- Buglar, make it stop! - I can't! I can't!
- Please! - Mama!
- Make it stop, please!
- Mama, help me!
- Here, Boy!
- Oh, Grandma Baby. - Mmm-mm.
Shh!
- We're gonna need some food. Wait here. - Okay.
Good boy, Here Boy.
Howard, come on!
- Come on. - Howard, Buglar!
Where you goin'?
- Bye, Denver. - Bye?
- We gotta go!
- Buglar, come on.
- No! Buge! - Go ahead.
Howard!
Now what'd you go and do that for?
Mama.
Watch out there, Here Boy.
Paul?
Paul D?
Is that you?
What's left.
How you been, girl? Besides barefoot.
Messed up my legs back yonder.
Chamomile.
I don't even wanna hear about it.
I always did hate that stuff.
You're lookin' good.
Devil's confusion, Sethe.
He lets me look good as long as I feel bad.
How long has it been?
Eighteen years.
Eighteen years?
I swear, I've been walkin' every one of 'em.
- Mind if I join you? - You wanna soak 'em? Let me get you some water.
No. Can't baby feet.
They's got a whole lot more tramplin' to do.
You ain't leavin' right away. You stay awhile.
Ah, well, long enough to see Baby Suggs...
and you.
Where is she?
Dead.
Oh, no.
- When? - Eight years ago now.
Almost nine.
Was it hard? I hope she didn't die hard.
Soft as cream.
Bein' alive was the hard part.
Sorry you missed her, though.
Is that what you came by for?
That's some of what I came for.
Rest is you.
Truth be known...
these days I go anywhere they let me sit down.
I wouldn't have to ask you about him, would I?
You'd tell me if there was anything to tell, wouldn't you?
I'd tell you. You know I would.
So you don't know nothin' either.
Halle, Halle.
We got spare rooms.
Could stay the night if you had the mind to.
You don't sound too steady in the offer.
Oh, it's truly meant.
It's just that I hope you'll pardon my house.
"My house."
I like the sound of that.
Come on in.
- Come on in.
Good God, girl. What kind of evil you got in there?
It ain't evil. Just sad. Come on.
Step on through.
I-I thought you said she died soft.
That's not Baby Suggs.
- Who then? - My daughter.
- The one I sent ahead with the boys before I run off. - She didn't live?
- No. - Boys too?
No, they alive, I pray.
They run off just before Baby Suggs went and died.
Probably best. Ahh!
Negro boy got legs, he ought to use 'em.
Sit around too long, somebody'll figure out a way to tie 'em up.
Ahh!
- By yourself then? - No.
Got the girl I was carryin' when I left Sweet Home.
You had that baby, did you? Damn, I didn't think you'd make it.
Runnin' off pregnant, all by yourself too.
- Denver!
Come here, baby.
I want you to meet somebody.
Paul D, this here is my Denver.
Uh, mornin', Miss Denver. It's a pleasure.
Mornin', Mr D.
Uh, Garner, baby. Paul D Garner.
- Yes, sir. - Glad to get a look at you.
She a fine-lookin' young lady, Sethe.
Yeah. Got her daddy's sweet face.
You know my daddy?
Of course he know your daddy. He from Sweet Home.
Yeah.
Sweet Home.
How come everybody who run off from Sweet Home can't stop talkin' about it?
It looks like if it was so sweet, you wouldn't run away.
Girl, who you think you talkin' to?
True, true. She-She right, Sethe.
It wasn't sweet, and it sure wasn't home.
But it's where we were, all together.
Come back whether we wanted to or not.
We have a ghost here, you know?
- We met.
Denver, heat up that stove.
Can't have a friend stop by and don't feed him.
Oh, don't go to no trouble on my account.
Bread ain't no trouble.
The rest I bring back from where I work.
Least I can do workin' dawn to noon is bring home supper.
Got any objections to pike?
If he don't object to me, I don't object to him.
Why don't you spend the night, Mr Garner?
That way, two of you can talk about Sweet Home all night long.
Denver, what is the matter with you?
I never known you to behave this way.
Mama, I can't no more.
I can't no more.
You can't what? What can't you?
