Sommersby Page #2

He's my husband, he's come home now.

That's right. That's right.

But if he ever...

lays a hand to you again,

I'll have to break it.

Orin, please.

LITTLE ROB:

Jethro?

[CHICKENS CLUCKING]

ORIN:

Well...

Lord...

take him to that better place

where the sun always shines...

and he'll have bigger fields

to run in. Amen.

ORIN:

Jack.

What are you doing?

Not too damn much.

What are you doing?

Try and get a little hoeing done.

Yeah, well, you can take a break.

Not gonna be any cotton on this land.

I put a little bit of work

in these fields.

You and about 40 more slaves,

maybe we'll get a crop in here.

What, you calling me a n*gger?

Hell, Orin, I ain't...

Look, I know what you done around here

and I appreciate it.

What I've done, I haven't done for you.

- She's made her choice.

- No.

She had no choice.

You know, if it'd gone the other way,

if she wanted you...

I don't think I would have

hung around here, watched.

Not me.

No.

But then, you never were one

to hang around, were you?

I told Orin I'd marry him next year,

if you didn't come back.

He's put a lot of hard work

in here, and we owe him.

Now, I want you to be nice to him.

You've gotta try

and put yourself in his shoes.

JACK:
Shoe.

- Heh.

Come on, now. It's hard for him

getting this close and all...

He ever get this close to you?

[SNICKERS]

I guess he did.

- Did he kiss you?

- No.

- He didn't? Hmm.

- No.

Did you want him to?

Mm-mm. I don't know.

- Don't know?

- No.

Did he want to kiss you?

I guess he did.

Let me get the sugar.

All right.

Why didn't he?

Because I never said that he could.

- You say he couldn't?

- No.

Well, let me get this straight.

He wanted to...

but you didn't know.

So he didn't ask,

and you didn't say.

So he didn't, and you weren't.

But he's not here, and I am.

And I want to.

So I'm gonna go ask.

- Where are you going?

- To ask Orin if I can kiss my wife.

[LAUGHING]

Stop it!

[CHUCKLES]

You got a very beautiful smile there,

Mrs. Sommersby.

Hope to see a whole lot more of it.

Well, you will.

LAUREL:

Where'd you find that?

Heh. It was in the trunk.

You remember?

You sewed this the whole first month

we were married, didn't you?

When I finally tried it on, it was too small.

You threw the damn thing in there

and said you're never gonna sew again.

- I don't think you ever did.

- How'd you remember that?

Well, I forgot a whole lot

of important things.

Other ones...

never leave my mind, never will.

- What are you doing?

- Come on, arms up.

Been in a trunk for nine years.

It needs some washing.

- Ugh.

- Heh.

You remember making our son?

The night it happened?

- Yes.

- You were drunk.

Yeah, well, I'm sorry.

Seems like after that,

you never much wanted me anymore.

Well, seems a whole lot different now.

So...

you want to sleep in the other room?

No.

Good. Heh.

[BOTH LAUGHING]

What's wrong?

I just don't remember

how I was with you.

How to be.

You don't have to remember that.

Jack...

Say it again.

Jack.

Jack.

[MOANS]

Oh, Jack. Jack.

JACK:

Hey, boy!

Let's go to town, get shoes!

Do I have to?

No, you can stay here and help me

shovel out the chicken coop.

JACK:

Come on.

LITTLE ROB:

Where in the world are we going?

- Mama don't let me drive.

- Well...

I guess we got to mind Mama,

don't we?

- Say, "ha."

- Ha.

- Say it louder.

- Ha.

Don't say it to me, boy.

Say it to him.

- Ha!

JACK:
Ha-ha-ha.

- Say it again.

LITTLE ROB:
Ha!

JACK:

Morning!

Move around there.

Whoa!

Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[EXHALES]

You're real good, boy.

Thank you, sir.

There's a lot of dead men's

footprints on this wall.

That's the one I'm looking for.

I'm truly glad

you didn't follow them, Jack.

You'll look just fine

once you get your lips back.

Let me have that foot.

There's something about whiskers

that makes a man's lips...

just shrink right on up.

I'll be damned.

Your foot shrunk.

Foot's two sizes smaller now.

That ain't mine.

Heh. You must have been drunk.

Sure it's yours. See?

I wrote your name right here at the bottom.

How in the hell do you suppose

that could have happened?

JACK:

You know what I see?

DICK:
No.

- I see the future. Right there.

Tobacco?

FARMER:

You mean smoking it, or growing it?

You can't grow it this far north.

MAN:
Too cold!

- Yes, you can. Yes, you can.

It's called burley.

MAN:
Burley?

- They want it. And we can grow it.

Jack! You ever planted anything in the field,

except your foot up somebody's backside?

[ALL LAUGHING]

I don't think I have. But I didn't shoot

my first man before I had to, either.

You want to hear

what I have to say?

[ALL CHATTERING]

All right.

Here's what I'm offering.

I'll give you a piece of my land,

each and every one of you.

I'll give you tools, fertilizer.

And you keep half of the crop

when it comes in.

I'll take my share of the crop

and pay off the mortgage.

When the title clears...

you can buy that land you work

for a fair price.

[ALL CHATTERING]

Are you talking about

selling your own land?

- Yeah.

- Your dad would've died before he sold land.

He did, didn't he?

[ALL MUTTERING]

John Greene.

- How long you been sharecropping? 10 years?

JOHN:
Fifteen.

Fifteen years! You ever get a chance

to buy that land you've been working?

Ha, ha. Hell, no.

Hell, no. This is it.

This is your chance, boy.

Take it!

[ALL MUTTERING]

What about y'all? You want in?

I'm not helping n*ggers.

You're saying that those

who, uh, work the land...

I can't hear you.

You're saying those

who work the land get to buy it?

Yes, sir.

That means coloreds and all?

Nobody squats on my land.

You wanna stay, you have to pay for it

just like everybody else.

MRS. BUNDY:

I ain't living next to no niggras!

[ALL CHATTERING]

- You ain't, no? Well. Hmm.

MRS. BUNDY:
No, I'm not.

Where you gonna live, Mrs. Bundy?

In the poorhouse?

I'd just as soon!

We take care of our own!

That's good. You gonna take care of her?

Do that. You go work your fields

12 hours and then work hers.

ORIN:
I got a question.

- Go ahead.

Tobacco seed.

We all know it's worth about

2000 times its weight in gold.

You got no cash.

- You got no collateral.

- That's true.

Your house, your land,

that's all mortgaged.

You don't have tools,

you don't even a mule.

Where you gonna get money

for tobacco seed?

[ALL CHATTERING]

That's God's own truth.

Thank you, Orin, for bringing that up.

Appreciate your concern and confidence.

I was getting around to that.

MAN 1:

We're waiting to hear that.

MAN 2:

ls the seed gonna fall out of the sky, Jack'?

Hell, we're all...

We're all sitting on a little something.

[ALL MUTTERING]

- Aren't we?

WOMAN:
We don't have anything to sit on.

There's nothing you

can do with that thing.

But just maybe, we put all it together,

all those little things together...

we got something then. We got something.

No, sir, won't work.

JACK:

Maybe we can get started. All of us.

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