Oh yeah. I know Hank. Matter of fact, his daddy is— 
 
## MRS. ELKINS:
Lucille. Don’t interrupt. Let him tell the story. 

---

## LOUIS: 
It’s okay. Not much of a story. Turns out Hank Brown runs a furniture store on 43rd. He said they had been on some hard times lately but sales was starting to look up. 

---

## LOUIS:
So much, in fact, that he think they ready to take on a new person in the back. Inventory. And I told him I’d been looking for work, and we kept talking. 

---

## LOUIS:
When he found out I was in the service, he offered me a job right on the spot. Said it was his honor to help a veteran. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
That’s great news. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I know it’s only inventory, but I still wanna look nice, you know? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Of course. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Are you done with your story, Louis? 

---

## LOUIS:
Ma’am? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Just wondering if I can speak now.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I like to see things work out for people. I got a good feeling about this job. All a person needs is to feel useful.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Well. I was useful to Wendell Phillips High School for thirty-eight years. I prefer Social Security. I never thought I’d be so happy to turn sixty-two. 

---

## LUCILLE:
You got a picture of Jesus up? I put me up a picture of Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You ain’t got up no picture of President Roosevelt. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Come see! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You gonna put up pictures on your walls, Louis? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Hadn’t really given it a whole lotta thought.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Oh. Yeah. Guess you still getting settled, huh? 

---

## LOUIS:
I guess you could say that.

---

## LOUIS:
Good as new. Thank you kindly. Didn’t mean to bother.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
No bother.

---

## LOUIS: 
Could I trouble you for one more favor? I was wondering if I could borrow some milk. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Borrow? You planning to return it when you’re done using it? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Oh. I guess “borrow” was the wrong word, huh? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Girl, give the boy some milk and stop. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I only need a little.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Take it all. It’ll go bad otherwise. 

---

## LOUIS:
Oh. Thank you kindly. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
If you around on Friday— 
 
## LOUIS:
Ma’am? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What did I say about that? 

---

## LOUIS:
Sorry. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
If you around on Friday, it’s my granddaughter’s birthday. She turning sixteen. 

---

## LOUIS:
Oh wow. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Yeah. I was just planning on a small little shindig. Lucille’ll be there. I’ll bake a cake. 

---

## LOUIS:
Oh. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You like cake? 

---

## LOUIS:
Who don’t like cake? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I don’t know. Some people. 

---

## LOUIS:
Crazy people, if you ask me. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Good. So. We can count you in? 

---

## LOUIS:
That’s awful nice to invite me. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I didn’t want you to think I was rude. Inviting everybody else but you. 

---

## LOUIS:
Well. Thank you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Of course, if you got better plans— 
 
## LOUIS:
I don’t have any plans. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
That’s good. I mean. Not good that you ain’t got plans. But good that you can join us. 

---

## LOUIS: 
So I’ll join you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Wonderful. 

---

## LOUIS:
Thank you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You’re welcome. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’ll bring back what I don’t use. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Like I said. Feel free to use it up. 

---

## LOUIS:
Oh. Okay then. Y’all have a good morning. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
You know your husband – and Jesus – watched you flirt with that man just now. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh, hush up, Lucille. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Matthew five. Verse twenty-eight. “Whosoever looketh at a woman with lust hath already committed adultery in his heart.” That go both ways. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You forget my husband is not with us anymore. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Okay. First of all. You can’t bake no cakes. You ain’t never been good at baking no cakes. You know you about to go down to the A & P and get you a cake. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Second of all. What you wanna bet I go up to his apartment and find not only an iron but a refrigerator full of milk? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You think he was lying? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I didn’t say that. I’m just saying. He might be thinking up reasons to come down here. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I doubt that. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Mm-hmm. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m just glad he found work. I wouldn’t wanna have to put him out. Especially one of Charlene’s people. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Hank is a good man. It is strange, though. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What’s strange? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
That you work for Thomas Brown and now Louis works for his son. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I might have mentioned to Hank that he needed work. 

---

## LUCILLE:
I knew it! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Look at you. You been doing quite a bit of meddling this week. You just can’t help yourself, huh? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I beg your pardon. It’s meddling to help your tenant get a job? He get paid, I get paid. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Right. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You sure do got a lot of opinions about what I’m doing. I liked you better when you worked. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Don’t get cross with me. I am doing you a favor too, remember? With a certain birthday present? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I still haven’t decided what I’m gonna do about that. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Well. It’s shut up in my sideboard for when you do decide. Just decide fast. I don’t like being a part of it. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## LOUIS:
What time was you expecting her? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Three hours ago. I guess she seem hell bent on not coming home. I oughta lock the deadbolt. See how she like that.

---

## LOUIS: 
Do you think we maybe oughta go looking for her? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I wouldn’t even know where to start. Lucille. LUCILLE!

---

## LUCILLE:
Huh? Happy birthday! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
She ain’t here. Go on home. 

---

## LUCILLE:
What time is it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
A little after nine. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Ooh Lord. I told you she— 
 
## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t, Lucille. I really ain’t in the mood. 

---

## LOUIS: 
She’ll turn up soon. She’ll be wanting some birthday cake. Look at this big ol’ thing. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I know. Guess I overdid it. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’m sure she’s fine. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Beside the point. I told her to be home at a certain time, not whenever she feel like it. 

---

## LUCILLE:
It’s the girl’s birthday. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So people don’t have to mind on their birthday? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Well. Point taken. Night, y’all. 

---

## LOUIS:
Goodnight. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
‘Night. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I guess I better turn in too— 
 
## MRS. ELKINS:
Do you think up reasons to come down here? 

---

## LOUIS:
'Scuse me? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I ain’t mean to just ask flat out like that. It just seem like. Never mind. 

---

## LOUIS:
No, I don’t think up reasons. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Alright. 

---

## LOUIS:
Where did that come from? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Nowhere. 

---

## LOUIS:
Long as we’re asking questions, I have one that’s been at the back of my mind for the last few days. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Go ahead. 

---

## LOUIS:
I was thinking a lot about what good fortune it was for me to meet Hank Brown the other day. But then I thought to myself, “Now, Louis, who would just walk in, out the blue, and just up and give you a job? Who would do that?” 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Somebody who knew you needed one. 

---

## LOUIS: 
True. But then I found out. Hank Brown’s father is a dentist. Dr. Thomas Brown. And then I seemed to recall that I had heard of somebody I knew who works in Dr. Brown’s office. At his front desk. Somebody who happens to also be my landlady. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I just mentioned it to Hank offhand. 

---

## LOUIS:
Without saying anything to me first?

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well, if I said anything to you first, you was just gonna tell me not to— 
 
## LOUIS:
Exactly. But you did it anyway. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I gotta look out for me too. What if you couldn’t come up with the rent? Your cousin Charlene didn’t seem like she wanted to be too helpful. 

---

## LOUIS:
This ain’t about Charlene. I’m a man. I’m a member of the United States Army, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Division, 3rd Battalion. I don’t need no handouts. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Alright. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’m not trying to be no sob story. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well, you in luck, ‘cause I hate sob stories. 

---

## LOUIS: 
So I only said all that to say that you gon’ have your fifty dollars, Mrs. Elkins, and not a penny less. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m glad to hear it. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What part of Alabama did you say you were from? 

---

## LOUIS:
Clayton. It’s in— 
 
## MRS. ELKINS:
Barbour County. My husband’s people was from Russell County originally. 

---

## LOUIS:
Your husband?

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
He’s, um. He died. Twelve years ago. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’m sorry. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t be. He was a whoreson bastard. And I never loved anybody so bad. But. 

---

## LOUIS:
How’d he…die? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Hell if I know. I woke up one morning and there he was next to me. Eyes staring up at nothing. Dead. Thirty-nine years old. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
They said it was prob’ly a heart attack or something but don’t nobody know for sure. Ask the neighbors, they’d prob’ly tell you I poisoned his ham hocks or something.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Maybe I did. I don’t know. I can’t cook for squat. Never could. Nothing I did was ever right. Sometimes I’d catch him looking at me and I could see in his eyes that I wasn’t his choice.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
We got in a family way when I was sixteen and before my daddy could reach for his shotgun, we was jumping a broom. 

---

## LOUIS:
But he had to love you at some point. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Maybe, but he didn’t like me. When he died, everybody was so relieved. Nobody cried at his funeral. I shoulda been relieved.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
But all I felt was…a tornado going through me. And when I saw that casket go down in the ground, all I could think was, “There he goes. There goes the last person who remembers what I looked like when I was sixteen.” 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
From now on, all anybody gonna know of me is an old lady. And I tried to act happy, or at least free. But happy and free ain’t the same. You can be one and not the other. 

---

## LOUIS:
Which one are you now? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I don’t think I’m either one. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Guess it was my turn to be a sob story. 

---

## LOUIS:
You ain’t sobbing now. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
No. I’m not. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You gonna wake Lucille. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why you put the chain on? 

---

## GLORIA: 
So you just gonna leave me out here all night? So what, I’m supposed to sleep out in the street? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Here's a dime. Call Crutch. See if his folks will take you in. Worth a shot. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’ll bang on this door all night. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
If you come in this house, Gloria, it’s not gonna go well for you. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’ll take my chances. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t matter what I want? Right? ‘Cause you gonna do what you want. 

---

## GLORIA:
I oughta do what I want. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Where were you that was so important that you couldn’t call? 

---

## GLORIA: 
If I called, you was just gonna tell me to come home.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You damn right I was. 

---

## GLORIA: 
It don’t really matter where I went. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You know what? You right. It don’t matter where you went. Matter of fact, I’m through asking questions. Get in that room and take your clothes off. 

---

## GLORIA:
What, you bout to whoop me? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I’m through answering questions too. Get in there. 

---

## GLORIA 
I’m sixteen years old. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
And? 

---

## GLORIA:
And I’m too big to whoop. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I ain’t so sure about that. So why don’t I just start and we’ll see? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You gonna whoop a sixteen-year-old girl on her birthday. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
By my clock, it’s ten past twelve, so it ain’t your birthday no more. Now strip.

---

## GLORIA:
Yes, ma’am.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Where did you— 

## GLORIA:
Don’t even act like you don’t know. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Lucille give you that? 

---

## GLORIA:
Crutch told me about it on Wednesday by accident and I tore the house up looking for it. But I know you too smart to keep it here.

---

## GLORIA:
So I went upstairs. Ms Lucille wasn’t home but Ms Wanda let me right on in. And she led me right to it. Not everybody keeps secrets. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I was gonna give it to you— 
 
## GLORIA:
When? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
When I thought it was right. 

---

## GLORIA 
That ain’t for you to decide. She’s my mama! And she your daughter! And I’m not even allowed to bring her up. I just gotta go through every day pretending like she don’t even exist. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
She don’t exist! Where she at? 

---

## GLORIA: 
She somewhere. She somewhere if she sendin’ me nice clothes. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Oh please. She send one lousy old dress in umpteen years and that’s somehow supposed to make up for not being here? 

---

## GLORIA: 
How I know it’s only one dress? How many other presents she sent me all these years? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Ain’t no other presents. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why should I believe that? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Because I say so. 

---

## GLORIA:
Did she ever write to me? 

---

## GLORIA:
She wrote to me? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Gloria— 
 
## GLORIA 
She wrote me letters – and you been hiding them?

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
There ain’t no letters— 

## GLORIA 
You put ‘em in the couch cushions? Huh? Up in the cabinets somewhere?

---

## GLORIA:
You ain’t got no right to keep her from me!

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
She left you!!

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
She dropped you off and told me she was going to pick up a few things at Woolworth’s. That was 1946.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So unless she was going to the Woolworth’s on Jupiter. SHE LEFT YOU. She left you here sittin’ in a diaper full of your own piss without so much as a change of clothes. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
So she don’t need my help keeping herself from you. She doin’ a mighty fine job of it all on her own. Anybody who can just up and abandon their own baby don’t deserve to be brought up in goddamn conversation if you ask me.

---

## GLORIA:
Why can’t you think about how I feel?

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m protecting you from a person that don’t know how to think about nobody but herself. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t care what you say. Wrong is wrong. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You think she sent you that dress ‘cause she love you. And ‘cause she miss you. And ‘cause she was thinkin’ of you on your birthday. But I know her a little better than you do. 

---

## GLORIA:
What if she love me? What if she miss me? You don’t know. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Ain’t no return address on that package. You ever think about why? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Yeah. You ain’t got no answer for that, do you? Now go ahead. Tear up the house looking for letters. I guarantee you you won’t find none. 

