Fences
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| August Wilson |
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ROSE Troy, you ought not talk like that. Troy ain't doing nothing but telling a lie.
TROY Only thing is . . . when we first got married . . . forget the rooster ... we ain't had no yard!
BONO I hear you tell it. Me and Lucille was staying down there on Logan Street. Had two rooms with the outhouse in the back. I ain't mind the
outhouse none. But when that goddamn wind blow through there in the winter . . . that's what I'm talking about! To this day I wonder why in the hell I
ever stayed down there for six long years. But see, I didn't know I could do no better. I thought only white folks had inside toilets and things.
ROSE There’s a lot of people don’t know they can do no better than they doing now. That's just something you got to learn. A lot of folks still shop at
Bella's.
TROY Ain't nothing wrong with shopping at Bella's. She got fresh food.
ROSE I ain't said nothing about if she got fresh food. I'm talking about what she charge. She charge ten cents more than the A&P.
TROY The A&P ain't never done nothing for me. I spends my money where I'm treated right. I go down to Bella, say, "I need a loaf of bread, I'll pay
you Friday." She give it to me. What sense that make when I got money to go and spend it somewhere else and ignore the person who done right by
me? That ain't in the Bible.
ROSE We ain't talking about what's in the Bible. What sense it make to shop there when she overcharge?
TROY You shop where you want to. I'll do my shopping where the people been good to me.
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ROSE Well, I don't think it’s right for her to overcharge. That's all I was saying.
BONO Look here ... I got to get on. Lucille going be raising all kind of hell.
TROY Where you going, nigger? We ain't finished this pint. Come here, finish this pint.
BONO Well, hell, I am ... if you ever turn the bottle loose.
TROY
( Hands him the bottle.) The only thing I say about the A&P is I'm glad Cory got that job down there. Help him take care of his school clothes and
things. Gabe done moved out and things getting tight around here. He got that job. ... He can start to look out for himself.
ROSE Cory done went and got recruited by a college football team.
TROY I told that boy about that football stuff. The white man ain't gonna let him get nowhere with that football. I told him when he first come to me
with it. Now you come telling me he done went and got more tied up in it. He ought to go and get recruited in how to fix cars or something where he
can make a living.
ROSE He ain't talking about making no living playing football. It’s just something the boys in school do. They gonna send a recruiter by to talk to
you. He'll tell you he ain't talking about making no living playing football. It's a honor to be recruited.
TROY It ain't gonna get him nowhere. Bono'll tell you that.
BONO If he be like you in the sports . . . he's gonna be
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alright. Ain't but two men ever played baseball as good as you. That’s Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. Them's the only two men ever hit more home
runs than you.
TROY What it ever get me? Ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
ROSE Times have changed since you was playing baseball, Troy. That was before the war. Times have changed a lot since then.
TROY How in hell they done changed?
ROSE They got lots of colored boys playing ball now. Baseball and football.
BONO You right about that, Rose. Times have changed, Troy. You just come along too early.
TROY There ought not never have been no time called too early! Now you take that fellow . . . what's that fellow they had playing right field for the
Yankees back then? You know who I'm talking about, Bono. Used to play right field for the Yankees.
ROSE Selkirk?
TROY Selkirk! That's it! Man batting .269, understand? .269. What kind of sense that make? I was hitting .432 with thirty-seven home runs! Man
batting .269 and playing right field for the Yankees! I saw Josh Gibson's daughter yesterday. She walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet.
Now I bet you Selkirk's daughter ain't walking around with raggedy shoes on her feet! I bet you that!
ROSE They got a lot of colored baseball players now. Jackie Robinson was the first. Folks had to wait for Jackie Robinson.
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TROY I done seen a hundred niggers play baseball better than jackie Robinson. Hell, I know some teams Jackie Robinson couldn't even make!
What you talking about Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson wasn't nobody. I'm talking about if you could play ball then they ought to have let you play.
Don't care what color you were. Come telling me I come along too early. If you could play . . . then they ought to have let you play.
( TROY takes a long drink from the bottle.)
ROSE You gonna drink yourself to death. You don't need to be drinking like that.
TROY Death ain't nothing. I done seen him. Done wrassled with him. You can't tell me nothing about death. Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the
outside corner. And you know what I’ll do to that! Lookee here, Bono ... am I lying? You get one of them fastballs, about waist high, over the outside
corner of the plate where you can get the meat of the bat on it . . . and good god! You can kiss it goodbye. Now, am I lying?
BONO Naw, you telling the truth there. I seen you do it.
TROY If I'm lying . . . that 450 feet worth of lying!
(Pause.) That's all death is to me. A fastball on the outside corner.
ROSE I don't know why you want to get on talking about death.
TROY Ain't nothing wrong with talking about death. That's part of life. Everybody gonna die. You gonna die, I'm gonna die. Bono's gonna die. Hell,
we all gonna die.
ROSE But you ain’t got to talk about it. I don’t like to talk about it.
