HOLLOWAY: Had two of them. One on my mother’s side and one on my father’s side. One of them I never knew. The other one wasn’t no good for nobody. That was the worse Negro I ever known. He think if it wasn’t for white people there wouldn’t be no daylight. If you let him tell it, God was a white man who had a big plantation in the sky and sat around drinking mint juleps and smoking Havana cigars. He couldn’t wait to die to get up in heaven to pick cotton. If he overheard you might wanna go down and get you some extra meat out the white man’s smokehouse . . .  he’d run and tell him. He see you put a rabbit in your sack to weigh up with the cotton, he’d run and tell. The white man would give him a couple pounds of bacon. He’d bring that home and my grandmother would throw it out with the garbage. That’s the kind of woman she was. I don’t know how she got tied up with him. She used to curse the day she laid down with him. That rubbed off on me. I got a little older to where I could see what kind of man he was . . .  I figure if he want to go to heaven to pick cotton, I’d help him. I got real serious about it. It stayed on me so didn’t nobody want to be around me cause of the bad energy I was carrying. Couldn’t keep me a woman. Seemed like nothing wouldn’t work out for me. I went up to see Aunt Ester and got that bad energy off me. And it worked too. Ask West. He died in his sleep. Caught pneumonia and laid down and died. They wouldn’t let him in the hospital cause he didn’t have any insurance. He crawled up in the bed in my grandmother’s house and laid there till he died. March 5, 1952. So can’t nobody tell me nothing about Aunt Ester. I know what she can do for you.

WEST: Let me get on. Say, Memphis, if you change your mind about the building, let me know.
(WEST exits.)

STERLING: I’m going back up there soon as I get some money. I’ll throw twenty dollars in the river if it help me get a job.

HOLLOWAY: You go on back up there.

STERLING: Say, Memphis . . .  you know how many people be down at the steel mill hanging around there at lunch time? You ever seen that? Must be five or six hundred. I figure we could make some money selling chicken sandwiches. All you need is a little truck . . .  have Risa fry up the chicken and I go over there and sell them. You ever thought about that? We could go in business together.