Can't live here.
I don't know where I'm gonna go or what I'm gonna do...
but I can't stay here!
Nobody speaks to us, nobody comes by...
nobody even knows I'm alive.
Oh, Denver.
Come here, baby.
- It's all right. - Sethe.
I'm a grown man...
with nothin' new left to see or do...
but I tell you it can't be easy...
a young girl livin' in a haunted place.
Maybe you ought to move.
No.
No movin'. No leavin'.
It's all right the way it is. It's all right.
You wanna tell me it's all right, Sethe...
and that child's half outta her mind.
- Hush, I say!
I got a tree on my back...
and a haint in my house...
and nothin' in between but the daughter I'm holdin' in my arms.
No leavin'. No runnin' from nothin'.
- You hear me?
I will never run from another thing on this Earth.
Come on.
You can sit down and eat...
- Or you can leave us be.
Lord.
What tree, Sethe?
Huh?
I don't see nothin' growin' on your back.
It's there all the same.
Chokecherry tree.
Leaves, branches.
That was 18 years ago.
- Happened that night. - That night?
- Tree could have cherries by now for all I know.
I ain't followin' you, Sethe.
I had milk, Paul D.
I had milk, see?
I was pregnant with Denver...
but I hadn't stopped nursin' my baby girl...
before I sent her and the boys off.
All I knew was, I had to get milk to my baby girl.
I thought we was talkin' about a tree.
We was all supposed to meet in the cornfield. None of you came.
I had to leave my children, go back lookin' for Halle.
That's when I saw you in the shed.
Sixo dead. Schoolteacher done gone and burnt him.
Paul A too. They hang him from a tree.
Said you were gonna run no matter what.
I didn't think you would make it to the gate.
- I went back in the barn to look for Halle. - Animal.
That's when Schoolteacher saw me.
What's it taste like?
Came in there with his boys after me.
You've got animal characteristics.
Them boys took my milk.
That's my baby's food!
That's what they come in there for.
Hold me down, take it.
I told Miss Garner on 'em.
They're lyin', the animals!
She had that lump on her neck and couldn't speak.
But her eyes rolled out tears, I remember.
Them boys found out I told on 'em.
- You're horrible and beaten up!
You're horrible and beaten up!
Schoolteacher had one of 'em whoopin' up my back.
And when they closed...
it left a tree.
They used cowhide on you.
And they took my milk.
They beat you and you was pregnant?
And they took my milk.
Oh, Lord, girl.
Goddam it!
Hush up!
Denver! Denver!
Move! Move!
Get outta the way!
Leave this place alone!
I said, hush up, goddam it!
Paul D, look out!
Paul D!
- Paul D! - You wanna fight?
Then come on, goddam it!
- I was up there in the loft! - Halle!
- Them boys took my milk. - Halle!
- That's what they come in there for. - The loft, the loft.
- Halle! - I seen it all!
- Hold me down and take it.
- Halle! - Milk it like a cow.
- That's what we mean by animal characteristics. - Halle! Stop!
* Little rice *
* Little bean *
* No meat in between *
* Hard work ain't easy **
Anybody here?
Mama! Mama!
- Sethe? - Hmm?
I was thinkin' of lookin' for work around here.
- What you think? - Hmm. Ain't much.
River mostly. And hogs.
Well, I never worked on the river...
but I can pick up anything heavy as me, hogs included.
White folks here better than Kentucky...
but you just might have to scramble some.
Well, it ain't whether I scramble, it's where.
You sayin' it's all right to scramble here?
Better than all right.
Your girl, Denver, it seems she of a different mind though.
You don't never have to worry about Denver.
She a charmed child from the beginning.
Gotta know one thing though, Paul D.
This here ain't no better life.
Just not that other one.
What I do here... all I ever do...
is keep Denver from that other one.
Won't let the past in my yard again. You understand?
Dangerous to love any one thing that much, Sethe.
The best thing is to love everything just a little bit.
That way, if it breaks or runs off or is taken away...
you know, maybe, you still have a little love left over.
Hmm. Well, that's the way it is, Paul D.
If I have to choose, well, ain't no choice.
