Scene Five

PROJECTED TEXT: PASSAGE OF OLD BONES.

Dembi has appeared at the tavern. Dembi and Cranston have not seen one another for many years. They are on guard. Two old men with sharp knives.

DEMBI: Jesus, you got ugly.

CRANSTON: I was always ugly. What do you want?

DEMBI: You sent her to me.

CRANSTON: The hell I did.

DEMBI: I didn’t know the child lived. But you knew.

CRANSTON: Aye, and she’s fine, ain’t she?

DEMBI: If Adjua had told me what you’d done, I’d’ve stuck that knife in you.

CRANSTON: Yep. She was faithful.

DEMBI: We’d of found a good man to give us a child, someone grand like Liverpool Joe.

CRANSTON: Your name was the only word she spoke across the Atlantic.

DEMBI: You’re lying.

CRANSTON (Explodes): To God I wish I were! (Quietly) You killed her, and she still loved you.

(Dembi takes this in. After some moments, Dembi leaves.)