Father Comes Home from the Wars Quotes

SECOND
Some of us are betting that Hero’s going to the War.

LEADER
And some of us are betting that he’ll stay.

FOURTH
You might be the best at measuring Night
But that don’t mean you the best at measuring Men.

THIRD
Early risers have their say but we gotta make our own choices on this
Each of us gotta make a measure of the man
We gotta choose for ourselves.
(Rest)
I got a brass button
I might be betting that Hero is—
Going to the War.

FOURTH
I got a banjo.

THIRD
Don’t bet that.

LEADER
Old Man, you dead yet?

OLD MAN
What kind of foolish question is that?
Good thing you ain’t free.
Good thing they days ain’t they own to fill.
Good thing they time is still owned by the Boss-Master,
Cause, if they time ever was they own, mark it:
They’d be filling it all up with foolishness.
Seeing me standing here but thinking me dead.
Goodness, people, I was just out walking, out looking for Hero’s dog.

HERO
Would you have your son go to the War or would you have him stay?

[…]

OLD MAN
I want you to decide your own self.
Boss-Master ordering you to go to the War with him
And then he tells you that you got a choice in the matter.
The great Boss-Master-Boss gives you your freedom of choice.
Like he figure his freedom of choice is gonna somehow
Take the place of the Rightful Freedom that he’s been denying you.
Like he figures that this gift, his little crumb of choice,
Will somehow save his soul when Judgment Day comes.
Me and Penny both agreed to stay clear and let the last word on it be up to you.

HERO
Still still still: Do you want me staying home?

OLD MAN
Yes.

HERO
You want me staying here? Did I hear right?

OLD MAN
What father in his right mind wants his son going off to the War?
I mean, yes, well, maybe real fathers.
Lucky men who had their sons shot out into life through their own balls.
Maybe they figure easy come easy go.
You’re my son but as you know
I didn’t make you from my spit.
Which makes me, I guess, a fake-father.
But you, Hero, make no mistake, you’re a real son through and through.
No, we don’t got the luxury of blood between us,
And your arrival was a happenstance, but all that makes me
Double-bless the day you came here and looked up to me.
And here I am now. Looking up to you.
Oh, I wish I was your real daddy.

HERO
Not just yet.
He dangled it in front of me. My Freedom.
Like a beautiful carrot.
Like a diamond. And those scraps of uniform and the diamond Freedom glittered
As he promised it, asking me to see it, to smell it, touch it, try it on for size.
But while I so wanted to I was still thinking on the bald fact that in his service
I will be helping out
On the wrong side.
That sticks in my throat and makes it hard to breathe.
The wrong of it.
[…]
But can you see Boss-Master and me coming home from the War
And him giving me my freedom like he says he will?

OLD MAN
It’s right for you to wonder.
After the way he promised you your Freedom that first time.
Why do you shiver?

Hero puts on the scraps of his Confederate Army uniform.

HERO
I can see myself, out there.
Guns blazing all around, cannons going off
And the line of endless tents
And the piles of the dead.

OLD MAN
You won’t be one of the dead, son.
You do your service and then
Here you are coming home.
I can see you.
Walking bravely

HERO
And I bow down to you, giving thanks, glad to be back.

OLD MAN
And your Freedom has been granted
And your dog has been found
And none of your limbs have been lost.

HERO
Mark it.

PENNY
But you don’t want to go.
You don’t want to.
You told me so.
[…]
“I got to tell you my mind before the others meddle with me and twist me up,” you said.
Cause you knew. You knew that’s what they do.
Planting their own seeds into you.
Using you worse than Boss-Master does.
“I’m not going,” you said.
[…]
And oh, oh, I was afeard for you.
Crossing Boss-Master is a horrible thing.
That’s what went through my head.
But also, it was sweet
Even though it was terrifying it was sweet.
That you was not gonna raise a hand against your own cause
that you was not gonna help out Master.
That you would stand up.
That you would stay home.
At least that’s what I thought I heard.

THIRD
It’s still dark out
There’s still time to reconsider
Hero you were born perfect and lived your whole life
Is that to end here? Is that to end now
In front of a ruined cabin with an old knife?

HERO
Harm won’t come to no one but me.

FOURTH
Won’t some angel come
And hold back the hand?
Where is the big voice
Telling us that this is just some kind of test
To see if we were willing to follow the path.
Where is the path? Where is the path?!
The path, it isn’t marked.
Won’t some spirit comes down,
Some angel, some light, some mercy?

LEADER
[…]
Homer is coming. Maybe we should wait for him.
He might have an idea for this.

HOMER
Ain’t no game, Hero.
Cause you shouldn’t be doing neither.
Cause you shouldn’t stoop
To do neither
Cause both choices, Hero,
To stay here and work the field
To go there and fight in the field
Both choices are
Nothing more than the same coin
Flipped over and over
Two sides of the same coin
And the coin ain’t even in your pocket.
[…]
That man will never free you. Ever.
You’re waiting for him to give you Freedom
When you should take it.
Yeah.
I’ve been thinking on it.
[…]
Mark it, now’s the time.
Start running and you’ll be free so quick
The War will still be raging and
Master will be promising Freedom to the next fool
Fool enough to believe it.
And you,
You’ll have your freedom already.
Taken.
Taken for yourself.
It'll be completely yours.

