Bastard Out of Carolina

Narrator:
The day I was born started off bad and only got worse. I guess I was lucky I got born at all.

Granny:
Ruth Anne's all right, but Mattie Raylene would've been better. 'Course nobody bothered to ask me.

Anney Boatwright:
Nobody bothered to ask you? Nobody bothered to ask me. It's my baby.

Granny:
That's your own damn fault for sleepin' three whole days.

Anney Boatwright:
I had a concussion, Mama!

Granny:
How many babies I had, and did I sleep through any of 'em? I don't think so.

Anney Boatwright:
I don't care what they say, Bone. I won't have anybody call you trash.

Glen Waddell:
[to Anney] I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.

Anney Boatwright:
Bone, I got somebody who wants to meet you. Bone, this is Glen Waddell. Say hey.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
Hey.

Glen Waddell:
Hey, Bone. How you doin'?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
Fine.

Glen Waddell:
You sit out here every night?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
After school.

Anney Boatwright:
Glen's not like that.

Granny:
You don't what that boy's like.

Anney Boatwright:
I know he loves me.

Granny:
Love. Can't even hold a job for more than a month.

Anney Boatwright:
That's not true.

Anney Boatwright:
Hey, Bone. You sleepin'? You startin' to look like me, Bone. You're growin' up. What do you think, honey? You think I'm doin' the right thing?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I don't know.

Anney Boatwright:
I think I am. I hope I am! Sometimes I just get so tired, you know? Sometimes I just want somebody strong to stand by me. To stay with me.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I'll stay with you.

Anney Boatwright:
I know you will, Bone.

Reese:
Why can't we go, Bone? Why can't we?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
'Cause it ain't for children.

Glen Waddell:
Doctor says it's gonna be a while, but she's doin' just fine. I know she's worried. She thinks if it's a girl I ain't gonna love it. It'll still be our baby. Even if she did have a girl, we'll just have another soon enough. I'll have my son. Anney and I will have our little baby boy. I know it. I just know it.

Glen Waddell:
We're movin'.

Anney Boatwright:
What? Where?

Glen Waddell:
Found us a new place over by the JC Penney mill.

Aunt Ruth:
Why? What's wrong with this place?

Alma:
Damn you, Glen Waddell. Don't you take Anney so far away.

Anney Boatwright:
Oh, Jesus, Glen. You don't know your own strength.

Glen Waddell:
I guess I don't. But Bone knows I'd never mean to hurt her. Bone knows I love her. Hell, Anney, I love all of you. You know that.

Narrator:
No, he never meant to hurt me. Not really, I told myself. But more and more those hands seemed to move before he could think.

Anney Boatwright:
Not my kids. I was never gonna have my girls know what it was like. I was never gonna have them go hungry or cold or scared. Never, you hear me? Never!

Glen Waddell:
It's my one day off, and you gotta tear around here? Now just, just cool it, kid. You're a girl, not a racehorse.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
[mimicking him] You're a girl, not a racehorse.

Glen Waddell:
You little b*tch! You little b*tch! Come here!

Glen Waddell:
I never meant to beat her that bad. I swear I didn't. I would never. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, baby.

Reese:
You made him mad, Bone. You better be careful.

Narrator:
I lived in a world of shame. I hid my bruises as if they were evidence of crimes I had committed. I didn't tell Mama. I couldn't tell Mama.

Doctor:
How'd she break her coccyx?

Anney Boatwright:
Her what?

Doctor:
Her tailbone, lady! Her ass! What you been hitting' this child with, or maybe you just been throwin' her up against the damn wall!

Anney Boatwright:
What are you sayin'? What are you sayin'?

Doctor:
[to Bone] Do you wanna talk about it, honey? How 'bout we ask your mama to leave, and then, maybe you can tell me what happened, okay?

Anney Boatwright:
Let me have my girl!

Doctor:
This child's been beaten! This child's been beaten, and I'm gonna call the authorities!

Glen Waddell:
Bone, what're you doing up here? How many times you gonna make me call you, girl?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I didn't hear you.

Glen Waddell:
Didn't hear you? I've been callin' you for five minutes. Your mama needs your help down there.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I didn't hear you.

Glen Waddell:
Don't you sass me. Don't you dare sass me. You think just 'cause your aunt died, you can talk to me like that? You're in my house, now. I am the boss of my house. Do you understand that?

Anney Boatwright:
Glen! Of all days, Jesus! Glen!

Glen Waddell:
Anney! Anney!, let me handle this! Please, let me handle this!

Anney Boatwright:
No, Glen! No, Glen! Glen! Glen!

Glen Waddell:
I talked to Annie, you know, and she's comin' back. She promised. She said she just needs a little time, time to make it up to you. She loves you more than I can understand. You know what your mama told me? She's not coming home till you come home too. You're gonna have to tell her it's alright. You're gonna have to tell her that we'll be together, again.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
No. I don't wanna live with you no more. I told mama she can go back. I told her she could. But I can't. I won't.

Glen Waddell:
You won't? You won't live with me no more? You are still a child! You don't say what you do! I'm your daddy! I say you what to do!

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
No.

Glen Waddell:
I want you to try to be reasonable, girl. I want you to tell your mama, I want you to stop all this nonsense, before you make me really mad.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I'd rather die than go back living with you!

Glen Waddell:
[to Anney] Don't go, I can't live without you! Kill me! Please, baby! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!

Glen Waddell:
[Glen, takes money out of envelope] Anney, what the hell is this?

Anney Boatwright:
Earl was just tryin' to help, Glen. Good Lord.

Glen Waddell:
How can you shame me like that? I'm a grown man, Anney. I don't need your brother to pay my damn way,

[slams money on the table]

Glen Waddell:
you give that back to him tomorrow.

Anney Boatwright:
Glen, that's crazy. We need this money.

Glen Waddell:
You just do as I say and

[rips cord from wall]

Glen Waddell:
sell the damn radio, while you're at it!

Glen Waddell:
The things I do ain't good enough for you. I put my hand in a honey jar, comes out piss! Nothing I do is right!

Anney Boatwright:
Glen, everybody has troubles now and then, honey. Just give it time, sweetie. Things are gonna work out.

Glen Waddell:
[Annoyingly] Shut up. You shut up, you don't give me that mama crap! You shut your mouth, you just shut up! Shut Up!

[the girls looks in horror]

Glen Waddell:
I'm sorry Anney. Anney, you know I don't mean to yell at you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[Grabs Bone's arm firmly, and she yelps in pain]

Glen Waddell:
You know how much I love your mama.

Anney Boatwright:
Oh, Jesus, Glen! You don't know your own strength!

Glen Waddell:
I guess, I don't. But Bone knows I never mean to hurt her. Bone knows I love her. Hell Anney! I love all of you, you know that!

[first lines]

Narrator:
"People pay for what they do, and still more for what they allow themselves to become. And they pay for it simply; by the lives they lead." James Baldwin.

Dee Dee:
You don't know what it's like, Bone, getting out on your own, then being dragged back home. You wait a few years, get yourself a sweetheart, a job that pays your own money, stuff you like to do that your mama says is silly or sinful. Just about everything I like in this world is silly or sinful. But then, mama, I don't care. I got my car and I got my own plans, and as soon as that car is paid for you can bet your ass I'll be gone again. Next time the devil himself ain't gonna be able to drag me back.

[last lines]

Narrator:
Who had mama been? What had she wanted to be or do before I was born? Once I was born her hopes turned, and I climbed up her life like a flower reaching for the sun. Her life had folded into mine. Who would I be when I was 15, 20, 30? Would I be as strong as she had been? As hungry for love? As desperate, determined and ashamed? I wasn't old but I was already who I was gonna be. Someone like her, like my mama, a Boatwright, a bastard, a bastard out of Carolina.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
I love you, mama.

Grey:
I've been thinking.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
'Bout what?

Grey:
Remember when you were telling me and Garvey about the living dead? Remember?

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
[Nods]

Grey:
Well... I been thinking maybe our daddies are the living dead. I been thinking maybe they just take turns.

Ruth Anne 'Bone' Boatwright:
Maybe.