Page 164 of Score
Naw. Gimme the Sixth, though soon we’ll be leaving Paris behind. You ain’t forgot, have you?
CAL (FROWNING, BUT NODDING)
Let’s get through this last set of shows, and then I’ll take you home to your precious Alabama.
DESSI
It ain’t Alabama that’s precious. It’s Mama. You know if she wasn’t sick, it would be a different story.
CAL
That country don’t want us, Dess. They’re lynching us. Why you think all our friends are here? We’re on our way to Hazel Scott’s apartment. Why you thinkshe’shere in Paris? Look how they treated her.
DESSI
Remember watchingThe Heat’s Onin London during the war? Boy, them soldiers never seen nothing like Hazel up on that screen in her fine gowns, playingtwopianos at the same time.
CAL
You were just as magnificent, Dessi. We almostdiedin London. More than once! Singing and dancing for them white soldiers like court jesters, bombs flying overhead. All Hazel did for the war effort and then to be called un-American? A communist? To lose everything?
DESSI
It won’t right how they did Hazel, how they do all of us, but she’s in Paris now, and it’ll be good to see her again.
CAL
Yeah, but I’m just saying she shouldn’t have to flee her own country just to be celebrated, to feelsafe. After all Black folks sacrificed in that war and we still had to have something like the Double Vcampaign. We mighta been fighting fascism here, but we still had to fight racism at home.
DESSI
There you go, getting riled up again.
CAL
If we going back to America, you better get used to it. We gon’ live in a constant state of riled up.
DESSI
I know that, Cal. I ain’t naive and I ain’t loyal to a country that ain’t loyal to me, but my mama needs me, and I’m going.
CAL (TAKING AND KISSING HER HAND)
Baby, we don’t have to fight about it. It’s just we’re going back to the South, to Alabama. We’re being hunted and strung up like dogs. Hell, New York ain’t much better. Even in the city, I walked around all tight, like I couldn’t breathe easy.
Cal looks out the window at the bright lights of Paris passing by.
CAL
It was just nice to breathe for a little while.
They both go quiet as the car pulls up in front of a stately building in the Eighth Arrondissement. Inside Hazel’s gorgeously decorated apartment, the party is underway, filled with the brightest expats Paris has to offer: James Baldwin, Lester Young, and several other famous people converse and drink, relaxed and enjoying themselves. Dessi and Cal grab drinks at thebar before settling on a white couch and striking up conversations with a few of the party guests.
DESSI (LEANING OVER TO WHISPER)
It’s a who’s who in here tonight, ain’t it?
CAL (LOOKING AT HER THOUGHTFULLY)
