The Sunset Limited(2)

White You cant be serious.

Black I’m as serious as a heart attack.

White Why are you doing this?

Black Me? I aint got no choice in the matter.

White Of course you have a choice.

Black No I aint.

White Who appointed you my guardian angel?

Black Let me get my coat.

White Answer the question.

Black You know who appointed me. I didnt ask for you to leap into my arms down in the subway this mornin.

White I didnt leap into your arms.

Black You didnt?

White No. I didnt.

Black Well how did you get there then?





The professor stands with his head lowered. He looks at the chair and then turns and goes and sits down in it.





Black What. Now we aint goin?

White Do you really think that Jesus is in this room?

Black No. I dont think he’s in this room.

White You dont?

Black I know he’s in this room.





The professor folds his hands at the table and lowers his head. The black pulls out the other chair and sits again.





Black Its the way you put it, Professor. Be like me askin you do you think you got your coat on. You see what I’m sayin?

White It’s not the same thing. It’s a matter of agreement. If you and I say that I have my coat on and Cecil says that I’m naked and I have green skin and a tail then we might want to think about where we should put Cecil so that he wont hurt himself.

Black Who’s Cecil?

White He’s not anybody. He’s just a hypothetical… There’s not any Cecil. He’s just a person I made up to illustrate a point.

Black Made up.

White Yes.

Black Mm.

White We’re not going to get into this again are we? It’s not the same thing. The fact that I made Cecil up.

Black But you did make him up.

White Yes.

Black And his view of things dont count.

White No. That’s why I made him up. I could have changed it around. I could have made you the one that didnt think I was wearing a coat.

Black And was green and all that shit you said.

White Yes.

Black But you didnt.

White No.

Black You loaded it off on Cecil.

White Yes.

Black But Cecil cant defend hisself cause the fact that he aint in agreement with everbody else makes his word no good. I mean aside from the fact that you made him up and he’s green and everthing.

White He’s not the one who’s green. I am. Where is this going?

Black I’m just tryin to find out about Cecil.

White I dont think so. Can you see Jesus?

Black No. I cant see him.

White But you talk to him.

Black I dont miss a day.

White And he talks to you.

Black He has talked to me. Yes.

White Do you hear him? Like out loud?

Black Not out loud. I dont hear a voice. I dont hear my own, for that matter. But I have heard him.

White Well why couldnt Jesus just be in your head?

Black He is in my head.

White Well I don’t understand what it is that you’re trying to tell me.

Black I know you dont, honey. Look. The first thing you got to understand is that I aint got a original thought in my head. If it aint got the lingerin scent of divinity to it then I aint interested.

White The lingering scent of divinity.

Black Yeah. You like that?

White It’s not bad.

Black I heard it on the radio. Black preacher. But the point is I done tried it the other way. And I dont mean chippied, neither. Runnin blindfold through the woods with the bit tween your teeth. Oh man. Didnt I try it though. If you can find a soul that give it a better shot than me I’d like to meet him. I surely would. And what do you reckon it got me?

White I dont know. What did it get you?

Black Death in life. That’s what it got me.

White Death in life.

Black Yeah. Walkin around death. Too dead to even know enough to lay down.

White I see.

Black I dont think so. But let me ask you this question.

White All right.

Black Have you ever read this book?

White I’ve read parts of it. I’ve read in it.

Black Have you ever read it?

White I read The Book of Job.

Black Have. You. Ever. Read. It.

White No.

Black But you is read a lot of books.

White Yes.

Black How many would you say you read?

White I’ve no idea.

Black Ball park.

White I dont know. Two a week maybe. A hundred a year. For close to forty years.





The black takes up his pencil and licks it and falls to squinting at his pad, adding numbers laboriously, his tongue in the corner of his mouth, one hand on his head.





White Forty times a hundred is four thousand.

Black (Almost laughing) I’m just messin with you, Professor. Give me a number. Any number you like. And I’ll give you forty times it back.

White Twenty-six.

Black A thousand and forty.

White A hundred and eighteen.

Black Four thousand seven hundred and twenty.

White Four thousand seven hundred and twenty.