MEMPHIS: Here’s the sifter. Sift the baking soda and flour together. You ain’t used this sifter in a month. And get on up to the bakery and get West his pie before he get over here.

WOLF: I hear tell somebody tried to break in West’s last night to steal Prophet Samuel’s money and jewels. Set off the burglar alarm . . .  woke West up.
(HOLLOWAY enters.)
Hey, Holloway, we was watching you. What Hambone say? We seen Lutz when he come down the street. What he say?

HOLLOWAY: He told him he wanted his ham, that’s all. Said, “I want my ham.” Lutz told him, “Take a chicken,” then he went on in his store. That was it. He ain’t said nothing back to him. The only words exchanged was “I want my ham,” and “Take a chicken.”

MEMPHIS: I would just like to know . . .  after nine and a half years . . .  am I right, Holloway? . . .  after nine and a half years . . .  every day . . .  I wish my arithmetic was right to tell you how many days that is . . .  nine and a half years . . .  every day . . .  how . . .  in his right mind . . .  do he think Lutz is gonna give him his ham? You answer me that. That’s all I want to know.

WOLF: Anybody can see he ain’t in his right mind.

HOLLOWAY: I don’t know. He might be more in his right mind than you are. He might have more sense than any of us.

WOLF: Would you stand over there every morning for nine and a half years?

HOLLOWAY: I ain’t saying that. Naw . . .  hell, no . . .  I wouldn’t stand over there for nine and a half years. But maybe I ain’t got as much sense as he got.

MEMPHIS: You tell me how that make sense. You tell me what sense that make?

HOLLOWAY: Alright. I’ll tell you. Now you take me or you. We ain’t gonna do that. We gonna go ahead and forget about it. We might take a chicken. Then we gonna go home and cook that chicken. But how it gonna taste? It can’t taste good to us. We gonna be eating just to be eating. How we gonna feel good about ourselves? Every time we even look at a chicken we gonna have a bad taste in our mouth. That chicken’s gonna call up that taste. It’s gonna make you feel ashamed. Even if it be walking around flapping its wings it’s gonna remind us of that bad taste. We ain’t gonna tell nobody about it. We don’t want nobody to know. But you can’t erase it. You got to carry it around with you. This fellow here . . .  he say he don’t want to carry it around with him. But he ain’t willing to forget about it. He trying to put the shame on the other foot. He trying to shame Lutz into giving him his ham. And if Lutz ever break down and give it to him . . .  he gonna have a big thing. He gonna have something he be proud to tell everybody. He gonna tell his grandkids if he have any. That’s why I say he might have more sense than me and you. Cause he ain’t willing to accept whatever the white man throw at him. It be easier. But he say he don’t mind getting out of the bed in the morning to go at what’s right. I don’t believe you and me got that much sense.