Redwood (excerpt) by Brittany K. Allen

Scene Four All three spaces—the dance studio, Mom’s kitchen and the apartment—are suddenly, wiped away. A bland-but-hip coffee shop. Perhaps Tatum is working as barista and Allie/Hattie may be other cafe patrons. Stevie enters, secures a table. After a beat, Drew enters. He scans the room: STEVE Andrew?

DREW Steve?

DREW/STEVE Yes. STEVE Please, sit! Thank you for meeting me!

DREW I don’t usually get that many calls in a day. I mean, it's very nice to meet you. ...

STEVIE SO, I don't want to waste any of your time. You said you're a scientist?

DREW Oh—I’m a Ph.D. candidate. Physics.

STEVIE Physics, huh? Like drop-an-apple-on-Galileo shit?

DREW Well—more like Quantum Electrodynamics and Plasma Physics. Mostly theoretical so far, kind of hippy-dippy stuff.

STEVIE Nu-uh, brother. Don't discount your work like that! Say it loud, say it proud!

DREW And what is it you / do?

STEVIE /Oh, I'm funemployed.

DREW Oh. Dear.

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STEVIE We-ell, I'ma be straight with you. Cause you're, like, kinda-sorta family, ha? You know the dotcom bubble.

DREW I've heard of it.

STEVIE Yeah, you old like me. Well before this bubble up and popped, I managed to make out like a bandit. Microsoft offered me stock options with my contract, and before that shit went down, I cashed out. Lord, what fools these mortals be!

DREW Uh-huh.

STEVIE (aping Dave Chappelle) 2002 see me all like—“I'm rich, bee-yotch!”

DREW (sincerely) That's great for you.

STEVIE But I moved back East a little while ago—minor change in living situation—and have been doing a lot of work on me since then? A little traveling, tryna get back in shape, tryna reconnect with some old friends and family. And then, this little project…

He slaps a heavy folder down on the table. They both stare at it.

STEVIE I don't want to make you uncomfortable.

DREW Ha. Well.

STEVIE This is a significant exercise for black folks. It's just so important to have your history.

DREW Oh no, sure, I get it.

STEVIE And I don't want money. This isn't the case for reparations. I'm simply sharing information, information that I thought you'd be interested in, information I thought you might be able to shed some light on. I'm making my tree. Okay?

So. Four score and five generations ago— Page 2 of 8

DREW I don't mean to—but how did you find my number again?

STEVIE Andrew!

DREW What?

STEVIE It's pretty amazing that we live in the same city. Don't you think?

DREW Oh. Yeah.

STEVIE I came here today, and you did. That means something. If I believed in God, man, I'd be like…'yes.'

I'ma show this to you. We'll go slow.

He opens the folder. Puts on reading glasses with a flourish. For a few grave seconds he looks through papers without looking at Drew.

STEVIE Unn-hnnnnn.

Here is a—Clark Tatum.

DREW That was—well, yes, Clark is a family name. My Dad’s Henry Clark Tatum.

STEVIE My great-great-great-great-great…

GRANDMA! Grandma Al. She was registered as the property of the Tatums in 184..........1.

He owned her, her husband Felix, and these two sons, Micajah and Napoleon. Napoleon —can you believe that? Named a motherfucker NAPOLEON...See here? Says ‘propertie of a Mr. Clark Tatum.’

This is the human inventory.

Not too far from Louisville, it was.

DREW I...Wow. Drew gets emotional. At first, he tries to hide this from Stevie—but cannot. Stevie just watches him, a bit coldly. Drew eventually puts himself back together.

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STEVIE Yeah. Ye-ah.

DREW It’s just—my Dad never told me.

STEVIE Maybe he didn’t know.

DREW Maybe.

His parents, my grandparents, they died at sea, actually? So I never really knew them.

STEVIE Wait like DREW Yeah, they were visiting the Philippines in the 70s aid workers, actually and their ferry collided with / a tanker STEVIE Like a SHIPWRECK?! Shit!

DREW Yeah, when my Dad was a teenager he was taken in by his godparents. Pat and Cella.

STEVIE Wowee Zowie. ...So you don't know any Tatums, then?

DREW Not really. Not well.

I have some very early memories of my father's childhood house, in Fort Lauderdale? They kept it like a shrine to his parents, for a long long time.

