
The Better Angels
(4.00 / 1 vote)1
Wanna know what kind
of boy he was?
Well, I myself, his cousin,
am the only one living
that knowed him that early.
Knowed him the day he was born.
Lived with him most of the time
until he was 21,
and left home for good.
His Pappy didn't drink,
swear,
play cards.
And them were drinking,
cussin', quarrelsome days.
...I was running out
of the woods,
and he's got that paint
all over his face.
He grabs me and he reaches down
and picks me up,
and he lines him up,
nice and steady-like,
'cause it ain't no squirrel.
Shot rings out.
And your Uncle Josiah...
A little slab of bacon
with a hoecake...
A little cornbread
and milk every day...
He said he never had
a prettier target.
...and he was satisfied.
You hoe?
Yes.
Do it right.
What did you read today?
About Noah.
He lived to be 950.
Will you stay with me?
I'm here.
She couldn't read or write none.
Had to make her mark, instead.
Cousin could.
Taught hisself.
She was a believer.
Now you can mark your place
in your book.
She knew so much
of what she believed
was yonder.
Always yonder.
Every day came scrubbing,
washing...
There was so little time to sing
Her mind and his
seemed to run together.
Look!
What happens is, the wind comes
and it blows real hard,
and then the seeds rain down
and they land on the earth.
And then they grow up.
We should move to a place
where he can be schooled.
I've prayed on this.
Boy has more to learn here
than any schoolhouse.
He asks questions
I can't answer.
He's got a gift.
Can't turn our backs
on what God has given us.
I know best.
I remember when you were born.
I wrapped you up in a bearskin
and we slept by the fire.
But when you cried...
it was your Papa who got up
and tended to you.
I watched him hold you,
and I knew that no one
would ever care for you more.
half a mile back that ways.
I don't know nothin' 'bout you.
Trevor says, "What in tarnation
are you doing yelling 'low' for
when a fella's passing?"
Your Uncle says,
"Well, what in tarnation
are you doing passin' 'em
when a fella's yelling 'low'?"
Oh, boy.
Swoop up.
I don't want to hit you.
Go!
Right over your Mama's head.
I was 18.
My folks was dead.
I like it.
I went with the Sparrow family.
Same folks that raised
cousin's Mama.
We let out for Indiana.
Yes, sir.
Kentucky was getting stuck up.
Where we heading?
No place for poor folk, anymore.
It's a frog.
Catch him!
That's my name.
Don't look a thing like you.
He was sharper than me.
He learned Henry Clay's speeches
by heart.
Get him by the arms.
Oh!
He took to writing on the floor.
The bench rail,
the wood and fire shovel.
All with a bit of charcoal.
Betcha can't get him like that.
It pestered his Pappy
a heap to have him
writing all over everything.
He was just wrapped up in it.
Lock your fingers.
Bring 'em around.
Like this, right here.
You ready?
You're getting it!
Might be bad water.
This will pass.
May not want to drink
from the well no more.
All my cows are gone.
All of 'em!
You, too!
Both of ya.
Go on.
It's the plague.
Nothing you can do.
In the last of days.
I prophesy.
Yeah, we'll all be buried
by the end of the week.
All gone!
Gone!
We should pray.
For what?
For ourselves.
Cows ate the poison wheat.
We got the milk sick.
One week...
They were gone.
Will you get it, too?
No.
Don't worry.
Shhh.
Mom...
Shhh!
It's been such a lonely time.
Please, Mom.
Be a good boy.
Take her, Lord,
for she was yours
from the beginning.
Forgive her for her sins,
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"The Better Angels" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2022. Web. 24 May 2022. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_better_angels_19765>.
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