Hester
Me?
Amiga Gringa
Yr working, Im—looking for work.
Hester
I bet I could get you some sewing.
Amiga Gringa
Oh no. Thats not for me. If I work, Hester, I would want to be paid a living wage. You have agreed to work for less than a living wage. May as well be a slave. Or an animal.
Hester
Its a start. She said if I do well—
Amiga Gringa
If you do well shes gonna let you be her slave for life. Wouldnt catch me doing that. Chump work. No no no. But its a good thing you are. Example to the kids.
Hester
I aint no chump.
Amiga Gringa
Course you arent. Yr just doing chump work is all.
Hester
Its a leg up. Cant start from the top.
Amiga Gringa
Why not? Plenty of people start from the top. Why not you? Sure is pretty fabric.
Hester
All I gotta do is sew along the lines.
Amiga Gringa
Bet the fabric cost a lot. I wonder how much we could get for it—on the open market.
Hester
Aint mine to sell. Its gonna make a nice dress. Im gonna sew it up and try it on before I give it to her. Just for fun.
But Hester still hasnt been able to thread the needle.
Amiga Gringa
Bet we could get 100 bucks. For the fabric. A lot more than youd get for sewing it. And you wouldnt have to lift a finger. I’d sell it tonight. Have the money for you in the morning.
Hester
No thanks.
Amiga Gringa
Suit yrself.
Hester continues trying to thread that damn needle.
Amiga Gringa
Chump work.
Hester
They make the eyes too small, thats the problem.
(Rest)
I seen Chilli right after I was with the Welfare. You said he was looking for me and there he was! Jabbers daddy walking right by with a big gold pocket watch. But did I tell? Did I run after Welfare and say, “Theres Jabbers daddy?” I did not. Can you imagine?
Amiga Gringa
I told ya he was looking for ya. Hes gonna find you too.
Hester
Jabbers daddy, after all these years!
Amiga Gringa
Maybe yr lucks turning.
Hester
You think?
Amiga Gringa
Maybe.
Amiga Gringa
Hester
(Rest)
Amiga Gringa
I missed my period.
Hester
Dont look at me.
(Rest)
Whatcha gonna do.
Amiga Gringa
Have it, I guess.
Hester
You may not be knocked up.
Amiga Gringa
Theres something in here all right. I can feel it growing inside. Just my luck.
Hester
You shoulda been careful.
Amiga Gringa
—Whatever.
Hester
So get rid of it if you dont want it.
Amiga Gringa
Or birth it then sell it.
Hester
You as crazy as they come.
Amiga Gringa
Hester
Amiga Gringa
Amiga leans toward Hester to kiss her.
Hester pulls back a bit.
Amiga Gringa
Whassamatter?
Hester
I dont got no love for nobody cept the kids.
Amiga pulls back, takes up the fabric.
Amiga Gringa
I’ll get you a lot of money for this.
Hester
No.
Amiga Gringa
Whassis?
Amiga Gringa discovers the brown paper package.
Hester
Nothing.
Amiga Gringa
Smells like something. Smells like food. Smells like egg salad.
Hester
I was saving it.
Amiga Gringa
Lets celebrate! Come on itll be fun. Kids!
Hester
They sleep. Let em sleep.
Amiga Gringa
Lets toast my new kid. Just you and me. A new life has begun. Am I showing? Not yet, right? Will be soon enough. Little Bastards in there living high on the hog, taking up space. Little Bastard, we toast you with: egg salad.
Amiga takes a big bite out of the sandwich.
Hester grabs at it but Amiga keeps it from her reach.
Bully comes outside.
Bully
Mommie?
Hester
Yes, Bully.
Bully
My hands.
Hester
Lemmie unlock em.
Bully comes over. Hester opens her hands.
Bully
Egg salad?
Amiga Gringa
Yeah. Its yr mommies sandwich.
Amiga gives the sandwich to Hester who almost takes a bite but sees Bully looking on hungrily.
Hester gives the sandwich to Bully. Bully eats.
Hester gives Amiga the fabric.
Hester
Cheat me and I’ll kill you.
Amiga Gringa
Have a little faith, Hester. Amiga will sell this fabric for you. You will not be a chump. In the morning when the sun comes up yll be 100 bucks richer. Sleep tight.
Amiga takes the fabric and leaves.
Bully sits with her mother, licking her fingers.
THIRD CONFESSION: AMIGA GRINGA
“In My Head I Got It Going On”
Amiga Gringa
In my head I got it going on.