---

## GLORIA:
It’s cause you threw ‘em out. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS 
If that’s what you gotta say to yourself, child, go right on ahead. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I hate you!! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You ain’t the first. Get in line. 

---

## GLORIA: 
First chance I get, I’m leaving. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
To go where? Huh? What, you gonna…take a bus to California? 

---

## GLORIA:
I’mma find her. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Good luck. 

---

## GLORIA:
You can’t keep her from me forever. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
If she wanted you, she would be here. 

---

## GLORIA:
I don’t know why you gotta be so mean. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It’s part of my charm. Now go take that dress off. I don’t wanna see it anymore. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I got scissors. I’ll cut it off you. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I can’t believe you this jealous. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I’m jealous?? 

---

## GLORIA:
You jealous because you can’t afford nothing like this. You poor and you stuck in this basement your whole life, so you don’t want nobody else to have nothing. 

---


## MRS. ELKINS:
How could you even say something like that? 

---

## GLORIA: 
It’s true. Them other girls at school get to have parties and drive places. I don’t get nothing but a old ugly-ass cake.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Take that back. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I ain’t taking nothing back. You got me thinking my whole life that my mama left me, but what if she left you, huh? 

---

## GLORIA:
What if she was tryin to get away from you? You ever think about that? Look at Paw-Paw. He had to die to get away from you. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh goodness. Did we wake you? 

---

## LOUIS:
No. Not really. I don’t sleep. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Ever? 

---

## LOUIS:
Not really. Besides. The thunder. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. 

---

## LOUIS:
I had a feeling you don’t sleep either. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What gave you that idea? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Well. I know it ain’t none of my place. But I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It will be. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Alright. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Louis? Do you want a piece of birthday cake? After all that sitting up we did, I figured you might as well have some cake. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’m not really hungry. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. I guess it is late. 

---

## LOUIS: 
What the hell? I’ll have a little piece. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. Okay. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I said a little piece. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
That’s not little? 

---

## LOUIS 
No. It’s not. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. Sorry. 

---

## LOUIS 
It’s good. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I didn’t really bake it. I got it at the A & P already baked. 

---

## LOUIS:
Okay. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It’s important to tell the truth always. So. That’s the truth. 

---

## LOUIS:
Don’t make me no difference neither way. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well. It was important for me. For my conscience. I always like to think of myself as somebody with a good conscience. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Are you alright? You don’t seem alright. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS 
Uh. I think I’m just tired. 

---

## LOUIS: 
You still…uh…you know you still got that party hat on, right? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Some party. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’m, uh…sorry it didn’t go according to plan. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Me too. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m sorry too. If I meddled. To get you that job. I shoulda never said anything to Hank— 
 
## LOUIS: 
It’s all in the past now. And I shoulda said thank you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You ever wonder what people see when they look at you? 

---

## LOUIS:
What you mean? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I know, it’s a dumb question. But sometimes I wonder…

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I just wish somebody would look at me with something other than disappointment on their face. I don’t know how much longer I can stand anybody else’s disappointment. 

---

## LOUIS:
Why you talking like this?

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Because you…looked at me. And I— 

## LOUIS: 
I’m. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stop myself. From looking at you. 

---

## LOUIS:
I was just being neighborly. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I figured as much. 

---

## LOUIS:
What? What is it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Nothing. 

---

## LOUIS:
Look at me. What is it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m embarrassed. 

---

## LOUIS:
Why? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Because I’m old. And you ain’t old. I got all this gray hair. And I feel like every morning I wake up I take up more space than the morning before.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
So. I’m just embarrassed. I was out of line to try to get you a job. I just.

---

## LOUIS:
You just what? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Nothing. It’s like you said. You’re being neighborly. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. 

---

## LOUIS:
That’s….alright. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It is? 

---

## LOUIS:
No harm. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Okay. In that case. 

---

[MUSIC] 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Can I say something? 

---

## GLORIA:
You ain’t never asked permission before. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
You was cutting eyes at Barbara and I just wanted to know if you was still sore about— 

## GLORIA: 
You think I could go to Hollywood and be Dorothy Dandridge or… somebody? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I thought you was fixing to be a poet. And a lawyer. Now a movie star too? 

---

## GLORIA:
We got movie stars in our family. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Like who?

---

## GLORIA:
Uh, my mama. You don’t never listen when I talk. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Course I do. I just don’t know what your mama's been in. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Either way. She live in a big house in Hollywood. And I’m fixing to go stay with her when I’m done with school. 

---

## CRUTCH:
That’s, uh… you already figured that out? What Mrs. Elkins got to say about that? 

---

## GLORIA: 
She don’t get a say. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
You just about to pick up and go? 

---

## GLORIA: 
If God wanted us to stay in one place forever, He would’ve made us trees. 

---

## CRUTCH 
That’s right on time, Glo. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why don’t you ever wanna go nowhere? 

---

## CRUTCH:
I wanna go wherever you go. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Huh? 

---

## GLORIA:
Why you like me? Can you tell me why? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Don’t you know? The way your eyes light up when you talk about your dreams. The way you-- 

---

[Suddenly, the sound of keys outside  the door.] 

---

## GLORIA:
That’s my grandma! 

---

## CRUTCH:
Already? What should I do? 

---

## GLORIA:
Go in my room! 

---

## GLORIA:
What are you doing here? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Oh. Hi. I didn’t think you would be home so early. 

---

## GLORIA:
That don’t answer my question. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Your grandma said the furnace been acting up lately. 

---

## GLORIA: 
The furnace been acting up always. She gave you a key? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Just for now. She told me to leave it on the table on my way out. I don’t bite. I’m here to fix the furnace. So hopefully it won’t be so hot down here no more. 

---

## GLORIA:
Better too hot than too cold. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Not too hot and not too cold is best of all. It’s just right. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Who are you? Goldilocks?

---

## LOUIS:
You got a mouth on you. 

---

## GLORIA:
How long is it gonna take? To fix the furnace? 

---

## LOUIS:
Not sure. You see I ain’t started yet. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You Charlene Robinson’s cousin, ain’t that right? 

