White That’s pretty funny
Black I thought you might like that.
White And is that where the whiskey was?
Black Oh yeah. That’s a favorite place for drunks to hide a bottle. But the point of course is that the drunk’s concern aint that he’s goin to die from drinkin—which he is. It’s that he’s goin to run out of whiskey fore he gets a chance to do it. Are you hungry? I can come back to this. I aint goin to lose my place.
White I’m all right. Go ahead.
Black If you was to hand a drunk a drink and tell him he really dont want it what do you reckon he’d say?
White I think I know what he’d say.
Black Sure you do. But you’d still be right.
White About him not really wanting it.
Black Yes. Because what he really wants he cant get. Or he thinks he cant get it. So what he really dont want he cant get enough of.
White So what is it that he really wants.
Black You know what he really wants.
White No I dont.
Black Yeah you do.
White No I dont.
Black Hm.
White Hm what.
Black You a hard case, Professor.
White You’re not exactly a day at the beach yourself.
Black You dont know what he wants.
White No. I do not.
Black He wants what everbody wants.
White And that is?
Black He wants to be loved by God.
White I dont want to be loved by God.
Black I love that. See how you cut right to it? He dont either. Accordin to him. He just wants a drink of whiskey. You a smart man, Professor. You tell me which one makes sense and which one dont.
White I dont want a drink of whiskey, either.
Black I thought you just got done askin for one?
White I mean as a general proposition.
Black We aint talkin about no general propositions. We talkin about a drink.
White I dont have a drinking problem.
Black Well you got some kind of a problem.
White Well whatever kind of a problem I have it’s not something that I imagine can be addressed with a drink of liquor.
Black Mm. I love the way you put that. So what can it be addressed with?
White I think you know what it can be addressed with.
Black The Sunset Limited.
White Yes.
Black And that’s what you want.
White That’s what I want. Yes.
Black That’s a mighty big drink of whiskey, Professor.
White That I dont really want.
Black That you dont really want. Yes.
White Well. I think I do want it.
Black Of course you do, honey. If you didnt we wouldnt be settin here.
White Well. I disagree with you.
Black That’s all right. That’s the hand I’m playin.
White I dont think you understand that people such as myself see a yearning for God as something lacking in those people.
Black I do understand that. Couldnt agree more.
White You agree with that?
Black Sure I do. What’s lackin is God.
White Well, as I say, we’ll just have to disagree.
Black You aint closin down the forum for discussion are you?
White Not at this juncture.
Black Cause I had a little more to say.
White How did I know that?
Black I did go to one or two AA meetins. Lot of folks didnt like the God part of it all that much but I hadnt set there too long fore I figured out that the God part was really all the part they was. The problem wasnt that they was too much God in AA it was that they wasnt enough. And I got a pretty thick head about some things but I finally figured out that what was true about AA was probably true about a lot of other things too.
White Well I’m sorry, but to me the whole idea of God is just a load of crap.
The black puts his hand to his chest and leans back.
Black Oh Lord have mercy oh save us Jesus. The professor’s done blasphemed all over us. We aint never gone be saved now.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head, laughing silently.
White You dont find that an evil thing to say.
Black Oh Mercy. No, Professor. I dont. But you does.
White No I dont. It’s simply a fact.
Black No it aint no simply a fact. It’s the biggest fact about you. It’s just about the only fact.
White But you dont seem to think that it’s so bad.
Black Well, I know it to be curable. So it aint that bad. If you talkin about what that man up there thinks about it I figure he’s probably seen enough of it that it dont bother him as bad as you might think. I mean, what if somebody told you that you didnt exist. And you settin there listenin to him say it. That wouldnt really piss you off, would it?
White No. You’d just feel sorry for them.
Black I think that’s right. You might even try to get some help for em. Now in my case he had to holler at me out loud and me layin on a slab in two pieces that they’d sewed back together where some nigger done tried to core me like a apple but still I got to say that if God is God then he can speak to your heart at any time and furthermore I got to say that if he spoke to me—which he did—then he can speak to anybody.