Fences Page #15

troy (calling after him): All right, we gonna see now.

You better get out your bankbook.

INT. BASEMENT—AFTERNOON

Cory sits on a crate, doing curls with

barbells made from cans, cement and a

pipe, an old saw in the dirt at his

feet. Above him, Bono’s footsteps and

the kitchen door open and shut.

EXT. THE BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

Troy continues to work. Rose comes out

from the kitchen

rose:
What they say down there? What’s happening with

Gabe?

troy:
I went down there and got him out. Cost me fifty

dollars. Say he was disturbing the peace. Judge

set up a hearing for him in three weeks. Say to

show cause why he shouldn’t be recommitted.

rose:
Well, what’s you say? What’d you tell the judge?

troy:
Told him I’d look after him. It didn’t make no

sense to recommit the man. He stuck out his big

greasy palm, and told me to give him fifty dollars

and take him on home.

Told him I’d look after him. It didn’t make no

sense to recommit the man. He stuck out his big

greasy palm, and told me to give him fifty dollars

and take him on home.

rose:
Where’s he at now? Where’d he go off to?

troy:
He’s gone on about his business. He don’t need

nobody to hold his hand.

rose:
Well, I don’t know. Seem like that would be the

best place for him if they did put him into the

hospital. I know what you’re gonna say. But that’s

what I think would be best.

troy:
The man done had his life ruined fighting for

what? And they wanna take and lock him up. Let him

be free. He don’t bother nobody.

rose:
Well, everybody got their own way of looking at

it I guess. Come on and get your lunch. I got a

bowl of lima beans and some cornbread in the

oven. Come on get something to eat. Ain’t no

sense you fretting over Gabe.

troy:
Rose . . . got something to tell you.

rose:
Well, come on . . . wait till I get this food

on the table.

Rose turns to go into the house. Troy

follows.

INT. KITCHEN—AFTERNOON

troy:
Rose.

She turns around.

troy:
I don’t know how to say this.

(pause)

I can’t explain it none. It just sort of grows

on you till it gets out of hand. It starts out

like a little bush . . . and the next thing you

know it’s a whole forest.

rose:
Troy . . . what is you talking about?

troy:
I’m talking, woman, let me talk. I’m trying to

find a way to tell you . . . I’m gonna be a daddy.

I’m gonna be somebody’s daddy.

rose:
Troy . . . you’re not telling me this? You’re

gonna be . . . what?

troy:
Rose . . . now . . . see . . .

rose:
You telling me you gonna be somebody’s daddy?

You telling your wife this?

From out in the back yard, Gabriel

calls:

gabriel (o.s.):
Hey, Troy! Hey, Rose!

rose:
I have to wait eighteen years to hear something

like this.

Gabriel enters from the back porch. He

carries a rose in his hand.

gabriel:
Hey, Rose . . . I got a flower for you.

(He hands it to her)

That’s a rose. Same rose like you is.

rose:
Thanks, Gabe.

gabriel:
Troy, you ain’t mad at me is you? Them bad

mens come and put me away. You ain’t mad at me is

you?

troy:
Naw, Gabe, I ain’t mad at you.

rose:
Eighteen years and you wanna come with this.

gabriel (takes a quarter out of his pocket): See what I got?

Got a brand-new quarter.

troy:
Rose . . . it’s just . . .

rose:
Ain’t nothing you can say, Troy. Ain’t no way

of explaining that.

gabriel:
Fellow that give me this quarter had a whole

mess of them. I’m gonna keep this quarter till it

stop shining.

rose:
Gabe, go on up front now. I got some watermelon

in the Frigidaire. I’ll get you a piece.

gabriel:
Say, Rose . . . you know I was chasing hellhounds

and them bad mens come and get me and take

me away. Troy helped me. He come down there and

told them they better let me go before he beat

them up. Yeah, he did!

rose:
You go on up front and I’ll get you a piece of

watermelon, Gabe. Them bad mens is gone now.

gabriel:
Okay, Rose . . . gonna bring me some watermelon.

The kind with the stripes on it.

Gabriel goes up to the front room.

Then:

rose:
Why, Troy? Why? After all these years to come

dragging this in to me now. It don’t make no sense

at your age. I could have expected this ten or

fifteen years ago, but not now.

troy:
Age ain’t got nothing to do with it, Rose.

rose:
I done tried to be everything a wife should be.

Everything a wife could be. Been married eighteen

years and I got to live to see the day you tell

me you been seeing another woman and done fathered

a child by her. And you know I ain’t never

wanted no half-nothing in my family. My whole

family is half. Everybody got different fathers

and mothers . . . my two sisters and my brother.

Can’t hardly tell who’s who. Can’t never sit down

and talk about Papa and Mama. It’s your papa and

your mama and my papa and my mama . . .

troy:
Rose . . . stop it now.

rose:
I ain’t never wanted that for none of my children.

And now you wanna drag your behind in here

and tell me something like this.

troy:
You ought to know. It’s time for you to know. You ought to know. It’s time for you to know.

rose:
Well, I don’t want to know, goddamn it!

Rose, suffocating, heads outside. Troy

follows.

INT. BASEMENT—AFTERNOON

Muffled sounds . . . Cory not sure what

he is hearing.

EXT. BACKYARD—AFTERNOON

troy:
I can’t just make it go away. It’s done now. I

can’t wish the circumstance of the thing away.

rose:
And you don’t want to either. Maybe you want to

wish me and my boy away. Maybe that’s what you

want? Well, you can’t wish us away. I’ve got

eighteen years of my life invested in you. You

ought to have stayed upstairs in my bed where you

belong.

troy:
Rose . . . now listen to me . . . we can get a

handle on this thing. We can talk this out . . .

come to an understanding.

rose:
All of a sudden it’s “we.” Where was “we” at

when you was down there rolling around with some

godforsaken woman? “We” should have come to an

understanding before you started making a damn

fool of yourself. You’re a day late and a dollar

short when it comes to an understanding with me.

troy:
It’s just . . . She gives me a different

idea . . . a different understanding about myself.

I can step out of this house and get away

from the pressures and problems . . . be a different

man. I ain’t got to wonder how I’m gonna

pay the bills or get the roof fixed. I can just be

a part of myself that I ain’t never been.

rose:
What I want to know . . . is do you plan to continue

seeing her. That’s all you can say to me.

troy:
I can sit up in her house and laugh. Do you understand

what I’m saying. I can laugh out

loud . . . and it feels good. It reaches all the

way down to the bottom of my shoes.

(pause)

Rose, I can’t give that up.

rose:
Maybe you ought to go on and stay down there

with her . . . if she a better woman than me.

troy:
It ain’t about nobody being a better woman or

nothing. Rose, you ain’t to blame. A man couldn’t

ask for no woman to be a better wife than you’ve

been. I’m responsible for it. I done locked myself

into a pattern trying to take care of you all

that I forgot about myself.

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