Cormac McCarthy: The Sunset Limited

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.

Black: Yeah.

White: The answer is the question.

Black: Say what?

White: That’s your new number.

Black: Four thousand seven hundred and twenty?

White: Yes.

Black: That’s a big number, Professor.

White: Yes it is.

Black: Do you know the answer?

White: No. I dont.

Black: It’s a hundred and eighty-eight thousand and eight hundred.

They sit.

White: Let me have that.

The black slides the pad and pencil across the table. The professor does the figures and looks at them and looks at the black. He slides the pencil and paper back across the table and sits back.

White: How do you do that?

Black: Numbers is the black man’s friend. Butter and eggs. Crap table. You quick with numbers you can put the mojo on you brother. Confiscate the contents of his pocketbook. You get a lot of time to practice that shit in the jailhouse.

White: I see.

Black: But let’s get back to all them books you done read. You think maybe you read four thousand books.

White: Probably. Maybe more than that.

Black: But you aint read this one.

White: No. Not the whole book. No.

Black: Why is that?

White: I dont know.

Black: What would you say is the best book that ever was wrote?

White: I have no idea.

Black: Take a shot.

White: There are a lot of good books.

Black: Well pick one.

White: Maybe War and Peace.

Black: All right. You think that’s a better book than this one?

White: I dont know. They’re different kinds of books.

Black: This War and Peace book. That’s a book that somebody made up, right?

White: Well, yes.

Black: So is that how it’s different from this book?

White: Not really. In my view they’re both made up.

Black: Mm. Aint neither one of em true.

White: Not in the historical sense. No.

Black: So what would be a true book?

White: I suppose maybe a history book. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire might be one. At least the events would be actual events. They would be things that had happened.

Black: Mm hm. You think that book is as good a book as this book here?

White: The bible.

Black: The bible.

White: I dont know. Gibbon is a cornerstone. It’s a major book.

Black: And a true book. Dont forget that.

White: And a true book. Yes.

Black: But is it as good a book.

White: I dont know. I dont know as you can make a comparison. You’re talking about apples and pears.

Black: No we aint talkin bout no apples and pears, Professor. We talkin bout books. Is that Decline and Fall book as good a book as this book here. Answer the question.

White: I might have to say no.

Black: It’s more true but it aint as good.

White: If you like.

Black: It aint what I like. It’s what you said.

White: All right.

The black lays the bible back down on the table.

Black: It used to say here on the cover fore it got wore off: The greatest book ever written. You think that might be true?

White: It might.

Black: You read good books.

White: I try to. Yes.

Black: But not the best book. Why is that?

White: I need to go.

Black: You dont need to go, Professor. Stay here and visit with me.

White: You’re afraid I’ll go back to the train station.

Black: You might. Just stay with me.

White: What if I promised I wouldnt?

Black: You might anyways.

White: Dont you have to go to work?

Black: I was on my way to work.

White: A funny thing happened to you on your way to work.

Black: Yes it did.

White: Will they fire you?

Black: Naw. They aint goin fire me.

White: You could call in.

Black: Aint got a phone. Anyways, they know if I aint there I aint comin. I aint a late sort of person.

White: Why dont you have a phone?

Black: I dont need one. The junkies’d steal it anyways.

White: You could get a cheap one.

Black: You cant get too cheap for a junky. But let’s get back to you.

White: Let’s stick with you for a minute.

Black: All right.

White: Can I ask you something?

Black: Sure you can.

White: Where were you standing? I never saw you.

Black: You mean when you took your amazin leap?

White: Yes.

Black: I was on the platform.

White: On the platform.

Black: Yeah.

White: Well I didnt see you.

Black: I was just standin there on the platform. Mindin my own business. And here you come. Haulin ass.

White: I’d looked all around to make sure there was no one there. Particularly no children. There was nobody around.

Black: Nope. Just me.

White: Well I dont know where you could have been.

Black: Mm. Professor you fixin to get spooky on me now. Maybe I was behind a post or somethin.

White: There wasnt any post.

Black: So what are we sayin here? You lookin at some big black angel got sent down here to grab your honky ass out of the air at the last possible minute and save you from destruction?

White: No. I dont think that.

Black: Such a thing aint possible.

White: No. It isnt.

Black: Well you the one suggested it.

White: I didnt suggest any such thing. You’re the one put in the stuff about angels. I never said anything about angels. I dont believe in angels.