edmund: I better go inside.
edmund starts off.
rosa: Edmund.
rosa reveals the bag of turnover she was supposed to discard and throws it to edmund. He pockets it and goes inside.
Scene 6
A week later. Saturday evening.
Inside alma’s broken-down board house.
It gettin’ dark and de clouds is buildin’.
amelia struggles to close an overfilled grip while wearing the new dress rosa made for her. alma directs amelia and rosa works on alma’s dress.
amelia: Ahhh! Dis blasted t’ing!
alma: Just pull it tight.
amelia: Wha’ de hell yuh t’ink I doin’? Dis grip ’bout tuh bust.
rosa: He ain’t gine need alla dat.
amelia tries to close the grip again but can’t. She sucks her teeth.
alma: It would be easier if yuh wasn’t all dress up.
amelia: De dress ain’t have not’ing / tuh do wit’ dis damn t’ing.
alma: It not like yuh gine tuh England tomorrow. Yuh ain’t even send Alton a letter / yet.
amelia: Will yuh shut up yuh loud mout’ and come help me wit’ dis. You know my hand ain’t suh good.
alma: And you know my / foot ain’t suh good!
amelia: (mocking) “Foot ain’t suh good!” Yuh say de same blasted t’ing durin’ Janet.
alma: Rosa, guh ’long and help she.
rosa: I tell yuh, / I don’ t’ink —
amelia: (to rosa) Yuh know dat when Janet hit, she stand up in dis house cryin’ out dat she foot painin’ she, while I out dere gettin’ water, / food, provisions —
alma: Somebody got tuh stay and hold de place up.
amelia: How yuh mean? I is de one who put de roof and de door back on dis ole board house.
(to rosa) And dat ain’ nuh easy t’ing. Not when it mash up my hand before it gone and fly down de road and up top de hill. Everyone standin’ round, cryin’ out dat it is belong tuh dem.
alma: I had Edie tuh tek care of and muh husband just dead.
amelia: Yuh ain’t know he was dead yet.
alma: I could feel it. Like I catch a draught.
amelia: Well if catchin’ a draught means dat you lef’ yuh sister tuh do every damn t’ing fuh all de rest a she days, I catchin’ a draught now.
(to rosa) Rosa, lef’ de grip and let she pack it she damn self.
amelia leaves the grip and alma takes over.
alma: Guh ’long den. Yuh got everyt’ing all mix up anyway. Rosa, help me wit’ dis damn t’ing.
rosa: He ain’t gine need / alla dis.
amelia: (to herself) I lookin’ out fuh my own self / now.
rosa: All he got tuh do is buy a bag before he lef’ / so he can bring t’ings home.
amelia: (to herself) I gine get muh ass pun a plane and guh ’long tuh / England.
rosa: Most of de boys dat go ain’t tek not’ing but de clothes / on dem back.
amelia: (to herself) Gine have tuh blindfold de pilot —
alma: (to rosa) I ain’t care wha’ yuh say, Edie need / ’kerchief, underwears, toot’brush, razor, Vaseline, Dettol —
amelia: (to herself) — ’cause once he see me in dis dress, he ain’t gine want tuh fly no place! Eh eh! Alton ain’t gine know what hit he!
alma: (to amelia) will yuh lower down yuh damn voice!
amelia: Excuse me.
alma: (imitating amelia) “He ain’t gine want tuh fly no place.” “Alton ain’t gine know what hit he” — of course he gine know what hit he, but he ain’t gine like it, ’cause seein’ you gine feel like gettin’ a piece a grass-bottle in he eye.
amelia:
alma: Yuh t’ink you is some sweet ripe t’ing, but yuh’s more like some force-ripe piece of somet’ing dat de man at de fruit stand can’t get sell. Suh yuh might as well stand where yuh is and quit yuh damn foolishness.
(to rosa) Come and help me wit’ dis.
rosa: I tell yuh —
alma: I am not no deaf ears. I hear wha’ yuh say. But I say he gine need alla dis, suh help me wit’ de grip or get de hell out muh house ’fore I let go some lash in you tail. Yuh can tek dat dress you mekin’ fuh me wit’ you too, ’cause I ain’t want anyt’ing dat gine mek me act like some (to amelia) foolish young girl.
rosa helps pack.
