The Sunset Limited

Black: So. I aint goin to guess your age but let me put you on the low side and say times twenty years of commutin and now we got forty thousand curses heaped on the heads of folks you dont even know.

White: So where is this going?

Black: I just wondered if you ever thought about that. If it might have anything to do with the shape you has managed to get yourself in.

White: It’s just symptomatic of the larger issues. I dont like people.

Black: But you wouldnt hurt them people.

White: No. Of course not.

Black: You sure.

White: Of course I’m sure. Why would I hurt them?

Black: I dont know. Why would you hurt yourself?

White: It’s not the same thing.

Black: You sure about that?

White: I’m not them and they’re not me. I think I know the difference.

Black: Mm.

White: More mm’s.

Black: You sure you aint hungry?

White: No.

Black: You aint eat nothin.

White: That’s all right.

Black: I see you eyein the door. I got to strategize, you know.

White: I’m really not hungry.

Black: Active morning like you had you aint worked up no appetite?

White: No.

Black: I see you lookin around. Everthing in here is clean. No, dont say nothin. It’s all right.

The black pushes back his chair and rises.

Black: I could eat a bite and I think you could too.

The black goes to the refrigerator and takes out some pots. He turns on the stove. He washes his hands and dries them with a towel.

Black: You break bread with a man you have moved on to another level of friendship. I heard somewheres that that’s true the world over.

White: Probably.

Black: I like probably. Probably from you is worth a couple of damn rights anywheres else.

White: Why? Because I dont believe in anything?

The black has put the pots on the stove to warm and he brings napkins and silverware to the table and sets them out. He sits down.

Black: Well. I dont think that’s the problem. I think it’s what you do believe that is carryin you off, not what you dont. Let me ask you this.

White: Go ahead.

Black: You ever think about Jesus?

White: Here we go.

Black: Do you?

White: What makes you think I’m not Jewish?

Black: What, jews aint allowed to think about Jesus?

White: No, but they might think about him differently.

Black: Is you Jewish?

White: No. As it happens. I’m not.

Black: Whew. You had me worried there for a minute.

White: What, you dont like jews?

Black: (Shaking his head, almost laughing) Pullin your chain, Professor. Pullin your chain. I dont know why I love to mess with you. But I do. You need to listen. Or you need to believe what you hearin. The whole point of where this is goin—which you wanted to know—is that they aint no jews. Aint no whites. Aint no niggers. People of color. Aint none of that. At the deep bottom of the mine where the gold is at there aint none of that. There’s just the pure ore. That forever thing. That you dont think is there. That thing that helps to keep folks nailed down to the platform when the Sunset Limited comes through. Even when they think they might want to get aboard. That thing that makes it possible to ladle out benediction upon the heads of strangers instead of curses. It’s all the same thing. And it aint but one thing. Just one.

White: And that would be Jesus.

Black: Got to think about how to answer that. Maybe one more heresy wont hurt you. You pretty loaded up on em already. Here’s what I would say. I would say that the thing we are talkin about is Jesus, but it is Jesus understood as that gold at the bottom of the mine. He couldnt come down here and take the form of a man if that form was not done shaped to accommodate him. And if I said that there aint no way for Jesus to be ever man without ever man bein Jesus then I believe that might be a pretty big heresy. But that’s all right. It aint as big a heresy as sayin that a man aint all that much different from a rock. Which is how your view looks to me.

White: It’s not my view. I believe in the primacy of the intellect.

Black: What is that word.

White: Primacy? It means first. It means what you put first.

Black: And that would be intellect.

White: Yes.

Black: What about the primacy of the Sunset Limited?

White: Yes. That too.

Black: But not the primacy of all them folks waitin on a later train.

White: No. No primacy there.

Black: Mm.

White: Mm what.

Black: You tough, Professor. You tough.

The black rises and goes to the stove. He reaches down plates and stirs the pots and ladles out the dinner. He takes down a loaf of white bread and puts four slices on a plate and brings the plate of bread to the table and sets it down.

Black: Yeah you tough.

The black brings the two plates to the table and sets them out and takes his seat. He looks at the professor.

Black: You see yourself as a questioner, Professor. But about that I got my doubts. Even so, the quest of your life is your quest. You on a road that you laid. And that fact alone might be all the reason you need for keepin to it. As long as you on that road you cant be lost.

White: I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying.

Black: Well, Professor. I have got some very serious doubts about you not understandin anything I say. Now I’m goin to say Grace.