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SCENE FOUR. Outside meanwhile Cordell has taken a bag out of the shed next to the drive. Tears open the bag and drops the hickory chips into an empty oil drum. He quickly unwinds a water hose. Starts spraying the barrel. The door opens and shuts. Cordell looks up. He’s disappointed. It’s Everett. EVERETT You need some help? Beat. CORDELL Sho. Everett walks over. CORDELL (CONT’D) You can hand me that other bag. Everett opens the shed door again. A basketball rolls out as Everett digs deep inside. Everett reemerges with another hickory chip bag. He throws the bag down at Cordell’s feet. EVERETT So this another secret to the Crutchfield sauce? CORDELL Awww. It just add a little smoke to some of the wings. You throw these on the grill and it add a nice flavor. Gotta make sho these chips soak all the way thru over night tho. Otherwise they’ll burn on the grill. We going for a nice smokey flavor not a burnt one. EVERETT Spicy Cajun Alfredo with bourbon infused crumbled bacon hot wings. That should be illegal. This makes Cordell LAUGH.
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EVERETT (CONT’D) How you come up wit’ all this stuff, Unca Cordell? Everett picks up the worn basketball in the yard. Starts doing his Harlem Globetrotters thing with it. Palming it. Spinning it on his fingers.... It’s hypnotizing to Cordell. CORDELL I really don’t know. Sometimes, I just come up with the base of the recipe and my fingers just try it out. I follow. Sometimes, I forget to write what my fingers make up down. Then I’m lost the next day, but nine times out of ten the fingers remember. Everett shoots a three. Swish! EVERETT They remember how to dunk? CORDELL (bragging) You know thass all I did at Georgetown. EVERETT Georgetown. It aint’ Duke tho, dawg. CORDELL Oh, you killing me. EVERETT It ain’t. Georgetown ain’t won no championship since--like,....never. CORDELL Almost... Bwoy you know a Blue Devil can’t rock with no Hoya. EVERETT Is that a challenge? Everett takes a shot. It’s a brick. CORDELL Not with what you throwin’ up. EVERETT Awwww I’m just getting warmed up.
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CORDELL Hmph. Hmph. Cordell looks down at the hickory chips and water hose in his hand. Beat. Throws down the hose and joins Everett in the driveway. Everett bounces the ball towards Cordell. He checks it. Starts dribbling. EVERETT Woof! Woof! Look at the Bulldog coming out. But Cordell is focused. He dribbles steps, fakes Everett before going up to the goal. Scores. CORDELL Do you need me to get you a ACE bandage cuz I just I broke them ankles? EVERETT I ain’t played you in a minute. I gotsta adjust. CORDELL You bets adjust then youngin’. Everett has the ball now and is a little bit more slinky with his dribble style. CORDELL Oh, somebody showin’ up and showin’ out! Everett does something really fucking cool with the basketball, surprising Cordell. EVERETT I’ma try to be careful on you Old Man. Don’t want you to tear that ACL again. Cordell chuckles, then easily steals the ball, runs a figure eight around Everett, making him fall to the ground. CORDELL You need to be worried ‘bout yo’ own knees since you the one of the ground. Scrapping ‘ em.
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Cordell shakes his legs out. Everett gets back up. Cordell continues to dominate, but then Everett plays good defense. Steals the ball, then backs it out to Cordell, dribble then goes up for it and slams it. CORDELL Alright. Alright. Alright. You been watching Curry. You biting his game. EVERETT Curry can bite this dick. CORDELL I hope you don’t talk like that on the court at that Catholic school of yours. EVERETT Jesuits. CORDELL Oooo, Lord, so you do. EVERETT Believe you me, thass tame. CORDELL Well, as long as none of them take you up on that offer. (waaaaay too familiar) Them Jesuits boys are the worst. Beat. Everett stops dribbling. Both of them breathless. CORDELL (CONT’D) Oh, I mean...that...as a joke. Lawd.....they right. I am horrible with people. Everett just stares at him. Long beat then... EVERETT When did you know? CORDELL Know what? EVERETT You was gay?
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Uncomfortable beat. EVERETT (CONT’D) I just never understood it. So I’ve been trying to understand it. CORDELL What is there to understand? EVERETT Why somebody would even want a dick instead of a pussy. CORDELL Sometimes it’s not a matter of instead of, more like ‘and.” Besides, it’s not just about...sex— EVERETT So you not gay-gay? CORDELL Oh, I’m gay....(Deepening his voice) Gay. EVERETT But you done had the coochie before and yet you prefer the D? CORDELL (blushing, yet admitting) Yeah...and they be talking about Big Charles ain’t got no couth. EVERETT I’m sorry, I just been trying to understand it that’s all. Especially since you had a wife. You got two sons. So at one point in time you musta liked it— CORDELL It’s cool. EVERETT (curious) Is it? CORDELL Wait...you haven’t. EVERETT Naw.
