Sparkle

Sparkle:
What do you want?

Stix:
Looking for a girl singer.

Sparkle:
Didn't you know? This family's fresh out.

Stix:
Sparkle...

Sparkle:
When'd you get back?

Stix:
A few days ago, my grams been real sick...

Sparkle:
A few days ago. Must've been out when you called.

Stix:
Sparkle... Look, I know how you feel.

Sparkle:
I know you do. You know, it's funny. One brain in this room thinking for two people. Since when did you know how anybody feels? About anything except yourself, Mr. Stix Warren?

Stix:
Look, Sparkle, we got a lot to talk about. But unless you talk about it, you know, just give me a chance.

Sparkle:
Give you a chance? Wanna know something funny? When you first left, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to live without you. Yeah, I used to sit in this room and wondered if I would ever get through another second. Can you imagine a person so unhappy? To not know if they'd live through another second? I got through the second, Stix. Minutes, days, months, weeks. I'm doing fine without you. Just fine.

Stix:
Sparkle, no matter what you think of me, I came back because I want you to sing. Why you think I been so busy since I been back? Got me a job at the record company, lined up all my old contacts...

Sparkle:
You know, you were always so good at business, Stix. Business! BUSINESS!

Stix:
And it's no truer than it is now. I want you to sing, Sparkle.

Sparkle:
What have I got to sing about? Sticks, what have I got to sing about?

Stix:
I loved Sister too. But what happened to Sister happened to Sister, not to you. You got your whole life. I want you to sing. Don't bury yourself with your sister.

Sparkle:
Get out of here. Get out! Nobody ever understood Sister except me! Don't you ever, ever, use her name again! Get out of here! GET OUT!

Effie:
[Effie comes in and hears a hallway door close] Delores? Is that you?

Delores:
Yeah, Mama. [coming in the front room with a suitcase]

Effie:
Where you going?

Delores:
I'm leaving, Mama.

Effie:
You're leaving for where?

Delores:
I'm leaving and I'm going away.

Effie:
What do you mean?

Delores:
I mean... I can't live like this anymore, Mama. I gotta find another way.

Effie:
Well, whatever troubles you got here [crossing to the living room and taking off her coat] are going right with you and that suitcase. [she sits on the couch ]

Delores:
You don't understand, Mama. [sets down her suitcase] Like, there's education like there never was before. Mama, we don't have to slaves to the white establishment anymore. [Effie gets up and starts straightening up the room] We don't have to live off what the white man throws our way. Thanking him for his chicken-sh*t pay and chicken-sh*t jobs. We don't have to run around shining his shoes and driving his cars and cleaning his floors and being his ma - ...

Effie:
[facing Delores] Go on, now, say it. Being their maid. Hmm?

Delores:
Yeah, Mama. Being their maid. [near tears] Mama, I seen you, ever since I was a little kid, getting up in the middle of the night to take the subway to ride for two hours to go to their house, to do their cooking and to do their ironing and do their cleaning and wash the sh*t out of their toilet. And for what, Mama? For WHAT? [Delores picks up her suitcase and heads for the door] Bye.

Sister:
[after Delores and Sparkle discover her drug addiction] Can't you see? Sister can't fly on only one wing.....

Delores:
We're old enough to iron for ourselves. You ain't our maid.

Effie:
I always iron clothes for the ones that I love.

Delores:
I suppose you love them crackers that you work for?

Effie:
You watch your mouth. Now, go get your homework before I give you a sign in a place you won't forget.