KATHERINE
Bon soir.
Madame Charbonnet and Katherine leave the room. Dessi picks the letter up again and starts to read.
CAL
That little girl don’t know if she coming in French or going in English. Dessi, you can read that letter later. The band’ll be waiting.
Dessi lays the letter on the bed, but doesn’t move to put her dress on.
DESSI
Mama’s sick, Cal.
Cal pauses in pomading his hair.
CAL (LOOKING AT DESSI IN THE MIRROR)
What kind of sick?
DESSI
The letter is from my cousin Dorothy. It’s cancer. Mama wasn’t gonna tell me.
Cal walks over to sit beside her on the bed and picks up the letter.
CAL
She need help with medical bills? We can send more money.
DESSI (HESITANTLY)
What would you say if I said I want to go home?
He gestures around the beautifully appointed bedroom.
CAL
I would say wearehome. Look at where we live.Howwe live, Dess. Sold out crowds every night. More money than we can count. Respect. I get treated like a man here in France. Not there. They treat dogs better than they treat Negroes, and that’s the God’s honest truth.
DESSI
Cal, I’ve barely seen my mama at all for the last fifteen years, and now she’s sick. She needs me.
CAL
Ain’t nothing in the States for us, Dess. Sidney Bechet is here in France with the world at his feet. One of the greatest to ever pick up a horn, and you know what he was doing in America before he came here? He was a tailor. Last time Josephine Baker went home, the Stork Clubwouldn’t even serve her. The toast of Paris. One of the most famous women in the world refused service in her home country. Why would we go back?
DESSI
Because my mama needs me. She may be dying, Cal.
Dessi stands up and puts on the dress as they continue the discussion.
DESSI
We could just go until she gets better or… until she…
