ACT I

Scene 2:

....​SISTER DEWIT

Isn’t that her son?

 

​SISTER KING

Sure is. When did Rainey get home, I wonder?

 

​SISTER DEWIT

Sister Perkins told me she saw Molly Bee pick him up at the airport last night. Said he look like he lost a lot of weight since he was here a couple of years ago. That’s why I didn’t bring it up. Ain’t no telling what’s wrong with him!

 

​SISTER SAL

Probably on one of those crazy diets. I heard on the news that almost half the young people in this country are on diets.

 

​MOLLY BEE

(comes back in with RAINIER)

Come on in, we’re just finishing mission. Sisters, you all know my son, Rainier.

 

​SISTER KING

How you doing, Baby? We were just saying how long it’s been since you been home.

 

​SISTER DEWIT

You still living in California? San Francisco, right?

 

​SISTER SAL

I heard on the news there’s supposed to be a big earthquake there. You probably left just in time! Why didn’t you tell us your son was coming home, Molly Bee?

 

​MOLLY BEE

I didn’t know myself until he got here!

 

​SISTER KING

Last time one of my children showed up unexpectedly, she was pregnant!

 

​MOLLY BEE

Well, that’s one worry I never had!

 

​SISTER DEWIT

You’re going to be home a while, Son?

 

​RAINIER

I don’t know yet. (starts coughing spasmodically, then regains composure)

 

​MOLLY B EE

Son, you all right?

 

​RAINIER

I’m all right, Mama. (to others) I just got out of the hospital.

 

​SISTER DEWIT

What was wrong?

 

​RAINIER

I had pneumocystis pneumonia.

 

​SISTER SAL

I’ve heard of that! They were talking about it on the news.

 

​SISTER KING

(gets up and motions to other s who do likewise)

Well, we’re going on home and you take care now. Nice to see you again. I’ll tell my boy, Charles, that I saw you. You know he’s married and has three kids. (they exit whispering; SISTER SAL is talking and the others are listening with shocked or knowing looks on their faces as they exit)

 

​MOLLY BEE

Rainier, you need anything?

​

​RAINIER

(sits on couch tiredly)

May I have a drink of water? I’m so thirsty. It was a long night. I had night sweats and kept waking up thinking I was still at home.

​

​MOLLY BEE

You are at home. (goes to get water and returns seconds later after he has another coughing spell) Here, drink this. (hands him the glass and waits while he drinks)

 

​RAINIER

(drinks from glass, then sets it on table as she sits)

Mama, I’m sorry I interrupted your mission circle.

 

​MOLLY BEE

Don’t worry about that. We’ll pick up where we left off next Saturday. I thought you fell. I forgot to unpack your suitcase, so it’s a wonder you didn’t fall and break your neck when you tripped over it. Now, I want you in the bed. I think they let you out that hospital too soon. (touches his face) You’re so pale and you’re still coughing. (pulls his pant leg showing how loose it is) And look how thin you are. (gets up) Come on, up to bed. I’m going to nurse you back to health and fatten you up. Them doctors can’t do what a mother can do. (he stands up and makes several attempts to speak, but she rushes on) You’re my baby and I’m going to take care of you. After your daddy died, I promised myself I’d keep on living in case you needed me. Lord knows I wanted to go on to glory with Daniel, but I stayed here because I knew one day you might need your Mama.

 

​RAINIER

Mama, there’s something you need to know.

 

​MOLLY BEE

(pushing him toward exit)

You can tell me upstairs. I want you in the bed and I want you in there now!

 

​RAINIER

(stops dead in his tracks and she almost trips over him)

Mama! My death is not going to be easy! I’m going to get dementia and I could get Karpozi Sarcoma, a cancer that people with AIDS get and I’ll probably have to wear diapers! You need to know how hard it’s going to be!

