Voice Inside. We are waiting for the couple from Jacksonville—Jacksonville! Where is the couple from—.
(Wesley parts the curtain and looks out.)
Wesley. Here they is out here spooning! You all can’t even hear your names called. Come on John and Emma.
John. Coming. (He dashes inside. Wesley stands looking at Emma in surprise.)
Wesley. What’s the matter, Emma? You and John spatting again? (He goes back inside.)
Emma (calmly bitter). He went and left me. If we is spatting we done had our last one. (She stands and clenches her fists.) Ah, mah God! He’s in there with her—Oh, them half whites, they gets everything, they gets everything everybody else wants! The men, the jobs—everything! The whole world is got a sign on it. Wanted: Light colored. Us blacks was made for cobble stones. (She muffles a cry and sinks limp upon the seat.)
Voice Inside. Miss Effie Jones will walk for Jacksonville with Mr. John Turner in place of Miss Emmaline Beazeley.
Scene III—Dance Hall
Emma springs to her feet and flings the curtains wide open. She stands staring at the gay scene for a moment defiantly, then creeps over to a seat along the wall and shrinks into the Spanish Moss, motionless.