HERO
Cause I ain’t like you.
I ain’t some wild man who will
Break away from good common sense and
Go running. Go running here go running there
Go running who knows wherever.
No real map no real nothing and getting no real freedom that way.
Grabbing, taking, snatching, begging, borrowing, stealing?
My Freedom’s gonna be free of that.
Cause who would I be when I’m free that way?
Something stolen. A Stolen-Freedom?
That ain’t me.

HOMER
Seems like
After all the wrong Boss has done
You’re no better than a dog.
Or worse than your own dog
Who at least had the sense to run off
When his Master kicked.
You’re a dog what gets fed scraps from the table
A dog what gets kicked then stays around.
A dog what follows his Master no questions asked.
You’re like that Hero.

LEADER
Freedom in exchange for giving Homer away?
And you said yes.

[…]

SECOND
Freedom in exchange for breaking the bond of trust.
And you said yes.

[…]

HERO
Believe it.
It’s true.
Boss gave me a hundred reasons why I should tell.
[…]
Boss told me—
he talked up close inside my ear and he said—
He said—
And I thought, I thought—
I don’t know what I thought.

HOMER
When Boss said jump you jumped, that’s all.
You told on me to him.
I told on you to Them.
That makes it even.

OLD MAN
All we’ve got is the trust between us.
(Rest)
I can’t call you son anymore.

LEADER
And we can’t call you Hero.

PENNY
That’s still his name.

THIRD
Maybe we won’t call him anything at all.

The sun rises.

SMITH
Huh.
(Rest)
We captured a Jeb a while back. He didn’t own any slaves but he’d been promised 10 for his service. “10 is a good number,” he kept saying. He didn’t have a dollar to his name. He signed up for the war in another man’s place, see, there was a rich man, who had been called up to serve, and, the rich man didn’t want to come to the War so he got this poor fellah to come in his stead. Said he’d give him 10 slaves for his trouble when he got home. The fellah was pretty excited about the prospect. “10 is a good number,” he kept saying. He had the promise-paper in his pocket and he’d show it to our Colonel every chance he got.

SMITH
Not at all. I’m a Yankee through and through. Even if I took off my blue coat, I’d still be a Yankee. Even if you made me swear to the Rebel Cause I’d still be full of my Yankee blood and my Yankee ways and notions. Even if I came down here to live and even if I lived here for a hundred years and had a hundred slaves I’d still be a Yankee.

COLONEL
Underneath your blue coat you and me are more alike than different. And I know you are looking at me and you’re thinking that it’s only a matter of time before we see things your way and we are looking at you and thinking the same thing.

SMITH
We don’t want to change you, we just want to whup you.

COLONEL
You might have commanded them but I own them. And because I own them I have an understanding of them that you don’t have and never will. Hero knows his worth to the penny, and, well, the poor thing is honest. Meaning he won’t run off not now not never. He told me one day: “Master,” he said, “running off, well, that would be the same as stealing,” he said.

SMITH
He came to War with you. He came willingly?

COLONEL
I asked him to join me and he did so without a second’s thought. To get him on board I had to sweeten the pot.
I promised him his Freedom.

SMITH
And you’ll keep your Word?

COLONEL
Things these days have grown so very complicated.

SMITH
You don’t intent to keep your word to him.

COLONEL
I didn’t say that.

COLONEL
Tell you what, Captain Smith.

The Colonel invites Smith to exit the cage.

COLONEL
Play along with us and, if you can, using the information provided, if you can determine Hero’s original worth, that is, the price he was when he came to me, then he’ll be yours.

HERO
Just like that.

SMITH
You’d have your freedom in a heartbeat.

HERO
Just like that?

COLONEL
Just like that. Now, just so it’s all above board, Hero knows his purchase price so we can’t accuse Colonel of dishonesty should Captain guess correctly. All right with Smith?

SMITH
All right with Hero?

HERO
Alright.

COLONEL
I know what I would do. I would be sorry to see you go.
I would be. And Missus. She would stand on the porch crying and I would put a brave face on it while you went off down the road, heading who knows where to do who knows what, she’d be crying and I’d be standing there wearing my brave face. […] Then would come night fall and we’d be getting ready for bed, Missus would have the bed covers pulled up over her head and I would be sitting on the bed, unable to lie down. Cause I’d be feeling like my good life had left me. Just like I felt when my son died but worse, cause you wouldn’t be dead, Hero, you’d just be gone. And I’d weep.

The Colonel breaks down crying. Real tears.

HERO
How much you think we’re gonna be worth when Freedom comes? What kind of a price will we fetch then?

SMITH
We won’t have a price. Just like they don’t. That’ll be the beauty of it.

HERO
What’s the beauty in being worth nothing?

SMITH
We won’t be able to be moved around, beaten, bought or sold, forced to work and make men rich while we stay poor.

HERO
Most soldiers they’re poor, Colored and White both.

SMITH
There’s more to Freedom than I can explain, but believe me it’s like living in Glory.