 

​MOLLY BEE

(has stretched her hand out to gain her balance and changes position of her hand so that one finger points towards him and she puts her other hand to her mouth, then removes it and speaks) I don’t wanna hear how you’re gonna die. Don’t tell me when and how! How am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to live with this? I did it once already with your father. He should be here now. But he’s not! He’s not because of you! You killed your daddy going out there dressing up like a woman and living with that man! He tried to tell you God would punish you for going against the Bible! Now you’re gonna die and there’s nobody left to take care of you but me! Your daddy ain’t here and your – MAN ain’t here! It’s just me! Just me and the Lord and one of us can’t handle it! Why did you have to come back here like this? Why didn’t you just stay out there and die? I don’t need this! I watched your daddy die with cancer and saw the way it ate him up, one cell at a time. I can’t watch nobody else die! Don’t you know that? I can’t do it! If you were just sick with the flu or something like that, I could nurse you back to health and get you well again. But I can’t bury another man in this lifetime I just can’t!

​

​RAINIER

(walks over and kisses her gently on the forehead and she pulls away slightly, letting out a sob, then grabs him and hugs him tightly) It’s all right, Mama. I understand. I really do. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

 

​MOLLY BEE

(lets him go and he walks out while she wipes at her eyes, then looks up) Lord, you know I can’t handle this, so I guess you have to. (lights)....

....RAINIER

 Why don’t you let me call Rev. Charlie? I know she’ll help, because it was MCC that helped me when I needed someone to help change the bed or to just give me a break so I could go to the movies or the grocery store. Let me call Rev. Charlie, Mama. You have no idea how bad things are going to get before this is all over. I don’t want to have to go through this alone.

 

​MOLLY BEE

I’m not alone. I’ve got the Lord. People will desert you, but you can always count on Jesus!

 

​RAINIER

Mama, I don’t think Jesus is gonna change my Depends.  (pause) Mama, are you afraid of Rev. Charlie?

 

​MOLLY BEE

Why would I be afraid of her?

 

​RAINIER

Because she’s different and because she defies all your beliefs.

 

​MOLLY BEE

I’m not afraid of her. I just don’t see how someone like that can call herself a preacher. The Bible condemns her. How can she say she believes in it and still be that way?

 

​RAINIER

Because she’s studied the Bible and understands that the passages people use to condemn her are really not talking about her at all, but about people who prostituted themselves in places of worship or people who turned their backs on others.

 

​MOLLY BEE

What about Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

​RAINIER

That’s what I was just talking about. A wonderful woman named Sylvia Pennington taught us that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was one of inhospitality. The culture back then required people living in that arid climate to offer food, shelter, and water to strangers traveling in the desert. Otherwise, many people would have died. The men who wanted to ravish the angel would have had sex with anybody, which is why Lot offered them his daughters. Had they been gay, he would have offered them his sons-in-law. They probably refused Lot’s daughters because they knew them already. They were looking for a little strange. The only other references to homosexuality, except for the one in Leviticus, are about the temple prostitutes who made their living having sex in places of worship, which of course was an abomination before God.

​MOLLY BEE

But in Leviticus it says it’s an abomination for a man to lie with a man like he would with a woman.

 

​RAINIER

I’ve got news for you, Mama. Men don’t lie with men like they lie with a woman! And, remember, Leviticus also forbids eating shellfish and wearing anything but natural fibers. There’s also a law that requires that anyone who molests a child AND the child are both put to death. Jesus redeemed us from those laws, Mama. Legalistic Christians want to keep us under Jewish law, but they don’t follow Jesus’ new commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself. If they did, they wouldn’t have been marching outside of Matthew Shepherd’s funeral with signs saying “God Hates Fags”.

 

​MOLLY BEE

I saw that on television. When that boy was killed, I prayed and asked God to not let anyone do that to you. I didn’t sleep for a week after that happened. But I don’t understand all the things you’re talking about. I’ve been going to Bible class all my life and I never heard any of this before.

