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108 coat pocket.) If you want this money, you can take it from me-—I can throw every dollar of it into the ocean if I want to! You can call me a fool too, but I'm a burning fool! I'm going to marry that little girl. She is not a whore! She is a woman! And I'm going to marry her! And if the two of you don't like it, you can kiss my ass! (Bolts out into the street.) THEO You're not drunk. What happened? ADELE (Heading for the back room.) What does it look like. Wilmer hit me. THEO (Following.) Why? ADELE (Sits on bed.) He caught me in Morgan's with a friend of his after I had lied about going bowling with the girls. He just walked in and started hitting me, over and over again. His friend just stood there pleading with him not to hit me, but he never did anything to stop him. I guess he figured, Why should I risk getting myself killed over just another piece of ass. I thought he was going to kill me but then Blue came in with some of his friends and they just grabbed him by the arms and took him away. THEO Was Bobby with them? ADELE I couldn't tell. THEO Damnit! Everything gets fucked up! ADELE It had to, because you don't think. If you're going to be a crook, you don't read a comic book for research, you don't recruit an old black man that's about to die! THEO No matter what you do, he's gon'die anyway. This whole place was built for him to die in-—so you bite, you scratch, you kick: you do anything to stay alive! 109 ADELE Yes, you bite! You scratch, you steal, you kick, and you get killed anyway! Just as I was doing, coming back here to help momma. THEO Adele, I'm sick and tired of your talk about sacrifices. You were here because you had no other place to go. You just got scared too young and too soon. ADELE You're right. All I was doing was waiting for her to die so I could get on with what I thought I wanted to do with myself. But, God, she took so long to die! But then I found myself doing the same things she had done, taking care of three men, trying to shield them from the danger beyond that door, but who the hell ever told every black woman she was some kind of goddamn savior! Sure, this place was built for us to die in, but if we aren't very careful, Theo——that can actually happen. Good night. (Heads for the stairs.) THEO Adele——(She stops in her tracks and turns.) I've decided that there's going to be no more of Blue's business here. It's over. We're getting out. ADELE (After a long pause.) Theo, do you really mean it? (THEO nods yes.) ADELE What about Daddy? THEO He will have to live with it. This set-up can't move without me. ADELE And Bobby? THEO I'll take care of him. ADELE That's fine, Theo. We'll throw the old things into the river
