Cormac McCarthy: The Sunset Limited

White: What did he say?

Black: What did he say?

White: I mean in the line. What did he say.

Black: I aint goin to repeat it.

White: That doesnt seem fair.

Black: Dont seem fair.

White: No.

Black: Hm. Well, here I’m tellin you a bonafide blood and guts tale from the Big House. The genuine article. And I cant get you to fill in the blanks about what this nigger said?

White: Do you have to use that word?

Black: Use that word.

White: Yes.

Black: We aint makin much progress here, is we?

White: It just seems unnecessary.

Black: You dont want to hear nigger but you about to bail out on me on account of I wont tell you some terrible shit the nigger said. You sure about this?

White: I just dont see why you have to say that word.

Black: Well it’s my story aint it? Anyway I dont remember there bein no Afro-Americans or persons of color there. To the best of my recollection it was just a bunch of niggers.

White: Go ahead.

Black: Well at some point I had pulled the knife out and I reckon I’d done dropped it in the floor. I’m wailin on this nigger’s head and all the time I’m doin that his buddy has got hold of me from behind. But I’m holdin on to the rail with one hand and I aint goin nowhere. Course what I dont know is that this other dude has picked up the knife and he’s tryin to gut me with it. I finally felt the blood and I turned around and busted him in the head and he went skitterin off across the floor, and by now they done pushed the button and the alarm is goin and everbody’s down on the floor and we’re in lockdown and the guard up on the tier is got a shotgun pointed at me and he hollers at me to put down my weapon and get on the floor. And he’s about to shoot me when the lieutenant comes in and hollers at him to hold his fire and he tells me to throw that club down and I looked around and I’m the only one standin. I seen the nigger’s feet stickin out from under the servin counter where he’d crawled so I throwed the thing down and I dont remember much after that. They told me I’d lost about half my blood. I remember slippin around in it but I thought it was this other dude’s.

White: (Dryly) That’s quite a story.

Black: Yeah. That’s really just the introduction to the actual story.

White: Did the man die?

Black: No he didnt. Everbody lived. They thought he was dead but he wasnt. He never was right after that so I never had no more trouble out of him. He was missin a eye and he walked around with his head sort of sideways and one arm hangin down. Couldnt talk right. They finally shipped him off to another facility.

White: But that’s not the whole story.

Black: No. It aint.

White: So what happened.

Black: I woke up in the infirmary. They had done operated on me. My spleen was cut open. Liver. I dont know what all. I come pretty close to dyin. And I had two hundred and eighty stitches holdin me together and I was hurtin. I didnt know you could hurt that bad. And still they got me in leg irons and got me handcuffed to the bed. If you can believe that. And I’m layin there and I hear this voice. Just as clear. Couldnt of been no clearer. And this voice says: If it was not for the grace of God you would not be here. Man. I tried to raise up and look around but of course I couldnt move. Wasnt no need to anyways. They wasnt nobody there. I mean, they was somebody there all right but they wasnt no use in me lookin around to see if I could see him.

White: You dont think this is a strange kind of story?

Black: I do think it’s a strange kind of story.

White: What I mean is that you didnt feel sorry for this man?

Black: You gettin ahead of the story.

White: The story of how a fellow prisoner became a crippled one-eyed halfwit so that you could find God.

Black: Whoa.

White: Well isnt it?

Black: I dont know.

White: You hadnt thought of it that way.

Black: Oh I’d thought of it that way.

White: And?

Black: And what?

White: Isnt that the real story?

Black: Well. I dont want to get on the wrong side of you. You seem to have a powerful wish for that to be the real story. So I will say that that is certainly one way to look at it. I got to concede that. I got to keep you interested.

White: String me along.

Black: That okay with you?

White: And then put me in the what was it? The trick bag?

Black: Yeah.

White: Right.

Black: You got to remember this is a jailhouse story.

White: All right.

Black: Which you specifically asked for.

White: All right.

Black: The point is, Professor, that I aint got the first notion in the world about what makes God tick. I dont know why he spoke to me. I wouldnt of.

White: But you listened.

Black: Well what choice would you have?

White: I dont know. Not listen?

Black: How you goin to do that?

White: Just dont listen.

Black: Do you think he goes around talkin to people that he knows aint goin to listen in the first place? You think he’s got that kind of free time?

White: I see your point.

Black: If he didnt know I was ready to listen he wouldnt of said a word.

White: He’s an opportunist.

Black: Meanin I guess that he seen somebody in a place low enough to where he ought to be ready to take a pretty big step.

White: Something like that.

Black: And you think that maybe I think that you might be in somethin like that kind of a place you own self.

White: Could be.

Black: Well I can dig that. I can dig it. Of course they is one small problem.

White: And that is.

Black: I aint God.

White: I’m glad to hear you say that.

Black: It come as a relief to me too.

White: Did you used to think you were God?

Black: No. I didnt. I didnt know what I was. But I thought I was in charge. I never knowed what that burden weighed till I put it down. That might of been the sweetest thing of all. To just hand over the keys.

White: Let me ask you something.

Black: Ask it.

White: Why cant you people just accept it that some people dont even want to believe in God.

Black: I accept that.

White: You do?

Black: Sure I do. Meanin that I believe it to be a fact. I’m lookin at it ever day. I better accept it.

White: Then why cant you leave us alone?

Black: To do your own thing.

White: Yes.

Black: Hangin from them steampipes and all.

White: If that’s what we want to do, yes.

Black: Cause he said not to. It’s in here. (Holding up the book)

The professor shakes his head.

Black: I guess you dont want to be happy.

White: Happy?

Black: Yeah. What’s wrong with happy?

White: God help us.

Black: What. We done opened a can of worms here? What you got against bein happy?

White: It’s contrary to the human condition. Black.: Well. It’s contrary to your condition. I got to agree with that.

White: Happy. This is ridiculous.

Black: Like they aint no such a thing.

White: No.

Black: Not for nobody.

White: No.

Black: Mm. How’d we get in such a fix as this?

White: We were born in such a fix as this. Suffering and human destiny are the same thing. Each is a description of the other.

Black: We aint talkin about sufferin. We talkin about bein happy.

White: Well you cant be happy if you’re in pain.

Black: Why not?

White: You’re not making any sense.

The black falls back clutching his chest.

Black: Oh them is some hard words from the professor. The preacher has fell back. He’s clutchin his heart. Eyes is rolled back in his head. Wait a minute. Wait a minute folks. His eyes is blinkin. I think he’s comin back. I think he’s comin back.