Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 145746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145746 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
DESSI
I thought for sure we’d get in tonight.
TILDA
I’on know why. This show been sold out for weeks. We’ll be lucky to see it before it closes.
DESSI
Don’t say that, Tilda! We got to. We shoulda bought the tickets yesterday.
TILDA
We’n have no money yesterday, Bama. What we look like sitting up in the Lafayette watching some Macbeth and ain’t got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out? We just got paid and had to take care of rent first.
Dessi points to a scalper waving tickets on the corner.
DESSI
Ooooh! He got some tickets.
SCALPER
Three dollars! Get your ticket to Harlem’s sensation! Three dollars for tonight’s showing of Macbeth!
TILDA
Three dollars! I’ll be damned. We’n paying three dollars for them tickets. We’ll buy tickets for a show coming up soon, but we ain’t paying no three dollars for ’em when we can get ’em for forty-five cents.
DESSI
You right. I just wanna see the show.
TILDA
I just wanna see the show. (MIMICKING DESSI’S SOUTHERN DRAWL)
To be so country, you love some sophistication, don’t ya, Bama?
DESSI (LAUGHING)
Don’t call me country and don’t call me Bama.
TILDA
Alright… (PAUSES AND GRINS) Bama.
Dessi is about to chide Tilda again, but pauses, noticing a few people peeling off from the crowd and heading for the building next door. She elbows Tilda.
DESSI
What’s it like in there?
TILDA
What? Where?
DESSI
That club.
She squints to read the sign of the club next to the Lafayette.
TILDA
The Ubangi Club? You never heard of it?
DESSI
I heard of it, but I never been in.
Tilda grabs Dessi’s hand and pulls her toward the club entrance.
TILDA
Well, dat’s where we goin’!
DESSI (PULLING BACK, RESISTING)
Wait! How much it cost to get in there?
Tilda picks up a red and blue flyer from the sidewalk that reads “Harlem’s Hot Spot! Ubangi Club. Gladys Bentley with a cast of 40!”
TILDA
It says three shows nightly. No cover charge!
DESSI
Free sound like exactly what we can afford. Let’s go!
The two girls rush to the club, where a tall man guards the entrance.
MAN
You ladies coming inside? We could use some pretty girls like you.
DESSI
Is it true that it’s free?
MAN
No cover charge, long as you ready to spend two dollars each.
DESSI
Two dollars! Well, we may as well buy the tickets to Macbeth from the scalper we gon’ pay two dollars.
TILDA (BATTING HER LASHES AND LEANING INTO THE MAN, LINKING HER ARM THROUGH HIS)
Seeing as how you said they need pretty girls, seem like we’d be doing y’all a favor gracing this here establishment.
Man grins and bends down to whisper in Tilda’s ear.
TILDA (ROLLING HER EYES AND NODDING)
Alright. It’s a deal. I’ll see you at the end of the night.
He hands her a voucher that simply says “Gerald.”
TILDA
Now they not gon’ look at me like I’m crazy if I give ’em this, are they?
MAN
Nope. That’s your good time all night on me. You just make sure you see me before you go.
TILDA (GRABBING DESSI’S HAND AND WALKING THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR, SHOUTING OVER HER SHOULDER)
You got a deal, Gerald.
DESSI (LOOKING OVER HER SHOULDER AT GERALD)
What was that all about?
TILDA
I gotta show him my tits on the way out.
DESSI
Tilda, no. You ain’t gotta do that!
TILDA
He’s harmless. Flash him a lil’ nip. It’s worth it to see Gladys Bentley.
They are seated and when Tilda gives the waitress the slip of paper with Gerald’s name, they get to order one drink each. Singing waiters circulate around the smoke-filled room. Tilda picks up a program and reads.
TILDA
Looka here, Bama.
Mae Johnson, Gladys Bentley, Lee Simmons, Dusty Fletcher, Pearl Baines, and—
DESSI
All them singing tonight?
TILDA
Look like.
Tilda sips her drink and pulls a cigarette from her clutch.
DESSI
I didn’t know you smoked, Tilda.
TILDA
I don’t usually. These been in my purse for near ’bout a year, but we gotta use this.
From the table, Tilda picks up a red and blue matchbook with Ubangi Club printed in block letters.
Gladys Bentley takes the stage. A heavyset Black woman, with her hair slicked and closely cropped like a man’s, she’s wearing a cream-colored tuxedo and top hat. About forty effeminate pretty boys dance behind her onstage.
DESSI (GASPS, EYES WIDE, JAW DROPPED)
Well, I’ll be…
GLADYS
How y’all doing tonight?
TILDA (WHISPERS EXCITEDLY, EYES GLUED TO THE STAGE)
She even sound like a man, Bama!
Gladys plays a tune on the piano while the boys dance, but stands and starts sauntering through the club, singing popular songs and changing the lyrics. She combines “Alice Blue Gown” and “Georgia Brown,” but with her own raunchy words.
GLADYS
And he said, “Dearie, please turn around” / And he shoved that big thing up my brown /
He tore it. I bored it. Lord, how I adored it. / My sweet little Alice Blue Gown.
DESSI
Is she talking about…
TILDA (LAUGHING AT DESSI’S SHOCKED EXPRESSION)
Chile, bootie sex!
Gladys ends her set with a stirring rendition of “Worried Blues,” bows and walks off the stage.
DESSI
That was amazing!
TILDA
Bet you ain’t seen nothing like her in Alabama.
DESSI
She was… well, she was magnificent. She played the piano so pretty. And did you hear her? She made her voice sound like a trumpet!