John Wray - Canaan's Tongue

COLONEL (FROWNS) — The Redeemer, you mean?

CLEMENTINE —Who else?

COLONEL —Note “R—” as the Redeemer, Virgil.

CLEMENTINE —Shall I go on? (PAUSE) — What’s why, Mr. Harvey? I asked. And Harvey said—: Because he knew the thtrength—

COLONEL —Miss Gilchrist! The fact that Harvey spoke with a lisp does not obligate you to do so. We are not upon the stage.

CLEMENTINE —As you like. (PAUSE) — That’s why he selected me, Harvey said. He knew the strength of my belief, Miss Clem, and the childishness of it. (PAUSE) — Then Harvey said—: I have a letter to write tonight. A very lengthy letter. You may read it when it’s done. (PAUSE) — I laughed at him, of course. Why should I be reading your letters, Mr. Harvey? I said. I thought he might be flirting after all. (PAUSE) — Tell him not to look at me that way, Colonel.

COLONEL —What?

CLEMENTINE (POINTING) — Him.

COLONEL —Virgil, could you—? (PAUSE) — Go on, Miss Gilchrist.

CLEMENTINE —Harvey stared at me that same way. You’ll be reading my letter soon enough, Miss Clem, he said. You’ll find it edifying. Then, so quiet that I could barely hear—: Virgil Ball will find it so. Then he took me by my arm. It was the first time that he’d touched me. He took a cautious hold of me, the way a bachelor will, and led me gently back up to my room.

COLONEL (PAUSE) — What then?

CLEMENTINE (LAUGHS) — That’s all, Colonel. If you’re eager for more you’ll have to trust to your old man’s fancy, I’m afraid.

COLONEL (SIGHS) — I assure you, miss — (FROWNS)

CLEMENTINE —What is it?

COLONEL —Who’s that shuffling about outside? Is it Dodds?

CLEMENTINE (NODS) — He was waiting his turn when I came in. Looked a bit skittish. Poor old ham-bones.

COLONEL (STANDS) — Send him in, Miss Gilchrist. You may go.

CLEMENTINE —May I?

(EXIT CLEMENTINE.)

COLONEL —Well, Virgil? What do you make of that? (PAUSE)

COLONEL —True. It would seem to clear Parson, or at least to put him well away from the house. I heard him go out just after eleven, by the parlor clock, and Harvey paid me a call not long after, begging a few sheets of blotting-paper—; so Harvey was alive and hale at twelve o’clock. If, then, Parson was out on one of his night-time jaunts, and Clem met him returning to the house at six — (PAUSE) — But only if she can be trusted. She is a doxie, after all. I shouldn’t wonder, for example, if Clementine and Parson—

(PAUSE)

COLONEL —Of course, Virgil! None whatsoever. I humbly beg your pardon.

COLONEL —So, Dodds. Breakfast is put away then, is it?

DODDS —Yes, Marse D’Ancourt. Stew’s fixin. PAUSE. — Been leavin off yin bed-work—; I know that. Stairs in yin back too narrow to get up with a basket. If you and Marse Virgil would allow—

COLONEL —Go up the front stairs if you have to. Just so the beds get aired and made.

DODDS (PAUSE) — Thank you, Colonel. It’s a case of—

COLONEL —Did you have something to tell us?

DODDS —Tell you, sih?

COLONEL —Something you’ve been keeping secret from us, perhaps.

DODDS (PAUSE) — I mean, I — (PAUSE) — Secrets?

COLONEL (SHOUTS) — Why the devil does everyone gawk at Virgil when I ask them something? Virgil is present as my secretary, you rag-picker! Look at me!

DODDS —Ah! Well I regret about that, Colonel, I’m sure. (PAUSE)— Maybe you has a question for me, sih? So I know what to tell?

COLONEL —I’ve just asked it, Dodds. Collect yourself a moment. (PAUSE) — It can’t have escaped you that Mr. Harvey was taken in the night.

DODDS —It hasn’t, sih, no. A sad loss it is, if you don’t mind.

COLONEL —I don’t mind at all. Do you know how he died?

DODDS (PAUSE) — I heard as he was murthured.

COLONEL —Did you murder him?

DODDS —Sih?

COLONEL —The question doesn’t seem to put you out.

DODDS —It don’t, sih, no. I catch hell for all and sundry.

COLONEL (SMILES) — Who was it told you of his killing?

DODDS —Marse Delamare told it to me.

COLONEL —Ah! Mr. Delamare. I see. (PAUSE) — You have an understanding, then, the two of you?

DODDS (FROWNS) — Sih?

COLONEL —I mean you talk to one another. (PAUSE) — Share your thoughts about the goings-on. Your views.

DODDS (PAUSE) — That’s so, Colonel. I suppose we do.

COLONEL —You’re friends with Mr. Delamare, in a word.

DODDS (PAUSE) — I wouldn’t properly say—

COLONEL —Being niggers you have a natural affection for one another.

DODDS (LOUDLY) — Marse Delamare no nigger, Colonel. Not like me. Marse Delamare stand up straight. He a regular son of—

COLONEL —I must say, Dodds, you couldn’t have made your connection to Mr. Delamare any clearer. Before knowing him you’d never have raised your voice to your betters.

DODDS (PAUSE) — No, sih.

COLONEL —How long have you and I known each other, Dodds? How long have you been the house-boy to the Trade?

DODDS (PAUSE) — Nigh on seven year.

COLONEL —And before that?

DODDS —Before that I belong to Marse Trist’ daddy. You know that.

COLONEL —How many people have you seen put down in that time?

(PAUSE)

COLONEL —Dodds?

DODDS —Never learnt no reckoning.

COLONEL —Then let me reckon for you. You’ve seen a great many people put down, Dodds. People of every stripe. White men, niggers, Indians, Creoles, Chinamen, white women, nigger women—; even, sometimes, little nigger children. (PAUSE) — You served the Trade faithfully and unquestioningly over the whole of your long tenure, because you were the Redeemer’s nigger. You were his property, to use as he saw fit. (PAUSE) — No different than any of us in this house.

DODDS (INAUDIBLE)

COLONEL —What’s that?

DODDS —I ain’t the Deemer’s niggra now. (SMILES) — He down the privy-ditch.

COLONEL —Whose nigger are you, then? Delamare’s?

DODDS (INAUDIBLE)

COLONEL —Was it Delamare put Goodman Harvey down?

DODDS —Marse Delamare say it were Kennedy.

COLONEL (SIGHS) — Dodds, I find you a most unmanageable nigger lately. I’ve half a mind to pitch you in the river.

DODDS —You do as you please, Colonel. (PAUSE) — Who be making yin scrapple and greens tomorrow—?

COLONEL —Clementine might.

DODDS —Hah! That lady got but one ability I know of. (PAUSE) — Beg pardon, Virgil. (PAUSE) — Things I ought be doing—

COLONEL —Yes, Dodds. To begin with, you might air the beds. But you’re not lifting your back-side off that stool till my curiosity’s satisfied.

DODDS (INAUDIBLE)

COLONEL —That’s fine. Now. Did you see, hear, or smell Mr. Harvey at any time last night, after his return from the orchard with Miss Gilchrist?

DODDS —I saw him go upstairs. (QUIETLY) — Met with somebody on yin landing.

COLONEL —The landing of the stairs?

DODDS (NODS)

COLONEL —Who was it?

DODDS —Somebody. A man.