STERLING: That gas you got ain’t gonna last forever. I’ll carry it out there and put it in your car if you want. It ain’t gonna cost but two dollars. You know how much gas cost? Bean charge seventy-two cents a gallon. He charge three cent more than the white man.
(MEMPHIS gives him two dollars.)

MEMPHIS: Here. Bring the can back.

STERLING: I ain’t said I was selling the can. That’s two dollars if you wanna buy that. This a regulation United States Army gas can. Made with good metal and everything. Bullet probably bounce right off it.

MEMPHIS: I don’t want to buy the can. I just say bring it back empty.

STERLING: Give me the key and let me drive it around the block a couple of times.

MEMPHIS: Nigger . . .  give me back my two dollars!

STERLING: I was just playing around. I wouldn’t even look right driving a Cadillac.
(STERLING exits.)

MEMPHIS: That boy ain’t got good sense. I don’t want all that hollering in here. Hambone paid you for these beans?

RISA: Naw.

MEMPHIS: That’s sixty-five cent. You got sixty-five cent?
(HAMBONE gives him three quarters. He goes to the register and rings it up. He takes Hambone’s change and slaps it down on the table in front of him.)
Go on and finish your beans and get on where you going. Give him another muffin, Risa.
(To HAMBONE:)
You eat that and get on with your business.
(The phone rings. MEMPHIS answers it.)
Hello? . . .  Wolf don’t work here.
(He slams down the phone.)
Risa, Wolf been taking numbers out of here?

RISA: I don’t know.

MEMPHIS: I told him about that. This ain’t no number station. First thing you know they be raiding the place. Have my picture in the paper for racketeering. If there’s one thing I can say, I ain’t never had my picture in the paper.
(STERLING enters with the gas can.)

STERLING: Hey, Risa . . .  hold this for me.

MEMPHIS: You carry that right on back out there where you got it from—I don’t want no part of it.
(WOLF enters.)

WOLF: How’s everybody in here? I can smell them short ribs. Fix me up a plate, Risa.

RISA: They ain’t done yet.

WOLF: Give me a bowl of beans. I’ll be back for the short ribs. Hey, Sterling . . .  look here.
(WOLF takes out a brown paper bag.)
You got twenty dollars?

STERLING: What for?
(WOLF hands him the bag. He looks inside.)

WOLF: That’s the best I can do. Tony Jackson say he want twenty dollars for it.

STERLING: I ain’t got but two dollars and it ain’t worth but fifteen.

WOLF: He say twenty. I’ll loan it to you if you ain’t got it.

STERLING: I can’t pay you back till next week.