HERO
Who will I belong to?

SMITH
You’ll belong to yourself.

HERO
So—[…] when I’m walking down the road […] and a Patroller comes up to me and says “Whose nigger are you, Nigger?” I’m gonna say, “I belong to myself?” Today I can say, “I belong to the Colonel.”

[…] Hero holds up his hands.
Reminiscent of: “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”

HERO
Feels good. Don’t know if it’s the Captain part of the Union part. Probably some of both.
(Rest)
You know what I call the Colonel behind his back? I call him “Peacock.”

SMITH
“Colonel Peacock”?

HERO
No, just “Peacock.” Him and that fool bird-wing feather in his cap that he loves so much. “Peacock.”
(Rest)
Sometimes I think there’s a broke part of me inside.
Snapped in two. Huh.
(Rest)
The Colonel, he says, “Get over here, Hero, and do this and that.” And I say, “Yes, sir,” out loud but to myself I say, “Sure thing, Peacock, sure thing, Peacock.” Sometime he wonders why I’m smiling and that’s how come.

SMITH
[…] This world is such a mess. How’s a colored gonna make his way? […] You could be bought and sold and so could I.

HERO
That’ll end with Freedom.

SMITH
But what if it don’t somehow? Sometimes I get the feeling that the heart of the thing won’t change easy or quick. Cause of the way we were bought and brought over here in the first place. Maybe even with Freedom, that mark, huh, that mark of the marketplace, it will always be on us. And so maybe we will always be twisting and turning ourselves into something that is going to bring the best price. That’s the way we were born into this, so is it always gonna be like that for us, slavery or not? Are we ever going to get us a better place in the marketplace?

PENNY
What’s that scratching say?

HOMER
It says everything.

PENNY
“Everything.” Is that how you write it? Looks pretty.

HOMER
PENNY

HOMER
Kiss?

PENNY
Homer.

HOMER
No harm in asking.

PENNY
Because you like the sound of no.

HOMER
There’s a yes in that no. Curled up inside somewhere. Kiss.

HOMER
You’re fearful, I’m brave: no matter. I got one foot you got two: no matter.
(Rest)
There’s big things and then there’s bigger things that small them up, you know? Over where I came from, the sea was so big. But the sky smalled it up. My younger days got smalled up by my years. My one foot gets smalled up by everything. You want to wait, but he’s dead and you’re scared. Going could small that up.
(Rest)
No better time to leave than tonight. And there’s nothing left to do but go.

PENNY
The Master is dead, right?

ODYSSEY DOG
Which one?

HOMER
The Boss-Master, the Colonel, you know.

ODYSSEY DOG
When I say my Master of course I’m speaking of Hero. Him and you all have a Master, but his and you all’s Master is not my Master. Although you could say that because the Boss-Master owns Hero who in turn owns me, you could figure that the Boss-Master is in fact my Master. But he is not. Although, the Great Master, the one who sits in the sky, you know, the Great Master is Boss-Master’s Master and Old-Hero’s Master and my Master too, but that Colonel-Boss-Master is not my Master. When the Colonel called me, I would never come.

ULYSSES
[…] But there’ll be plenty of time to talk more about that. Plenty of time for more stories.
(Rest)
Homer, this here’s for you.

From his satchel, he pulls out a foot, more like a shoe last, made of white alabaster.

HOMER
A foot.
[…]
A foot. I thank you.

ULYSSES
They use it to model shoes on. The shop had burned to the ground. I seen it laying in the ash. Let it take the place of the one you lost.

HOMER
I didn’t lose it. Wasn’t like I woke up one morning and couldn’t remember where I put it.

ULYSSES
Well, you know.
(Rest)
It’s made of alabaster. It’s worth a lot.

HOMER
I thank you.

SECOND
I’m scared of what will happen next.
The old story guides me to a dangerous place
A place I head to by homing habit.
Not like the journey I’m on now, right?

THIRD
The place I’m going now is Freedom.

SECOND
But where is Freedom, really?
Will the air smell sweet?
Will the streets be paved with gold?
Will all in Freedomville welcome me with open arms?
Will there be food?
Will there be a bed to lay my Freedom Head?

FIRST
Freedom will swell me, maybe
Maybe it will burst my brains to madness
Maybe it will flood my heart to death
Will I say, at the end of the day,
“God, I wish I’d stayed home?”

SECOND
I’m afraid of what will happen next.

ULYSSES
He didn’t give me my freedom.
[…]
In spite of all his promises.
[…]
With every day they grew fuller and riper.
[…] And my stomach growled.
And he’d feed it. With promises. And I would feast upon them.
I don’t take after him in looks but I did take after him.
I did. I did. Following in his every footstep.
[…]
And when he finally died
I thought for a minute I’d follow him into the grave
That’s how close we were.
You,
You make me think of how I wronged you. Just like with me and Master:
I’d always, just by being myself, I’d always be somehow reminding him
Of his Faults against me.
And so, to make it all right, to make it bearable, so I could find a way to breathe
I went and cut out my soul.
I cut my soul out of myself.
And I gave it up to him.