That's the whole point. I ain't askin' you to choose.
I just wanna know if there's a place for me.
If there's more than, "You can stay, it's fine."
More like, "I want you here, Paul."
Maybe we ought to just leave things the way they are.
Sethe, I'm not sayin' this 'cause I need a place to stay.
We could make a life, girl. A life.
- I don't know about that, Paul D Garner. - Leave it to me!
See how it goes. No promises if you don't wanna make none.
Just leave it to me. All right?
- All right, we'll see how it goes.
You're willin' to leave it to me?
Some of it.
Some. Okay. Okay.
Here's some. There's a carnival in town.
Thursdays for coloreds, and I got two dollars.
Me, you and Denver gonna spend every penny.
- What you say? - I don't know.
All right?
- No. - Aw... Please!
You think Baby Ghost's really gone?
Don't know.
She my sister.
I miss her.
* Well, I said come here, black woman *
I wish he'd shut up. He gonna ruin everything.
- Shh. Give him a chance.
- Do that for me. - Why?
How long he stayin'?
- Don't know. - * I said run here, black woman *
I think the baby ain't gone.
I think the baby got plans.
- Maybe. - * I know your house *
Maybe so.
- Come one, come forward, come all! Do not fear!
Come inside to the largest lady, Roundella, with me today.
Sweet, gentle and delicate, eating a chicken from each hand.
- Come inside now and see her. Don't be afraid. Come this way. - Wait! Come back!
...and who will swallow a Confederate sword to the hilt...
in front of your very eyes.
- Step forward and see! - Whoo!
Oh, Grace.
- You'll never believe who come walkin' up in here.
- How do? - Come on, Lucy.
Don't forget the pig ride.
How do, ma'am?
Step inside to see the things you thought could never be.
The ferocious African savage, Cluck Butoo!
Born with fangs, raised by wild animals and captured crazy.
Look how fat she is, Mama.
I-I knew this one back in Roanoke.
- Want some liquorice, Denver? - Yes, please.
- Peppermint stick? - Yes, please.
- Some gumdrops? - Yes, please.
Mind if I take a sip?
Mmm. Mmm!
Hey, Denver!
Hi.
Thank you.
I'll take one of those lemonades too.
But tell me about some work.
- I mean, tell me about where I can find some. - Well, they have...
... turns his head inside his own face...
- And pulls his ears...
* Headin' back *
* Goin' home *
What's that?
* Ain't wanna hurt nobody *
- * Oh, no *
* Ain't gonna hurt nobody *
* Oh, Lord *
Excuse me.
You from around here?
What might your name be?
B...
E...
L...
O...
V...
E...
D.
Beloved.
That's a pretty name, Beloved.
Why don't you rest yourself while l... I fix us a little somethin'.
We just got back from the carnival over in Cincinnati.
Miss? Miss?
You wanna rest a spell?
- I got her!
I got her. I got her.
Look at her feet.
Ain't walkin' feet.
- More like she...
ride from somewhere all the way here.
Is she feverish, Denver?
No, she cold.
- Could have the cholera. - She ain't sick.
- Nah, it's just a little somethin' I whipped up.
A little somethin' you whipped up?
- Mmm. Mmm.
Heard there's work down in Bucktown.
Go see it for myself today.
Mmm-mm.
Whoa! Whoa! Hey! Ho-ho! Whoa!
Hey!
You wanna try some?
Come on, come on. Come on.
- Over here. Come on.
There you go.
Come on!
I knew you could do it. Oh.
You hungry?
It's good!
Slow down.
Come on.
Chicken, chicken, shoo, shoo, shoo.
- I call this one June...
and that's May.
You gotta do soft touch.
Remember? Can you do soft touch?
Touch it... No!
Beloved.
I help make you bread.
That's nice.
Is my apron here?
All right, we need a little flour. We need some...
I don't know. I see you got all my things laid out.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now you need some of that right there.
You need this.
There. Wait, wait.
* Little rice, little bean *
* Ain't no meat in between *
Ooh, look at you.
Okay, put it down. Put it back.
Go inside and get biscuit.
Easy.