TROY You the one brought it up. Me and Bono was talking about baseball . . . you tell me I'm gonna drink myself
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to death. Ain’t that right, Bono? You know I don’t drink this but one night out of the week. That’s Friday night. I'm gonna drink just enough to where I
can handle it. Then I cuts it loose. I leave it alone. So don't you worry about me drinking myself to death. 'Cause I ain't worried about Death. I done
seen him. I done wrestled with him. Look here, Bono ... I looked up one day Death was marching straight at me. Like Soldiers on Parade! The Army
of Death was marching straight at me. The middle of July, 1941 . It got real cold just like it be winter. It seem like Death himself reached out and
touched me on the shoulder. He touch me just like I touch you. I got cold as ice and Death standing there grinning at me.
ROSE Troy, why don't you hush that talk.
TROY I say . . . What you want, Mr. Death? You be wanting me? You done brought your army to be getting me? I looked him dead in the eye. I
wasn't fearing nothing. I was ready to tangle. Just like I'm ready to tangle now. The Bible say be ever vigilant. That's why I don't get but so drunk. I got
to keep watch.
ROSE Troy was right down there in Mercy Hospital. You remember he had pneumonia? Laying there with a fever talking plumb out of his head.
TROY Death standing there staring at me . . . carrying that sickle in his hand. Finally he say, "You want bound over for another year?" See, just like
that . . . "You want bound over for another year?" I told him, "Bound over hell! Let's settle this now!" It seem like he kinda fell back when I said that,
and all the cold went out of me. I reached down and grabbed
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that sickle and threw it just as far as I could throw it . . . and me and him commenced to wrestling. We wrestled for three days and three nights. I can’t
say where I found the strength from. Every time it seemed like he was gonna get the best of me, I'd reach way down deep inside myself and find the
strength to do him one better.
ROSE Every time Troy tell that story he find different ways to tell it. Different things to make up about it.
TROY I ain't making up nothing. I'm telling you the facts of what happened. I wrestled with Death for three days and three nights and I'm standing
here to tell you about it.
(Pause.) Alright. At the end of the third night we done weakened each other to where we can't hardly move. Death stood up, throwed on his robe . . .
had him a white robe with a hood on it. He throwed on that robe and went off to look for his sickle. Say, "I'll be back." Just like that. "I'll be back." I told
him, say, "Yeah, but . . . you gonna have to find me!" I wasn't no fool. I wasn't going looking for him. Death ain't nothing to play with. And I know he's
gonna get me. I know I got to join his army ... his camp followers. But as long as I keep my strength and see him coming ... as long as I keep up
my vigilance . . . he's gonna have to fight to get me. I ain't going easy.
BONO Well, look here, since you got to keep up your vigilance ... let me have the bottle.
TROY Aw hell, I shouldn't have told you that part. I should have left out that part.
ROSE Troy be talking that stuff and half the time don't even know what he be talking about.
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TROY Bono know me better than that.
BONO That’s right. I know you. I know you got some Uncle Remus in your blood. You got more stories than the devil got sinners.
TROY Aw hell, I done seen him too! Done talked with the devil.
ROSE Troy, don't nobody wanna be hearing all that stuff.
( LYONS enters the yard from the street. Thirty-four years old, TROY's son by a previous marriage, he sports a neatly trimmed goatee, sport coat,
white shirt, tieless and buttoned at the collar. Though he fancies himself a musician, he is more caught up in the rituals and "idea" of being a musician
than in the actual practice of the music. He has come to borrow money from TROY , and while he knows he will be successful, he is uncertain as to
what extent his lifestyle will be held up to scrutiny and ridicule.)
LYONS Hey, Pop.
TROY What you come "Hey, Popping" me for?
LYONS How you doing, Rose?
(He kisses her.) Mr. Bono. How you doing?
BONO Hey, Lyons . . . how you been?
TROY He must have been doing alright. I ain't seen him around here last week.
ROSE Troy, leave your boy alone. He come by to see you and you wanna start all that nonsense.
~ 16 -
TROY I ain't bothering Lyons.
(Offers him the bottle.) Here ... get you a drink. We got an understanding. I know why he come by to see me and he know I know.
LYONS Come on, Pop ... I just stopped by to say hi . . . see how you was doing.
TROY You ain't stopped by yesterday.
ROSE You gonna stay for supper, Lyons? I got some chicken cooking in the oven.
LYONS No, Rose . . . thanks. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by for a minute.
TROY You was in the neighborhood alright, nigger. You telling the truth there. You was in the neighborhood cause it's my payday.
LYONS Well, hell, since you mentioned it . . . let me have ten dollars.
TROY I'll be damned! I'll die and go to hell and play blackjack with the devil before I give you ten dollars.
BONO That's what I wanna know about . . . that devil you done seen.
LYONS What . . . Pop done seen the devil? You too much, Pops.
TROY Yeah, I done seen him. Talked to him too!
ROSE You ain't seen no devil. I done told you that man ain't had nothing to do with the devil. Anything you can't understand, you want to call it the
devil.
TROY Look here, Bono ... I went down to see Hertzberger about some furniture. Got three rooms for two-ninety-eight.
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