Convicts Page #2

mean. It's the white blood in him.

See, now he kill you,

too, if he had the chance.

Being as he is. He

don't like white people.

I asked him, I say...

"How come you don't like white people

when you're half white yourself?"

But he didn't answer that.

He just cussed me.

You give me that knife, I

just might cut my own throat.

Save somebody else the trouble.

Can you give me that knife?

No.

- Give me another chew of tobacco?

- Sure.

Keep it.

If I gave you this knife...

would you really try

and kill yourself?

Give it to me and see.

I couldn't kill myself.

Well, you ain't waiting in

chains for no white sheriff.

I couldn't do that.

I'm afraid to die.

You're not afraid of dying?

No.

Where you going?

Just going over there. To say

a prayer over Jesse's grave.

- Dib, take the sheriff's horse.

- Yes, sir.

The convict's over

yonder by the tree.

Leroy, do you know the Lord's Prayer?

- No.

- I've forgotten the last part of it.

- Ben, do you know the Lord's Prayer?

- Yes, I do.

What comes after "forgive

us our trespasses"?

No, I can't say it that way.

Got to start from the beginning.

"Our Father who art in

Heaven, hallowed be thy name.

"Thy kingdom come, thy

will be done on earth...

"Forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those...

"who trespass against us..."

- There he is. Sheriff. Right there.

- You the one? Who got the keys?

Right here.

Ben, how many throats did

this devil slit last night?

Only one, sir.

- But was he colored or white?

- They all colored, sir.

Now get up or I'll kill you.

Mr. Soll?

You told me yesterday that

you'd pay me my wages today, sir.

You work for me?

Now you know, Mr.

Soll, he works for you.

- Did I ask you a question?

- No, sir.

Then you keep quiet until I do.

- Shoot.

- Why do you say that?

'Cause I'm disgusted.

This poor boy out here working to get

a tombstone for his daddy's grave...

and he been here six months and

you ain't paid him nothing yet.

Go up to the house in

a while. I'll pay you.

Think he's gonna do it?

I wouldn't waste holding

my breath if I was you.

Lord Jesus, have mercy, God.

Lord, they killing each other.

Someday all of them convicts gonna get

loose and we're gonna all be killed.

Get your shovel. Go

dig a grave for him.

I'll send Jackson

over there to help you.

Boy, you go watch the body

until we get his grave dug.

- Sir, I wouldn't care to see him right now.

- Why?

Because he's dead, sir.

You never seen a dead man before,

boy? Nothing to worry yourself about.

Sir, I just don't want to see him...

- Suppose I told you, you had to do it, boy.

- He don't have to do it. I'll do it.

What're you doing here? You're supposed

to be cooking my Christmas dinner.

This ain't Christmas Day yet.

- What the hell day is it?

- It's Christmas Eve.

All right.

Lord. Jesus.

That convict tried

to kill me, you know.

- Which one?

- The one the sheriff just shot.

- He really dead, Martha?

- Yes, sir.

- The white one or colored one?

- You saw him.

Well, I forget.

Come see for yourself.

I forget.

He tried to kill me, he did.

He won't have a chance anymore.

Colored or white. Crazy old fool.

Lord, you know.

Martha, you afraid of dying?

No, I ain't afraid of it.

Just not ready to go yet.

- Where is Mr. Soll?

- He's over there by the body.

- He says he tried to kill him.

- Might have.

Jackson, he listens to you.

Tell him to give me my money.

- He don't listen to me.

- Jackson!

Tell Martha to get in the house and

start cooking my Christmas dinner.

- You hear that, Martha?

- Tell him today ain't Christmas.

She say today ain't Christmas.

- Did you bury him?

- Yes, I did.

Right next to the

other convicts' graves.

Mr. Soll say any convicts

that die gets buried out here.

He don't want them next

to his peoples' graves.

I don't want them next

to mine. In my graveyard.

My mama and papa buried out there.

My sister's buried out

there. And her baby.

Howdy, Mr. Billy.

Good morning, Mr. Soll.

- Is he dead?

- Dead drunk.

Who's that on the ground?

Mr. Billy Vaughn. He's drunk.

I thought he was

another dead convict.

- Lot of them out here now.

- How many?

God knows. Always room for

one more, though, ain't it?

I'm a convict, you know. They made me

a trustee so I can walk about free...

but I'm still a convict.

- Is that a convict?

- No.

- Who the hell is it?

- Who it look like?

Wake up, Billy.

The son of a b*tch is

drunk. Billy's drunk.

- Where you taking him to?

- Over to the house.

Did Overseer get them convicts back

out in the field like I told him to?

- All but one.

- Why isn't he out in the fields?

- He's sick.

- What the hell's wrong with him?

I don't know. You have to ask him.

Boy, come here.

Tell that Overseer to get that

convict out in the field with the rest.

- Yes, sir.

- Don't go over there.

What'd you say, woman?

I told him not to go over

where them convicts live.

- Let Jackson, Ben go over there.

- I'll go, god damn it.

Then you go over there.

You think I'm scared of

any goddamn sick convict?

I'm scared of no goddamn convict,

sick or well. I'll go over there.

- He ain't gonna be sick long now.

- Which one is it?

The brother to the

one that got killed.

- What if he is sick?

- Ain't gonna help him.

Gonna have to work out in

the fields just the same.

Mr. Soll didn't bring

him here to get sick.

- You know Mr. Billy Vaughn's divorced?

- Yes.

What happens if you're not

divorced, but your first wife dies...

and then you marry again?

When you go to heaven, which

woman do you claim as your wife?

I don't know.

Take Sherman Edwards.

He's got a white daddy

and a colored mama.

Now when they all go to heaven

together, what's gonna happen?

How would I know all that, Horace?

I worry about things like this.

'Cause my daddy died and now my

mama's married to another man.

Got to wondering last night, who's

gonna be her husband in heaven.

Kept me awake half the night.

Read the Bible. All that's

in the Bible someplace.

Keep moving.

Gotcha.

I love pecan pie.

There's a boy out here says I owe

him some money, Ben. You pay him.

What am I gonna pay him

with? I have no money.

- Take it out of the cash at the store.

- What cash?

You know everybody's been

buying on credit since October.

- Everybody?

- How else they gonna buy?

- I got a lot of money, you know.

- I know you do.

- Where'd the hell I put my money?

- I don't know, sir.

When you find it, or I find it...

I'm gonna pay the boy.

Now you tell him that.

- You tell him. There he is right there.

- Where?

Right there.

Yeah.

Where's Nancy?

She dead, sir. She been

dead more than 15 years now.

- Where's Julia?

- She's dead, too. She been dead.

- Where's Sarah?

- She dead, too, sir.

Who the hell's out here?

Just you and me and the boy here

and Martha and the Overseer...

and the guards and the convicts.

- Where's my gun?

- I don't know, sir.

- Get it for me.

- I don't know where it is, sir.

- You got a gun?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes