Their Eyes Were Watching God Page #4

And, and,,, and folks'II think

I don't care what folks think,

And to my thinkin',

mournin' shouldn't Iast

a second Ionger than the grief do,

- Afternoon,

- Can I get you something?

Got any smokin' tobacco?

Sure do,

Got a Iittle piece of fire over there, Iady?

Mm-hm,

So how come you ain't

over there at the ball game?

Everybody else in town is there,

Well, not everybody,

Lady just sold me some cigarettes,

I only had train fare for part of the way,

so I figured

I'd catch me a ride with someone,

Good Iuck,

'Cause all the cars in Eatonville has gone,

Guess I'II walk then,

I got pretty good shoe Ieather,

How about you

playin' me some checkers?

You Iook hard to beat,

I am, 'Cause I can't play a Iick,

You a wild one,

Oh, man, girl,,,

Wait!

Not my king,

But not my king, no! Not my,,,

Any one, but not my,,,

You gonna be a good player after a while,

You think?

I'II come and teach you some more

another time,

You could teach me,,,

so Iong as you don't cheat me,

How 'bout a cool drink?

Why, thank you, Mr,,,

You ain't even told me your name,

My momma named me Vergible Woods,

but most everybody call me Tea Cake,

Tea Cake, huh?

You as sweet as all that?

Why don't you try me and see?

You Iook scared,

I ain't scared,

'Night, now,

(Janie) You and the whole town had

decided I should get me a new husband,

And Amos Hicks was thinkin'

he was the fellow with the best chance,

Shoot, in Amos's mind,

me and him was already engaged,

- Sure is hot,

- Yeah, I never did Iike the heat,

I was much more

of a cold weather kind of man,

- Now I done heard everything,

- But you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna marry Miss Janie, take her

over to Chicago, have a honeymoon there,

You gonna have to

get up off her porch first,

(laughter and chatter continues)

How you doin'? Y'all mind if I join you?

- What's your name?

- They call me Tea Cake,

You Iook Iike you need a drink,

It's hot and sweaty,

(Tea Cake) Why, thank you for the soda,

and I'II square it with you,,,

(Phoebe) Take some time out,

and sit there,

I sure will, Janie?

Come on over here

and play checkers with us,

I'm sorry, but you don't know

Miss Mayor Starks, son,

She don't play no checkers,

She do now,

I ain't that good,

- I'II teach you,

- No, no, son,

I'm gonna coach her,

Sit right here, Mrs, Starks,

I appreciate that, Amos,

Now, you gotta picture it Iike this,

Here you are, you're a general, right?

Andthis righthere,theseareyourtroops.

- You're the best player in the whole state,

- Thanks, Phoebe,

Now, what to do, if you can get your pieces

to move to the other side of the board,

if you can get 'em there,

you get to become a king, if,,,

What?

Good night, Hezekiah,

It's Iate, Miss Starks,

- I'II walk you home,

- (Tea Cake) That's OK,

I'II walk her,

I'm hungry,

Well, I got some pound cake,

I got some Iemonade,

- Taste,

- I done tasted a Iemon before,

Shh! I hear noise,

(laughter)

There ain't nobody out there, Pearl,

Pearl, Pearl!

- Like Iaughin',

- Laughin', From Mayor Starks's house?

No, that can't be,

Guess I'm gonna

put these old bones to bed,

You ain't old in no kind of way,

Besides, the night's too pretty

for anybody to be sleepin' it away,

Wait, Where you goin'?

- Let's us go fishin',

- Fishin'?

- Come on, Fishin',

- This time of night?

- Oh, yeah, Best time, Best time, Come on,

- We can't go fishin'! Wait,,,

(Tea Cake) Don't you make me fall!

(Tea Cake plays harmonica)

- A fish! I got a fish,

- Hold him, now,

Yeah!

("Billy Lyons and Stackolee"

by Furry Lewis on radio)

I remember one September

on one Friday night

Stackolee and Billy Lyons

had a great fight

When you lose your money,

learn to lose

Billy Lyons shot six bits

Stackolee bet he passed

Stackolee out with his, 45,

said, "You done shot your last"

When you lose your money,

learn to lose

Lord, a woman come a-runnin '

Fell down on her knees

Crying "oh, Mr, Stackolee,

don 't shoot my brother please"

(plays a slow tune)

(Janie plays discord)

- (Tea Cake) This one here,

- Uh-huh,

(Tea Cake) Right there, And this one

right here, and spread 'em Iike that,

That's the first one, all right?

And now come this way,,,

(plays discord)

Let me try,

Remember that?

(Janie plays chords)

- You're real pretty,

- I'm real old,

Oh, you got the world in a jug,

and you don't even know it,

I'm glad to be the one to tell you,

I'II bet you tell plenty of women that,

I tells 'em and I show 'em,

Young man Iike you,,,

I bet you're real popular, ain't you?

Folks Iike me all right,

if that's what you mean,

Whoo!

Sittin' here talkin' to you

done made me real tired,

Your heart just Ieft you

and went somewhere else,

Where my heart is

shouldn't make no difference to you,

I ain't one of your Iady friends,

You sure ain't one of my Iady friends,

'cause I don't got but one,

What I'm sayin' is,

well, you sorta got me at your mercy,

I'm nearly 1 2 years older than you,

I've thought all about that,,,

tryin' to make some kind of sense of it,

But the thought of my youngness

just don't,,,

don't satisfy me Iike your presence do,

Well, it make a whole heap

of difference to most folks,

Things Iike that

got everything to do with convenience,

Don't got nothing to do with Iove,

Love,

You don't know nothing about Iove,

You're just sayin' that 'cause the fish

and corn bread tasted real good, ain't you?

Those ain't nothing

but your night thoughts,

Night, Miss Janie,

What the hell I need some young fool,,,

(knocking)

Did I wake you?

No,

Kinda early,

I want to tell you my daytime thoughts,

seein' as how

you don't trust my nighttime ones,

You sounded Iike

you needed tellin' and showin',

so that's what I'm doin',

I bet you're hungry,

Come on, I'II make you some breakfast,,,

No, no, I ain't got time now,

I got a job, I got to be there by eight,

I'II see you Iater, Tell you straight,

Hey,

Your jacket,

What a pretty mournin' dress,

- What shade of black is that?

- (car approaches)

- The same shade as yours,

- (car horn)

- Where you get this car?

- Won it off this guy,

- She said they was goin' on a picnic,

- She Iooks happy,

Sashayin' off in that pink Iinen dress,

AII the men she can get, and she

steppin' out with a guy Iike Tea Cake,

(Tea Cake) Fire,

All right,that'sgood.All right, now.

Get the next one, Ready?

Hey, hey, hey, now, hey, now,

OId Joe Starks

must be turnin' over in his grave,

Hey, Don't pay them no mind, now,

Get it right here in your shoulder,

-,,,up with that Tea Biscuit,

- Look along the sites, Cock it, Fire!

Whoo!

There's one thing that thrills me so

I say, "Yes, please, honey"

Don't you know

that I don't think I'll ever get enough

Evenin', Pearl,

oh, it feels so good,

so come on, give me that stuff

You know I'm wild for what you got

However it comes, honey, cold or hot

Mrs, Mayor Starks

and Tea Cake gone fishin',

Fishin', huh?

Miss Janie and Tea Cake

gone to Orlando, to the picture show,

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