Where de hell is Edmund?
The sun sets on edmund in the soursop tree. He opens up a bag full of goodies from Ms. Clarke’s shop.
rosa: He say he want tuh go fuh one last walk round de place before he lef’ tomorrow.
edmund stuffs goodies into each other in an attempt to make Edie’s Special T’ing.
alma: He tek he brolly?
edmund shoves the haphazard concoction into his mouth.
rosa: I t’ink it get pack in de grip.
alma pushes rosa out of the way and tears though the grip.
alma: oh lawrd.
edmund shoves even more Edie’s Special T’ing into his mouth.
oh gawd!
edmund goes out on a limb.
(to rosa) Well come and help muh nuh!
rosa finds the umbrella. alma grabs it and heads to the door but can’t go out.
edmund takes one last bite of his concoction, closes his eyes and jumps out of the soursop tree.
edmund: ayeeeeee!!!!!!
Scene 7
Hours later, Saturday night.
Inside alma’s broken-down board house.
The wind pickin’ up and de clouds ’bout tuh bust.
amelia and alma pace and rosa tends to edmund’s propped up foot.
alma: (to rosa) I shoulda never let you stay here.
rosa:
amelia: It ain’t she fault.
alma: Yuh right.
She only able tuh juk Edie wit’ she dirty pins and mek he foot weak ’cause you mek me let she stay here — And den yuh mek he climb dat blasted soursop tree —
amelia: I ain’t tell he tuh go climbin’ by he self —
alma: Wit’ she obeah and you foolishness . . . de boy foot ain’t got nuh choice but tuh give out!
amelia: He say he lost he grip. Dat ain’t got not’ing tuh do wit he foot.
(to edmund) Right?
edmund:
alma: (up to the heavens) Oh Lawrd, yuh mean tuh tell me I gotta tek care of a lame-foot boy ’cause he gone and fall fifty feet —
amelia: T’ree feet.
alma: — from dat blasted soursop tree! If he had he brolly.
amelia: It ain’t a parachute.
alma: I will never forget de way he look when he come in dis house.
amelia: Man, de boy look de same way if sun tek too long tuh set. He be fine by tomorrow.
alma: Tomorrow what, dat boy not gine no place.
amelia: If Edmund don’t get pun dat plane —
alma: Yuh ain’t see he foot all mash up.
amelia: He gine be fine.
alma: He can’t even stand up.
amelia: Stand up, Edmund!
edmund:
alma: ’Melia, let de boy rest nuh!
amelia sucks her teeth and pulls edmund to his feet.
edmund: Auntie —
amelia: See. I tell yuh, he fine.
amelia lets go of edmund and he wavers. rosa props him up.
alma: De boy in pain.
amelia: (to edmund) You goin’.
alma: No he ain’t.
amelia: It time fuh Edmund tuh be a man.
alma: He can’t pick fruit if he can’t even walk.
amelia: I gine wrap he foot.
alma: Well yuh gine have tuh wrap it wit’ a new foot, ’cause de boy can’t work — <
br />
rosa: I’ll go.
alma & amelia: What?
edmund: No.
rosa: I’ll go in Edmund’s place.
amelia and alma look from rosa to edmund and back again.
Scene 8
Sunday morning.
alma’s broken-down board house.
Lightnin’ strikes and t’under roars but de rain ain’t fallin’ yet.
edmund rests his bandaged foot, alma waits with scissors, amelia coaches and rosa dresses.
rosa: (off stage) I able tuh do de work, sir.
amelia: I able tuh do de work, sir.
rosa: (off stage) I able tuh do de work, sir.
alma: Watch yuh voice. (in a deep voice) Yuh got tuh keep it down.
rosa comes out of the bedroom. She is wearing her father’s / edmund’s suit.
rosa: (deep voice) I able tuh do de work, sir.
amelia: Good, but yuh standin’ up too straight.
rosa slouches.
alma: And yuh feet is too close.
amelia: And close you mout’, yuh look lost.
rosa widens her stance and closes her mouth.
rosa: Like dis?
amelia: I should go, de girl ain’t ready fuh dis.
alma dies wit’ de laugh.
alma: You? Dem ain’t want no old goat wit’ one and a half hands.
edmund: I wish she didn’t have to go in Daddy suit.
alma: How de hell she supposed tuh pass fuh you in a dress?
amelia: We lucky dem is close in size.
alma: We lucky she got Sticky picky hair, fat face and tall foot. It mek she look real real manly.
amelia: She too boney. I tell yuh she gine get bre’k up. And I know what broken bone feel like.
alma: And t’anks to you, my son also know what broken bone —
edmund: It ain’t bre’k it just —
alma: Just what? If you is such a big man, go on den.
edmund:
alma: Sticky cut cane he whole life. It in she blood. She mek tuh do dis. Right?
rosa: Right.
amelia drapes a towel around rosa’s shoulders and alma cuts rosa’s hair.
amelia: Dis gine be you first time pun a plane?
rosa: Yes.
amelia: It gine be all right.
alma: You lucky you ain’t gine by boat, ’cause as long as it does tek tuh get any place by boat, it does tek tuh die. / Never mind if de sea drown yuh or you get eat up by a shark, yuh still got tuh be waitin’ de whole damn day tuh die / an den when yuh finally dead, yuh just gine float all about de place, ’cause it hard as hell fuh de soul tuh lef’ de body when it all soak up. It just get drag down by de devil. At least wit’ a plane, if it go down, yuh dead —
amelia: Alma.
Alma.
alma!
(to rosa) Just mek sure and listen tuh wha’ de boss man tell yuh tuh do. Guh tuh sleep when he say, work when he say and eat when he say.
edmund: We gine get t’row in jail fuh dis.
amelia: What choice we got?
alma: Nobody gine tell de difference as long as she keep she mout’ shut and you stay in dis house.
edmund: Yuh mean I gotta stand in dis house wit’ you?
alma: Unless you in one of she dresses yuh ain’t gine no place.
alma finishes rosa’s hair. edmund hobbles out.
Edmund! Edmund!
amelia: (to rosa) Get yuh t’ings ready and meet me up de road. I ain’t want de bus tuh go and lef’ we.
amelia leaves. rosa reaches for edmund’s grip and her own.
alma: T’ought yuh say de boys is tek not’ing but de clothes on dem back.
rosa leaves everything and goes outside to find edmund waiting for her.
edmund: Dis ain’t gine work —
rosa: I can do dis. I mek suit fuh enough of de boys dat go overseas tuh know what I gettin’ in tuh.
edmund: Mekin’ suit is different from wearin’ dem . . . especially dat one.
amelia calls out to rosa from up the road.
amelia: (off stage) Rosa, de bus comin’!
rosa: I gine be fine.
edmund: Sorry.
rosa: Fuh what?
edmund:
amelia: (off stage) Rosa!
rosa hugs and kisses edmund and leaves. A light rain begins to fall. The wind picks up. The soursop tree begins to sway. Inside the house alma holds her half-made dress up to herself.
alma: (calling) Edie, dem gone?
edmund:
Thunder and lightning.
alma: (calling) Edie . . . Edie-muh-sweetie, come inside. I ain’t like de way t’ings is lookin’ out dere, boy. It like Gawd gettin’ ready tuh go and give we anot’er Janet. It smell like de night my Sticky dead. Oh Lawrd, we would not have tuh put alla we hopes in tuh dat dark-face knock-kneed nappy-head girl if yuh had not tek he from me!
The wind knocks a soursop out of the tree. It narrowly misses edmund. He picks it up and takes it inside. The rain begins to fall.
Part 2
Niagara Region
Scene 1
Sunday evening.
A gravel road in the Niagara Region.
