Mule Bone Read online

  HAMBO: He done moved so much since he been here till every time he walk out in his back yeard his chickens lay down and cross they legs.

  LINDSAY: Cody, I thought you tole us you was going up to Sanford to bring dat ’oman down here last Sat’day.

  LIGE: That ain’t de way he tole me ’bout it. Look, fellers, (Getting up and putting one hand on his hips and one finger of the other hand against his chin coquettishly) Where you reckon I’ll be next Sat’day night?…Sittin’ up side of Miz Cody. (Great burst of laughter.)

  SYKES JONES: (Laughing) Know what de folks tole me in Sanford? Dat was another man’s wife. (Guffaws.)

  CODY: (Feebly) Aw, you don’t know whut you talkin’ bout.

  JONES: Naw, I don’t know, but de folks in Sanford does. (Laughing) Day tell me when dat lady’s husband come home Sat’day night, ole Cody jumped out de window. De man grabbed his old repeater and run out in de yard to head him off. When Cody seen him come round de corner de house (Gesture) he flopped his wings and flew up on de fence. De man thowed dat shotgun dead on him. (Laughs) Den, man! Cody flopped his wings lak a buzzard (Gesture) and sailed on off. De man dropped to his knees lak dis (Gesture of kneeling on one knee and taking aim) Die! die! die! (Supposedly sound of shots as the gun is moved in a circle following the course of Cody’s supposed flight) Cody just flew right on off and lit on a hill two miles off. Then, man! (Gesture of swift flight) In ten minutes he was back here in Eatonville and in he bed.

  WALTER: I passed there and seen his house shakin’, but I didn’t know how come.

  HAMBO: Aw, leave de boy alone….If you don’t look out some of y’all going to have to break his record.

  LIGE: I’m prepared to break it now. (General laughter.)

  JIM: Well, anyhow, I don’t want to marry and leave Dave…yet awhile. (Picking a chord.)

  DAVE: And I ain’t gonna leave Jim. We been palling around together ever since we hollered titty mama, ain’t we, boy?

  JIM: Sho is. (Music of the guitar increases in volume. DAVE shuffles a few steps and the two begin to sing.)

  JIM: Rabbit on the log.

  I ain’t got no dog.

  How am I gonna git him?

  God knows.

  DAVE: Rabbit on the log.

  Ain’t got no dog.

  Shoot him with my rifle

  Bam! Bam!

  (Some of the villagers join in song and others get up and march around the porch in time with the music. BOOTSIE and TEETS re-enter, TEETS sticking her letter down the neck of her blouse. JOE LINDSAY grabs TEETS and WALTER THOMAS grabs BOOTSIE. There is dancing, treating and general jollification. Little children dance the parse-me-la. The music fills the air just as the sun begins to go down. Enter DAISY TAYLOR coming down the road toward the store.)

  CLARKE: (Bawls out from the store porch) I God, there’s Daisy again.

  (Most of the dancing stops, the music slows down and then stops completely. DAVE and JIM greet DAISY casually as she approaches the porch.)

  JIM: Well, Daisy, we knows you, too.

  DAVE: Gal, youse jus’ as pretty as a speckled pup.

  DAISY: (Giggling) I see you two boys always playin’ and singin’ together. That music sounded right good floating down the road.

  JIM: Yeah, child, we’se been playin’ for the white folks all week. We’se playin’ for the colored now.

  DAVE: (Showing off, twirling his dancing feet) Yeah, we’re standin’ on our abstract and livin’ on our income.

  OLD MAN: Um-ump, but they ain’t never workin’. Just round here playing as usual.

  JIM: Some folks think you ain’t workin’ lessen you smellin’ a mule. (He sits back down on box and picks at his guitar.) Think you gotta be beatin’ a man to his barn every mornin’.

  VOICE: Glad to be round home with we-all again, ain’t you Daisy?

  DAISY: Is I glad? I jus’ got off special early this evenin’ to come over here and see everybody. I was kinda ’fraid sundown would catch me ’fore I got round that lake. Don’t know how I’m gonna walk back to my workin’ place in the dark by muself.

  DAVE: Don’t no girl as good-lookin’ as you is have to go home by herself tonight.

  JIM: No, cause I’m here.

  DAVE: (To DAISY) Don’t you trust yourself round that like wid all them ’gators and moccasins with that nigger there, Daisy (Pointing at JIM) He’s jus’ full of rabbit blood. What you need is a real man…with good feet. (Cutting a dance step.)