 

​RAINIER

Mama, remember when that series on race, racism, and religion was on television and you and Daddy called and told me to watch it?  Well, I did. The televangelist went back and studied the original Biblical texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, Jesus’ language. He refuted claims made in books written years ago by theologians that used the Bible to justify racism. James Tieney, the pastor of Faith Temple in Washington D.C. did the same thing about homosexuality. He wrote extensively about it before he died.

 

​MOLLY BEE

I don’t care what you say and what he wrote! God didn’t mean for men to be with men and women to be with women or he’d have put a man in the Garden with Adam and taken a rib from each of them to make two women to be together and the human race would’ve ended right there.

 

​RAINIER

Well, they could have continued to reproduce themselves. Amoebas do it. They just double their genetic material and divide into. They’re supposed to be the simplest form of life, but I think they really are the advanced form and we are the simplest, needing all these cells to do what they do with one. I believe one day we’ll be like amoebas: comprised of one efficient cell that does everything all the hundreds of millions of cells we now have do. If that happens, we won’t have to have sex to reproduce any more.

 

MOLLY BEE

I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I know is God created Eve for Adam. He made men and women’s bodies so they fit together, if you know what I mean. When two men get together, they have to perform an unnatural act in order to be together. If God had wanted men to be together, he’d have made it possible for them to do it without having to mess up their bowel system.

 

​RAINIER

Mama, don’t worry, there will always be breeders, as long as we are born male and female. But I’ve got a little FYI for you:  not all gay man have anal sex. Some of us just stick to oral sex.

​

​MOLLY BEE

That’s unnatural, too! Don’t nobody’s mouth belong down there!

 

​RAINIER

Well, you do have to be careful. Ain’t no telling where some folks’ mouths have been! (last is said flippantly with a snap of the fingers) Mama, I know it’s hard for you to deal with all of this, but do you realize that this is the first time we’ve ever talked openly about my lifestyle?  I think maybe you’re more open-minded than you think you are.

 

​MOLLY BEE

No, don’t go jumping to no conclusions here. I still think every homosexual in the world is gonna burn in hell and I don’t care what no gay preacher or funny church says!

 

​RAINIER

(teasing her)

When I’m burning in hell, you gonna bring me a glass of ice water, Mama?

 

​MOLLY BEE

(trying in vain to remain solemn)

This ain’t funny now. I’m trying to save your soul and you carrying on a bunch of foolishness.

 

​RAINIER

I’m already saved, Mama! I accepted Christ as my savior and repented my sins.

 

​MOLLY BEE

You couldn’t have repented all of them or you wouldn’t still be gay.

 

​RAINIER

(hugs her, then speaks softly but seriously)

Mama, being gay is no more a sin than eating shrimp. (laughs) Tell you what - I’ll stop being gay when you stop eating fried shrimp every Friday night.

 

​MOLLY BEE

Boy, you crazy?  I ain’t giving up my shrimp for nobody - not even Jesus! (looks up) Forgive me, Lord, but you know I love shrimp and I know you wouldn’t ask me to give up anything that tastes so good!  Speaking of food, it‘s lunchtime! (gets up)  

​RAINIER

Mama, just fix me a sandwich. I don’t have much of an appetite.

 

​MOLLY BEE

All right. But you’re going to have some Ensure, too.  Oh, guess what I made for dessert?

 

​RAINIER

I smelled those sweet potato pies last night! I started to come down here and cut one of them!  

 

​MOLLY BEE

We’ll have pie and coffee for dessert! I’ve got to fatten you up! (exits as lights go down)....

 

 .... â€‹RAINIER

Why did I come out of the closet? (CHARLES nods and looks as if he needs to know the answer to his question) Guess I’m claustrophobic. (sees that CHARLES is serious) I just couldn’t live a lie any longer, Charles. I got tired of pretending that my girl friends were my “girlfriends” and I wanted to have a relationship with someone I loved. I wish you could have met Jeff. You would have liked him. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and a perpetual tan.

