This Property Is Condemned Page #3

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- Oh, hey!

That's enough for you, Hank, boy!

How about one for me?

- Here's one to grow on!

- Here comes old Sidney, wandering in.

Wouldn't you like a piece of cake?

I'd just love some.

- What kind of work will you do here?

- Who was that blowing out the candles?

Oh, that's my sister Alva.

She's the main attraction.

You say you do or didn't work

with the railroad?

Well, I didn't say. Okey-doke?

Okey-doke.

It's hot out there!

It's just practically like breathing fire.

Just been dying for a piece of ice.

Oh! My, that's cooling!

If not the railroad, what do you do?

Willie! Let the gentleman

eat his supper in peace.

Who's stopping him?

You don't even know him.

- My name is Owen Legate, ma'am.

- My name's Alva Starr.

Two R's in Starr.

- He's from New Orleans.

- Oh!

- I've been to New Orleans.

- When?

- As a child.

- First I heard of it.

- Wonderful party, Alva. Much obliged.

- We're just delighted.

- Bye now. See you later.

- Here's your cake, Alva.

Thank you, Sidney.

- Your mama said to fill up the beer tub.

- It's in the icebox.

OK.

- You're the new boarder, huh?

- Yeah.

You gonna be looking for work

around here? We ain't got none.

That's all right, I'm not looking.

- We ain't got no work.

- He ain't looking. He just told you.

- I want him to know there ain't none.

- He knows.

See you later.

If you're not looking for work,

what are you doing here?

Now, I said stop asking questions

and let him eat his dinner in peace.

OK.

- Thank you.

- That's all right. They're all so nosy!

What are you doing here?

Mama says what are you doing

back here and Mr Johnson's leaving.

You tell your mama that after all

the dancing I done tonight with Sidney,

I am resting and unavailable.

Sidney took you dancing? Where to?

Oh, no place much.

- Just the Peabody Hotel.

- The Peabody Hotel!

Sidney took you all the way

to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis? Wow!

- Did he buy you dinner?

- Willie, you don't start with dinner.

They have cocktails or highballs.

Or French champagne,

which is sweet and exceedingly bubbly.

And when you drink it and start dancing,

the whole place,

with its diamond-crystal chandeliers

and the waiters in the red jackets

and the menus with tassels on them,

all get dizzy and shaky,

like it'll all come down on you.

But you have to hide it and so you say,

"Tipsy? I'm not the slightest bit tipsy.

"It is just your magnificent dancing

makes me breathless!"

Then he stops and holds your blushing,

soft face in his hands and he says:

"Miss Starr, Miss Willie Starr,

"surely you are the most beautiful

creature I have ever seen."

That the same Peabody Hotel

in Memphis

where they have the alligators and ducks

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