  DAISY: I ain’t thinking ’bout goin’ home yet. I’m goin’ in the store.

  JIM: What you want in the store?

  DAISY: I want some gum.

  DAVE: (Starting toward door) Girl, you don’t have to go in there to git no gum. I’ll go in there and buy you a carload of gum. What kind you want?

  DAISY: Bubble gum. (DAVE goes in the store with his hand in his pocket. The sun is setting and the twilight deepens.)

  JIM: (Pulling package out of his pocket and laughing) Here your gum, baby. What it takes to please the ladies, I totes it. I don’t have to go get it, like Dave. What you gimme for it?

  DAISY: A bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck. (She embraces JIM playfully. He hands her the gum, patting his shoulder as he sits on box.) Oh, thank you. Youse a ready man.

  JIM: Yeah, there’s a lot of good parts to me. You can have West Tampa if you want it.

  DAISY: You always was a nice quiet boy, Jim.

  DAVE: (Emerging from the store with a package of gum) Here’s your gum, Daisy.

  JIM: Oh, youse late. She’s done got gum now. Chaw that yourself.

  DAVE: (Slightly peeved and surprised) Hunh, you mighty fast here now with Daisy but you wasn’t that fast gettin’ out of that white man’s chicken house last week.

  JIM: Who you talkin’ ’bout?

  DAVE: Hoo-oo? (Facetiously) You ain’t no owl. Your feet don’t fit no limb.

  JIM: Aw, nigger, hush.

  DAVE: Aw, hush, yourself. (He walks away for a minute as DAISY turns to meet some newcomers. DAVE throws his package of gum down on the ground. It breaks and several children scramble for the pieces. An old man, very drunk, carrying an empty jug enters on left and staggers tipsily across stage.) (MAYOR JOE CLARKE emerges from the store and looks about for his marshall.)

  CLARKE: (Bellowing) Lum Boger!

  LUM BOGER: (Eating a stalk of cane) Yessir!

  CLARKE: I God, Lum, take your lazy self off that keg and go light that town lamp. All summer long you eatin’ up my melon, and all winter long you chawin’ up my cane. What you think this town is payin’ you for? Laying round here doin’ nothin’? Can’t you see it’s gettin’ dark?

  (LUM BOGER rises lazily and takes the soap box down stage, stands on it to light the lamp, discovers no oil in it and goes in store. In a few moments he comes out of store, fills the lamp and lights it.)

  DAISY: (Coming back toward JIM) Ain’t you all gonna play and sing a little somethin’ for me? I ain’t heard your all’s music much for so long.

  JIM: Play anything you want, Daisy. Don’t make no difference what ’tis I can pick it. Where’s that old coon, Dave? (Looking around for his partner.)

  LIGE: (Calling DAVE, who is leaning against post at opposite end of porch) Come here, an’ get warmed up for Daisy.

  DAVE: Aw, ma throat’s tired.

  JIM: Leave the baby be.

  DAISY: Come on, sing a little, Dave.

  DAVE: (Going back toward JIM) Well, seeing who’s asking…all right. What song you like, Daisy?

  DAISY: Um-m. Lemme think.

  VOICE ON PORCH: “Got on the train, didn’t have no fare”.

  DAISY: (Gaily) Yes, that one. That’s a good one.

  JIM: (Begins to tune up. DAVE touches DAISY’s hand.)

  VOICE: (In fun) Hunh, you all wouldn’t play at the hall last week when we asked you.

  VOICE OF SPITEFUL OLD WOMAN: Daisy wasn’t here then.<
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  ANOTHER VOICE: (Teasingly) All you got to do to some men is to shake a skirt tail in their face and they goes off their head.

  DAVE: (To JIM who is still tuning up) Come if you’re comin’ boy, let’s go if you gwine. (The full melody of the guitar comes out in a lively, old fashioned tune.)

  VOICE: All right now, boys, do it for Daisy jus’ as good as you do for dem white folks over in Maitland.

  DAVE & JIM: (Beginning to sing)

  Got on the train,

  Didn’t have no fare,

  But I rode some,

  I rode some.

  Got on the train,

  Didn’t have no fare,

  But I rode some,

  But I rode some.

  Got on the train,

  Didn’t have no fare,

  Conductor asked me what I’m doin’ there,

  But I rode some!

  Grabbed me by the neck

  And led me to the door.

  But I rode some,

  But I rode some.

  Grabbed me by the neck

  And led me to the door.

  But I rode some,

  But I rode some.

