The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature by Gene Andrew Jarrett

Author:Gene Andrew Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Scene 2

[Scene 2 changes, disclosing interior of cavern, damp fire, table, three or four rude stools. Some of fugitives sitting, some stretched before fire.]

MAMMY: Wonder whar dat boy ob mine are? I tell you chillern Ise clean tuckered out, trablin’ to freedom.

JUNO: [sorrowfully] Dar aint no use tryin’ to be like white folks, we’s jus made fer nuthin’ but igerrant slabes, an’ I jes b’lieve God don’t want nuthin’ to do wid us no how.

MAMMY: You Juno, hish, fer we’s all His chillren, an He lubs us all.

JUNO: But Mammy dey say angels am all white. How’s I gwine to be a angel Mammy? I jes don’ ’lieve God wants eny brack angels, ’deed I don’, less ’tis to tote things for Him.

MAMMY: Why chile, we’s all to be washed in a powerful riber, an’ arter that, we’ll be all white.

JUNO: What Mammy, white as Marse and Misse?

MAMMY: Yes chile, jes as white as dem clouds Ise ofen showed you ridin’ fro’ God’s blessed sky.

JUNO: Golly! Den I wants to be washed now, so’s to be sho.

VIRGINIA: There Juno, don’t plague Mammy any more but let’s sing some of our old songs, and think we are back on the plantation.

CHORUS: “Rise and Shine”10

[Enter SAM, JIM, and CAESAR as they finish.]

SAM: Hyar we is Mammy all back safe, an’ we’s brought you a kurosiry in de shape ob a ghos’. [Throws JIM on stool. All crowd around him.]

MAMMY: Why honey, whar’d you git this fellar from?

JUNO: Am dat Jim? Lef me git at him!

VIRGINIA: O Sam! What made you bring him here?

SAM: Neber min’ Jinny, he isn’t gwine to tech you while Ise ’roun’. You see while I was waitin’ for uncle to come back from totin’ you, dis gemmun relieved himsel’ to me in de shape ob a ghos’ an I captivated him; fus’ I thought, as he ’joyed playin’ ghos’, I’d sen’ him whar he’d hab plenty ob dat kin’ o’ company; but I took the secon’ thought an’ recluded to tote him hyar, an’ leave him to inflect on his pas’, presunt, an’ future kreer. [shows pistol] An’ hyar’s what I captivated him wif.

JUNO: Why Sam dats Marser’s gun! Wha’d you git dat gun from?

SAM: Wha’ you kno bout dis gun, who tol’ you ’twas Marser’s gun?

JUNO: Why I kno’s all ’bout shootin’ dat gun. I used to go up inter Misses room, an’ shoot dat ol’ gun at de bedstead, an’ Marse he, he, Marse an’ Misse wonder how dat bedstead kamed full o’holes.

SAM: Well Juno, I want some liable pusson to ’gard dis gemman, ’spose you could take good care o’ him.

JUNO: O Sammy, please Sammy, jes lef me ’gard him, O. I take rememse care ob him.

SAM: [gives her the pistol] Hyar it are, an’ ef he ’tempts to git off dat stool, shoot him. [thoughtfully] Yas shoot him in de mos’ convenient place. [to his mother] Now Mammy jes git dem bundles ready, kase we’s got no time to tarry.

JUNO: [walks around JIM, and plays at shooting him.

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