The Color Purple Page #6

Season #1

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and l came in her place."

I wrote a letter to you

almost every day on the ship.

On my first sight of the Africa coast...

...something struck in me, in my soul,

Celie, like a large bell.

I just vibrated.

It has been a long time

since I had time to write, but always...

...no matter what I'm doing,

I'm writing you. Dear--

Celie! Bring me a cool drink.

Olinka is four days march

through the bush from the harbor.

Do you know what a jungle is?

Trees and trees and then more trees

on top of that.

And big!

They are so big,

they look like they were built.

And vines and ferns

and animals and noises...

...that make you wonder

what is lurking behind the shadows...

...of every bush.

We're up at 5:
00 for a breakfast of

millet, porridge, fruit, then morning classes.

We teach the children English,

reading, writing...

...history, geography, arithmetic,

and the stories of the Bible.

The older children are used

to coming to the mission school.

The smaller ones are not.

Their mothers sometimes drag them here

screaming and kicking.

They're all boys. Olivia's the only girl.

There is a little African girl

called Tashi.

She plays with Olivia after school.

"Why can't Tashi come to school?"

she asks me.

I told her the Olinka don't believe

in educating girls.

She said, quick as a flash:

"Like white people at home

who don't want black people to learn."

She is sharp, Celie.

When Tashi can get away

from her chores her mother assigns her...

...she and Olivia hide in my hut.

To Olivia right now,

Tashi alone is Africa.

Everything she learns,

she shares with Tashi. Sound familiar?

At first, there was the faintest

sound of movement in the forest.

A kind of low humming. Then there was

chopping and the sound of dragging.

Then the scent.

Some days there's smoke.

Now, after two months during which

I or the children...

...or Corrine has been sick...

...all we hear is chopping

and scraping and dragging.

And every day we smell smoke.

Today a boy in my afternoon class

burst out as he entered:

"The road approaches!"

If you live right Heaven belongs to you

If you live right Heaven belongs to you

Dear Celie,

the white man is building a road.

It finally reached the cassava fields

nine months ago.

The morning after the road was done,

as far as Olinka was concerned...

...what should we discover,

but that the road builders were back.

They have instructions to continue

the road for another 30 miles...

...and continue it on its present course

right through the village of Olinka.

The road builders didn't deviate

an inch from the head man's plan.

Every hut that lay in the road's path

was leveled.

Celie, our church, our school...

...my hut...

...all went down in a matter of hours.

But the worst is yet to be told.

Sweet Corrine died from fever and grief.

We buried her in the Olinka way.

But, Celie, my dear, sweet sister...

...we'll all be coming home once we work

something out with U.S. lmmigration.

They don't know if we're American,

African, or missionary.

Just pray for us, Celie.

Watch for me in the sunset.

What's with you?

I was calIing you for an hour!

Now get my shave

and don't keep me waiting!

Left, right! Left, right! Left, right!

-Where's Celie?

Home fixing to shave Mister.

You got a fever? I didn't come here

for you to take all day to shave me.

Get the molasses out of your ass!

The longer I'm married to you,

the slower and dumber you get.

Your ass is as slow

as l ever seen it before.

Celie! Ain't that razor sharpened yet?

Get on out here and do me right now!

Get on out here!

All right.

No!

Put your head back.

Cut my neck and I'll get you by the ears.

That razor looks dulI to me, Miss Celie.

Damn women.

How you feeling, Miss Sofia?

Confused.

Ain't you glad to be home?

Maybe.

Grandpa, I'm full.

I'm not hungry anymore.

-Now come the time for me to tell you.

-What?

It's time for us to go.

You're such good people.

Salt of the earth.

It's time to move on.

-CeIie is coming with us.

-Say what?

Celie is coming to Memphis with us.

Over my dead body!

You satisfied? That's what you want?

Now what's wrong with you?

You a lowdown, dirty dog,

that's what's wrong.

It's time for me to get away from you

and enter Creation.

Your dead body be just the welcome mat

I need.

You can't talk to my boy that way.

Your boy.

If he hadn't been your boy,

he might have been a halfway decent man.

Say what?

You took my sister Nettie away from me.

You knew she was the only somebody

in the worId who loved me.

But Nettie and my kids

are coming home soon.

And when we all get together,

we're going to whup your ass.

Nettie and your kids?

Woman, you talking crazy.

I got children.

My children are Iiving in Africa.

Africa!

Learning different languages.

Fresh air, plenty of exercise.

They'll turn out better than these fooIs

you never tried to raise.

-HoId on, here!

-No "hold on," Harpo.

If you hadn't tried to rule over Sofia,

white folks wouldn't have got her.

That's a lie!

A Iittle truth in it.

Y'all was rotten kids.

You was. You was rotten kids!

Made my life here hell.

Your daddy ain't nothing

but some dead horseshit.

Shut up! It's bad luck for a woman

to laugh at a man!

My God, the dead has arisen.

I had enough bad luck

to keep me laughing the rest of my life.

Sat in that jail

till I near about done rot to death.

I know what it like, Miss Celie.

Want to go somewhere and can't.

I know what it like to want to sing

and have it beat out of you.

I want to thank you, Miss Celie...

...for everything you done for me.

I remember the day I was in the store

with Miss Millie.

I was feeling real down.

I was feeling mighty bad.

And when I see'd you...

...l knowed there is a God.

I knowed there is a God, and one day

I was going to get to come home.

You won't get a penny of my money.

Not one thin dime!

Did I ever ask you for anything?

Did I ever ask you for anything?

I never asked you for nothing! Not even

for your sorry-ass hand in marriage!

Nothing. I never asked you for nothing!

Old Sofia home now. Sofia home.

Things are going to change around here.

I'm going with Shug.

-You going where?

With Miss Celie and Shug.

I'm fixing to sing.

Too much racket going on in this house.

Pass me them peas.

-Listen, Squeak--

-My name ain't Squeak.

-What?

-My name is Mary Agnes.

-Mary what?

-Mary Agnes.

I thought it was Squeak.

Who gives a damn? Boy, you going

to let this nappy-haired gal sit here...

...and cuss you out?

You're at the head of your own table...

...and you acting like a waiter!

Hush, you old fool!

Always meddling in somebody's business.

Sofia home now. Just hush up!

She'll be back. Shug got talent.

She can sing.

She got spunk and can talk to anybody.

She can stand up and be noticed.

What you got?

You're ugly. You're skinny.

You're shaped funny.

You're too scared

to open your mouth to people.

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