STERLING: Well, it say, “Come one, come all.” You supposed to be there when it say that. But that’s alright—if you don’t go, it ain’t gonna stop the show.
(HAMBONE enters.)

HAMBONE: He gonna give me my ham. He gonna give me my ham.

MEMPHIS: Naw. Naw. Take that on out of here. Risa, don’t give him nothing. Go on, take that somewhere else.

HAMBONE: He gonna give me my ham. He gonna give me my ham.

MEMPHIS: I don’t wanna hear that today. Go on out of here with that.

RISA: Here’s your coffee, Hambone.

MEMPHIS: I told you not to give him nothing.

RISA: He ain’t bothering nobody.

MEMPHIS: Let him take that somewhere else.
(MEMPHIS comes around the counter, takes the coffee from HAMBONE, and throws it out.)

RISA: He ain’t bothering nobody, Memphis. He just come in to get his coffee.

HAMBONE (to MEMPHIS): He gonna give me my ham.

MEMPHIS (pushing HAMBONE toward the door): Go on over there and get it.

HAMBONE: I want my ham!

MEMPHIS (at the door): There he is. Go on over there.
(HAMBONE exits.)
Come in here running off at the mouth. I’m tired of hearing that.

RISA: He don’t bother nobody.

MEMPHIS: He bother me. Let him go on over there and get his ham. It ain’t like Lutz hiding from him. That man crazy. He let Lutz drive him crazy. Well, go on over there with Lutz and tell him. Don’t tell me. Man been around here ten years talking the same thing. I’m tired of hearing it.
(MEMPHIS slams the restaurant door closed.)
(The lights go down on the scene.)

SCENE 3

(The lights come up on the restaurant. STERLING sits at the counter eating a bowl of beans. The number is 460. Risa is in the back.)

STERLING: Say, Risa, what you put in these beans? You must have stuck your finger in there or something. Give me another bowl. Give me a couple of them muffins too.

(RISA brings him a bowl of beans.)
I went up to see Boykins about a job. He say he don’t need nobody. He told me to go over to the steel mill. He don’t know they got a waiting list.

RISA: Everybody got a waiting list.

STERLING: I saw Hambone. I was trying to talk to him. We got us a thing going.

RISA: Most people don’t understand Hambone. That’s cause they don’t take the time. Most people think he can’t understand nothing. But he understand everything what’s going on around him. Most of the time he understand better than they do.

STERLING: I seen Holloway a little while ago. He say he was going downtown to see about his social security. I didn’t know he was that old. He say he was going down there and register.