* I went downtown to get my grits *
* Came back home just a-pullin' the skiff *
* Just a-pullin' the skiff *
* I ran upstairs to make my bed *
* I made a mistake and I bumped my head *
* Just a-pullin' the skiff Just a-pullin' the skiff *
* Went downstairs to milk my cow *
* I made a mistake and I milked my sow *
* Just a-pullin' the skiff Just a-pullin' the skiff *
* Tomorrow, tomorrow Tomorrow never comes *
* Tomorrow, tomorrow Tomorrow never comes **
- Come on!
Clouds look like they're gonna burst.
- Oh, here it come!
- Here, here! - Come on, girl.
- Here, Mama! Pull! - Pull it!
- Go! Go! Hurry up! - Hurry up. Come on.
- Beloved, pick up that sheet. - Run! It's raining!
- You're draggin' it on the ground. - Go!
Stop draggin' them sheets. Pick 'em up off the ground now...
so we don't have to wash 'em again.
Come on. Whoo!
Almost didn't make it.
Spread 'em out. Beloved, put that sheet down now.
Spread it out. Keep it up off the floor.
Where...
your diamonds?
Diamonds?
What would I be doin' with diamonds?
On your ears.
Wish I did.
Come to think of it...
I had some crystal once.
Present from the lady I used to work for.
Tell me.
Tell me your diamonds.
Wedding present from Miss Garner...
back at Sweet Home...
when Halle and me got married... what they called married back there and then.
Guess she saw how bad I felt when...
I saw there wasn't gonna be no ceremony, no preacher.
I never saw you with no crystals.
Gone.
Long gone.
Come here, girl. You best unbraid that hair.
Come on. Get the comb.
It's right here.
Ow! That hurts.
Comb it every day, it won't.
Your woman...
never fix up your hair?
My woman? You mean my mother?
Mama don't talk about all those things.
Tell me.
If she did, I don't remember.
I don't think I saw her but a few times out in the field...
once workin' indigo.
By the time I woke up mornings, she was in line.
Hmm. If the moon was bright, they worked by its light.
Sundays, she slept like a stick.
Tell me about her.
I remember, once, she picked me up and carried me behind the smokehouse.
Only thing I do remember, in fact.
She opened up her dress, and right on her rib...
right here...
was a circle...
and a cross burnt right in the skin.
She points at this mark, and she says...
she says to me...
"This is your ma'am. I'm the only one got this mark now.
The rest all dead.
Somethin' happen to me, you can't tell me by my face...
you know me by this mark."
Scared me so I couldn't think of nothin' to say...
so I says, "Yes, ma'am.
But how you know me? Mark the mark on me.
Mark me too."
Did she?
No.
She slapped my face.
I didn't understand it then.
Not till I had a mark of my own.
What happened to her?
Hung.
Ma'am. What's the matter with you, ma'am?
Why they hang your mama?
I never found out.
Was a lot of 'em.
Paul D be here in a minute.
Hope this pudding's good tonight.
Denver, pass me your plate down here.
Paul D.
Where you been all them years...
since Sweet Home, Mr Paul?
Ain't you got no people?
- You wanna know about me now. - Uh-huh.
I got no people.
Eighteen years since I left Sweet Home, and I've been walkin' the whole time.
Move, walk, run, hide, sometimes steal and move on.
Only time I stayed in one spot for more than a month or so...
was with a weaver woman in Wilmington, Delaware.
Meanest place for a Negro I ever seen...
outside of Pulaski County, Kentucky.
I seen Negroes so stunned and hungry...
they lived in caves, fought owls for food.
Seen some who slept in trees in the day...
and moved only by night...
who buried themselves in slop to hide from...
posses and lawmen and regulators.
Met a Negro boy once... about 14...
- Who lived by hisself in the woods...
and said he could never remember livin' anywhere else.
Seen a witless coloured woman hang...
for stealing ducks she believed was her own babies.
In all these years, girl...
you beat all.
I ain't never seen a Negro like you.
I think it's time you tell us a little somethin' about yourself.
She don't remember nothin'.
Oh, you'd be surprised what you start rememberin' soon as you start talkin'.