---

## LOUIS:
That’s what they tell me. 

---

## GLORIA 
Why you ain’t stay with her? She got a room. 

---

## LOUIS:
She didn’t want me to stay there. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why not? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Because me and Charlene…get on each other’s nerves. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why? 

---

## LOUIS: 
You ask a lot of questions. You writing a book or something? 

---

## GLORIA:
No. 

---

## GLORIA: 
So you just gonna have a key to our house from now on? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I told you I'm gonna leave it on the table. If I was gonna do something dirty, it’d already be done. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Alright. 

---

## LOUIS 
Sorry if I’m in the way of you sneaking your little boyfriend in here. 

---

## GLORIA:
Excuse me? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I heard y’all. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, if I snuck someone in here, it would be my business, not yours. 

---

## LOUIS:
You sixteen. You ain’t got no business. 

---

## GLORIA:
And he is not my boyfriend. 

---

## LOUIS:
Does he know that? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t know how things was when you was coming up, but it’s a different time now. People can choose to spend time together if they want without calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend. 

---

## LOUIS 
I was your age not too long ago. I know the skinny. 

---

## GLORIA:
You a sailor or something? 

---

## LOUIS:
No. Why you ask? 

---

## GLORIA:
I thought only sailors got tattoos. 

---

## LOUIS:
You watch too much Popeye. 


---

## GLORIA:
What does that even say? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Hell if I know. I was drunk when I got it. 

---

## GLORIA:
You got drunk and let somebody draw on you? 

---

## LOUIS:
That’s precisely why I let somebody draw on me. 

---

## GLORIA:
And you don’t know what it say? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Nope. It probably mean “horse’s ass” or something. I don’t know. Those Japanese people probably writing all kinds of things on people and laughing at us the whole time. 

---

## GLORIA:
You got that in Japan? 

---

## LOUIS:
Yeah. 

---

## GLORIA: 
If it was me, I wouldn’t let no Japanese person draw on me. Not after they done killed so many of us. 

---

## LOUIS: 
They’re not all bad people. Most of them are good, actually. They just had to suffer for decisions the folks in charge made. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I know something about that. 

---

## LOUIS:
You think you’re suffering? You think you in Hiroshima?

---

## GLORIA:
Yeah. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Course you do. Children think every little thing is the end of the world. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Who you calling a child? I ain’t no child. 

---

## LOUIS:
No. No you’re not a child. 

---

## GLORIA:
When was you in Japan? 

---

## LOUIS:
Ten years ago. 

---

## GLORIA:
You ever been to California? 

---

## LOUIS:
Yeah. 

---

## GLORIA:
The sun is out every day there, huh?

---

## LOUIS:
Just about every day. 

---

## GLORIA:
And they don’t get no snow. 

---

## LOUIS:
Some parts do. 

---

## GLORIA:
But not Hollywood. 

---

## LOUIS:
I don’t know. I’ve never been to Hollywood. 

---

## GLORIA:
How you go to California and not go to Hollywood? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I was in the service. They don’t station soldiers in Hollywood. 

---

## GLORIA:
They should. 

---

## GLORIA:
I’mma go to California. 

---

## LOUIS:
And do what? 

---

## GLORIA:
Everything. 

---

## LOUIS:
Okay. Good luck. 

---

## GLORIA:
You don’t wanna be rich and famous? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Not everybody in California is rich and famous. And besides, being rich and famous probably ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

---

## GLORIA: 
That’s something poor people say to make themselves feel better. 

---

## LOUIS: 
So money and fame is gonna make you happy by magic? 

---

## GLORIA: 
If I’m unhappy now, I might as well be unhappy in a mink coat. 

---

## LOUIS:
You something else. 

---

## GLORIA:
You going back to California? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’d like to one day. 

---

## GLORIA:
You gonna go surfing? 

---

## LOUIS:
What I look like, surfing?

---

## GLORIA:
And climb palm trees. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Did you know most palm trees in California was transplanted? 

---

## GLORIA:
They came from other places. 

---

## LOUIS:
Yeah. Mostly. 

---

## GLORIA:
But they look like they belong there. 

---

## LOUIS:
Strange, right? 

---

## GLORIA: 
That’s like me. 

---

## LOUIS:
What you mean? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I look like I belong here. But I came from someplace else. Someplace better. 

---

## LOUIS:
Someplace like what? 

---

## GLORIA:
I don’t know. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Well. I hope you find out. Girl like you oughta go places. 

---

## GLORIA: 
That’s what I been sayin’. 

---

## LOUIS:
Once you through with school. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I hate school. Everybody got bird brains there. And I don’t like them little blonde-haired girls. Them blonde-haired girls is the reason my grandma burn me half to death with that hot comb every morning. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Still. It’s important to finish things when you start ‘em. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t know. It’s. A nice idea, ain’t it? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Yeah, if you wanna be miserable. I say, if you don’t really like doing something, ain’t no reason to keep doing it. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Well. I got nothing to say to that. I brought the wrong size lug nuts, so I’m going around the corner. That should give you enough time to sneak out the boy you swear ain’t hiding in your room right now. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I thought I’d be in there all night. 

---

## GLORIA:
You gotta go before he come back. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I’m going, I’m going. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I’m not your boyfriend? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Oh, I was just making that up. He talks to my grandma all the time. I don’t want him telling her everything. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Oh. Yeah. Good idea. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
So I am your boyfriend, right? 

---

## GLORIA:
Is that enough of an answer? 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## GLORIA 
Just so you know, I don’t need no babysitter. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I ain’t here to babysit. I don’t sit on babies. I’m here to see what the Beav is up to this week. 

---

## GLORIA:
This show is so dumb. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Did he just put on his mama’s makeup? 

---

## GLORIA 
Yeah. And five minutes ago he was rubbing sandpaper on his face. 

---

## LUCILLE:
All ‘cause he got freckles? 

---

## GLORIA:
Like I said. Dumb. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Wasting his mama’s good makeup. That boy need his little ass beat. I’m waitin’ for that episode. 

---

## LUCILLE:
His daddy talkin’ about, “You grounded” and “Go out in the yard and pull up the weeds.” I’m telling you. ASS. WHOOPIN.

---

## LUCILLE:
And when it happen I want them to show it. So America can see. Proverbs thirteen, verse twenty-four. A nice good ass whoopin’ ain’t never hurt no child. That’s the Lucille translation. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I thought hurt was the point of an ass whoopin’. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Did you just cuss? 

