Eyes of the Bridge
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Synopsis
In 1908 in rural Alabama, Young Luda Mae and her Samson, a “colored” couple, are very much in love and making plans to marry and have the bright future the 50 acres of land they own, and the money they save from their trades will afford them. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Cora Lynne and her friend Gracie Lewis, two affluent idle white girls, are making plans for Cora Lynne’s wedding. On that particular day, Samson is working in the hot sun, on the Lewis place on an iron fence he made. When Gracie spots Samson outside, she can’t take her eyes off of him. Her curiosity about Samson builds until her friend warns her to stay away from him. Gracie has always been headstrong, and she insists that nothing bad would come of “it”. But this temptation may prove to be a bridge too far, even for her – or will it? Forty years later, the normally acquiescent Luda Mae sees the chance for a reckoning. Will she answer her age-old cries for justice, or will the Jim Crow status quo prevail?
Script History
“Eyes of the Bridge” had its first staged reading at Ensemble Theatre Cleveland, December 2021. The play had its second staged reading as one of only twenty A - List plays accepted into the Garland Thompson, Sr. Readers’ Theater at the National Black Theater Festival 2022.
Excerpt
ACT I
SCENE 1
AT RISE: Hospital room with bed, table, chair, other items in a State mental institution for Colored. LUDA MAE sits in the chair in her room facing the audience.
(Institutional sounds in the background – people in the hallways.)
(Enter ANGELINE)
ANGELINE
Hello Miss Luda Mae. How you feeling this afternoon?
(LUDA MAE closing her pocket quickly.)
LUDA MAE
Fine, fine, Angeline. I feel just fine. How you feelin?
ANGELINE
Fine as yesterday, but not as fine as tomorrow. I hope!
(ANGELINE busies herself fixing the bed, checking the water pitcher, etc.)
LUDA MAE
How’s that fella a yours? He treatin’ you good?
ANGELINE
Yes Ma’am. He brought me flowers yesterday, and says we going to a show over in Mobile two weeks from now.
LUDA MAE
OOOOh, that’s nice. Real nice. Taking a trip together – to Mobile. The big city! Y’all know any family over there?
ANGELINE
I don’t believe either of us has family that far east in Alabama.
LUDA MAE
Oh, uh huh. Don’t have no family there. Well, with you young folks it’s all different today. Ain’t it? Going places with no family there. (Pause) And uh, where are you stayin’, darlin’’?
ANGELINE
Now, Miss Luda Mae, you know you need to stop. That’s my business, Ma’am.
(Beat while they eye each other.)
LUDA MAE
Uh Huh. I know. You told me.....
ANGELINE
Well, that’s all you’re gonna get! But, I’ll tell you all about the concert he took me to last Friday when I come back to check on you. It was so nice. We had a good time! Now you be good ‘til I get back, ya hear.
LUDA MAE
(Coyly) Alright dear. I’ll be here waitin’ for ya.
ANGELINE
I know that, Ma’am. You’re not going anywhere.
(Exit ANGELINE, smiling broadly.
LUDA MAE
I’ll be settin’ right here – waitin on ya – to get to twenty. That’s my number. (Laughs)
(LUDA MAE pulls open her pocket in her dress. Looks in. Speaking to the audience.)
Angeline’s alright. Sweet, she’ll set and chat wit’ ya. Pass the time. She don’t watch everything you do all the time. Let you get dressed by yo’self; trust you to take yo’ medicine. Some of ‘em make ya open your mouth to check if you swallowed. Yassuh! Angeline don’t know it yet, but she’s helping me get to twenty.
(LUDA MAE pulls out from her sewing basket a piece of white cloth that she has been stitching.)
I been doing stitch work on this. It’s for her. She fast, though. I think she ‘bout to get married, or have a baby, - one or the other. Sometime, they don’t get the order right. (Laughs)
(Shift)
I had me a man – once.
(Beat. Shift.) (Flashback to 1908 in LUDA MAE’s mind)
(Enter YOUNG SAMSON and YOUNG LUDA MAE. They are playful and very much in love. They are on 50 acres of rich verdant land which LUDA MAE’s Dad is giving them from his 160 acres as a wedding gift.)
SAMSON
(To Young Luda Mae) This is it, ain’t it, Luda Mae, Honey?
