31 Plays in 31 Days - Day #9 "A Fair Trade"

This is based on The Stand, and a scene from a possible play I could write about PC Carson Hill, about the first time he ever met PC Emma Holloway, the young black woman he employs in his saloon. This scene is somewhat spoilery for the game, but to minimize that, I will say that Carson feels a huge sense of guilt that fires up upon meeting her, and drives his behavior in the scene.

Day #9 - "A Fair Trade"

CARSON HILL, formerly a lawyer, now opening a cowboy saloon out west
EMMA HOLLOWAY, a runaway slave
~~~

(CARSON is closing up his bar at the end of the night. As he cleans up, he hears a knocking. He pauses a moment and listens. The knocking comes again.)

CARSON: Sorry, we’re closed.

EMMA: (Off-stage) Just need a moment! Please!

(CARSON exits briefly, as if going to a door, and backs up onto the stage as EMMA enters, dressed in tatters. He stares at her.)

EMMA: Beg pardon for pushing in. Just that I’m mortal hungry. I thought a body could have a bite here.

(CARSON stares.)

EMMA: I ain’t got three heads.

CARSON: Oh! Forgive me, I… I, uh… there isn’t much I’ve only just opened up… but, uh…

(He searches behind the bar and digs up some biscuits.)

CARSON: The sheriff’s wife brought these. You’re welcome to them.

(EMMA takes them after a moment and begins to eat. CARSON watches her with trepidation.)

EMMA: I’ve got money.

CARSON: Oh— no, no.

EMMA: I pay my way!

CARSON: It isn’t that.

EMMA: Ain’t you never seen a negro before? We eat the same as anybody.

CARSON: No— it’s just been a while. I mean… I never met one in Reston before.

EMMA: I’m new out west.

CARSON: How did you come here?

EMMA: On the boat that come through the canal.

CARSON: Is that so? That’s… that’s a long way. What brings you here?

EMMA: Same reason as all folks, I reckon. Making a new start.

(Pause.)

EMMA: You’re awful curious.

CARSON: I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrogate.

EMMA: I be moving on soon.

CARSON: Moving on? Do you have any place to stay?

EMMA: Never you mind.

CARSON: No… it’s only… it’s a rough place out there. To have nowhere to go.

EMMA: I make my way.

CARSON: I’m sure.

(He paces off, then rushes back over to her.)

CARSON: You want a job?

EMMA: Beg pardon?

CARSON: If you don’t have anywhere else to go, you might work here.

EMMA: Don’t need your charity, I’m sure.

CARSON: I could use the help. I’m new out west too, and new to keeping a
place like this. Can you cook?

EMMA: Yep.

CARSON: Well, I can’t. Can you serve up a plate?

EMMA: Course I can.

CARSON: The bar could use a maid. You seem like you can meet a hard day’s work.

EMMA: Harder than you ever.

CARSON: I don’t doubt that. I’ll pay you a fair wage, and you can stay here if you like.

EMMA: Why you so hot to have me?

CARSON: I think we both could use a fair trade. Just… trying to do something right.

(EMMA considers.)

EMMA: I could take a fair wage.

CARSON: Thanks very much, miss… I don’t even know your name.

EMMA: Emma.

CARSON: Good to have you, Emma. The name’s Hill. Carson Hill.

(After a moment, he extends his hand to shake, uncertainly. She regards it, then warily reaches out and takes it.)

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge: Ain't Pity

Yesterday I submitted the second packet of homework for my thesis, which included the second quarter of the play I'm writing about some of the outlaws in The Stand. I haven't been posting those pieces here because at this stage it's mostly what some writers call a "vomit draft," where you just throw every idea you have out on the page with the intent to clean it up later. I don't think I'll show you that until I get a chance to go over it with a chainsaw, as I expect it to be substantially different.

But it got me thinking about my Stand-related theater. Another full-length play I could write could be about PC Carson Hill, the protagonist of The Triumph of Law which will get a reading on public access TV this April. I had a few scratching of a new scene for it, and though it is still only a fragment, very much out of context, it follows up on the issue brought up in The Triumph of Law. It also features Emma Holloway, another PC from the game, making her debut in my Stand-related theater. This spoils a major secret in the game, so read only if you don't care or can't be spoiled.

Fragment: "Ain't Pity"

EMMA: I don’t want no pity of yours.

CARSON: Ain’t pity.

EMMA: Bollocks.

CARSON: Swear it. It’s just… the right thing to do.

EMMA: Yeah? The fancy white fella showing good care on the li’l negro gal?

CARSON: For Christ’s sake, no! I’m just doing what I owed you.

EMMA: Owed me? What do you mean, you owed me?

CARSON: I… I did wrong by you once. Real wrong. I didn’t know I was doing it, but I did.

EMMA: What are you talking about?

CARSON: It was a long time ago.

EMMA: How’s that ever so? I ain’t never laid eyes on you before this town.

CARSON: No, but… I helped somebody do something real bad once. Somebody who was real bad to you.

EMMA: Who?

CARSON: I didn’t know, I swear it!

EMMA: Who was it?

CARSON: I can’t—!

EMMA: For Jesus’ sake, Carson Hill!

(CARSON turns on a gas lamp, then slides a letter across the table to her. She glances at it, then glares.)

EMMA: You know I can’t read a word.

CARSON: I know. It’s only… the name signed here. You must have seen it before. Do you know it?

EMMA: I know the shape of it… that’s… that’s Richard Corbett’s name. You done something for Richard Corbett?

CARSON: Yes.

EMMA: All kind of white folks happy to take that beast’s money. Why you any different?

CARSON: Emma… you told me what happened to your brother. To Jeremiah.

EMMA: They brought him back after he went running and set the dogs on him.

CARSON: That’s it, Emma. When Jeremiah ran, he’d made it all the way to New York when they caught him. A free state. But that man Corbett wouldn’t give him up. He wanted New York to send his property back. So he went to the court, made his petition. Nobody thought they’d give him what he was after. Except he hired himself a young crackerjack lawyer, who argued so well they gave Corbett him and all the other boys back. So he could send them back home to die.

EMMA: How you know about all that?

CARSON: I was that lawyer, Emma. That dumb hotshot that hadn’t a care for nothing but making his career. I sent your brother back to his death.

(EMMA stares at him, frozen.)