This is a fictional character and beginning works of a script.
Baby Girl is about the evolution of a black woman. It is the history fantasy of her spirituality and complications with men. It is about her sexuality and sisterhood with her identity and perspective. It is about her epistemology and feminist lens to have righteous rage and her legacy of struggle with her God and own inner journey. In the beginning Eve was her mother and in the end is the Mother of Harlots her grandmother? This is the courage of a dark skinned community of women that reached their limits of paradise and the ghettos in the environmental racism that keeps her struggling to find her way back home. She is the baby girl that has evolved from the embryo and fate to win.
Baby Girl: ....
What was I thinking when I began this search for my heritage. I cannot believe this dogma that I am somebody. I was looking for one person, and I find that I am lost. I wanted more than just a small detail lady that told me that I was mad. I am not looking to find a get rich quick scheme that promises me a daddy War Buck. I am just running my fingers to get my name. In the daylight, I find that I was struggling with the notion that my life has been centered on the complications that my family has been slaves? What in the world does that truly mean? Am I bound to that fact that my family was beat up by bullies? I suppose that I should expect the complications that we were nothing in the food chain, but that sounds as though I am a defeatist wanting someone to save me as though my courage is left up to a one day war defeat.....
I am not going to suggest that I look beneath my mother’s bed for clues to who I was alive or who was dead. I am not going to search the world for the evidence that my grandfather was the king of Russia. I am not going to suggest that my loyalty remains in the regions of West Africa. What about my God that promises salvation to the dead? What about those who are alive? I am not playing with fire when I question the integrity of my employer that get on my nerves when he says you screwed up. I am done with this agitation that my life is centered on the ghetto streets of concrete and slum lords. I figure that my day is eating cabbage and corn, but I am not a chicken eater because I like watching chickens squawk. I am contemplating whether or not I should hire me a maid, but that would just remind me that I am not able to pay her a decent salary or a play date.....
She enters the room....
The room is filled with stench because the landlord will not remove the old rugged cross boards he calls flooring. It is not that the floors stink because I will not clean them, but the rats will not stop peeing on them. It has been a long time since I heard from that man. I know if I will get him the lottery he would kiss me and try to wear a tie to show his loving grace that I live in his building. His wife will clean up and maybe add some flowers on that broken window sill to remind me how great their service was to me. As though kicking me out of the apartment was a beautiful gesture of love if I did not pay rent. I could imagine giving to these slum lords because the door is bigger than the cardboard, and my air is not filled with that awful smoke. I want to scream just to think that I have to sleep another night on the floor. I will not use that bathroom if someone paid me. I rather pull out that old toilet sit then to sit my ass on it. I would rather go to the finest restaurant, and pay them for water just to sit on their toilets. It is surprisingly that I love this wretched hole. It is my home. I cannot complain because every night I say God bless America. I suppose I am a patriot that wants to see her love for her country shine like the moon and stars and all that is fine. I want to suggest to my teacher that she is not the greatest in the world, but in my eyes I wish she would give me some love and affection for sitting in her lectures.....
Phone Rings....
Hello? I am Baby Girl. What that is my name! I am tired of you calling me over and over asking me what my head of my household is. No I do not want you to collect and I surely do not want you to take me to court. How about you sell one of your yachts and pay my bill. Of course the president promised a bail out. I promised to pay my bills. It seems as though promises are meant to be broken. I am not going to sound crude today. I am going to put on my happy face. What is this man outside my window waving at me? He will not leave me alone. He thinks he is a cutie. I suggest he find another woman to bother. I do not have time to play his games. I have to work school, pay bills and share my rat hole with the rest of God’s creation. I rather for him to find another spot to wave every morning, I am tired of watching him smile in his management suit that is what he calls that rags to riches story. I am not impressed. He is playing with my emotional. What is he trying to suggest that being nice will get him far? I would tell him a piece of my mind, but not today. I have to get to class.....
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Scene 2....
Baby Girl Enters the Classroom and sits down in the front....
The teacher begins to do the lecture....
Teacher....
Evolution what is evolution? Anyone....
Baby Girl ponders....
Evolution is me. I found that in the beginning God created male and female. Adam and Eve, and that is the story. I am not trying to be sarcastic, but what is perspective. What is history but words running on the paper that we made up. It is nothing more than an imagination and construction of the mind that we suppose that we suggested to each other that we are mere thoughts running wild. I am not impressed by these professors that they can sit all day in a classroom, go home, and say they saved the world. I am a little disappointed because I am graded on the opinion of others yet the fact is that I am still copying their opinion. They are giving me such great wisdom to pick from the witnesses around the world that their opinion we claim as fact. We get graded on their opinion. We construct our own opinion. Then we graduate. What is the lesion today? What is evolution? Another opinion that I must respect or I will miss out the opportunity to be approved by this institution. I have to pay bills. Focus. Focus.....
Ballet Instructor....
How are you today?....
Baby Girl....
I forgot you were in this class.....
Ballet Instructor....
Are you going to ever come back to dance?....
Baby Girl....
No.....
Ballet Instructor....
I hope we see you soon. We miss you. Here’s my number if you need to call me.....
I want to suggest that you come and teach the little girls. You have great talent. Do not waste it.....
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Baby Girl....
It is not my own to suggest that I waste my own talent, but that I am busy and wish you understand my own right to have to decline your offer.....
Baby Girl leaves class....
Scene 3....
Baby Girl researches her last name on the internet. She finds that her slave owner Duncan may have suggested that her name was not also Duncan, so how would she prove that her slave owner raped her grandmother from the past. I suppose I should just walk away from such crazy notion that my family had anything to do with intermixing. I cannot imagine the plantations filled with naked African women trying to find covering. It is unfortunate that these women were coursed into the bedroom and what am I romanticizing. They weren’t coursed in the bedroom. They were strapped and raped in the outhouses. I am sounding as a Disney kid. I should stop trying to make this a romance. Did or did he rape my grandmother? It would be erased records if I found that I owned his plantation. Of course, wealth does not come on the trees.....
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I understand the factors that the running in the wind was nothing more than a complication for colonial mastery that gave dark women a complex that she would be just a Hagar in the British Empire. I cannot continue on like this my life is passing by, and I am missing out on the party. I need a drink.....
Baby Girl leaves the building.....
Next Door Neighbor....
I notice you in the mornings Baby Girl. How are you doing? Are you going out tonight? How about a date? Do you want to go out a get a drink together?....
Baby Girl....
No. I am not going out on a date. I do not want to talk right now. I am busy.....
Next Door Neighbor....
Do not be rude, smile sometimes. Why are you always upset?....
Baby Girl....
I am not upset. I am thinking. As for thinking, it is something I do often. Believe me you do not have the interest to even entertain the thought.....
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Next Door Neighbor....
I must admit you are a beautiful black woman. How about you give me your time for one moment to share over some coffee, I am interested.....
Baby Girl....
Not today.....
Baby Girl walks and smiles but frowns too. She reaches the local bar and sits in the corner with her book. Reads and writes in her journal.....
Baby Girl....
My lady, where are you? I am in this rut. My apartment is past due. I quit another job again because Sally got on my nerves about what I should or should not do. How boring is that. I suppose that I would agree with you yesterday that keeping a job meant a day with pay, but I thought about how I would have liked to sit around the table with my girlfriends to gossip and talk about world affairs. I miss those days. I wish we had better health care and money to find the cure to Aids. I wish my g were here. My girlfriends would have loved that this stubborn sexy man teased me today knowing how much I hate to flirt. I do not have time to flirt. ....
I wish my girlfriends were here. I have to branch out to other cultures and pick up some friends. ....
Where did this all begin? My lady, why did God have such a hard hand on women? I see the domination of women under the control of men for what? They cook, clean and manage all their assets without any power over their consent. I do not understand what is the reason for women to be weak? I am here writing as though you can speak, but I miss my girlfriends. I am not in the mood to discuss violence and domestication. I am in no mood for these conversations of power and privilege to dictate the way I think on my free time. I am going to use my free time to run wild in the lilies. I want to dance in my mind. I want to laugh in my heart. I do not want to see the concrete pavements, smog and inconsiderate broken down sore eye housing as though these developers do not have the time to see that their property owners forgot to clean the property.....
I am a little tired. I rather sleep in this booth, but they will be kicking me out soon. I would have loved that you gave me wings to fly. I can imagine myself with wings. I would fly into an enchanted place and be back by morning. These old floors would not bother me if I could just escape one afternoon. ....
I am just going to sit here and imagine a world without race. What would that be without women and race?....
Baby girl imagines this world that has one culture, a population of men. Men having babies and all men are one. The masculine and feminine are all male. The life of men and diversity is one culture and one perspective. They run around naked like Adam. The books are about Adam and Adam. They find themselves without war because men are fighting each other for space. They do not expect anyone to distribute resources. They are not looking for slaves. They are not exploiting their babies. They are gathered around a circle sharing stories and laughing in the garden. They sit with difference of opinion, but they are not arguing. They suggest they are losing control over their emotions, but no one cares. They are left out without help because each man for himself. They share what they do not have, but they have enough. It is a strange world without women. It is as though women were the grass, the trees and the earth, but that did not matter because their presence was removed.....
Bartender....
Wake up Baby Girl. We are closing. It is time for you to go. You need a ride? The taxi is waiting for you. Call me when you get home, sweetie. ....
Baby Girl....
Thank you beautiful. You always look out for your baby girl.....
Bartender....
Do not waste my time with your kindness. You are a mean girl.....
As he laughs, he pushes her gently out the door.....
Scene 5....
Baby Girl enters the apartment. She sweeps the floors. Lay down on the floor with her sheets and covers. She prays over the room. Blesses the room with her baby oil, she ask Jesus to come into her heart, and falls asleep.....
She fights in the night terror. She squirms with her nightmares. She remembers the rape of her mother. As though she is possessed with the spirits of the past. She feels that demons are in the room. She cries, my lady, save me. Jesus. What are you going to do to this body?....
Baby Girl....
I am not going anywhere. I am going to stay here with the knowledge of the past. I am not afraid. She yells and screams as if she is using her voice, but nothing comes out. She ask herself what if I could escape for one moment. Would Jesus save me or would I be dragged in the streets as the other women? Where were their Jesus? What happened to their prayers? I am not here to judge. I am here to understand. ....
She finally falls asleep. She is slowly remembering her words of her grandmother to be still and quiet and know that God is your Lord. ....
Baby Girl....
My lady is you there? Come here. I am alone, speak to me. I need you to explain why you are allowing these demons to run my mind. Do you not have the strength and courage to stop them? I need a better fortress then the one you have given me. They come and go as though you fell asleep. Do I need to hire a man angel? I need to believe that women have dominance somewhere. Is not heaven equipped with undefeated women? Then sign her up, and hire her, send her and I will not let you go. It is not necessary for you to give me excuses. I am not here to argue with you. I need you to step up to the plate and prove to me that men are nothing but a figment of my imagination. Women do not have authority in earth, but in my fantasy we have all the power, so step up.....
Yes, your kingdom and empire is beautiful. I have visited. Yes, I have hired my armies and legions of women. I am your partner in keeping me alive. I am not going mad yet I find that your infinity is lacking timing. I do not need these bothersome nightmares to waste my time and sleep. I am not trying to be mean, but come on, as you can tell the score board show all of my ancestors dead, and I am next. I need you to get your job done. Keep me alive if you are my body guard. I am not in need of angels that will fall short to the glory of God.....
Bring all your fairies, and angels, ladies of empires, what will it take to get me from one place to the next. I am not asking for fine wine, but I am asking you to guard my steps. Tonight you allowed the past to chase my ass down the alley. I am not asking you to change men because we both know that will be impossible, but keeping my butt safe is doable. Right?....
The Lady Baby Girl calls, “My Lady”....
Watch your tongue Baby Girl....
I am a high priestess, and I will not have you speak to me in that tone. You may have an attitude but you will not have it with me while I fight wars of Persia for your favor. I am not going to lose this war with you and God. I am not going to let your body to become a bag of dead bones. I am watching over you aren’t I?....
Have you not seen my girls protect you? Have we failed you as of yet? Watch your tongue.....
Baby Girl....
I apologize I need my sleep. The noise is getting me down. I cannot stop seeing the rapes. I just wanted a peace of mind tonight. I am tired of the visions. I wanted you to stop the wars. ....
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The Lady Baby Girl calls, “My Lady”....
Baby Girl you are such a sweet girl. Go and get some sleep. You have work to do tomorrow. Leave your life in my hands.....
Baby Girl....
Jesus is the way, truth and life. My mother always taught me that. I am not sure why I believe in this, but you have been faithful. Only God knows what the outcome will be between you and me.....