---

## GLORIA:
You cussed! 

---

## LUCILLE:
I’m allowed to cuss. I'm senile. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
You know you was wrong for going in my house and taking that package up out of there, don’t you? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Why we still talking about that? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Because I brought it up. 

---

## GLORIA:
It had my name on it. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Don’t matter. You might think you grown. But just ‘cause you smell grown don’t mean you grown.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Lord, have mercy. Is there any liquor left in Illinois? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Gloria, go in your room.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Did you hear me? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
How does somebody get this drunk by eight o’clock? 

---

## LOUIS: 
It ain’t hard if you know what you doing. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I could smell you from the other side of the door. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Ms Lucille. Don’t see me in a bad light, okay? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I should make some coffee. Has he had anything to eat? 

---

## LOUIS:
I don’t want no food! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Lucille, I think I got it from here. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Are you sure? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Yeah. I’m sure. 

---

## LOUIS:
No. Shoes. I have to have my shoes on. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You’ll catch cold with these wet clothes on. 

---

## LOUIS:
And my socks. I’ll get frostbite. I need more socks. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Frostbite? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Frostbite, sir. We got icicles in our mustaches. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What are you talking about?

---

## LOUIS:
Jones can’t work the radio. Knobs frozen. We gotta make the hill. Gotta make the hill. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Drink this. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You need water. And sleep. 

---

## LOUIS: 
No sleep. Won’t wake up. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Louis. Look at me. 

---

## LOUIS:
Where is this? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You’re at home. 

---

## LOUIS:
How did I get to Clayton? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
No. Chicago. 

---

## LOUIS:
Right. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
What you doing going out and getting all ripped up like this? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I needed to make everything go quiet for a while. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Everything like what? 

---

## LOUIS:
Nothing. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
It ain’t nothing if it’s making you drink like this. 

---

## LOUIS: 
You ain’t gotta get on my case. You my mama now or something? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
No. I ain’t your mama. 

---

## LOUIS:
I didn’t…I didn’t mean that. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Well, next time I get a phone call that you fallin’ over drunk, I’ll just leave you in the gutter. How about that? 

---

## LOUIS 
Ain’t no need to get sore— 
 
## MRS. ELKINS:
Anybody ever tell you you got a gratitude problem? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’m sorry. I saw. A helicopter. I know that probably don’t sound like much to you. But anytime I hear that noise of those propellers, I can’t get it out of my head for the rest of the day. This the only thing that works. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
It ain’t working if you gotta get this drunk. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’ll be alright.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You gonna have some kinda headache tomorrow. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t need the help of booze to get a headache, trust me. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You ain’t got nothing to be embarrassed about, you hear me? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I shouldn’t be around people. When the roar starts. It scares folks. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
It don’t scare me. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Does it scare you? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t know. I guess it ticks me off more than anything. I’m less friendly than I used to be. I don’t like that. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I think you’re plenty friendly. 

---

## LOUIS:
Well. You make it easy. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Hank is a good man. If you told him about your situation— 
 
## LOUIS:
Don’t nobody wanna hear all that. They just wanna see you in the uniform on Memorial Day marching in the parade. 

---

## LOUIS: 
See. That right there is what I don’t want. I don’t want no pity. If you waded through a battlefield with the blood of five different men splattered on your face, would you want somebody’s pity? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
No. I wouldn’t. 

---

## LOUIS:
Alright then. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
What am I supposed to do then? I don’t know how to help you. 

---

## LOUIS:
Who said I was looking for help? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Okay. We just going in circles. You need some rest. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Can I just close my eyes on this couch for a minute? I won’t be here long. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS" 
I don’t know. That sounds like you’re asking for help. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Lock the door on your way out, will you? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I will. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m glad they called me. Next time…I hope there ain’t a next time, but if there is, don’t put up such a fight, alright? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Louis? 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## GLORIA:
Thanks for walking me home. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Thanks for letting me walk you home. 

---

## GLORIA:
I’ll see you tomorrow. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I thought we was gonna do our chemistry homework together. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t feel like it right now. 

---

## CRUTCH:
You don’t smoke. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Yes I do. How could you not know that about me? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
When do you smoke? I see you all the time. 

---

## GLORIA: 
No you don’t. You don’t see me at lunch. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I hate cigarettes. 

---

## GLORIA:
How can you hate cigarettes? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
They stink. 

---

## GLORIA: 
They’re classy. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
How come you didn’t write back to the note I left you in your locker? 

---

## GLORIA:
What note? I don’t remember no note. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Alright. 

---

## GLORIA:
Honest. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Alright. 

---

## GLORIA:
What did it say? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
It ain’t important. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Crutch— 
 
## CRUTCH: 
It ain’t important. You’ll see it tomorrow when we get to school. 

---

## GLORIA: 
What you write in a note that you can’t say to my face? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Like I said. It don’t matter now. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You know I don’t like when you act like that. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Act like what? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Like a baby. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I’m not acting like a baby. 


---

## GLORIA: 
You get whiny and you make that face. I don’t like that whiny face. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I just sometimes. Wish you would pay more attention to me in school is all. 

---

## GLORIA:
What you want, a parade down the hallway? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
No, smarty pants. I just like thinking that maybe when I’m in art and you in math, that you think of me like I think of you.

---

## GLORIA:
You are too much. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Okay. I’ll leave you to your cigarette. If I fail this chemistry test, it’s your fault. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Come pick me up early tomorrow morning. We’ll do it on the bus. 

---

## GLORIA:
Our homework. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Oh. Okay. 

---

## GLORIA: 
‘Scuse my dust, gentlemen. The air’s gettin’ mighty unconditioned ‘round here.

---

[A knock at the door.] 

---

## LOUIS:
Mrs. Elkins? Mrs. Elkins! It’s Louis. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Louis. What is it? 

---

## LOUIS:
Is your grandma home? 

---

## GLORIA:
No, not yet. Why?

---

## LOUIS:
Oh. Uh. Never mind. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Is it an emergency? I’ll get Lucille. 

---

## LOUIS: 
No. I said never mind. I’ll see her later. When she get home, tell her to find me. 

---

## GLORIA:
Where you about to go? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t know. Ida’s. I’ll be at Ida’s. On 47th. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why you goin’ to Ida’s? 

