Fences Page #2

Troy cracks the seal of the bottle of

gin, pours some out on the ground . . .

for the folks that are long gone.

EXT. TROY’S AND ROSE’S BACKYARD—

AFTERNOON:

In the center of the yard, a large

tree, two chairs beneath it. A

battered baseball hangs from a rope

tied to a tree limb; a big weathered

bat leans against the trunk.

The yard is bordered on either side by

fences and houses. At the rear,

there’s a derelict wooden house with

boarded windows. The remnants of a

fence are strewn between the wild lot

behind the abandoned house and the

Maxsons’ yard.

Materials for a new fence . . . a

couple of wooden sawhorses waiting for

the lumber stacked under a tarp. One

or two chairs of dubious value sit at

one end where the kitchen window opens

onto the porch. An old-fashioned ice

box stands silent guard at the other

end.

Rose maxson comes out onto the porch,

holding a bowl of snap peas. She is

ten years younger than troy. Her

devotion to him stems from the

recognition of the possibilities of

her life without him: a succession of

abusive men and their babies, a life

of partying and running the streets,

the church, or aloneness with its

attendant pain and frustration. She

recognizes troy’s spirit as a fine and

illuminating one and she either

ignores or forgives his faults, only

some of which she recognizes. Though

she doesn’t drink, her presence is an

integral part of the friday night

rituals.

rose:
What you all out here getting into? What you all out here getting into?

troy:
What you worried about what we getting into for?

This is men talk, woman.

rose:
What I care what you talking about? Bono, you

gonna stay for supper?

bono:
No, I thank you, Rose. But Lucille say she cooking

up a pot of pigfeet.

troy:
Pigfeet! Hell, I’m going home with you! Might

even stay the night if you got some pigfeet. You

got something in there to top them pigfeet, Rose?

rose:
I’m cooking up some chicken. I got some chicken

and collard greens.

troy:
Well, go on back in the house and let me and

Bono finish what we was talking about. This is men

talk. I got some talk for you later. You know what

kind of talk I mean. Go on and powder it up.

rose:
Troy Maxson, don’t you start that now!

troy (puts his arm around her): Aw, woman . . . come here.

Look here, Bono . . . When I met this woman . . .

I got out that place, say, “Hitch up my pony,

saddle up my mare . . . there’s a woman out there

for me somewhere. I looked here. Looked there.

Saw Rose and latched on to her.” I latched on to

her and told her—I’m gonna tell you the truth—I

told her, “Baby, I don’t wanna marry, I just

wanna be your man.” Rose told me . . . tell him

what you told me, Rose.

rose:
I told him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, then

move out the way so the marrying kind could find me.

I told him if he wasn’t the marrying kind, then

move out the way so the marrying kind could find me.

troy:
That’s what she told me. “N*gger, you in my way.

You blocking the view! Move out the way so I can

find me a husband.” I thought it over two or three

days. Come back—

rose:
Ain’t no two or three days nothing. You was back

the same night.

troy:
Come back, told her . . . “Okay, baby . . . but

I’m gonna buy me a banty rooster and put him out

there in the backyard . . . and when he see a

stranger come, he’ll flap his wings and crow . . .”

Look here, Bono, I could watch the front door by

myself . . . it was that back door I was worried

about.

rose:
Troy, you ought not talk like that. Troy ain’t

doing nothing but telling a lie.

troy:
Only thing is . . . when we first got married

. . . forget the rooster . . . we ain’t had

no yard!

bono:
I hear you tell it. Me and Lucille was staying

down there on Logan Street. Had two rooms with the

outhouse in the back. I ain’t mind the outhouse

none. But when that goddamn wind blow through

there in the winter . . . that’s what I’m talking

about! To this day I wonder why in the hell I ever

stayed down there for six long years. But see, I

didn’t know I could do no better. I thought only

white folks had inside toilets and things.

rose:
There’s a lot of people don’t know they can do

no better than they doing now. That’s just someThere’s a lot of people don’t know they can do

no better than they doing now. That’s just something

you got to learn. A lot of folks still shop

at Bella’s.

troy:
Ain’t nothing wrong with shopping at Bella’s.

She got fresh food.

rose:
I ain’t said nothing about if she got fresh

food. I’m talking about what she charge. She

charge ten cents more than the A&P.

troy:
The A&P ain’t never done nothing for me. I

spends my money where I’m treated right. I go

down to Bella, say, “I need a loaf of bread, I’ll

pay you Friday.” She give it to me. What sense

that make when I got money to go and spend it

somewhere else and ignore the person who done

right by me? That ain’t in the Bible.

rose:
We ain’t talking about what’s in the Bible. What

sense it make to shop there when she overcharge?

troy:
You shop where you want to. I’ll do my shopping

where the people been good to me.

rose:
Well, I don’t think it’s right for her to overcharge.

That’s all I was saying.

bono:
Look here . . . I got to get on. Lucille be

raising all kind of hell.

troy:
Where you going, n*gger? We ain’t finished this

pint. Come here, finish this pint.

bono:
Well, hell, I am . . . if you ever turn the bottle

loose.

Troy hands him the bottle.

troy:
The only thing I say about the A&P is I’m glad

Cory got that job down there. Help him take care

of his school clothes and things.

Rose straightens up. Cory is a sore

subject.

troy:
Gabe done moved out and things getting tight

around here. He got that job . . . he can start

to look out for himself.

rose:
Cory done went and got recruited by a college

football team.

troy:
I told that boy about that football stuff. The

white man ain’t gonna let him get nowhere with

that football. I told him when he first come to me

with it. Now you come telling me he done went and

got more tied up in it. He ought to go and get

recruited in how to fix cars or something where he

can make a living.

rose:
He ain’t talking about making no living playing

football. It’s just something the boys in school

do. They gonna send a recruiter by to talk to you.

He’ll tell you he ain’t talking about making no

living playing football. It’s a honor to be recruited.

troy:
It ain’t gonna get him nowhere. Bono’ll tell you

that.

bono:
If he be like you in the sports . . . he’s gonna

be all right. Ain’t but two men ever played base

ball as good as you. That’s Babe Ruth and Josh

Gibson. Them’s the only two men ever hit more

home runs than you.

troy:
What it ever get me? Ain’t got a pot to piss in

or a window to throw it out of.

rose:
Times have changed since you was playing baseball,

Troy. That was before the war. Times have

changed a lot since then.

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