 

​CHARLES

Was he into leather?

 

​RAINIER

No, you know I hate leather queens! They’re too rough for me.

 

​CHARLES

(seems a little sad)

He must have been special. (laughs) Even if he didn’t wear leather! Guess nobody’s perfect. (pause) If only my senses were more like God. They leave and forsake me every time I see a leather covering a big old, round - You know, I used to dream about us being together.

 

​RAINIER

We were together, Charles. At least half a dozen times as I remember it.

 

​CHARLES

(serious)

No, I mean really together. I wanted to be with you the way you were with -

 

​RAINIER

Jeff.

 

​CHARLES

I really cared about your, Rainier.

 

​RAINIER

I never knew that, Charles. I just thought it was empty sex.

 

​CHARLES

What I did last night was empty sex. What I do with my wife is empty sex. What I did with you was love. (they both are very quiet) I think I still love you, Rainier. I’m sorry that you’re sick. I wish - well, if you weren’t sick, maybe, just maybe things could be different. Maybe I could be gay with you. Maybe it’s not about being gay, but about loving someone and not caring whether it’s a man or a woman. Just the person you want to be with more than anyone else in the world. You’re the only person I ever felt that way about, Rainier. I just could never face that fact until now. (RAINIER is shocked by his candor and CHARLES pauses, reaches out as if he wants to embrace RAINIER, then turns to leave as he speaks his last line) Tell your mother good-bye for me.

 

​RAINIER

Who knew! (sits down on sofa and laughs) Who knew Charles McIntosh King, III, football star and major hunk was in love with me all this time. And here I was just thinking all this time that I was just his fag bootie call! Too bad he didn’t tell me when we were in high school! (pauses) But he couldn’t. It would have been “Brokeback Mountain” in the hood!  That’s why I left here in the first place. After I came out of the closet, I knew I couldn’t stay in Toledo and have the kind of life I wanted. I had plenty of lovers, but I couldn’t have an openly gay relationship here.  Not in the black church community!  

​

​MOLLY BEE

Rainier, who you talking to? Where’s Charles?

 

​RAINIER

(absently)

He left, Mama. He’s probably trolling the restrooms at the theater while his wife and kids watch the movie!  Wonder if he has a wide stance, too.  I can’t believe Larry Craig thought somebody would believe that!

​MOLLY BEE

What are you talking about, Rainier? Who is Larry Craig?

 

​RAINIER

Just somebody in the news, Mama. Didn’t you hear about the senator that was caught by the Minneapolis police trying to pick up men in a restroom at the airport?

 

​MOLLY BEE

Yes, I did hear about that.  Made me think about you and Charles sneaking around in the high school locker room. I knew about you two and so did your Daddy. That’s why we agreed for you take dance lessons after school. Little did we know you’d learn to dance and go off to San Francisco and dance around in a dress!

 

​RAINIER

You mean, after all the years I begged to get into dance class, you and Daddy only agreed because you thought something was going on between Charles and me?

 

​MOLLY BEE

Well, we were right, weren’t we?

​

​RAINIER

I hate to tell you this, Mama.  Charles is as straight as they come. Ya’ll paid for two years worth of dance classes to keep me away from somebody who was only interested in girls.  But thanks anyway. I got my first job dancing in “A Chorus Line.“

 

​MOLLY BEE

What is a chorus line?

 

​RAINIER

A Broadway play, Mama!  Just when you had me thinking you were an urban sophisticate, you burst my bubble. Come on, let me show you how to kick up your heels! (goes over and starts doing chorus line kicks as he sings) “One singular sensation, every little move she makes.” Come on, Mama, you’re a singular sensation!

 

​MOLLY BEE

Boy, the last time I got my legs up that high was nine months before you were born!