The triple X rated movie:
Hester and Amiga get down and get dirty.
Chocolate and Vanilla get into the ugly.
We coulda done a sex show behind a curtain
then make a movie and sell it
for 3 bucks a peek.
I had me some delicious schemes
to get her out of that hole she calls home.
Im doing well for myself
working my money maker.
Do you have any idea how much cash I’ll get for the fruit of my white womb?!
Grow it.
Birth it.
Sell it.
And why shouldnt I?
(Rest)
Funny how a woman like Hester
driving her life all over the road
most often chooses to walk the straight and narrow.
Girl on girl action is a very lucrative business.
And someones gotta do something for her.
Im just trying to help her out.
And myself too, ok. They dont call it Capitalizm for nothing.
(Rest)
She liked the idea of the sex
at least she acted like it.
Her looking at me with those eyes of hers.
You looking like you want it, Hester.
Shoot, Miga, she says thats just the way I look she says.
It took a little cajoling to get her to do it with me
for an invited audience.
For a dime a look.
Over at my place.
Every cent was profit and no overhead to speak of.
The guys in the neighborhood got their pleasure
and we was our own boss so we didnt have to pay no joker off the top.
We slipped right into a very profitable situation
like sliding into warm water.
Her breasts her bottom
she let me touch her however I wanted
I let her ride my knees.
She made sounds like an animal.
She put her hand between my legs.
One day some of the guys took advantage.
Ah, what do you expect in a society based on Capitalizm.
I
tell you the plight of the worker these days—.
Still one day Im gonna get her to make the movie
cause her and me we had the moves down
very sensual, very provocative, very scientific, very lucrative.
In my head I got it going on.
SCENE 6
The Reverend on the Rock
Late at night. Down the road, Reverend D. cleaning his cornerstone, a white block of granite bearing the date in Roman numerals, and practicing his preaching.
[Reverend D.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And you hear that and you say, let me get a tax shelter and hide some of my riches so that when I stand up there in judgment God wont be none the wiser! And that is the problem with the way we see God. For most of us, God is like the IRS. God garnishes yr wages if you dont pay up. God withholds. The wages of sin, they lead to death, so you say, let me give to the poor. But not any poor, just those respectable charities. I want my poor looking good. I want my poor to know that it was me who bought the such and such. I want my poor on tv. I want famous poor, not miscellaneous poor. And I dont want local poor. Local poor dont look good. Gimmie foreign poor. Poverty exotica. Gimmie brown and yellow skins against a non-Western landscape, some savanna, some rain forest some rice paddy. Gimmie big sad eyes with the berri-berri belly and the outstretched hands struggling to say “Thank You” the only english they know, right into the camera. And put me up there with them, holding them, comforting them, telling them everythings gonna be alright, we gonna raise you up, we gonna get you on the bandwagon of our ways, put a smile in yr heart and a hamburger in yr belly, baby.
(Rest)
And that is how we like our poor. At arms length. Like a distant relation with no complication. But folks, we gotta—]
Hester comes in and watches him.
After a while, he notices her and stops talking.
Hester
Nice rock.
Reverend D.
Thank you.
Hester
Theres writing on it.
Reverend D.
Dont come close. Its the date its just the date. The date. Well, the year.
Hester
Like a calendar.
Reverend D.
Its a cornerstone. The first stone of my new church. My backers are building me a church and this is the first stone.
Hester
Oh.
(Rest)
You told me to come back. Im back.
Reverend D.
Theyll start building my church tomorrow. My church will be a beautiful place. Its not much of a neighborhood now but when my church gets built, oh therell be a turnaround. Lots of opportunity for everyone. I feel like one of the pilgrims.
You know, they step out of their boats and on to that Plymouth rock. I step off my soapbox and on to my cornerstone.
Hester
You said come back to get my money. Im back.
Reverend D.
Do you know what a “backer” is?
Hester
Uh-uhn.
Reverend D.
Its a person who backs you. A person who believes in you. A person who looks you over and figures you just might make something of yrself. And they get behind you. With kind words, connections to high places, money. But they want to make sure they havent been suckered, so they watch you real close, to make sure yr as good as they think you are. To make sure you wont screw up and shame them and waste their money.
(Rest)
My backers are building me a church. It will be beautiful. And to make sure theyre not wasting their money on a man who was only recently a neerdowell, they watch me.
Hester
They watching now?
Reverend D.
Not now. Now theyre in their nice beds. Between the cool sheets. Fast asleep. I dont sleep. I have this feeling that if I sleep I will miss someone. Someone in desperate need of what I have to say.