I remember there were these paneled walls, and the rooms were very dark, and it always smelled like cigarettes—even though Pat and Cella didn't smoke?

Somebody kept birds. In cages, obviously.

And I used to think about the birds getting lung cancer. Though I don’t think it actually works that way. ...

STEVIE Perished on the high sea. Fuck, I tell you brother—families are full of surprises. …

So if you wanted to, like, make an account.

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DREW Umm, maybe. I'm sorry.

I mean, I'm sorry that I don't have any more immediate information. About the Tatums.

STEVIE I bet you wish you could have known them, too.

DREW /Do you–?

STEVIE /Are you–?

DREW No please, go ahead— STEVIE Well, I really asked you here because of the blood connection, right?

Cause you see here we have some of Tatum's sons and daughters that went down and made your…branch but Micajah and Napoleon, you know, Napoleon specifically, he went off over here, and made…mine (off Drew’s look, and as if to a dolt?) Because Micajah and Napoleon, they're Alameda and Clark Tatum’s kids.

DREW Oh GOD. STEVIE Well. I mean, what did you think—?

DREW No! STEVIE What do you mean, “no?”

DREW I'm just feeling overwhelmed by all of this. Did you think about DNA? STEVIE Umm, the site is really accurate.

DREW Okay yeah no sorry I mean it's just God Page 5 of 8

DREW(CONT’D) I’m not naïve—I know about American history. I just, I don't know what I can give you.

Except my sincerest...I’m so sorry.

STEVIE Hmm. DREW Please don't say 'hmm' like that. You did contact me. I want to know how best—how best for you—I can proceed.

STEVIE I said I didn't want your money, man. I'm making a tree. I'm just reaching out to all the leaves on the tree so I can grow it big and tall.

DREW I understand. And I support you. But can you—?

I mean. I don't want to know any more about the Tatums.

Now I'd really rather not know, I think.

STEVIE Because of the /[kids]?

DREW /Well, YES, obviously. It's just so terrible, and I feel like...I want no part. I don't want to think about it anymore. At all.

Stevie shuts his folder.

DREW I don't mean to upset you! Hey! I didn’t— GRaRgh what can I say?

What do you want me to say?

STEVIE It's like walking on eggshells with us, huh, man? Goshdurn P-O-Cs, just love to stir things up— DREW Please don't.

STEVIE Andrew, it was nice to meet you. May a smiling dazzle of African Americans applaud your mosey on home.

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DREW Look, it's really not like that! The woman I love is black! …Oh my God. I swore I'd never say that to prove a point.

Drew gets emotional again. This time, Stevie may really consider comforting his “cousin.” But after a long beat, he doesn’t.

Stevie gathers his papers, slowly.

Drew’s phone rings. Ringtone is probably, like, Beach House.

DREW Sorry. Rude.

STEVIE No need.

This would be the black woman you love?

DREW She told me not to come today. "People get murdered," she said. "Remember ‘The Wire?’" / Like anyone in Charles Village needs to be reminded of “The Wire”— STEVIE You can take it. Guess I should be going anyways.

DREW No, I don't want to leave it—will you—just one second, okay? Please? (picking up his phone) Hi Meg I'm safe but I can't really talk now— STEVIE Meg? Meg appears in her space: MEG Yay! Wait, tell me—is he weird?

DREW I can't really MEG Oh my god he's standing right there huh? Oh man I bet he's weiiiiirddddd STEVIE Yo what's her last name?

DREW Ummm— Page 7 of 8

MEG Say no more, I’ll leave you to it. But yo, I’m over here tryna /declutter the Love Shack, working title—think you could pick up some twine on your way home?

STEVIE That’s not short for Marguerite, is it? /Yo, what’s her last name?

MARGUERITE WILSON?!

DREW Umm, yes?!

MEG Greatcoolseeyaathomebye!

Meg hangs up STEVIE Marguerite Elaine Wilson? What's she about five foot nine?

Teacher?

Born and raised here?

DREW Why would you—No… STEVIE Delivered by C-section? Johns Hopkins, May of 1993? Was I in the room holding her mother BEVERLY'S hand because her podunk papa ARNOLD fainted after the first big contraction?

DREW No no no no STEVIE YES. Yes, yes, yes!

DREW Oh, fuck me.

Lights.

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