 

​RAINIER

Mama, you’re scandalous! I didn’t know you and Daddy had sex! I thought I was a test tube baby! Come on, you can get those legs up there again. You know what they say, it’s just like riding a bike. Once you learn how, you never forget! (MOLLY BEE joins him kicking up her legs higher than him as he starts to sing again) “One singular sensation, every move she makes. One-” Mama! (stops and watches until she stops and sits down on couch to catch her breath) No wonder Daddy couldn’t wait to get home every night!

 

​MOLLY BEE

(breathing heavily)

Don’t be crude, Rainier! (RAINIER sits on couch next to her)

​RAINIER

Well, you’re the one that brought up yours and Daddy’s sex life!  Mama, thank you.

 

​MOLLY BEE

(looks at him curiously, breathing normally)

For what?

 

​RAINIER

For everything. I love you, Mama.  (they embrace, holding each other close) You should have been taking those dance classes with me. You kick like a chorus girl! (MOLLY BEE starts kicking her legs sitting on sofa and he joins in as lights go down)

ACT II

Scene 1:

​MOLLY BEE

(she’s braiding RAINIER’S hair and humming a hymn) Boy, hold your head still.

​RAINIER

All right, Mama! You know I’m tender-headed. Don’t pull so hard! (jumps in pain) OW! (puts hand on head, then looks at blood in it),

​MOLLY BEE

Oh, Baby, I’m sorry! (looks at his head) Looks like I broke open a scab.

​RAINIER

(sadly) That’s not a scab, Mama. I’ve got Karpozi Sarcoma.

​MOLLY BEE

What’s that?

​RAINIER

It’s that AIDS-related skin cancer I warned you about, Mama.

​MOLLY BEE

(jumps up and starts running across room) Lord, Have mercy! Let me get my purse! I’m taking you to the emergency room!

​RAINIER

(stands) Mama! Wait! (she stops and turns to him, alarmed by the urgency in his voice) I’m going to the doctor’s office this afternoon. She’ll take care of it then. Let me just call and let her know about it. (picks up phone and dials as MOLLY BEE slowly walks toward him) Dr. Wallace, please. It’s Rainier Trotter.

​MOLLY BEE

Ask her can we come now. Tell her your head is bleeding.

​RAINIER

Dr. Wallace? I think I have Karpozi Sarcoma. (pause) Well, there’s a sore in my head and it’s open. (pause) O.K. All right. Would you do me a favor and talk to my mother? She’s a little hysterical right now.

​MOLLY BEE

I’m not hysterical! Why you tell her that? (RAINIER motions for her to take phone) I don’t need some doctor telling me to calm down because my son has a bloody head! (takes phone) Hello. (pause) I’m fine. I’m fine. I just got a little concerned when Rainey’s head started bleeding while I was braiding his hair. I wanted to take him to the hospital. (pause) Well, can we come to your office now? (pause) What do I do about the blood in his head? (pause) I can’t finish braiding his hair. I’m afraid there might be more of those sores in it. (RAINIER sits and starts carefully unbraiding his hair) All right. We’ll see you at 12:45. (hangs up phone and sees RAINIER unbraiding hair) Rainey, what are you doing?

​RAINIER

I may as well take it down, Mama. You can’t finish braiding it now. (they are silent as he takes down braids then stops when he gets to the last one) Mama, may I use your sewing scissors a minute? I’ll bleach them when I’m done. (she goes out and comes back with a small pair of scissors which he takes from her and cuts off last braid, then hands it to her) I want you to  keep this, Mama. I know you can’t put it in the Bible, but I want you to keep it somewhere special to remember me by.

​MOLLY BEE

(takes it from him, fighting back tears and holds the braid lovingly for a moment, then puts it in her bosom as he laughs and gets up to go clean the scissors; while he’s out of the room, she sits and braids part of her hair and when he comes back, she takes the scissors from him and cuts off braid, gives it to him, and gets Bible, watching as he weepily opens it and puts the braid inside;  they hug each other tightly for a  moment) You think I’ll outlive your Aunt Vy so I can put her braid in the Bible? (they laugh) Guess it really don’t matter. Not like anybody gonna care about this old Bible once we’re all gone.