  Grabbed me by the neck,

  And led me to the door.

  Rapped me cross the head with a forty-four,

  But I rode some!

  First thing I saw in jail

  Was a pot of peas.

  But I rode some,

  But I rode some.

  First thing I saw in jail

  Was a pot of peas.

  But I rode some,

  But I rode some.

  The peas was good,

  The meat was fat,

  Fell in love with the chain gang jus’ for that,

  But I rode some.

  (DAVE acts out the song in dancing pantomime and when it ends there are shouts and general exclamations of approval from the crowd.)

  VOICES: I don’t blame them white folks for goin’ crazy ’bout that…

  OLD MAN: Oh, when I was a young boy I used to swing the gals round on that piece.

  DAISY: (To JIM) Seem like your playin’ gits better and better.

  DAVE: (Quickly) And how ’bout my singin? (Everybody laughs.)

  VOICES IN THE CROWD: Ha! Ha! Ol’ Dave’s gittin’ jealous when she speaks o’ Jim.

  JIM: (To DAVE, in fun) Ain’t nothin’ to it but my playin’. You ain’t got no singin’ voice. If that’s singin’, God’s a gopher.

  DAVE: (Half-seriously) My singin’ is a whole lot better’n your playin’. You jus’ go along and fram. The reason why the white folks gives us money is cause I’m singin’.

  JIM: Yeah?

  DAVE: And you can’t dance.

  VOICE IN THE CROWD: You oughta dance. Big as your feet is, Dave.

  DAISY: (Diplomatically) Both of you all is wonderful and I would like to see Dave dance a little.

  DAVE: There now, I told you. What did I tell you. (To JIM) Stop woofing and pick a little tune there so that I can show Daisy somethin’.

  JIM: Pick a tune? I bet if you fool with me I’ll pick your bones jus’ like a buzzard did the rabbit. You can’t sing and now you wants to dance.

  DAVE: Yeah, and I’ll lam your head. Come on and play, good-for-nothing.

  JIM: All right, then. You say you can dance…show these people what you can do. But don’t bring that little stuff I been seein’ you doin’ all these years. (JIM plays and DAVE dances, various members of the crowd keep time with their hands and feet, DAISY looks on enjoying herself immensely.)

  DAISY: (As DAVE cuts a very fancy step) I ain’t seen nothin’ like this up North. Dave you sho hot.

  (As DAVE cuts a more complicated step the crowd applauds, but just as the show begins to get good, suddenly JIM stops playing.)

  DAVE: (Surprised) What’s the matter, buddy?

  JIM: (Envious of the attention DAVE has been getting from DAISY, disgustedly) Oh, nigger, I’m tired of seein’ you cut the fool. ’Sides that, I been playin’ all afternoon for the white folks.

  DAISY: But I though you was playin’ for me now, Jim.

  JIM: Yeah, I’d play all night long for you, but I’m gettin’ sick of Dave round here showin’ off. Let him git somethin’ and play for himself if he can. (An OLD MAN with a lighted lantern enters.)

  DAISY: (Coyly) Well, honey, play some more for me then, and don’t mind Dave. I reckon he done danced enough. Play me “Shake That Thing”.

  OLD MAN WITH LANTERN: Sho, you ain’t stopped, is you, boy? Music sound mighty good floatin’ down that dark road.

  OLD WOMAN: Yeah, Jim, go on play a little more. Don’t get to acting so niggerish this evening.

  DAVE: Aw, let the ol’ darky alone. Nobody don’t want to hear him play, nohow. I know I don’t.

  JIM: Well, I’m gonna play. (And he begins to pick “Shake That Thing”. TEETS and BOOTSIE begin to dance with LIGE MOSELY and FRANK WARRICK. As the tune gets good, DAVE cannot resist the music either.)

  DAVE: Old nigger’s evil but he sho can play. (He begins to do a few steps by himself, then twirls around in front of DAISY and approaches her. DAISY, overcome by the music, begins to step rhythmically toward DAVE and together they dance unobserved by JIM, absorbed in picking his guitar.)

  DAISY: Look here, baby, at this new step I learned up North.

  DAVE: You can show me anything, sugar lump.

  DAISY: Hold me tight now. (But just as they begin the new movement JIM notices DAISY and DAVE. He stops playing again and lays his guitar down.)

  VOICES IN THE CROWD: (Disgustedly) Aw, come on, Jim…You must be jealous…

  JIM: No, I ain’t jealous. I jus’ get tired of seein’ that ol’ nigger clownin’ all the time.

