Beauty's Daughter, Monster, the Gimmick by Dael Orlandersmith

Author:Dael Orlandersmith [Orlandersmith, Dael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-48205-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

EMMA: Theresa! Theresa! Theresa, wake up, baby! Heard you callin’ my name way up in my house! I’m here, darlin’. (Theresa signals that Beula’s asleep) Beula still sleepin’? Good. Yeah, she breathin’ easy now, ain’t it. Lawd. Lawd, her face just as smooth now. Like she ain’t got a worry in the world. Yeah, when the Lawd take her she won’t feel a ting. Nothin’. (She looks at her) She don’t look sick at all, do she? I’m cookin’ some okra soup for ya. I know ya like it and it’s good for ya too. Yeah, ya got to eat, Theresa. Take care of yourself. I see you beginnin’ to drink some, ain’t it? You better mind. Don’t fall inta dat. You should know better. (She points) You see ya mama layin’ there. You seen what it done to her, right? It hard seeing Beula like this. Really is. Your mama was a good woman. Just got lost along the way. (Beat)

When your mama and me were girls together in Bonneau she was always nice to me. Always. Always spoke. Then when I come up here to New York and run into your mama on Sixty-eighth Street, she helped me get my apartment here you know. The lady I work for say she ain’t want no sleep-ins, and that same day I seen your mama on the street and she took me to Ms. Sophie and said, “Mama, Emma need a place to stay, and you gonna give her one.” An’ Ms. Sophie look at your mama, and me, and finally say okay. So, Theresa, your mama got good in her. It’s just a shame she couldn’t stand up for herself. See, your mama could dance. Lord that woman could move. She had come across a woman who had a dance troupe, and the woman come here to talk to Ms. Sophie about Beula joinin’. And Ms. Sophie scared the woman, said, “My daughter ain’t gonna stand up there shaking her tail for money and goin’ around the country like a damn gypsy. Dat’s a whore’s job.” Theresa, that crushed Beula, really crush her.

That’s why I believe your mama started to drink heavy, ’cause everything had to be Ms. Sophie way. Like the way she bad run this house. How if anybody made a noise she bang the pipe. And how you could eat off the floor ’cause it was so clean. Man, I use to feel funny comin’ in here ’cause, like if I sat down, I feel I would dirty it up in some kind of way. And when Beula took it over things change. I bet Ms. Sophie turnin’ in her grave. I tried to get your mama to paint the house a different color. I never did like brown, it make things look sad. I like white and dark orange, they’re warm colors like down South. And now, baby, it looks like this house is goin’ to you. You gonna own this house and I see you weighed down.

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