RAINIER

Mama, there’s something I need to tell you.

​MOLLY BEE

Don’t tell me, you’re pregnant! (looks at watch as RAINIER’S mouth drops in surprise) It’s nearly 10:30. (gets up) Come on, Rainier! You gotta take a shower and get dressed to go to the doctor.

​RAINIER

(standing up) Mama, I took a shower when I woke up this morning and I’m already dressed.

​​MOLLY BEE

You can’t wear that to the doctor’s office. I pressed your slacks and a nice white shirt so you can look decent. And be sure you change your underwear. If you have an accident and end up in the hospital – (stops dead in her tracks – there’s a brief silence and she turns to look at him fighting back tears) You’re right. You’re already dressed. No need to change clothes. Dr. Wallace don’t care what you have on. Rainier, I didn’t mean what I said about you having an accident – about you going to the hospital.

​RAINIER

(walks over and embraces her) It’s all right, Mama. I’ll go change clothes since you did all that ironing. Thank-you.

​MOLLY BEE

I’m gonna drive real slow. I’ll be real careful. I promise, there won’t be any accidents. You’ll never have to go to another hospital. Not as long as I’m alive. (she grabs him and clings to him, then lets him go and he exits; she falls on her knees, stifling a scream and visibly shakes as she stretches her arms up toward heaven as lights go down and spot comes up on her) Lord, Jesus cried tears of blood in Gethsemane and I know where they came from now. Those tears traveled up to his eyes from his heart! I don’t want to watch my baby die, Lord. I don’t want to see him lie dying day after day, night after night, life draining from him like dishwater from a sink. I should be spared that. No mother should have to endure this, Lord. This is the life you gave me. The child you blessed me to bear. How can he be taken from me so soon? It’s too soon. I don’t even have a grandchild to love after he’s gone. I never complained when I couldn’t have more children. I was just thankful for the one I had. So, why do I have to lose him now? Why now? Why so soon after losing his father, do I have to bear the pain of nursing another man I love to his death? Haven’t I been a good servant, Lord? I try to do your work. I try to help others. Where’s my help? My own sister, my own missionary circle, my own pastor won’t come to my aid. I don’t have anyone but you, Lord. So, if I call on you more than usual, please understand. I need you. (sings “I Need Thee Every Hour” as she rises and walks out)....

....​RAINIER

Aunt Vy, don’t you think it’s funny that we’re both gay and this is the first time we’ve talked about gay sex? Or any kind of sex, for that matter!

​AUNT VY

I ain’t never talked about this to nobody except Gussie! Beside, you’re my nephew! I’m not supposed to talk about these things with you! Your mama would kill me if she heard me-

​RAINIER

Aunt Vy, you’d be surprised about what me and Mama talk about! (MOLLY BEE enters unseen)

AUNT VY

Hush your mouth!​

MOLLY BEE

What ya’ll talking about?

​​​​AUNT VY

Nothing!

​RAINIER

Cunnilingus!

​MOLLY BEE

What’s that? It sounds dirty!

​AUNT VY

You wouldn’t say that if you knew what it was!

​RAINIER

I bet she knows what fellatio is! (they laugh)

​MOLLY BEE

I don’t know what you two are talking about, but it must have something to do with sex the way you sitting there giggling! Viola Margaret Matthews, you oughta be ashamed of yourself!

​AUNT VY

Why? Rainey says ya’ll talk about sex all the time!

​MOLLY BEE

Rainey! We don’t talk about it all the time.

​RAINIER

Mama, may I ask you a question?

​MOLLY BEE

You can ask, but I won’t say I’ll answer.

RAINIER

Were you happy with Daddy? I mean, in bed. (VY giggles as HENRY enters and walks over to MOLLY BEE)

MOLLY BEE

I’ll have you know, your daddy made my toes curl up!

