Fences Page #12

bono:
A lot of them did. Back in those days what you

talking about . . . they walk out their front

door and just take on down one road or another and

keep on walking.

lyons:
There you go! That’s what I’m talking about. There you go! That’s what I’m talking about.

Troy offers Bono the bottle.

bono:
Just keep on walking till you come to something

else. Ain’t you never heard of nobody having the

walking blues? Well, that’s what you call it when

you just take off like that.

troy:
My daddy ain’t had them walking blues! What you

talking about? He stayed right there with his

family. But he was just as evil as he could be.

My mama couldn’t stand him. Couldn’t stand that

evilness. She run off when I was about eight.

EXT. AN ALABAMA COTTON FIELD—DAY

A sharp colorless memory fragment:

troy’s father, a sharecropper, seen from behind as

he steers a plow pulled by a mule.

troy (v.o.):
She sneaked off one night after he had

gone to sleep. Told me she was coming back for me.

I ain’t never seen her no more. All his women run

off and left him. He wasn’t good for nobody.

EXT. THE BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

troy:
When my turn come to head out, I was fourteen

and got to sniffing around Joe Canewell’s daughter.

INT. THE KITCHEN—AFTERNOON

Rose sits next to Gabriel, eating a

sandwich, his trumpet on the table.

Rose is listening to Troy.

troy (o.s.):
Had us an old mule we called Greyboy. My

daddy sent me out to do some plowing and I tied

up Greyboy and went to fooling around with Joe

Canewell’s daughter. We done found us a nice

spot, got real cozy with each other. She about

thirteen and we done figured we was grown anyway

. . . So we down there enjoying ourselves

. . . ain’t thinking about nothing.

EXT. A WOODS IN ALABAMA—DAY

Memory fragment, no color: The arms,

shoulders, legs of a teenaged girl,

pushing aside low-growing new foliage,

lying down on leaves; a quick glimpse

of a pretty face; her laughter heard

underneath Troy’s voice:

troy (v.o.):
We didn’t know Greyboy had got loose and

wandered back to the house and my daddy was looking

for me. We down there by the creek enjoying

ourselves when my daddy come up on us.

EXT. BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

troy:
Surprised us. He had them leather straps off the

mule and commenced to whupping me like there was

no tomorrow. I jumped up, mad and embarrassed. I

was scared of my daddy.

EXT. A WOODS IN ALABAMA—DAY

Memory fragment:
Troy’s father’s huge

arms tearing at branches, scrabbling

after something that’s scrambling away

from his grasping hands.

EXT. THE BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

troy:
When he commenced to whupping on me . . . quite

naturally I run to get out of the way. Now I

thought he was mad ’cause I ain’t done my work.

But I see where he was chasing me off so he could

have the gal for himself. When I see what the

matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy.

Right there is where I become a man . . . at

fourteen years of age.

EXT. A WOODS IN ALABAMA—DAY

Memory fragment:
The teenaged girl,

running, terrified, deeper into the

woods; Troy’s father’s back, his shirt

being torn open by the stroke of a

leather reins; his arms raised against

further lashing.

troy (v.o.):
Now it was my turn to run him off. I

picked up them same reins that he had used on me.

I picked up them reins and commenced to whupping

on him. The gal jumped up and run off . . . and

when my daddy turned to face me, I could see why

the devil had never come to get him . . .

Troy’s father grabs the reins,

lowering his arms; a moment in which

we see his face for the first time.

troy (v.o.):
. . . ’cause he was the devil himself.

INT. THE KITCHEN—AFTERNOON

Gabriel stands with his trumpet,

sandwich in his other hand. Rose is

still sitting, transfixed.

EXT. THE BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

troy:
I don’t know what happened. When I woke up, I

was laying right there by the creek, and Blue . . .

this old dog we had . . . was licking my face. I

thought I was blind. I couldn’t see nothing. Both

my eyes were swollen shut. I laid there and cried.

I didn’t know what I was gonna do.

He stops, lost someplace inside his

head.

troy:
The only thing I knew was the time had come for

me to leave my daddy’s house. And right there the

world suddenly got big. And it was a long time

before I could cut it down to where I could handle

it.

Gabe comes out on the porch. A beat,

then:

lyons:
What you got there, Uncle Gabe?

gabriel:
Got me a ham sandwich. Rose gave me a ham

sandwich.

troy:
I don’t know what happened to him. I done lost

touch with everybody except Gabriel. But I hope

he’s dead. I hope he found some peace.

lyons:
That’s a heavy story, Pop. I didn’t know you

left home when you was fourteen.

The phone rings inside the house.

lyons:
Fourteen’s kinda young to be out on your own.

I don’t know what I would have done.

troy:
I got up from the creek and walked on down to

Mobile. I was through with farming.

(stands, goes to a safe place . . .

his bat, leaning against the tree)

Figured I could do better in the city. So I

walked the two hundred miles to Mobile.

lyons:
Wait a minute . . . you ain’t walked no two

hundred miles, Pop. Ain’t nobody gonna walk no

two hundred miles. You talking about some walking

there.

Wait a minute . . . you ain’t walked no two

hundred miles, Pop. Ain’t nobody gonna walk no

two hundred miles. You talking about some walking

there.

bono:
That’s the only way you got anywhere back in

them days.

lyons:
Shhh. Damn if I wouldn’t have hitched a ride

with somebody!

troy:
Who you gonna hitch it with? They ain’t had no

cars and things like they got now.

Swinging his bat . . .

troy:
We talking about 1918.

Rose comes out onto the porch.

rose:
What you all out here getting into?

troy (to rose):
I’m telling Lyons how good he got it.

He don’t know nothing about this I’m talking.

rose:
Lyons, that was Bonnie on the phone. She say you

supposed to pick her up.

lyons:
Yeah, okay, Rose.

troy:
I walked on down to Mobile and hitched up with

some of them fellows that was heading this way.

Got up here and found out . . . not only couldn’t

you get a job . . . you couldn’t find no place to

live. I thought I was in freedom. Shhh. Colored

folks living down there on the riverbanks in

whatever kind of shelter they could find for them

selves. Right down there under the Brady Street

Bridge. Living in shacks made of sticks and tar

paper.

Here we go.

troy:
Messed around there and went from bad to worse.

Started stealing. First it was food. Then I figured,

hell, if I steal money I can buy me some

food. Buy me some shoes too! One thing led to

another. Met your mama. I was young and anxious

to be a man. Met your mama and had you. What I do

that for?

Lyons is unsure if his father is

joking.

troy:
Now I got to worry about feeding you and her.

Got to steal three times as much. Went out one day

looking for somebody to rob . . . that’s what I

was, a robber. I’ll tell you the truth. I’m

ashamed of it today. But it’s the truth. Went to

rob this fellow . . . pulled out my knife . . .

and he pulled out a gun. Shot me in the chest. It

felt just like somebody had taken a hot branding

iron and laid it on me. When he shot me I jumped

at him with my knife. They told me I killed him

and they put me in the penitentiary and locked me

up for fifteen years. That’s where I met Bono.

That’s where I learned how to play baseball. Got

out that place and your mama had taken you and

went on to make a life without me.

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