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CORDELL But you was just-EVERETT Ain’t really had no opportunity. CORDELL You ain’t really missin’ nothin. EVERETT (incredulous) You ain’t like it? CORDELL Naw, not really. I tried to. I really tried. For Vanessa. For Jared. For...Antwone. EVERETT So let me get this right? You chose the D over the P? CORDELL It wasn’t a choice really...You see, my Daddy -- may he rest in power-- used to say this to me: “If a niggah don’t wipe yo’ ass, pay yo’ rent or put clothes on yo’ back, fuck em.” He taught me to live life with no fucks given except I gave a fuck about what he wanted cuz he did wipe my ass, paid my rent and put clothes on my back, so I had to do what he say do...which was not be a “punk,” a “faggot,” a... “disgrace”... Cordell stands there, falling into a very dark place. CORDELL (CONT’D) Guess I’m blessed that I got a chance to go to my father’s funeral and him not to come to mine, though feel like it almost happened a couple times... EVERETT I know the feeling. CORDELL Do you? EVERETT Yeah, I do...TJ be tryna to have me trap wit’ him, but that ain’t me. I’m boring as hell, bruh, I ain’t about that life. I want better for myself, you know what I’m sayin. I wanna dine at gourmet chicken wang spots, you know what I’m sayin. I want....I want...choices. Cordell looks at him understanding.
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EVERETT (CONT’D) Unca Cordell, can I come over here and live with you and Unca Dwayne? CORDELL Uggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh. EVERETT Unca Dwayne said the school ain’t that far away so— CORDELL Oh, did he say that? EVERETT And y’all got a extra room. Extra rooms. I’ll pull my weight round here. You won’t hear nothing from me. CORDELL Everett...I don’t know if that’s a good idea... EVERETT Even if I have to pay rent for the room I would— CORDELL That wouldn’t be necessary. EVERETT You’on want me to stay cuz you still think I’m a thief. Beat. CORDELL I don’t think you’re the most honest young man. EVERETT (under his breath) This coming from a maine that cheated on his wife. CORDELL Bwoy-whu? EVERETT Look, I told you I ain’t steal nothing out of Unca Dwayne wallet. CORDELL We couldn’t prove it, and, yet, there was doubt.
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Awww, niggah, come on-Excuse me? You know I ain’t do that shit.
73.
EVERETT CORDELL EVERETT
CORDELL Wait-wait-wait-wait. You gone watch how you speak to me, bwoy-But I ain’t do that shit!!!
EVERETT
CORDELL See, EJ, you stay disrespectful, and I’m not gone have that in my house. Everett rolls up on him. EVERETT Niggah, this ain’t yo’ house. This my unca house. And if he say I can stay I’ma stay. Cordell tries to grab Everett’s collar-CORDELL You need to change yo’ mufuckin’ tone— Just then Dwayne rushes out. DWAYNE Y’all game getting a little bit too crunk. Can y’all please take it down a notch? Everett backs away from Cordell. Ain’t no mufuckin’ game.
EVERETT
CORDELL See I tolju this boy steady stay disrespectful-EVERETT Niggah, you the one disrespectful. My mama been gone just two years. And that shit been hard. But I been taking it like a man. When she was alive I ain’t want for nothin. Yeah we was in the projects, but that was aight, cause I had everything I needed and then some. So she was having some issues. Yeah, she wun’t right in the head, but what niggah living in a rat-infested whole would be. She wun’t no danger to nobody.