​AUNT VY

MOLLY BEE TROTTER!

MOLLY BEE

What! Ya’ll over there talking about the cuniling and felataling and I can’t talk about having sex with my husband? The marriage bed is not defiled!

​RAINIER

Amen, Sister! ​(they all burst into laughter)

​​AUNT VY

I can’t believe I’m sitting her talking to my sister and my son about oral sex!

​MOLLY BEE

Is that what that cunniling and felatling means? (RAINIER and VY nod) Well, now, I don’t nothing about that nasty stuff! My husband did things the old-fashioned way and that was good enough for me!

​RAINIER

Mama, don’t tell me all ya’ll ever did was the missionary position!

​MOLLY BEE

What’s that? (they laugh) Oh. Well, I am a missionary and if you ask me that was the best position to be in. I was in that position, young man, when I conceived you!

​RAINIER

Actually, the best position to conceive a child is doggie style!

​MOLLY BEE

(overlapping his next remark) Doggie style?  You mean like two dogs? 

RAINIER

That’s how I conceived my daughter!

​MOLLY BEE and AUNT VY

YOUR WHAT!

​RAINIER

I’m kidding. Her mother and I did not have sex – we used a turkey baster! 

​​​AUNT VY

Rainey, you have a baby?

​​RAINIER

Well, she’s actually ten now.

​​MOLLY BEE

Wait! Turkey baster? How do you have a baby with a turkey baster? (RAINIER and AUNT VY give her a pointed look) Oh. Rainey, you have a baby! What’s her name? What does she look like? Do you have pictures?

​RAINIER

(standing) Matter of fact, I have an album under my mattress upstairs. I’ll go get it! (exits)

​MOLLY BEE

I can’t believe I have a granddaughter! (MOLLY BEE sits in chair by bed) Vy, are you all right? Is there anything you need?

​AUNT VY

I’m getting everything I need talking to Rainey and you. I haven’t been this happy since before Gussie died! (brief silence) Molly Bee, I’m worried about Rainey. I know he’s taking his meds, but he seems tired and he still isn’t gaining weight.

​MOLLY BEE

(dismissive) He’s fine! He always was thin as a rail. I think the meds make him a little tired, but his T cells are up and the doctor says he’s doing very well considering that he just started taking those meds a couple of months ago. He’ll be living long after we’re gone! (tense silence) Vy –

AUNT VY

It’s all right. (pats MOLLY BEE on the arm) I’ve made my peace and I’m ready to go home. (pause) Molly Bee, I know we never talked about Gussie, but you need to know that she was a good person and we shared something special. (MOLLY BEE nods and pats VY’s arm) I told her about the Bible and the braids when we were in college and she gave me a braid of her hair. I’ve kept it all these years. (takes braid out of her bosom and shows it to MOLLY BEE) 

​MOLLY BEE

Oh, she had beautiful hair! Reminds me of our great-grandmother’s hair.

​AUNT VY

It sure does. I never thought about it, but it does, doesn’t it?

​​MOLLY BEE

(gets up and gets Bible while she talks) Well, I think it belongs in the Bible with the rest of our family’s treasures. (opens Bible and VY puts braid in it fighting back tears as RAINIER enters with album and sees what they’re doing)

​RAINIER

Are we looking at the braids, ladies?

MOLLY BEE

No, we’re adding one. Your Aunt Vy just put Gussie’s braid in the family Bible. (RAINIER hides his surprise and he and VY exchange a smile) Now, show me those pictures of my grandbaby! (he goes over and opens album)

​RAINIER

(opening album) Meet Princess Grace, the newest strand braided into the Trotter Family.

​AUNT VY

What a beautiful little girl! She’s got Rainey’s eyes!

​MOLLY BEE

Oh, my God! She looks like you did when you were a baby!

​RAINIER

(points to photo) But that’s Daddy’s nose. She’s got my smile, though and Mama’s hair! (lights out as three of them look through album)