Ain't you got no brothers or sisters?
I ain't got nobody.
Paul D, stop it.
Denver, help me clean up this table.
I wanna know, Sethe.
What you lookin' for when you come here, Beloved?
This place.
I look for this place I could be in.
Somebody tell you about this place?
She told me.
When I was at the bridge, she told me.
How you come? Who brung ya?
I walk here.
It's a long, long, long, long way.
- Nobody bring me. - You wearin' new shoes, gal.
- If you walked so long, how come your shoes don't show it? - Paul D.
Stop pickin' on her.
I wanna know! Where you get them shoes and the dress you had on?
I take the shoes, and I take the dress!
The shoestrings don't fit.
I'll teach you how to tie your shoes.
Beloved. Beloved!
- Beloved.
Beloved, Beloved, you all right?
- Let it out.
Go to sleep now.
You can come in my room.
I can take care of you up there.
What's the matter with you? What is it about her vex you so?
I don't understand what the hold is.
It's clear why she hold on to you. I just can't see why you holdin' on to her.
What you care who holdin' on to who?
She nice girl, company for Denver.
There's something funny about that gal.
Act sick, sound sick, but she don't look sick.
Eats sweets all day long, as strong as a bull.
She not strong. She can't hardly even walk without holdin' on to somethin'.
Can't walk, but I seen her pick up the rocker with one hand.
You ain't seen no such a-thing.
Hey, don't tell me. Ask Denver. She right there with her.
Sethe, Sethe, baby.
We were startin' to feel a little like a family ourself till she come along.
- Is that what got your teeth on edge? - It's a feelin' in me.
- I can't place it. It's her. - You wanna feel somethin'?
Feel what it feel like to be a coloured woman roamin' the roads.
And anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that!
I know every bit of that, Sethe.
I wasn't born yesterday, and I never mistreated a woman in my life.
Well, that makes one of you in this world.
One. Not two?
No, not two.
What'd Halle ever do to you? Halle stood by you.
Halle ran off.
He left me, and he left our children.
- You don't know that. - Who he leave then if he didn't leave me?
He wasn't there. He wasn't where he said he was gonna be.
I had to pack my babies off ahead of me on their own.
Stayed behind to look for him.
Got caught by Schoolteacher and his boys for my trouble.
He couldn't get out the... loft, I expect.
Loft?
What loft?
One in the barn, I reckon.
He was there?
How do you know?
Mornin' after you run, I seen Halle...
chained to a post.
I said, "What happened? Where you been?"
"The loft, the loft. The loft."
That's all he said.
- Could never figure out what he meant by that.
He saw them boys do that to me?
And he let them keep on breathin'?
I-I ask him...
"How come you didn't run with Sethe?"
He never answered me.
I seen him once more, the day Schoolteacher sold me to Brandywine.
Takin' me away in the wagon.
There Halle was, in the yard...
sittin' by the churn.
They didn't need to put no chains on him no more. His mind was gone.
Sethe...
a man ain't a goddam axe...
choppin' and hackin'...
bustin' every minute of the day.
Things get to him.
Things he can't chop down 'cause they inside.
Halle never just run off and leave you, Sethe.
You see...
you the only one of us who made it out that night.
The only one.
I didn't plan on telling you all that.
I'm sorry.
I didn't plan on hearin' it.
Didn't plan on you walkin' down that road neither...
comin' into my house...
bringin' all this with you.
- Where'd you learn to dance? - Nowhere!
Watch me do this.
Ohh!
Now you! Come on!
You may as well. Just go on!
Why you call yourself Beloved?
In the dark, my name Beloved.
What's it like where you was before? Can you tell me?
Dark. I was small in that place...
like this here.
- Were you cold? - Hot!
Nothing to breathe down there.
No room to move.
You see anybody?
It's a lot of people...
down there.
Some is dead.
You see Jesus? Baby Suggs?
I don't know.
I don't know the names.
Well, what you come back here for?
To see her face.
Mama's?
Sethe's?
Sethe.
I remember!
I was in the water.
I see her diamonds down there.
Then she left me behind...
by myself.
Don't.