Inside a beat-up old pickup truck.
edmund / rosa (in her suit) and laura are reading Shaw’s Saint Joan.
laura: So, you’ve just gotten me to sign the confession.
rosa: De who?
laura: You’re the Inquisitor. Read from — You can read, right?
rosa: Yes.
laura: Great. Okay, so. (skimming the Inquisitor’s lines) We declare . . . thou has sinned . . . God . . . Church . . . soul — oh, I know. Let’s go from (as the Inquisitor) Do condemn.
Go!
laura shoves the play in rosa’s face.
rosa: (as the Inquisitor) Do condemn thee to eat the bread of sorrow and drink / the water —
laura: Blah blah blah. (as Joan) Perpetual imprisonment! Am I not then to be set free?
rosa:
laura: You’re Ladvenu now. Go!
rosa: (as Ladvenu) Mildly shocked —
laura: That’s stage directions. Just go from (as Ladvenu) Joan! Joan!
rosa: Now?
laura: Never mind, I’ll do it.
(as Ladvenu) Joan! Joan!
(as Joan) Yes: they told me you were fools, and that I was not to listen to your fine words nor trust to your charity. You promised me —
isaac zips up as he walks over to the truck and hops in. He’s in uniform and will continue to be for the rest of the play. He’s wearing 49th Regiment War of 1812–type gear. rosa’s in the middle now.
isaac: Jesus Christ, Laura, he just got off the plane. Put that garbage away.
laura: Saint Joan is not —
isaac: Let him rest. By the looks of those arms he’s gonna need as much as he can get.
rosa: I able to do de work, sir.
isaac: We’ll see about that.
isaac drives.
laura: You’ll be fine. You should have seen Raymond when he first came.
rosa: Who?
laura: Your predecessor.
isaac: Laura.
laura: He was from Jamaica too.
rosa: I’m from / Barbados.
laura: This would have been his fourth harvest but (whisper) Isaac fired / him.
isaac: (to rosa) I had to let him / go.
laura: When Daddy hired Raymond, he was skin and / bones.
isaac: (to rosa) He didn’t follow the rules.
laura: But working in the vines builds you up / quick.
isaac: (to rosa) follow the rules and you’ll be / fine.
laura: Wish daddy could have seen hi
m grow into a modern-day Dunois.
isaac sighs.
rosa: Dun-who?
laura: Dunois. From Saint Joan.
(as Dunois) We must wait until God changes the wind. Come: let me take you to the church —
Oh, we should read that scene. Do you think you could read Dunois and the Page?
rosa:
isaac: I told you to let him rest.
laura: It’s a short scene.
isaac: Well I don’t want to hear it. The reason I gotta spend ninety percent of my time keeping the starlings at bay is because of that shakespeare shit so —
laura: This is Shaw, not Shakes —
isaac: (to rosa) What do you think the greatest enemy of the farmer is?
laura: Here we go.
rosa: Too much rain?
isaac: Nope.
rosa: Too little rain?
isaac: Nope.
rosa: It too cold?
isaac: Nope.
rosa: Too hot —
laura: He’ll never get it —
isaac: Eugene Schieffelin.
rosa:
isaac: In 1890, this idiot ships dozens of European starlings to America, and then goes and releases them. Why, you ask? Because he read about ’em in a play.
laura: (to rosa) He wanted to bring every bird that ever appeared in a Shakespeare play to America. I think that’s admirable.
isaac: Try irresponsible. Thanks to him now we got millions of those godforsaken birds making every farmer’s life on this continent a living hell.
laura: Daddy liked the starlings, said they ate the insects.
isaac: Only so that they’d have better access to our fruit.
laura: Never lost a crop when he was in charge.
isaac: They’re worse now.
laura: It’s only been two years / since —
isaac: Starlings only need a second / to —
laura: So it’s Eugene Schieffelin’s fault you can’t grow grapes?
isaac: The best farming technique in the world can’t protect you from / a flock of —
laura: How do you expect to build any sort of technique when you spend most of your time down at Fort George pretending —
isaac: We are not pretending; we are interpreting a pivotal part of our history. the war of 1812 was —
laura: (to rosa) bor-ing, especially for the women.
isaac: Laura Secord.
Up the Garden Path & The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God Page 3