FENCES

It is 1957. TROY and BONO enter the yard, large man with thick, heavy hand; it is this largeness that he strives to fill out and make an accommodation with. Together with his blackness, his largeness informs him sensibilities and the choices he has made in his life. Of the two men, BONO is on obviously the follower. His commitment to their friendship on f thirty - old years is rooted in his admiration on f TROY's honesty, capacity for hard work, and his strength, which BONO seeks to emulate. It is Friday night, payday, and the one night of the week the two men engage in a ritual of talk and drink. TROY is usually the most talkative and at times he can be crude and almost vulgar, though he is capable of rising to profound heights of expression. The men carry lunch buckets and wear or carry burlap aprons and dressed in clothes suitable to jobs as garbage collectors. BONO: Troy, you ought to stop that lying! TROY: I ain't lying! The n****r had a watermelon this big. (He indicates with his hands.) Talking about... “what watermelon, Mr. Rand?" ... And it sitting there big as life. BONO: what did Mr. Rand say? TROY: Ain't said nothing. Figure if the n****r too dumb to know her carrying a watermelon, he wasn't gonna get much sense out of him. Trying to hide that great big old watermelon under his coat. Afraid to let the white man see nim carry it home. BONO: I'm like you... i ain't got no time for them kind of people. TROY: Now what he look like getting mad cause he e see the man from the union talking to Mr. Rand? BONO: He comes to talking about... ”Maxson gonna get us fired." I to him to get away from me with that. He walked away from me calling you a troublemaker. What Mr. Rand say? TROY: Ain't said nothing. He told me to go down there to see them. BONO: Well, as long as you got your complaint filed, they can't fire you. That's what one of them white fellows tell me. TROY: I ain't worried about them firing me. They gonna fire me cause I asked a question? That's all I did. I went to Mrs. Rand and asked him, why? Why you got the white men driving and the colored lifting? “Told him," what's the matter, don't I count? You think only white fellows got sense enough to drive a truck. That ain't no paper job! Hell, anybody can drive a truck. Hoe come you got all whites driving and the colored lifting? He told me “take it to the union." Well, hell, that's what I done! Now they wanna come up with this pack of lies. BONO: I told Brownie if the man come and him any questions... just tell him the truth! It ain't nothing but something they done trumped up on you cause you filed complaint on them. TROY: Brownie don't understand nothing. All I want them to do is change the job description. Give everybody a chance to drive the truck. Brownie can't see that. He ain't got that much sense. BONO: How you figure he be making out with that gal be up at Taylors' all the time... that Alberta gal? TROY: Same as you and me. Getting just as much as we are, which is to say nothing. BONO: Aw, n****r, look here... I know you. I F you had got anywhere near that gal, twenty minutes later you be looking to tell somebody. And the first one you gonna tell... that you gonna want brag to... is gonna be me. BONO: I ain't saying that. I see where you be eyeing her. TROY: I eye all the women. I don't miss nothing. Don't never let nobody tell you Troy Maxson don't eye the women. BONO: You been doing more than eyeing her. You done bought her a drink or two. TROY: Hell yeah, I bought her a drink! What that mean? I bought you one, too. What that mean cause I buy her a drink? I'm just being polite. BONO: It's alright to buy her one dirnk. That's what you call being polite. But when you wanna be buying two or three... that's what you call eyeing her. TROY: Look here, as long as you know me ... you ever known me to chase after women? BONO: Hell yeah! Long as i done known you. You forgetting I knew you when. TROY: Naw, I'm talking about since I been married to Rose? BONO: Oh, not since you been married to Rose. Now, that's the truth, there. I can say that. TROY: Alright then! Case closed. BONO: I see you be walking up around Alberta's house. You supposed to be at Taylors' and you be walking up around there. TROY: What you watching where I'm walking for? I ain't watching after you. BONO: I seen you walking around there more than once. TROY: Hell, you liable to see me walking anywhere! That don't mean nothing cause you see me walking around there. BONO: Where she come from anyway? She just kinda showed up one day. TROY: Tallahassee. You can look at her and tell her one of them Florida gals. They got some big healthy women down there. Grow them right up out the ground. Got a little bit Indian in her. Most of them n*****s down in Florida got some Indian in them. BONO: I don't know about the Indian part. But she damn sure big and healthy. Women wear some big stockings. Them great big old legs and hips as wide as the Mississippi River. TROY: Legs don't mean nothing. You don't do nothing but push them out of the way. But them hips cushion the ride! BONO: Troy, you ain't got no sense. TROY: It's the truth! Like you riding on Goodyears! ( Rose enter from the house. She is ten years young than TROY, her devotion to him stem ms from her recognition of the possibilities of her life without him: a succession of abusive men and their babies, a life of partying and running the streets, the church, or aloneness with its attendant pain and frustration. she recognizes TROY's spirit as a fine and illuminating on and she either ignores or forgives his faults, only some of which she recognizes. Though she don't drink, her presence is an integral part of the Friday night rituals. She alternates between the porch and the kitchen, where supper preparations are under way.) ROSE: What you all out here getting into? TROY: What you worried about what w getting into for? This is men talk, woman.