---

## LOUIS:
Gloria. Not now. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why don’t you just wait here? 

---

## LOUIS:
What? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Just wait here. ‘Til she get home. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You look like shit run over twice.

---

## LOUIS: 
Young ladies should use better language than that. 

---

## GLORIA: 
If I hear the word “should” outta anybody else’s mouth, I’mma flip my wig, I swear before God. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Does your grandma have any liquor in the house? 

---

## GLORIA: 
No. And trust me, I’ve looked everywhere for it. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I can’t…I just don’t think I can be here right now. 

---

## GLORIA:
So what, you about to go to Ida’s and just get ripped up again? Get in a fight with somebody? Just sit down.

---

## GLORIA:
What happened? 

---

## LOUIS:
They let me go. 

---

## GLORIA:
Who let you go? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Hank. The furniture store. They let me go. 

---

## GLORIA:
They fired you? What happened? 

---

## LOUIS:
You wouldn’t understand. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Why not?

---

## LOUIS:
People just so damn simple. The fucking fools – excuse me – the fools who work back in Inventory. Asshole truck driver troglodyte sons of bitches. I’m sorry. 

---

## GLORIA:
And you worried about my language? 

---

## LOUIS: 
All I’m tryin to do is mind my business. I ain’t the most social person in the world. But from day one, it was like they had it out for me. 

---

## LOUIS:
Talkin’ about how I must think I’m better than everybody. I don’t think I’m better than nobody. But I just show up and punch my card and do my job, you know? 

---

## LOUIS:
But that ain’t good enough for some people. I’m sorry. This too much. I shouldn’t be saying nothing. 

---

## GLORIA: 
How about today, we don’t pay no never-mind to “should” and “shouldn’t”? 

---

## LOUIS: 
So I’m in the back putting together a table for the showroom, and here they come. Talkin’ some kind of nonsense about how Sammy Davis can’t avoid the white meat or whatever. 

---

## LOUIS:
Just ‘cause he married him some Swedish girl or whatnot. And they just goin on and on. And I’m keepin’ my mouth shut, ‘cause you know, it ain’t worth it, right? What I look like arguing with somebody about Sammy Davis? 

---

## LOUIS:
Then one of ‘em ask me, “Hey, Army boy, what you think?” And at first I thought not to say nothing. But I couldn’t help myself. I said, “I killed me a bunch of Koreans so people like him could do whatever they want. So I don’t give a damn.” 

---

## LOUIS:
And that just set them all the way off. Talkin’ about how I was trying to dilute the Negro race, all this prehistoric shit. And one of ‘em looked me in the face and he said, “I bet you he ain’t right in the head ‘cause he was over in Korea gettin’ drunk off all that gook juice.” 

---

## LOUIS:
And everybody started laughin’. And to be honest with you, I didn’t even know what he meant. But I couldn’t stand the thought of these idiots makin’ light of the service, you know? So I don’t even know what came over me. I just… 

---

## GLORIA:
You just what? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I got myself into trouble. Again. And now here I am. Again. No job. No nothing. I’mma be down to my last dollar before long. 

---

## GLORIA:
Can’t you find another job? 

---

## LOUIS: 
That ain’t the point. The point is, it’s always something. You do what you think is right and go fight for…for what, I don’t even know anymore. 

---

## LOUIS:
And bad… real bad things happen to you, but you gotta come back and act like everything is okay. Like you didn’t see what you know you saw. 

---

## GLORIA:
I know. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’m sorry. You probably ain’t got no idea what I’m talking about. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Oh, because I don’t know nothing about acting like you okay when you ain’t okay. I don’t know nothing about that. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I thought if I came to the city it was gonna be different. Down south, Chicago is all folks talk about. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t see why. 

---

## LOUIS: 
This is supposed to be where everybody can just start the hell over. I was looking forward to that. But some stuff follows you everywhere. 

---

## GLORIA:
What are you gonna do? You gonna move out? 

---

## LOUIS:
I don’t know. I might have to. 

---

## GLORIA:
Where would you go? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t know that either. Maybe I’m not meant to be here. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why can’t anything be fair? 

---

## LOUIS:
(Chuckes)

---

## GLORIA: 
What? 

---

## LOUIS:
You just reminded me how young you are. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’m not young. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Wanting things to be fair is a young person’s game. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Was I being stupid? 

---

## LOUIS: 
No. It wasn’t stupid. I’m just. I’m just being salty is all. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I really think you could just try to find another job. 

---

## LOUIS:
Where? 

---

## GLORIA:
Go get the want ads. 

---

## LOUIS: 
You think I ain’t done that already? I ain’t got no experience doing nothing but killing people.

---

## LOUIS: 
These people up here. These Chicago people. They supposed to be my people. And they look at me like I betrayed ‘em somehow. Like I ain’t like them no more. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Some of the kids around here think of me like that. ‘Cause of where I go to school. Every day when we walk to the bus stop in our uniforms, me and Crutch get looks. 

---

##  LOUIS:
Well. Don’t expect it to get no better. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Maybe. But you know what? Everybody yo’ color ain’t yo’ kind. 

---

## LOUIS:
That’s right on time, Gloria. 

---

## GLORIA: 
But you and me. I think we the same kind. 

---

## LOUIS:
I don’t know about all that. 

---

## GLORIA: 
This place don’t suit neither one of us. You know it and I know it. 

---

## LOUIS:
What are you doing? 

---

## GLORIA:
We’re the same, aren’t we? 

---

## LOUIS:
No. We’re not the same. 

---

## GLORIA:
You don’t believe that. 

---

## LOUIS:
Gloria— 
 
## GLORIA:
You said it yourself. I’m not a child. 

---

## LOUIS:
I know what I said. 

---

## LOUIS 
Your grandma— 
 
## GLORIA: 
Tell her you were here fixing something. There’s always something broken in this house. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## CRUTCH: 
What’s with the ants in your pants? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I been thinking. I don’t need you to walk me home anymore. It’s broad daylight. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
It’s always broad daylight when I walk you home. Why you talking different now? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I just figured you had stuff to do. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Stuff like what? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t know, Crutch. Stuff. 

---

## GLORIA:
What do you do? When I’m not around? 

---

## CRUTCH:
What you mean? 

---

## GLORIA:
When you don’t have me to follow around, what do you do? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Is that what you call it? Followin’ you around? 

