Father Comes Home from the Wars

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
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?

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.

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.

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.