SCENE THREE - “Gaddamn Yat!”
[SETTING: Suburban street in New Orleans East, after the flood waters have gone.]
[thud]
[music]
[thud thud thud]
[music stops]
[Mayor C. Ray approaches]
MAYOR C. RAY: Old woman!
VIC: Man!
MAYOR C. RAY: Man. Whatever. Who lives in that house over there?
VIC: I'm thoity-seven.
MAYOR C. RAY: I-- what?
VIC: I'm thoity-seven. I ain’t old.
MAYOR C. RAY: Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.
VIC: Well, you ‘cudda said ‘Vic’.
MAYOR C. RAY: Well, I didn't know you were called 'Vic'.
VIC: Well, ya didn’ botha askin’ now, did ya?
MAYOR C. RAY: I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but with a respirator on you looked.....
VIC: What I don like is dat ya automatically treats me like some ‘kinda inferia.
MAYOR C. RAY: Well, I am Mayor!
VIC: Oh, Mayor, well, das reel nice. And how d'you get dat, eh? By exploitin’ the divisions in this City! By hangin’ on to outdated racial dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our community. If they was evah going to be any progress wit the--
[woman digging through trash pile at the street comes into view]
NAT’LEE: Vic, deys some lovely things of ours ta salvage down heah. [to C. Ray] Oh! How d'you do?
MAYOR C. RAY: How do you do, mah’m. I am Ray, Mayor of the Chocolate City. Who lives in that house?
NAT’LEE: Mayah of de what?
MAYOR C. RAY: The Chocolate City.
NAT’LEE: I ain't nevah hoid of da Chocolate City. Is dat like Al Scrummmooza’s ‘ol ‘Seafood City’?
MAYOR C. RAY: No, no, no. The Chocolate City is right here. We are all citizens of the Chocolate City, and I am your Mayor.
NAT’LEE: I didn' know we had no Mayah no more. I hoid dat he moved ta Dallas or som'tin.
VIC: You foolin’ y'self, Nat’lee. We livin’ in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuatin’ autocracy in which the races --
NAT’LEE: Oh, there you go, bringin’ race into it again.
VIC: Thas what it's all about anymoe. If only people would stop seeing colla as--
MAYOR C. RAY: Please! Please, you people. I’m in a hurry. I’m on CNN at 5. Who lives in that house?
NAT’LEE: We did.
MAYOR C. RAY: And when are you moving back?
NAT’LEE: We ain’t.. We livin by his mom-n-nem now. On de Nort Shore.
MAYOR C. RAY: What?
VIC: Like she said. We ain’t coming back. We getting our stuff n clearin out. We had it. We had to wait weeks to get back in heah. And when we did, we come back an we find de place all looted. Dem cops, dey jus drive by. Nobody can say when the lights is comin back on. Nobody can say…
MAYOR C. RAY: Yes.
VIC: ...when da wata is goin to be toined on. Where we supposed ta make our groceries?
MAYOR C. RAY: Yes, I see.
VIC: When we supposed ta get some Road Home monies? Where we…
MAYOR C. RAY: Be quiet!
VIC: …we supposed ta live while the house gets fixed? How we…
MAYOR C. RAY: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
NAT’LEE: Order, eh? Who do you think you are, Dawlin'?
MAYOR C. RAY: I am your Mayor!
NAT’LEE: Well, I didn vote f’ya las Novemba.
MAYOR C. RAY: There wasn’t an election last November.
NAT’LEE: Well, why you still de Mayah, den?
[angelic singing]
MAYOR C. RAY: The Secretary of State, …his arm clutching a copy of the State Constitution, held forth from the bosom of the State Capitol and read aloud a Finding - that it was impossible to hold the election at that time and that I, C. Ray, was to remain as Chief Executive!
[angelic singing stops]
MAYOR C. RAY: That is why I am still your Mayor.
VIC: Listen. Politicians standin on de steps of da State Capitol handin out press releases ain’t no way to get a laeda fo dis City. Ya need to ask de peoples heah, not some redneck in Baton Rouge!
MAYOR C. RAY: Be quiet!
VIC: Ya can’t have all dis powah jus 'cause some Coonass up rivah says ya still can!
MAYOR C. RAY: Shut up!
VIC: I mean, if I went aroun sayin I was de King ‘a Carnival jus cause a friend a mine stood at St. Charles and Canal an said I was, they’a take me down to da House-a-D!
MAYOR C. RAY: Shut up, Goddamnit! Shut up!
VIC: Ah, now we see de reel Mayah comin out!
MAYOR C. RAY: Shut up!
VIC: Oh! De real potty-mouth Ray! What? Ya think ya on the Gawlin' Robinette Show?
MAYOR C. RAY: You…. You.... Gaddamn Yat!
VIC: Oh, what a give-away. Did ya hear dat? Did ya heah dat, Nat’lee? Wez jus "Goddamn Yats!" Tha’s what I'm talkin about. Yeah, you rite! Did you heah him talkin trash to me, Nat? You hoid it, didn ya?
SCENE ENDS