---

## GLORIA:
You know what I mean. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I don’t follow you around. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You do. A little bit. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
But. We go together. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Do we? 

---

## CRUTCH:
Do we?!?!? 

---

## GLORIA: 
We have fun. We go to Woolworth’s. We watch TV. But. I feel like you think I’m your wife or something. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I know you ain’t my wife. I just like to be around you is all-- 

## GLORIA:
I like somebody else. 

---

## CRUTCH:
What? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You heard me. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Somebody like who? In our school? 

---

## GLORIA:
Don’t worry about it. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
What school he go to? 

---

## GLORIA: 
He ain’t in school. He graduated already. 

---

## CRUTCH:
Where he stay at? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’m not telling you that. Point is we understand each other a lot better than you and me. He been places. And he know things about the world. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I don’t…I don’t understand… 

---

## GLORIA:
Are you…crying? 

---

## CRUTCH:
No. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why are you crying? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I’m not crying! 

---

## GLORIA: 
I can hear you crying. Why are you crying? 

---

## CRUTCH: 
Because I love you. 

---

## GLORIA:
You don’t love me. 

---

## CRUTCH: 
I do so! 

---

## GLORIA:
Crutch… 

---

## CRUTCH: 
MY NAME IS CHARLES!!!! 

---

## CRUTCH: 
You are SO MEAN TO ME!! Do you have any idea what I go through for you? My parents hate you. And they hate your grandmother. They call your house “the brothel.”

---

## CRUTCH:
They say your grandma ain’t good for raisin’ nothing but harlots and jezebels. I have to lie to them every time I walk you home. Or every time I come pick you up to go to school. Or any of the other hundred million times I see you. 

---

## CRUTCH:
They think I’m on the basketball team. They ask me about my games and I tell ‘em I’m second string. I had to go buy a jersey just to keep up the lie. And I hate lying.

---

## CRUTCH:
Every lie I tell probably take a week off my life. But I do it. I look my mama in the face and I lie through my teeth. I lie ‘cause I think – I thought – you was a good girl. 

---

## CRUTCH:
A smart girl. A….beautiful girl. But you ain’t. You got nappy hair. And you not even that good at chemistry. I let you give me the wrong answers just so you would feel smarter than me. 

---

## CRUTCH:
But I hope you fail. You gonna regret how you treated me, Gloria. Or should I say, WHORE-ia! 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## GLORIA:
Can I be excused? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
When your plate is empty. 

---

## GLORIA:
I wish we had a dog. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Was that a comment about my cooking? 

---

## GLORIA:
No. 

---

## LOUIS:
I like it. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
See that? Politeness. Try it on. It might fit.

---

[The doorbell rings.] 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Again? 

---

## LOUIS:
You want me to get it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
No, I’ll get it. I swear ‘fore God, if this ain’t extortion, I don’t know what is. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why are you even down here? 

---

## LOUIS:
What do you mean? 

---

## GLORIA:
What do I mean? 

---

## LOUIS:
Your grandma invited me. 

---

## GLORIA:
So did you decide? Are you leaving? 

---

## LOUIS:
Gloria— 
 
## GLORIA: 
Please. Just tell me. 

---

## LOUIS:
I might. I don’t know. 

---

## GLORIA:
Are you going out west? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I hadn’t thought about it— 

## GLORIA:
Take me. 

---

## LOUIS:
What? 

## GLORIA: 
Take me with you. I ain’t no bother. I can take care of myself. I just figure it would be easier with you ‘cause…

---

## LOUIS:
…’cause why? 

---

## GLORIA:
You know why. 

---

## LOUIS:
You outta your gourd. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I’ll tell. 

---

## LOUIS:
Tell what? 

---

## GLORIA:
What you did. 

---

## LOUIS:
What I did? 

---

## GLORIA: 
If you don’t take me. I’ll tell. 

---

## LOUIS:
Ain’t no need to do all that. 

---

## GLORIA:
Then let me go with you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
This old devil holiday. I gotta be giving stuff away to these old heathen children. Who started this foolishness? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’d rather give away candy than have eggs thrown at my house. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
That’s what I’m talking about. Egg-stortion. Do they do this in Japan, too? 

---

## LOUIS: 
Not that I recall. Then again, I don’t recall much. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You know Louis lived in Japan for a while. 

---

## GLORIA:
Oh really? That must have been nice. 

---

[A knock at the door.] 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What now? 

---

## LUCILLE:
It’s me. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Come in. 

---

## LUCILLE:
What y’all doin’ in here? Get out there and get you some candy, child. It’s free! 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What you eating? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Bit-o-Honey. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Where you get that? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Child, it’s Halloween. They giving it away. I been up and down the block already. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You went trick-or-treating? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
I put on an apron and told people I was going as Beulah. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
That’s crazy. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
It worked, didn’t it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
We not supposed to celebrate this heathen holiday. Ghosts and vampires and all that. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Well, I don’t do that part.

---

## LUCILLE: 
Oh. Gloria. I saw your little boyfriend while I was out. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t have a boyfriend. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Excuse me. Whatever his name is. The little boy who used to come over here. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Crutch? 

---

## LUCILLE:
Yeah. Him. When he saw me, though, he bust out crying and ran in the other direction. What’s that about? 

---

## GLORIA:
I don’t know. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Did y’all have a falling out? 


---

## GLORIA: 
Yes. We decided not to see each other anymore. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Yeah. He looked like it was mutual. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t have no control over how he feel. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Why didn’t you tell me before? 

---

## GLORIA:
Tell you what? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I asked you why Crutch wasn’t coming by to pick you up this morning. You said you didn’t know. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Crutch is his own person. And I’m my own person. 

---

## GLORIA:
Why you laughing, Ms Lucille? 

---

## LUCILLE: 
“I’m my own person.” What does that even mean? I sure do get a kick out of the kids. What y’all eatin? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Just a roast. 

---

## LUCILLE: 
Look at you, Louis. You done ate the flowers off that plate. 

---

## LUCILLE:
Okay. I’m gone. See y’all tomorrow. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
So you going back and forth to school by yourself now? 

---

## GLORIA: 
I guess so. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I don’t know if I like that. 

---

## GLORIA:
Oh, you like Crutch all of a sudden? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I never disliked him. 