You won't ever leave us, will ya?
No. Never.
This is where I am!
Don't tell.
Please don't let Mama know who you are. You hear me?
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't you never, never tell me what to do!
- But I'm on your side! - She the one!
She the one I need!
You can go! She the one I have to have!
Tell me how Sethe...
make you in the boat.
Tell me.
She never told me all of it.
Tell me.
Denver.
Tell me.
Well...
Mama was runnin'!
Who in there?
Who that back there?
My, my, my.
My, my, my, my!
It's a nigger! If that don't beat all!
Girl, you about the scariest-lookin' somethin' I ever saw.
What you doin' way back up here?
I'm runnin'.
These the feet you runnin' on?
- Jesus, my!
Miss, am I in Ohio?
Ohio? No, girl, you in Kentucky.
You about a thousand miles away from Ohio.
You havin' a baby?
Oh, my!
I expect this baby there is gonna die in these wild onions.
I gotta eat me somethin'.
W-W-Where-Where was you on your way to-to, miss?
Boston. Get me some velvet.
It's a store called Wilson's. They just have the "purtiest" velvet.
You ever seen velvet or touched it?
l-lf... If I did, I didn't know it.
Velvet I seen was brown...
but in Boston, they got all colours.
What they call you?
L-Lu.
Well, what you gonna do, Lu? You just gonna lay here and foal?
I... I-I can't get up. I-I can't move.
Oh, sure, you can, Lu. Come on. You stay here, the snakes might get ya.
- I can't. - Come on, come on.
- Come on, come on. Come on.
Come on!
I was fishin' off the Beaver once when a nigger floated right by me.
I don't like drowned people much. Do you?
Your feet kinda reminded me of him.
All swoll-like.
- Now this is gonna hurt a little.
Anything dead comin' back to life hurts.
You ain't got no business pokin' 'round these hills, miss.
Lookit here who's talkin'.
Ain't nobody after me, but I know somebody after you...
and they catch you, they're gonna cut your head off.
- Stop wiggling, girl. - My back hurt me.
- Your back? - Yeah.
Girl, you a mess. Turn over here and let me see.
Come here. Jesus!
It's a tree, Lu.
Your back got a whole tree on it.
Chokecherry tree in bloom.
See? Here's the trunk.
It's spread and split wide open, full of sap and branches.
And darned if these ain't blossoms.
Come on, girl.
'Cause of me, you're up and walkin'.
See, Jesus. Lu made it through.
I'm good with sick things, ain't I?
Yeah, you good.
- What's all over your dress, girl? - It's milk.
Gotta get milk to my baby girl.
You mean, you got another baby waitin' for you?
Oh, my, Jesus.
- Come on.
Come on. Come on.
Now...
that's Ohio.
Jesus lookin' at you, girl!
Whoo! Come on.
Oh, here's your paddle!
- What you doin' now, poor girl?
- Stop that right now!
- Jesus, Lu! Stop it! Stop it!
Lu! Lu! Stop it!
Oh, Jesus! I'm awfully sorry about braggin'.
I need you here now!
- Don't be gettin' lost on me now, Jesus!
Come on! Push! Push!
- Push!
Oh, here comes the head.
Oh, dear Jesus, please, help!
God, it's stuck!
- Come on!
Oh, praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
She ain't never gonna know who I am.
You better tell her who brung her into this world.
You say, "Miss Amy Denver...
- Of Boston." - Mm.
Pretty. That's pretty.
Denver.
Real pretty. Shh.
So Amy Denver, she left me and Mama on the riverbank.
That was the first time we met Stamp Paid.
Hey there.
You headin' across?
Yes, sir.
Anybody know you comin'?
Yes, sir. My mother-in-law, Baby Suggs.
Most folk call her Baby Suggs Holy.
- To me, she were Grandma Baby.
Thank you, Ella. Thank you, Stamp.
Oh!
Oh, my Lord.
My sweet Jesus!
Thank you!
Where's my Halle?
Well, he w-wasn't there...
where he said to meet him, and I had to go.
Had to.
H-H-He'll make it.
If I made it, Halle sure can.
- Where-Where's my children? - Oh, no, not now.