LUDA MAE
Yep. See that crooked dead tulip tree over there? Daddy showed it to me. That’s how I tell.
SAMSON
Fifty acres, Luda Mae! As far as my eyes can see --- all mine and yours! Imma make you and your daddy proud. By him give us this land from his own land – I’ll always be here. Gonna look out for him and your mamma and you. (Pause) Now here’s where we gon’ build the house. Right here! Imma build so it face north and south – keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
And Imma plant my garden greens here, some collards over there, some string beans, maybe some okra, oh and tomatoes. We could have some berries, too and I’ll make you some of those blackberry preserves you like.
SAMSON
Sounds real nice! What kinda porch you want Luda Mae, honey? You want one of those that wrap all the way around the house?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
That’d be nice. We could set and watch the stars shoot ‘cross the sky.
SAMSON
And I want you to have a washing machine and a ice box!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
A washing machine and a ice box!
SAMSON
You gon’ be MY wife, and MY wife gon’ have nice things! Imma get my wife nice things!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Imma be sittin’ pretty! And I want a big kitchen! Oh, and five bedrooms for all our chil’ren.
SAMSON
What you say!?! Oooh wee! Five Bedrooms! You plannin’ on havin’ a passel of kids?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Family means love. And we got a lot of that. I want a big family wit’ you. Ten. Ten chil’ren.
SAMSON
You don’t want a family. You want a baseball team! (Laughs heartily. Pats her tummy) What you think you got a Steel Arm Taylor that’s gon’ come outta there? Shoot, I believe you might!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
A what? What’s a ‘strong arm taylor’?
SAMSON
Steel Arm, baby, Steel Arm Johnny Taylor. He’s a baseball player – pitcher. Call him that ‘cause his arm so strong and he throw so hard. Play for the Birmingham Giants. Colored team. Him and his three brothers all play for the team. You got C.I. Taylor, Steel Arm Johnny Taylor, Candy Jim Taylor and Ben Taylor. And them Taylor brothers own the team. Don’t play for no white man.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
That right?
SAMSON
Yeah, baby that’s right. That’s the way to go. Own your own. Like your Daddy did. That way you ain’t got to be beholden to no white man. Them Birmingham Giants play all over the south. Say they might go down to Cuba and play. That’s south of here.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Yo seen ‘em play?
SAMSON
Naw. Want to tho’. I heard ‘bout ‘em. Let’s us go. I’ll take you up there. Say, why don’t we go up to Birmingham for our honeymoon, and we could see them boys play then. I hear they got speed, power, and smarts.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Birmingham! I ain’t never been that far from home. We ain’t got no family up there.
SAMSON
Don’t you worry ‘bout that. Birmingham’s the big city. They got colored hotels. We could save our money and stay in the Dunbar. I hear they got carpets on all the floors, and the finest cooks you ever want to see.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
The Dunbar Hotel! That sounds mighty fine!
(YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON dream on this a while.)
SAMSON
Well, That takes care of the first four boys. Now what we gon do with the other five boys?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Oh you figure they all gon’ be boys!
SAMSON
Naw, now I said four boys plus five boys. That leaves one girl. She gon’ be just like you.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
(Teasingly) How you know? Well, if they are boys, we gon need ‘em to help with all this land.
SAMSON
Aw, baby, don’t you worry ‘bout that! Our chil’ren gon’ be educated. They gon’ go to school – Tuskegee, or Morris Brown like Reverend Walker! We gon’ have our own tenant farmers to work our land. And not like the white man neither. We gon be fair. Honest pay for honest work. Ain’t gon’ cheat nobody. I done seen how that comes out.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
You hear ‘bout Otha and Milly? That ole Mr. Clyde! He so mean! He said the chil’ren didn’t pick their 25 pounds of cotton per day. Accused them of sitting down and playin’. I reckon the kids got to rest some time. But Mr. Clyde think folks gotta work like mules! So, he put Otha and Milly and all them chil’ren off his land. He mean as a snake!
SAMSON
Yeah, I heard. But it ain’t true what they sayin’. Mr. Clyde wouldn’t pay Otha what he owed him and they had words about it. You know Otha. He ain’t gon back down so, he took Milly and the chil’ren and packed up the wagon, and took off.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
I heard tell they goin’ west. I ain’t never heard of no colored folk going west.
SAMSON
If they can put a man like Otha off the land imagine what they could do to me. Otha got a family, been on Mr. Clyde’s place from before the Civil War. (Pause) Well, Grace o’ God, we ain’t never gon haf to leave this here place. Can’t no man, white or colored put us off this land. Yo’ daddy done provided real good, and I aim to keep what he give us and grow it. Ain’t gon’ let it go. Have something to leave to our chil’ren. We was born in this rich land, and we gon live here and die here. Bury our bones here – like it say about Moses in the Bible.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Don’t talk like that – ‘bout dying. Let’s us talk ‘bout happy things, now.
(Beat as they survey and walk the land. SAMSON pulls YOUNG LUDA MAE in close.)
SAMSON
Say, you, uh, want to get started NOW on them ten kids? Look over there. Nice thick pine trees.
Plenty o’ room over there in those pines. Nice soft needles, too....
(SAMSON nuzzles YOUNG LUDA MAE.)
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Oh Stop! Stop that! No! I’m not that kind! You know that.
SAMSON
I know that, baby, but you ah looking mighty good in that new dress you made and I uh, well, baby, I’m all man. (Shift) I love you Luda Mae. Always will! Don’t want nobody nor nothin’ else but you! I want a home and a family wit’ you! God’s truth! You know that.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
I do know that. And it’s the same wit’ me.
(YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON embrace.)
SAMSON
Uum, smell that?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Smell what?
SAMSON
The soil. Been some rain. Make the soil smell good... ripe.... smells like food.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Food?!? How’s dirt goin’ smell like food?...
SAMSON
Soil, baby, it’s soil. When you gon’ plant it – it’s soil. When it comes in the house on your work boots, well now, that’s dirt. See?
(YOUNG LUDA MAE laughs.)
SAMSON
Close your eyes. .... Now take a breath. (Pause) Don’t it smell like when you cut open the okra pod? Or like black eyed peas when you washin’ ‘em?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
(Eyes closed) Yeah..... kinda like when I’m cutting collards.
SAMSON
Hmm, your collards! Baby! You got to make me some of those come Sunday! You put yo’ foot in that last batch.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Well, come on down to the A.M.E. church on Sunday, Mr. Tate, – where I’ll be. After service, we could walk on over to the Mill Creek Bridge, take and eat our supper by the river. It’ll be nice and cool on the riverbank.
SAMSON
And after supper, we could go swimming. You gon’ go skinny dippin’ with me, Baby?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Skinny dippin’! You mean swimmin’ nekked! No, I am not!
(SAMSON nuzzle her.)
SAMSON
Why not? C’mon, Luda Mae, Baby.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
On account-a well-brought-up young ladies don’t!
SAMSON
You sound like them white girls over in St. Stevens parish. “Well-brought-up young ladies”!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
What you know about it?
SAMSON
Nothin’! Alright, alright. I guess Imma have to wait for you, Miss Luda Mae, til that day I say I do! (Pause) Oh, yeah! It’s gon’ be nice, baby. Real nice!
(YOUNG LUDA MAE breaks the embrace playfully.)
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Well, I know one thing. I got some molasses cookies coolin’ on the windowsill. Bet I can beat ya to ‘em.
(Exit YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON.)
(LUDA MAE comes out of the reverie. Addresses the audience)
LUDA MAE
Lotta folks asked me about that day. I ain’t never said. ‘Til today. Don’t much matter now, no way.
(Beat)
1948, I was settin on the porch. My brothers and sisters was all grown up and gone. I still stayed at my Daddy’s house – not being married. Oh, I had suiters, but nobody seemed to please me enough to ..... (Pause) The mailman come and hand me a letter special – I had to sign for it – from a Mrs. Bourganville up in Hale County. I ain’t never heard of her, but she sendin’ for me to come to her home for seamstress work. Seamstress Work. Mama and Daddy sent for my baby brother Aloysius to carry me up there in his Pontiac and bring me on back home. So off we go to the place.
(Beat)
Aloysius been away. He done forgot some things..... Yeah. Some of them old Alabama roads lead to misery,... nothin’ but the devil, and heartbreak. But, Aloysius takes the Old River Road. I don’t notice at first ‘cause I’m thinking – trying to figure out – don’t they have seamstresses in Hale County? Why she sendin’ for me all this way? Before I know it, we done ... come (breathless) .. to the..... Mill Creek Bridge....
Aloysius remembered, then. He mashed the breaks down hard. Gravel sprayed everywhere. I couldn’t breathe and I started screaming for Aloysius to turn the car, turn the car, and I’m trying to get out, and he’s holdin me, and tryin’ to turn the car.... And... and.... I must have passed out. It was so hot!
He turned his Pontiac around, and drove a bit, and pulled over under a willow oak tree. When I come to myself, we just sat there ... quiet, like we was, maybe, prayin’; and maybe we was.
SCENE 1
AT RISE: Hospital room with bed, table, chair, other items in a State mental institution for Colored. LUDA MAE sits in the chair in her room facing the audience.
(Institutional sounds in the background – people in the hallways.)
(Enter ANGELINE)
ANGELINE
Hello Miss Luda Mae. How you feeling this afternoon?
(LUDA MAE closing her pocket quickly.)
LUDA MAE
Fine, fine, Angeline. I feel just fine. How you feelin?
ANGELINE
Fine as yesterday, but not as fine as tomorrow. I hope!
(ANGELINE busies herself fixing the bed, checking the water pitcher, etc.)
LUDA MAE
How’s that fella a yours? He treatin’ you good?
ANGELINE
Yes Ma’am. He brought me flowers yesterday, and says we going to a show over in Mobile two weeks from now.
LUDA MAE
OOOOh, that’s nice. Real nice. Taking a trip together – to Mobile. The big city! Y’all know any family over there?
ANGELINE
I don’t believe either of us has family that far east in Alabama.
LUDA MAE
Oh, uh huh. Don’t have no family there. Well, with you young folks it’s all different today. Ain’t it? Going places with no family there. (Pause) And uh, where are you stayin’, darlin’’?
ANGELINE
Now, Miss Luda Mae, you know you need to stop. That’s my business, Ma’am.
(Beat while they eye each other.)
LUDA MAE
Uh Huh. I know. You told me.....
ANGELINE
Well, that’s all you’re gonna get! But, I’ll tell you all about the concert he took me to last Friday when I come back to check on you. It was so nice. We had a good time! Now you be good ‘til I get back, ya hear.
LUDA MAE
(Coyly) Alright dear. I’ll be here waitin’ for ya.
ANGELINE
I know that, Ma’am. You’re not going anywhere.
(Exit ANGELINE, smiling broadly.
LUDA MAE
I’ll be settin’ right here – waitin on ya – to get to twenty. That’s my number. (Laughs)
(LUDA MAE pulls open her pocket in her dress. Looks in. Speaking to the audience.)
Angeline’s alright. Sweet, she’ll set and chat wit’ ya. Pass the time. She don’t watch everything you do all the time. Let you get dressed by yo’self; trust you to take yo’ medicine. Some of ‘em make ya open your mouth to check if you swallowed. Yassuh! Angeline don’t know it yet, but she’s helping me get to twenty.
(LUDA MAE pulls out from her sewing basket a piece of white cloth that she has been stitching.)
I been doing stitch work on this. It’s for her. She fast, though. I think she ‘bout to get married, or have a baby, - one or the other. Sometime, they don’t get the order right. (Laughs)
(Shift)
I had me a man – once.
(Beat. Shift.) (Flashback to 1908 in LUDA MAE’s mind)
(Enter YOUNG SAMSON and YOUNG LUDA MAE. They are playful and very much in love. They are on 50 acres of rich verdant land which LUDA MAE’s Dad is giving them from his 160 acres as a wedding gift.)
SAMSON
(To Young Luda Mae) This is it, ain’t it, Luda Mae, Honey?
LUDA MAE
Yep. See that crooked dead tulip tree over there? Daddy showed it to me. That’s how I tell.
SAMSON
Fifty acres, Luda Mae! As far as my eyes can see --- all mine and yours! Imma make you and your daddy proud. By him give us this land from his own land – I’ll always be here. Gonna look out for him and your mamma and you. (Pause) Now here’s where we gon’ build the house. Right here! Imma build so it face north and south – keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
And Imma plant my garden greens here, some collards over there, some string beans, maybe some okra, oh and tomatoes. We could have some berries, too and I’ll make you some of those blackberry preserves you like.
SAMSON
Sounds real nice! What kinda porch you want Luda Mae, honey? You want one of those that wrap all the way around the house?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
That’d be nice. We could set and watch the stars shoot ‘cross the sky.
SAMSON
And I want you to have a washing machine and a ice box!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
A washing machine and a ice box!
SAMSON
You gon’ be MY wife, and MY wife gon’ have nice things! Imma get my wife nice things!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Imma be sittin’ pretty! And I want a big kitchen! Oh, and five bedrooms for all our chil’ren.
SAMSON
What you say!?! Oooh wee! Five Bedrooms! You plannin’ on havin’ a passel of kids?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Family means love. And we got a lot of that. I want a big family wit’ you. Ten. Ten chil’ren.
SAMSON
You don’t want a family. You want a baseball team! (Laughs heartily. Pats her tummy) What you think you got a Steel Arm Taylor that’s gon’ come outta there? Shoot, I believe you might!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
A what? What’s a ‘strong arm taylor’?
SAMSON
Steel Arm, baby, Steel Arm Johnny Taylor. He’s a baseball player – pitcher. Call him that ‘cause his arm so strong and he throw so hard. Play for the Birmingham Giants. Colored team. Him and his three brothers all play for the team. You got C.I. Taylor, Steel Arm Johnny Taylor, Candy Jim Taylor and Ben Taylor. And them Taylor brothers own the team. Don’t play for no white man.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
That right?
SAMSON
Yeah, baby that’s right. That’s the way to go. Own your own. Like your Daddy did. That way you ain’t got to be beholden to no white man. Them Birmingham Giants play all over the south. Say they might go down to Cuba and play. That’s south of here.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Yo seen ‘em play?
SAMSON
Naw. Want to tho’. I heard ‘bout ‘em. Let’s us go. I’ll take you up there. Say, why don’t we go up to Birmingham for our honeymoon, and we could see them boys play then. I hear they got speed, power, and smarts.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Birmingham! I ain’t never been that far from home. We ain’t got no family up there.
SAMSON
Don’t you worry ‘bout that. Birmingham’s the big city. They got colored hotels. We could save our money and stay in the Dunbar. I hear they got carpets on all the floors, and the finest cooks you ever want to see.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
The Dunbar Hotel! That sounds mighty fine!
(YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON dream on this a while.)
SAMSON
Well, That takes care of the first four boys. Now what we gon do with the other five boys?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Oh you figure they all gon’ be boys!
SAMSON
Naw, now I said four boys plus five boys. That leaves one girl. She gon’ be just like you.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
(Teasingly) How you know? Well, if they are boys, we gon need ‘em to help with all this land.
SAMSON
Aw, baby, don’t you worry ‘bout that! Our chil’ren gon’ be educated. They gon’ go to school – Tuskegee, or Morris Brown like Reverend Walker! We gon’ have our own tenant farmers to work our land. And not like the white man neither. We gon be fair. Honest pay for honest work. Ain’t gon’ cheat nobody. I done seen how that comes out.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
You hear ‘bout Otha and Milly? That ole Mr. Clyde! He so mean! He said the chil’ren didn’t pick their 25 pounds of cotton per day. Accused them of sitting down and playin’. I reckon the kids got to rest some time. But Mr. Clyde think folks gotta work like mules! So, he put Otha and Milly and all them chil’ren off his land. He mean as a snake!
SAMSON
Yeah, I heard. But it ain’t true what they sayin’. Mr. Clyde wouldn’t pay Otha what he owed him and they had words about it. You know Otha. He ain’t gon back down so, he took Milly and the chil’ren and packed up the wagon, and took off.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
I heard tell they goin’ west. I ain’t never heard of no colored folk going west.
SAMSON
If they can put a man like Otha off the land imagine what they could do to me. Otha got a family, been on Mr. Clyde’s place from before the Civil War. (Pause) Well, Grace o’ God, we ain’t never gon haf to leave this here place. Can’t no man, white or colored put us off this land. Yo’ daddy done provided real good, and I aim to keep what he give us and grow it. Ain’t gon’ let it go. Have something to leave to our chil’ren. We was born in this rich land, and we gon live here and die here. Bury our bones here – like it say about Moses in the Bible.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Don’t talk like that – ‘bout dying. Let’s us talk ‘bout happy things, now.
(Beat as they survey and walk the land. SAMSON pulls YOUNG LUDA MAE in close.)
SAMSON
Say, you, uh, want to get started NOW on them ten kids? Look over there. Nice thick pine trees.
Plenty o’ room over there in those pines. Nice soft needles, too....
(SAMSON nuzzles YOUNG LUDA MAE.)
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Oh Stop! Stop that! No! I’m not that kind! You know that.
SAMSON
I know that, baby, but you ah looking mighty good in that new dress you made and I uh, well, baby, I’m all man. (Shift) I love you Luda Mae. Always will! Don’t want nobody nor nothin’ else but you! I want a home and a family wit’ you! God’s truth! You know that.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
I do know that. And it’s the same wit’ me.
(YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON embrace.)
SAMSON
Uum, smell that?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Smell what?
SAMSON
The soil. Been some rain. Make the soil smell good... ripe.... smells like food.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Food?!? How’s dirt goin’ smell like food?...
SAMSON
Soil, baby, it’s soil. When you gon’ plant it – it’s soil. When it comes in the house on your work boots, well now, that’s dirt. See?
(YOUNG LUDA MAE laughs.)
SAMSON
Close your eyes. .... Now take a breath. (Pause) Don’t it smell like when you cut open the okra pod? Or like black eyed peas when you washin’ ‘em?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
(Eyes closed) Yeah..... kinda like when I’m cutting collards.
SAMSON
Hmm, your collards! Baby! You got to make me some of those come Sunday! You put yo’ foot in that last batch.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Well, come on down to the A.M.E. church on Sunday, Mr. Tate, – where I’ll be. After service, we could walk on over to the Mill Creek Bridge, take and eat our supper by the river. It’ll be nice and cool on the riverbank.
SAMSON
And after supper, we could go swimming. You gon’ go skinny dippin’ with me, Baby?
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Skinny dippin’! You mean swimmin’ nekked! No, I am not!
(SAMSON nuzzle her.)
SAMSON
Why not? C’mon, Luda Mae, Baby.
YOUNG LUDA MAE
On account-a well-brought-up young ladies don’t!
SAMSON
You sound like them white girls over in St. Stevens parish. “Well-brought-up young ladies”!
YOUNG LUDA MAE
What you know about it?
SAMSON
Nothin’! Alright, alright. I guess Imma have to wait for you, Miss Luda Mae, til that day I say I do! (Pause) Oh, yeah! It’s gon’ be nice, baby. Real nice!
(YOUNG LUDA MAE breaks the embrace playfully.)
YOUNG LUDA MAE
Well, I know one thing. I got some molasses cookies coolin’ on the windowsill. Bet I can beat ya to ‘em.
(Exit YOUNG LUDA MAE and SAMSON.)
(LUDA MAE comes out of the reverie. Addresses the audience)
LUDA MAE
Lotta folks asked me about that day. I ain’t never said. ‘Til today. Don’t much matter now, no way.
(Beat)
1948, I was settin on the porch. My brothers and sisters was all grown up and gone. I still stayed at my Daddy’s house – not being married. Oh, I had suiters, but nobody seemed to please me enough to ..... (Pause) The mailman come and hand me a letter special – I had to sign for it – from a Mrs. Bourganville up in Hale County. I ain’t never heard of her, but she sendin’ for me to come to her home for seamstress work. Seamstress Work. Mama and Daddy sent for my baby brother Aloysius to carry me up there in his Pontiac and bring me on back home. So off we go to the place.
(Beat)
Aloysius been away. He done forgot some things..... Yeah. Some of them old Alabama roads lead to misery,... nothin’ but the devil, and heartbreak. But, Aloysius takes the Old River Road. I don’t notice at first ‘cause I’m thinking – trying to figure out – don’t they have seamstresses in Hale County? Why she sendin’ for me all this way? Before I know it, we done ... come (breathless) .. to the..... Mill Creek Bridge....
Aloysius remembered, then. He mashed the breaks down hard. Gravel sprayed everywhere. I couldn’t breathe and I started screaming for Aloysius to turn the car, turn the car, and I’m trying to get out, and he’s holdin me, and tryin’ to turn the car.... And... and.... I must have passed out. It was so hot!
He turned his Pontiac around, and drove a bit, and pulled over under a willow oak tree. When I come to myself, we just sat there ... quiet, like we was, maybe, prayin’; and maybe we was.