---

## GLORIA:
You had a funny way of showing it. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
He can be a bother sometimes. But y’all two used to look out for each other. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Well, if you still want me to take the trolley coach with Crutch every day, I don’t know if I can do all that. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I’m not gonna get involved. Either way, I think y’all will start talking again real soon. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Doubt it. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Trust me, Gloria. 

---

## GLORIA:
I don’t have time for Crutch anymore. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Is that right? 

---

## GLORIA: 
That’s right. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Are there…any other boys at school I should know about? 

---

## GLORIA:
Not really.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Good. You can focus on your books. The marking period ends in a couple weeks. 

---

## GLORIA:
Don’t worry. I won’t have no C’s. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You through, Louis? 

---

## LOUIS:
Huh? Oh. Yeah. I’m through. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Don’t pay Lucille no mind. She was just teasing. 

---

## GLORIA:
May I please be excused now? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I guess so.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Sorry she’s so moody. 

---

## LOUIS: 
It ain’t no thing. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I think you should talk to Charlene. Just in case you don’t find another job right away. 

---

## LOUIS:
I’m not living there. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I don’t see a whole lotta other ways to go about this. 

---

## LOUIS:
I…think it’s time for me to move on. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Move on? 

---

## LOUIS: 
I’m not gonna find another job around here anytime soon.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You haven’t even tried. 

---

## LOUIS: 
Me and the South Side don’t really get along. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS 
You not gonna get along anywhere you go. Because the part that don’t get along is still gonna be in you. And you know that. You young. But you not that young. 

---

## LOUIS: 
I don’t know—

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Look at me. You don’t need a whole lot of people. You need one or two. That’s it.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You could stay. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You could stay. 

---

[MUSIC]

---

## GLORIA:
Oh. Why are you up? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Sit down, Gloria. 

---

## GLORIA:
Did something happen? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Plenty. What’s in the suitcase? You going somewhere? 

---

## GLORIA:
Yeah. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. 

---

## GLORIA:
Don’t you wanna know where? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Not particularly, no. I just have something to give you before you go. 

---

## GLORIA: 
Whatever it is, I don’t want it.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
There’s no need to rush. He’s gone. 

---

## GLORIA:
What are you talking about? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
You know what I’m talking about. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t believe you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Go up there. 

---

## GLORIA: 
What did you do? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
What did I do? 

---

## GLORIA:
You sent him away, didn’t you?

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
He left on his own. Did you really think you were gonna run off and be together? 

---

## GLORIA: 
It’s not what you think. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Well, why don’t you tell me what it is. Hmm? Because you so smart. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I see who Louis is and he sees who I am. And you’re jealous. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I knew you would do this. 

---

## GLORIA:
Do what? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Another stunt. To get my attention. But you always had it. You always had my attention. 

---

## GLORIA: 
This ain’t no stunt. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I guess we’ll see, won’t we? 

---

## GLORIA: 
You know nothing really happened between me and him— 

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Enough happened. Besides, it’s what’s happening between you and me that’s why you gotta go. 

---

## GLORIA:
Oh, now I gotta go? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You the one packed the suitcase. What do you want, Gloria? 

---

## GLORIA:
Not to end up like you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You know, I never took you for a viper. But I’m starting to realize I’m not a very good judge of character. 

---

## GLORIA:
Where is he? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
You know, he didn’t say where he was going. And I didn’t ask. I’m hoping he goes to the bottom of Lake Michigan and stays there. But I doubt that’s on his itinerary.

---

## GLORIA:
What’s so funny? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
And to think. This whole time I was worried about Crutch. 

---

## GLORIA:
Ain’t no need to be bringing up Crutch. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
So this is it, huh? After everything I did for you— 
 
## GLORIA: 
I didn’t ask for any of this. You coulda gave me up. You coulda left me in an orphanage somewhere.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh, and you woulda liked that better? 

---

## GLORIA 
You make people feel like they supposed to just be grateful for everything you do. 

---

 
## MRS. ELKINS:
What’s wrong with that? 

---

## GLORIA: 
Nobody asks you to do things. You just do them. And then get mad when we not fallin’ all over ourselves to thank you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Is that how you bonded with Louis? Swapping stories about Big Bad Grandma? You want me to believe— 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Whatever’s in you, that… rage? This house can’t hold it all. I can’t hold it all. So I can’t-- 

---

## GLORIA: 
You said you had something for me. What is it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Oh. Okay. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
This is every picture I have of your mother. It’s only three. There’s one of her at her baptism. It’s not a smudge on the picture.

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
She had a scar right here on her cheek from when she fell off a swing set once. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Paw-Paw used to think you looked like her when you were a baby. I don’t see it.

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I don’t know what it is about me that makes people want to walk out. But I hope you find her. I really do.

---

## GLORIA: 
This is it? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
I don’t know what else you want. This is what you been chasing all this time. There it is. Your birthright in an envelope. 

---

## GLORIA:
No letters? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
No letters. A few times someone would call and hang up whenever I answered. Maybe that was her?

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
So if you hurry, you could catch him at the bus station. That is, if he went to the bus station. Then there’s the matter of which bus station. And which bus. You have money for a ticket, right?

---

## GLORIA: 
I see what you doin’. You’re trying to mess with my head. So I won’t leave. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Oh no. You’re leaving. I was just curious to see if you’d planned all that out. 

---

## GLORIA: 
I don’t understand this game you’re playing. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Because there is no game. 

---

## GLORIA:
How do I know this envelope is all? 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I guess you won’t never know that, will you? 

---

## GLORIA:
You don’t want me to find her. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Listen. We’ve been eating each other alive this whole time. And I’m tired. 

---

## GLORIA:
Okay, you made your point. You want me to stay. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
Why would I want that? You’re already packed. 

---

## GLORIA: 
You want me to see how selfish I’m being so that I’ll get on my knees and beg your forgiveness. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
I already forgive you, darling. But if you don’t get out of my house in the next thirty seconds, I’m afraid I might need God’s forgiveness for what I might do to you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS: 
Say goodbye to Jesus. You can take Paw-Paw with you. 

---

## MRS. ELKINS:
There. 

---

[A knock at the door.] 

---

[It repeats.] 

---

[And repeats.]

---

[Then stops.]

---

[MUSIC]

---