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She was a danger to herself. Them police ain’t have to do her like that, man. Sit on her like that. Squeeze the mufuckin’ life out of her like that. In front of me...like that. So yeah, when I got up with pops maybe I did trap a little, steal a little. Why? Cuz, niggah, I was hungry. Was you feeding me? Naw. I feed myself. Was you housing me? Naw, I put a roof over my own damn head myself. You sit up there all high and mighty, judging what I do. How many couches you done slept on? How many floors? How many boxes of clothes you done lost cause you couldn’t come up with enough money to pay your storage fee so they fuckin’ auction yo’ life away. CORDELL Everett... EVERETT I’m trying my best out here man. I’m trying my best to make the right choice. To start over. The right way. And I’ma do that shit. With or without y’all help. Everett spits on the ground. Then looks both Cordell and Dwayne up and down before flipping up his hoodie and stalking off into the night. DWAYNE EJ! EJ!!! Dwayne spins around to Cordell. DWAYNE What in the hell did you say to him? CORDELL I ain’t say nothin. But he said that you said he could live here. DWAYNE I didn’t say that...exactly...I said I’d talk to you about it. Cordell stunned speechless. CORDELL Dwayne, you are un-fucking-believable sometimes. DWAYNE What, I was gonna ask you, talk to yo—
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CORDELL Or was you just gone tell me? I see it so clearly now. You stay manipulatin’ folks. You brought him here to night with them garbage bags full of his clothes so you can slide him on in here. Without even, even, asking me how I felt about the shit. DWAYNE I WAS. CORDELL But you didn’t— DWAYNE You know what I just don’t see what the big fuckin’ deal is. CORDELL INCLUDE ME!!!!!! You can’t be constantly making decisions without looping me in. That ain’t no partnership. That ain’t no kind of relationship. DWAYNE Oh. I’m so sorry. Cordell, you so used to being the one in charge that you can’t bare to have one little decision be made without yo’ input. CORDELL It ain’t no little decision. Deciding who under yo’ roof ain’t little at all. I live here, too. You know, you’ve been making all the decisions from jump. Where we need to live. Where we need to go to church. What we need to do on the weekends. You don’t care about nothin’ I want. Just about what you want, what you wanna do. But you so drunk offa bein’ busy, you ain’t even got time to take care of no child. DWAYNE I take care of you don’t I? CORDELL You know what, FUCK you, Dwayne. I left my entire world for you. I moved all the way down here to this backwards ass city to be here with you. Taking care of somebody else child was not part of the plan. DWAYNE Everything can’t go according to a plan, Cordell. It wasn’t part of the plan that the boy was gone be motherless. CORDELL Thass not your fault.
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DWAYNE It is. And you know it is... Cordell looks at Dwayne with sorrowful eyes. DWAYNE (CONT’D) You right I do stay drunk offa bein’ busy. There was so many times I had rushed to that house to talk Jelissa down offa whatever ledge she had decided to climb up on. But that day... If I just woulda went down there when EJ called me...Instead I call myself staying at work. Cordell, why did I call the police? Why did I think they’d...help? CORDELL Babe, she was suicidal again, you wanted a wellness check-DWAYNE “Sir, she had a knife and she lunged at the officer and we had to restrain her” ...EJ saw all that. He saw all that cause I made that call. Letting EJ live here is the ‘least I could do, Cordell. ‘Fact, I shoulda been took that chile in-CORDELL TJ wanted to take care of his son. His son. DWAYNE Naw...I shoulda did something-CORDELL Look....I know you must feel guilty-DWAYNE Oh, guilty ain’t the word. There are not words for this feeling I feel every day, every minute. This rock in my chest that make me feel like my casket is ‘bout to fall into this cold brown ground... CORDELL Don’t go back there, Dwayne. DWAYNE Two years ago, I don’t know how I would have made it if you hadna come back down when you did. Somehow, you could make me forget about...it...I loved disappearing into you... But those weekends turned into weeks then a month and...I guess she couldn’t help but find out then, huh? CORDELL No, you had your ultimatum.
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[DWAYNE It wasn’t an ultimatum. It was a question. CORDELL That I wasn’t ready to answer. DWAYNE (sarcastic) Ohhh, I’m soooo sorry. Please forgive me for imprisoning you and making you move here to be with me. But you moved for yourself just as much for me. You like to run from shit, Cordell. CORDELL Is that what you think? DWAYNE I’m gonna ask you one more time. Have you told them about me? CORDELL I’m not ready to tell them, Dwayne. DWAYNE You think they don’t know? They’re in college now with Facebook accounts. Them little niggahs prolly knew before you knew. You can only call me “friend” for so long. CORDELL They won’t even speak to me. Said I broke they mama heart. That I’m trash, Dwayne. I’m not a good daddy, Dwayne. And if you want me to be this second daddy to EJ. I can’t. DWAYNE Big bwoy busy tryna raise himself, huh? Dwayne begins to walk back inside. He stops. DWAYNE (CONT’D) If this is too hard, you can always go back. Ain’t like we married or nothin’. CORDELL Would that finally make you happy? DWAYNE No, let’s start with a divorce from your wife first. Cordell’s silence is loud.
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DWAYNE (CONT’D) I’ma head on back in. Some things that need some marination.... Dwayne opens to the door and disappears into the house. Cordell, stands there, looking off into the dark distance. END OF ACT ONE