Lorenzo Buford
One Act Version
LIVING ROOM / EARLY AFTERNOON
Lights come up on Callie and Lucy standing outside the front door to the living room. Callie is searching through her purse for house keys.
LUCY
Never understood why you always wait till we get to the front door before you start looking for your keys?
CALLIE
Cause I ain't opening my purse on the street. Be just like Sister Johnson. Some young fool snatched her purse, knocked her down and she's been crazy since.
LUCY
Open the door sistah, my feet are tired. Or do you want me to show my calluses to the world?
CALLIE
(Pulls keys out of purse and shows them to Lucy) Here they are. (Opens the door)
LUCY
Thank God for small favors. Home at last. Oh my feet.
CALLIE
I don't know why you won't wear comfortable shoes.
LUCY
They don't go with this dress.
CALLIE
Sistah is a slave to fashion.
LUCY
I'm not the one that has to have a new dress or hat every time she goes to church. You suppose to be going to worship God not showing off.
CALLIE
Nobody's life is simple.
CALLIE
I didn't think the funeral service would ever end.
LUCY
Brother Simpson was well liked in the church; everyone had to have their say.
CALLIE
I'd rather not lay there listening to all those gums flapping. Where were those kind words when he was living?
LUCY
You shouldn't upset yourself.
CALLIE
I'm not upset. Just don't believe folks ought to go around lying about the dead.
LUCY
Maybe we should have gone to a movie.
CALLIE
You'd start snoring before your second helping of popcorn.
LUCY
Brother did right by us. Besides, folks feel a need to make peace with the dead.
CALLIE
He was a good man to us all these years. The only one who knew us.
LUCY
I hated seeing him like that. Expected him to sit up and tell us one of his off colored jokes. One of the few who could make me laugh.
CALLIE
I hope Sister Crawford doesn't give her rendition of Amazing Grace at my service. I swear, I'll rise up and tell her to hush.
LUCY
Don't trouble yourself about such things.
Callie puts her hand on Lucy's shoulder.
CALLIE
We ran a good race. (Callie reaches into her purse and hands Lucy a small bottle.)
LUCY
Well, I think I'll make the tea.
CALLIE
I'll get the cups.
LUCY
(Hesitant) I'm not sorry.
CALLIE
Sorry about what? It's a beautiful day.
LUCY
I lived my life the best I could. Ain't sorry about what I did, what I've done or what I might do. It brought us together.
CALLIE
Don't want to open my eyes and not see you Lucy.
LUCY
Callie, you're getting soft in your old age. It must be the medication. I'll start the water.
CALLIE
I'll set the table.
LUCY
Use the good china. (Exits)
CALLIE
Guess today, it doesn't matter. I know you're afraid Lucy. (Pause) Didn't take it well when the doctor said I was dying of cancer. You yelled and screamed more than I did. I don't remember crying. Took it rather calmly. Guess I cried so much, I dried up inside. (Looks at picture of husband) Henry, you're quiet now. Can't loud talk me or keep asking me why I'm always shopping. You were always a weak man. Loud talking and using the back of your hand doesn't make you a man. Thought my life would quiet down with you. Spent your life proving your manhood. All I could give you for your efforts were three stillborn children. (She takes the cups and saucers to the table.) Factory explosion gave me back my quiet life. I was out shopping for a new dress to wear to a dance you were taking me to. Didn't find out till 6 p.m. that night. I was laying down on the couch resting from a day of trying on dresses and I get this call. Mrs. Brown, this is Saul, your husband's foreman. I knew before he said it. I hung the phone up and laid back down. I cried for three unborn children that reminded Henry trying to prove himself to the world
LUCY
(Entering) Water is almost ready. (Looks at the table) We should have some flowers.
CALLIE
Why?
LUCY
I like flowers. Pink ones, yellow ones, purple ones.
CALLIE
Now where are we going to get flowers?
LUCY
I don't know. It's just a thought.
CALLIE
Well, how does the table look otherwise?
LUCY
Nice.
CALLIE
Just nice.
LUCY
I don't like this dress. Maybe I should change.
CALLIE
You look fine. I always liked you in blue.
LUCY
Why don't you wear your print dress? You always were pretty in that.
Callie shows pain.
LUCY
Take your medicine.
CALLIE
Don't need it.
LUCY
I don't like seeing you like this.
CALLIE
Remember the night we doubled.
LUCY
You were dating Willie Mack and I was in love with bow-legged Sammy.
CALLIE
They were going to take us to one of those fifty cent parties.
LUCY
The only light on was from a cigarette.
CALLIE
Willie Mack loved to slow dance.
CALLIE
I heard you two. You were belly rubbing. You always did moan louder.
CALLIE
At least I kept my hair in place.
LUCY
You pressed it enough.
CALLIE
I didn't give it up in my mother's bedroom.
LUCY
Well, it was Valentine's Day.
CALLIE
Mine was in the back of a car after a homecoming game.
LUCY
I didn't think he'd brag about it all over school. It was Valentine's Day. You'd think he'd be more sentimental about something like that.
CALLIE
What about the church bus?
LUCY
The water should be boiling.
CALLIE
Did Deacon Roberts feel up on you to?
LUCY
Callie!
CALLIE
Henry had left me for Mary that one time. You remember Mary. Too much of this and too much of that. Deacon only felt it, he didn't.
LUCY
You and the deacon!
CALLIE
It was just one of those things.
LUCY
On the church bus Sistah!
CALLIE
I heard about you doing it in some out of the way places. Like in the woodshed in your Uncle's backyard during a family reunion.
LUCY
You…you forgot the spoons.
CALLIE
So I did.
LUCY
I didn't love them. It just seemed like I should but I didn't love any of them. I just wanted to be like the other girls.
