Samuel Clemens and Aunt Rachel are sitting on the front porch of a farmhouse. It’s twilight. Both are admiring the beautiful farmland before them.
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Aunt Rachel: Isn’t it wonderful, the summer breeze on your cheek?
Clemens: Oh, divine.
Aunt Rachel: Just looking out there, I can forget about everything I’ve seen. (she pauses)
Clemens: (dropping his cigarette from his lips) Aunt Rachel, are you in earnest?
Aunt Rachel: (sighs deeply) Yes, my dear boy. I’m thinking about the past.
Clemens: What about it? (he crosses his right leg over his left knee and listens intently)
Aunt Rachel is nervous, but determined. She feels that she can trust the young man.
Aunt Rachel: Once curious, always curious. My boy, the truth is, I was born as a slave.
Clemens: (shocked) Really? So, how did you end up here?
Aunt Rachel: My old man, my husband; we had seven children. We loved them just as much as you love your own younglings. All were taken from us after the whites refused to listen to the Lord.
Clemens: How did you cope?
Aunt Rachel: By remembering my mother’s words, the words of a great woman who grew up in Maryland. “I want you to understan’ dat I wa’ n’t bawn in de mash to be fool’ by trash! I’s one o’ de ole Blue Hen’s Chickens, I is!”
Clemens: (confused) Which means?
Aunt Rachel: Which means that we are our own people who strive to live our own lives. We have families and children that we never want taken away from us. We may be black, but we are still human.
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Aunt Rachel rises from her chair. She approaches the edge of the deck and tilts her head. She is now looking at the stars, which are coming out one by one.
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Aunt Rachel: I was taken from my children, sold, and forced to work day after day...night after night. I cried when I saw my children, but crying was not allowed. Every time I tried, the slave owners would cuff my mouth and tell me, “We don’t need to hear your complaints!”
Clemens: (takes another puff of his cigarette) Must’ve been hard.
Aunt Rachel: (nods) It was, yes, but I knew it wouldn’t last. I asked myself how my children would stay strong if I didn’t. So, I dreamed of freedom, and now here I am.
Clemens: (rises and joins her at the deck’s edge) Have you ever seen your children again?(he feels symphony but knows he must stay positive. Aunt Rachel has gone through a lot tougher time than him.)
Aunt Rachel: Yes. I see them in my dreams. I hear them every day. The Lord visits and whispers for me to listen. So, I do. The child I hear most about is my Henry. “Mamma! Mamma! I’ve listened to your words and am now in love with a beautiful, young woman. It’s time for me to start my life over.”
Clemens: I’m sorry if I was a burden.
Aunt Rachel: (chuckles) Oh, no burden at all. I enjoy talking to you, Mr. Clemens.
Clemens: You ready to call it a night?
Aunt Rachel: Indeed. It’s time to hear my children once again.
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