Hester
Someone like me.
Reverend D.
I dont have your money yet but I will. I’ll take up a collection for you on Sunday. I’ll tell them yr story, that yr someone in need, and all the money will go to you. Every cent of it. We get good crowds on Sunday.
(Rest)
Ive got work to do.
He waits for her to go but she stays.
He goes back to cleaning his cornerstone.
Hester
Today we had uh E-clipse. You seen it?
Reverend D.
You should go.
Hester
A shadow passed over the sky. Everything was dark. For a minute.
Reverend D.
It was a cloud. Or an airplane. Happens all the time.
Hester
No clouds out today. It was uh E-clipse.
Reverend D.
I am taking a collection for you on Sunday. Youll have to wait until then. Good night.
Hester
Uh E-clipse.
Reverend D.
There was no eclipse today! No eclipse!
(Rest)
Good night.
Hester
I was crossing the street with the kids. We had a walk sign. White is walk and red is dont walk. I know white from red. Aint colorblind, right? And we was crossing. And a shadow fell over, everything started going dark and, shoot I had to look up. They say when theres uh E-clipse you shouldnt look up cause then you go blind and alls I need is to go blind, thank you. But I couldnt help myself. And so I stopped right there in the street and looked up. Never seen nothing like it.
(Rest)
I dont know what I expected to see but.
(Rest)
It was a big dark thing. Blocking the sun out. Like the hand of fate. The hand of fate with its 5 fingers coming down on me.
(Rest)
(Rest)
And then the trumpets started blaring.
(Rest)
And then there was Jabber saying “Come on Mommie, Come on!” The trumpets was the taxi cabs. Wanting to run me over. Get out the road.
Reverend D.
Hester
Reverend D.
Hester
Reverend D. sits on his rock, his back hiding his behavior which has become unseemly.
Reverend D.
Comeer.
Hester slowly goes to him.
Reverend D.
Suck me off.
Hester
No.
Reverend D.
Itll only take a minute. Im halfway there. Please.
She goes down on him. Briefly. He cumms.
Mildly. Into his handkerchief.
She stands there. Ashamed. Expectant.
Reverend D.
Go home. Put yr children to bed.
Hester
Maybe we could get something regular going again—
Reverend D.
Go home. Go home.
Hester
Reverend D.
(Rest)
Reverend D.
Heres something. Its all I have.
He offers her a crumpled bill which she takes.
Reverend D.
Next time you come by—. It would be better if you could come around to the back. My churchll be going up and—. If you want your money, it would be better if you come around to the back.
Hester
Yeah.
Hester goes. Reverend sits there, watching her leave.
FOURTH CONFESSION: REVEREND D.
“Suffering Is an Enormous Turn-on”
Reverend D.
Suffering is an enormous turn-on.
(Rest)
She had four kids and she came to me asking me what to do.
She had a look in her eye that invites liaisons
eyes that say red spandex.
She had four children four fatherless children four fatherless mouths to feed
fatherless mouths fatherless mouths.
<
br /> Add insult to injury was what I was thinking.
There was a certain animal magnetism between us.
And she threw herself at me
like a baseball in the Minors
fast but not deadly
I coulda stepped aside but.
God made her
and her fatherless mouths.
(Rest)
I was lying in the never ending gutter of the street of the world.
You can crawl along it forever and never crawl out
praying for God to take my life
you can take it God
you can take my life back
you can have it
before I hurt myself somebody
before I do a damage that I cannot undo
before I do a crime that I can never pay for
in the never ending blistering heat
of the never ending gutter of the world
my skin hot against the pavement
but lying there I knew
that I had never hurt anybody in my life.
(Rest)
(Rest)
She was one of the multitude. She did not stand out.
(Rest)
The intercourse was not memorable.
And when she told me of her predicament
I gave her enough money to take care of it.
(Rest)
In all my days in the gutter I never hurt anyone.
I never held hate for anyone.
And now the hate I have for her
and her hunger
and the hate I have for her hunger.
God made me.
God pulled me up.
Now God, through her, wants to drag me down
and sit me at the table
at the head of the table of her fatherless house.
SCENE 7
My Song in the Street
Hester with the kids. They are all playing freeze tag.
After a bit, Hester is “it.” She runs then stops, standing stock-still, looking up into the sky.
Bully gets tagged.
Bully
1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi, 4 Mississippi, 5 Mississippi.
The Red Letter Plays Page 5