CALLIE
Me too.
LUCY
What was it that made things like, like this?
CALLIE
Maybe we should have flowers on the table.
LUCY
It's a shame Brother Simpson couldn't appreciate his flowers.
CALLIE
I'm sure he's looking down thinking about all the whiskey he could have bought with that flower money.
LUCY
Callie!
CALLIE
I want my flowers before I die, so I can appreciate them. I think maybe I will put on my blue dress.
LUCY
How about some tea biscuits?
CALLIE
(Exiting) Why not! We're still spring chickens.
LUCY
Jake and I lived in the projects when we first got married. Wasn't roach infested then. Now, I called them low rise plantations. They were stacking colored like they were putting away toys in the attic. Jake and I lived there only a year. I worked and saved and moved us out. Folks thought we were uppity because we lived in a mixed neighborhood. I read books when I was taking night classes; I wanted to know more about the world. Jake wasn't keen on my interest in exploring the world. He had his Jack Daniels, his new car, his new clothes. That man could turn a woman's head...with my money. My purse brought his eyes back my direction. Not proud of it but I accept what it was. Had a son, David. Never could be what his daddy wanted. Always arguing. Could only be one man in this house. Vietnam took David from me. Had a daughter, Shaundra. Pretty child. Got too much of her daddy's ways. Shaundra won't give me the time of day after Callie moved in. Jake was dead. Been dead for ten years. Callie was alone, struggling to make ends meet. Shaundra and Callie were always fighting. Felt like I was being split into two people. Sometimes I forgot a sense of myself catering to those two...I've never accepted death because no one ever came back to say how it is. Jake was the biggest, blackest man I ever laid eyes on and I loved every inch of his body. When he wrapped me in his arms, it seemed like nothing and no one could touch me. I loved him like I could never love another man. When he came in me, I cried out like the universe was being created inside of me. Our love created a beautiful daughter, Shaundra, a son Daniel. I still tremble when I think of how he made me feel beautiful. Never been a pretty woman, just plain, nappy hair, big lips, big legs, rough hands and a deep laugh. He made me feel like a woman. He moved my body so that the little girl slipped from his hand and he held a woman. Every time he called my name, I held heaven in my arms, my tears ran like the Nile and I knew pearls fell from my lips and he came in me like a rain. I laid in his arm, soaked and wet. He called me beautiful. I let my smile be his sunrise and I always gave him the sun. This world gave him its darkness. Some young fool looking for his manhood through a gun ended my days. Jake was standing at a fast food stand. We were going to have hamburgers, drink wine and he was going to make love to me from sunset to sunrise. My life ended so suddenly. That young fool shot him in the back. Couldn't face him like a man. He was the only man to make me feel like a woman, not a victory. Death has always clouded my happiness.
Once a little girl gave my mother a kitten to give me. My mother had worked for this family for several years. I'd met the little girl once. She was your typical little white girl with Shirley Temple curls but I loved her. Momma said I was foolish child when I talked about her so often. So I called the kitten, Blue Eyes. The little girl died of pneumonia a year later. When I learned of her death, I told my mother the kitten had run away. The truth is, I strangled Blue Eyes, buried her in a shoe box behind my house and never cried.
CALLIE
(Entering) How do I look?
LUCY
Like a fashion model.
CALLIE
Even the pain doesn't bother me much.
LUCY
That's good.
CALLIE
Water should be ready now.
LUCY
Probably (Exits)
CALLIE
(Looks at table setting and goes too the cabinet and pulls out several greeting cards and goes through them and selects one. Lucy comes out with the tea and biscuits and sits them on the table. Callie walks over and puts the card in the middle of the table.) Now it's complete. It's not the real thing but it's from you.
LUCY
You still have that silly old card.
CALLIE
It's not a silly old card. We have our flowers.
LUCY
The tea is ready.
CALLIE
Is it?
LUCY
You sure.
CALLIE
Neither one of us slept well last night. You'd think the pain would want to sleep too.
LUCY
Don't trouble yourself.
CALLIE
It will be alright, won't it?
LUCY
We should drink this while it's hot.
CALLIE
Don't like bitter.
LUCY
It's all behind us now.
LUCY serves the tea.
CALLIE
Tea looks strong.
LUCY
I laced it good with honey.
CALLIE
Wonder what the Reverend will say?
LUCY
Everything but the right thing!
CALLIE
I can hear the church gossiping.
LUCY
You only need to justify yourself to God.
CALLIE
Don't like the Reverend leaving a bad taste in folks head.
LUCY
This is not the time to be worrying about what folks will say.
CALLIE
If only the doctor hadn't said malignant. A common cold I can handle but this…cancer.....
LUCY
Drink your tea.
CALLIE
I've always felt cheated out of something. Like my marriage bed. But not with you.
LUCY
I understand.
CALLIE
No one ever knew.
LUCY
They'll know now. (Stands and delivers a eulogy) We are gathered here today to praise Sister Callie, Sister Lucy, not to bury and forget them. We are gathered here to talk about true love. (Looks at CALLIE)
CALLIE
(Very upset) Tell them it's right, Lucy. It's all right.
LUCY
Our tea is getting cold sister.
CALLIE
(Toast Lucy) To love, honor.
LUCY
(Toast Callie) In sickness and health.
CALLIE
Till death do we part. (Gets a strange look on her face)
Lucy reaches for Callie's hand. They look at each other.
CALLIE
(She feels a spasm, looks at Lucy, the tea and smiles.) I love you. (Closes her eyes and dies.)
LUCY
Not in death as in life. (Lucy feels a spasm.) Yes, Callie. (She reaches out but not toward Callie's body but in front of her.) I'm coming.
BLACKOUT
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