We got to fix you up first.
You too ugly-lookin' to wake 'em.
- Shh.
- Buglar, Howard! - Mama, Mama!
- Oh, look at you.
Let me see. Oh!
Tell me the other baby.
Tell me you big sister.
Mm, Baby Suggs call her...
Crawlin' Already Baby.
Crawlin' already? Ain't this somethin'?
All right, baby girl. Right this way.
Mama's waitin'.
All right, Howard, Buglar.
You're okay. Yeah.
Ain't nothin' here worth savin'.
What is this?
Weddin' present from Mrs Garner.
I wish there was a groom to go with it.
Put 'em on, child.
Maybe they'll light his way.
Look at those shine.
Pretty, huh?
Daddy come soon, huh?
No matter what happen...
God has led you home.
So...
lay 'em down, Sethe.
Sword and shield.
Study war no more.
God has led you home.
- Where we goin', Mama? - We goin' to pay tribute to your daddy.
Our house used to be a whole different thing.
Strangers rested there.
People leavin' messages. Folks comin' and goin' all the time.
It was a happy house when I first got there with Denver strapped to my chest...
waitin' on her daddy to come.
Daddy.
Halle bought Baby Suggs' freedom...
but slavery done already busted her legs...
and busted her back, hands, everything.
When she come here, she ain't had nothin' left to make no livin' with...
besides her heart.
Baby Suggs used to preach right here.
Let the children come.
Let your mothers hear you laugh.
Let the grown men come.
Let your wives and your children...
see you dance.
Women! Women!
I want you to weep!
Just weep...
for the living...
for the dead.
Weep.
Grandma Baby used to say your daddy was too good for this world.
Remember?
He was a good man.
It scared her.
She used to always fret whether he wasn't gonna make it through nothin'.
He made it through a lot.
Maybe Grandma Baby was right.
Denver...
your daddy ain't gonna never show up here.
- You understand? - But...
The day ain't gonna never come...
when Halle knocks on that door.
Never.
There...
Mama!
Paul!
Paul D! Paul D!
You here?
Where else would I be on a Sunday off?
You're here.
Uh-huh.
Why don't you come on in here?
Girls right behind me.
I don't hear nobody.
- I gotta cook. - Me too.
Yeah, yeah.
I thought I'd make some snap beans.
- Fry up a little corn. - Yeah.
Paul D, stop it. Stop it.
- Denver?
- Beloved? That you? - Shh, shh.
- Paul D!
Come on.
That was real fine, Sethe. Thank you.
- Sure you got enough? - Yes, ma'am.
Bone-tired and river-whipped.
- Paul D.
Don't tell me I slept in this chair the whole night.
I'm not gonna say a thing.
- Why you didn't rouse me? - I did.
I tried callin' you two or three times.
- I thought maybe you went out somewhere. - Sorry, honey.
- I'll make us some breakfast. - You know somethin'?
Breakfast can wait.
- Paul! Paul D! Paul D!
What you doin' in Baby Suggs' bed?
I don't know.
Like I'm havin' house fits.
It got me to move from bed...
to chair to bed.
Slept good though.
No. Come on now. You gonna be late for work.
Come on, come on. I got to get to work. So do you.
Come on.
Yeah, right.
- Come on, Beloved. - Yeah.
Why don't the chickens have no teeth?
- Whoo!
- Chicken has no teeth.
Mama's cookin' chicken!
Oh, God.
Head hurts.
What you want in here?
I want you touch me...
on the inside part...
and call my name.
Good people take you in, treat you good...
you oughta try to be good back.
You don't...
Sethe loves you...
as much as her own daughter, you know that.
She don't love me like I love her.
I don't love nobody but her.
Then what you come in here for?
I want you to touch me on the inside part.
Go back in that house and get in that bed.
You has to touch me on the inside part.
You has to call me my name.
No!
- No. - I'll go if you call it.
- No, Beloved. - Please, call it.
Beloved.
Red heart.
Red heart. Red heart.
Red heart.
Red heart. Red heart!
Red heart!
Red heart. Red heart.
Are there flowers in the dark?
There is.
- