The Sunset Limited

White: You called it the jailhouse.

Black: Yeah?

White: Do most blacks call the penitentiary the jailhouse?

Black: Naw. Just us old country niggers. We kind of make it a point to call things for what they is. I’d hate to guess how many names they is for the jailhouse. I’d hate to have to count em.

White: Do you have a lot of jailhouse stories?

Black: Jailhouse stories.

White: Yes.

Black: I dont know. I used to tell jailhouse stories some but they kindly lost their charm. Maybe we ought to talk about somethin more cheerful.

White: Have you ever been married?

Black: Married.

White: Yes.

Black: (Softly) Oh man.

White: What.

Black: Maybe we ought to take another look at them jailhouse stories. (He shakes his head, laughing soundlessly. He pinches the bridge of his nose, his eyes shut.) Oh my.

White: Do you have any children?

Black: Naw, Professor, I aint got nobody. Everbody in my family is dead. I had two boys. They been dead for years. Just about everbody I ever knowed is dead, far as that goes. You might want to think about that. I might be a hazard to your health.

White: You were always in a lot of trouble?

Black: Yeah. I was. I liked it. Maybe I still do. I done seven years hard time and I was lucky not to of done a lot more. I hurt a lot of people. I’d smack em around a little and then they wouldnt get up again.

White: But you dont get in trouble now.

Black: No.

White: But you still like it?

Black: Well, maybe I’m just condemned to it. Bit in the ass by my own karma. But I’m on the other side now. You want to help people that’s in trouble you pretty much got to go where the trouble is at. You aint got a lot of choice.

White: And you want to help people in trouble.

Black: Yeah.

White: Why is that?

The black tilts his head and studies him.

Black: You aint ready for that.

White: How about just the short answer.

Black: That is the short answer.

White: How long have you been here?

Black: You mean in this buildin?

White: Yes.

Black: Six years. Seven, almost.

White: I dont understand why you live here.

Black: As compared to where?

White: Anywhere.

Black: Well I’d say this pretty much is anywhere. I could live in another buildin I reckon. This is all right. I got a bedroom where I can get away. Got a sofa yonder where people can crash. Junkies and crackheads, mostly. Of course they goin to carry off your portables so I dont own nothin. And that’s good. You hang out with the right crowd and you’ll finally get cured of just about ever cravin. They took the refrigerator one time but somebody caught em on the stairs with it and made em bring it back up. Now I got that big sucker yonder. Traded up. Only thing I miss is the music. I aim to get me a steel door for the bedroom. Then I can have me some music again. You got to get the door and the frame together. I’m workin on that. I dont care nothin about television but I miss that music.

White: You dont think this is a terrible place?

Black: Terrible?

White: Yes.

Black: What’s terrible about it?

White: It’s horrible. It’s a horrible life.

Black: Horrible life?

White: Yes.

Black: Damn, Professor. This aint a horrible life. What you talkin bout?

White: This place. It’s a horrible place. Full of horrible people.

Black: Oh my.

White: You must know these people are not worth saving. Even if they could be saved. Which they cant. You must know that.

Black: Well, I always liked a challenge. I started a ministry in prison fore I got out. Now that was a challenge. Lot of the brothers’d show up that they didnt really care nothin bout it. They couldnt of cared less bout the word of God. They just wanted it on their resume.

White: Resume?

Black: Resume. You had brothers in there that had done some real bad shit and they wasnt sorry about a damn thing cept gettin caught. Of course the funny thing was a lot of em did believe in God. Maybe even more than these folks here on the outside. I know I did. You might want to think about that, Professor.

White: I think I’d better go.

Black: You dont need to go, Professor. What am I goin to do, you leave me settin here by myself?

White: You dont need me. You just dont want to feel responsible if anything happens to me.

Black: What’s the difference?

White: I dont know. I just need to go.

Black: Just stay a while. This place is got to be more cheerful than you own.

White: I dont think you have any idea how strange it is for me to be here.

Black: I think I got some idea.

White: I have to go.

Black: Let me ask you somethin.

White: All right.

Black: You ever had one of them days when things was just sort of weird all the way around? When things just kindly fell into place?

White: I’m not sure what you mean.

Black: Just one of them days. Just kind of magic. One of them days when everthing turns out right.

White: I dont know. Maybe. Why?

Black: I just wondered if maybe it aint been kindly a long dry spell for you. Until you finally took up with the notion that that’s the way the world is.

White: The way the world is.

Black: Yeah.

White: And how is that?

Black: I dont know. Long and dry. The point is that even if it might seem that way to you you still got to understand that the sun dont shine up the same dog’s ass ever day. You understand what I’m sayin?

White: If what you’re saying is that I’m simply having a bad day that’s ridiculous.

Black: I dont think you havin a bad day, Professor. I think you havin a bad life.

White: You think I should change my life.