  DAVE: (Laughing and pointing to JIM on porch) Look at that mad baby. Take that lip up off the ground. Got your mouth stuck out jus’ because some one is enjoying themselves. (He comes up and pushes JIM playfully.)

  JIM: You better go head and let me alone. (To DAISY) Come here, Daisy!

  LIGE: That’s just what I say. Niggers can’t have no fun without someone getting mad…specially over a woman.

  JIM: I ain’t mad…Daisy, ’scuse me, honey, but that fool, Dave…

  DAVE: I ain’t mad neither…Jim always tryin’ to throw off on me. But you can’t joke him.

  DAISY: (Soothingly) Aw, now, now!

  JIM: You ain’t jokin’. You means that, nigger. And if you tryin’ to get hot, first thing, you can pull off my blue shin you put on this morning.

  DAVE: Youse a got that wrong. I ain’t got on no shirt of yours.

  JIM: Yes, you is got on my shirt, too. Don’t tell me you ain’t got on my shirt.

  DAVE: Well, even if I is, you can just lift your big plantations out of my shoes. You can just foot it home barefooted.

  JIM: You try to take any shoes offa me!

  LIGE: (Pacifying them) Aw, there ain’t no use of all that. What you all want to start this quarreling for over a little jokin’.

  JIM: Nobody’s quarreling…I’m just playin’ a little for Daisy and Dave’s out there clownin’ with her.

  CLARKE: (In doorway) I ain’t gonna have no fussin’ round my store, no way. Shut up, you all.

  JIM: Well, Mayor Clarke, I ain’t mad with him. We’se been friends all our lives. He’s slept in my bed and wore my clothes and et my grub….

  DAVE: I et your grub? And many time as you done laid down with your belly full of my grandma’s collard greens. You done et my meat and bread a whole lot more times than I et your stewed fish-heads.

  JIM: I’d rather eat stewed fish-heads than steal out of other folkses houses so much till you went to sleep on the roost and fell down one night and broke up the settin’ hen. (Loud laughter from the crowd)

  DAVE: Youse a liar if you say I stole anybody’s chickens. I didn’t have to. But you…’fore you started goin’ around with me, playin’ that little box of yours, you was
so hungry you had the white mouth. If it wasn’t for these white folks throwin’ me money for my dancin’, you would be thin as a whisper right now.

  JIM: (Laughing sarcastically) Your dancin’! You been leapin’ around here like a tailless monkey in a wash pot for a long time and nobody was payin’ no ’tention to you, till I come along playing.

  LINDSAY: Boys, boys, that ain’t no way for friends to carry on.

  DAISY: Well, if you all gonna keep up this quarrelin’ and carryin’ on I’m goin’ home. ’Bout time for me to be gittin’ back to my white folks anyhow. It’s dark now. I’m goin’, even if I have to go by myself. I shouldn’t a stopped by here nohow.

  JIM: (Stopping his quarrel) You ain’t gonna go home by yourself. I’m goin’ with you.

  DAVE: (Singing softly)

  It may be so,

  I don’t know.

  But it sounds to me

  Like a lie.

  WALTER: Dave ain’t got as much rabbit blood as folks thought.

  DAVE: Tell ’em ’bout me. (Turns to DAISY,) Won’t you choose a treat on me, Miss Daisy, ’fore we go?

  DAISY: (Coyly) Yessir, thank you. I wants a drink of soda water.

  (DAVE pulls his hat down over his eyes, whirls around and offers his arm to DAISY. They strut into the store, DAVE gazing contemptuously at JIM as he passes. Crowd roars with laughter, much to the embarrassment of JIM.)

  LIGE: Ol’ fast Dave jus’ runnin’ the hog right over you, Jim.

  WALTER: Thought you was such a hot man.

  LUM BOGER: Want me to go in there and put Daisy under arrest and bring her to you?

  JIM: (Sitting down on the edge of porch with one foot on the step and lights a cigarette pretending not to be bothered.) Aw, I’ll get her when I want her. Let him treat her, but see who struts around that lake and down the railroad with her by and by.

  (DAVE and DAISY emerge from the store, each holding a bottle of red soda pop and laughing together. As they start down the steps DAVE accidentally steps on JIM’s outstretched foot. JIM jumps up and pushes DAVE back, causing him to spill the red soda all over his white shirt front.)

  JIM: Stay off my foot, you big ox.

  DAVE: Well, you don’t have to wet me all up, do you, and me in company? Why don’t you put your damn foot in your pocket?