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38
(Pause,)

I married her two weeks later.

Theo
And then you started making up for lost time. I'm glad you did, Pop——'cause if you hadn't, I wouldn't be here today.

MR. PARKER 
If I know you, you'd have made some kind of arrangement.

Bobby
What happened after that?

MR. PARKER
We just lived and had fun——and children too, that part you know about. We lived bad and we lived good——and then my legs got wobbly, and my feet got heavy, I lost my feeling, and everything just stayed as it was.

(Pause.)

I only wish I had been as good haircutter as I was a dancer. Maybe she wouldn't have had to work so hard. She might be living today.

Theo
Forget it, Pop—— it's all in the gone by. Come on, you need another drink. (Pouring.)

MR. PARKER
Get me talking about them old days. It hurts, I tell you, it——

Theo
Pop, you have got to stop thinking about those things. We've got work to do!

MR. PARKER
You said you had an idea...

Theo
Yes——you see, Pop, this idea has to do with Harlem. It has to do with the preservation of Harlem. That's what it's all about. So I went to see this leader, and I spoke to 

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him about it. He thought it was great and said he would pay me to use it!

MR. PARKER
Who wants to preserve this dump! Tear it down, is what I say!

THEO
But this is a different kind of preserving. Preserve it for black men--preserve it for men like you, me, and Bobby. That's what it's all about.

MR. PARKER
That sounds good.

THEO
Of course now, after I told this leader, I couldn't promise to do anything until I had spoken to my father. I said, after straightening everything out with you I would make arrangements for the two of you to meet.

MR. PARKER
Meet him for what?

THEO
For making money! For business! This man knows how to put people in business!

MR. PARKER
All right, I'll meet him. What's his name?

THEO
——But first you gotta have a showdown with Adele and put her in her place once and for all.

MR. PARKER
Now wait just a minute. You didn't say Adele would have anything to do with this.

THEO
Pop, this man can't be dealing with men who let women rule them. Pop, you've got to tell that girl off or we can't call ourselves men!

MR. PARKER
(Pause.)
All right. If she don't like it, that's too bad. Whatever you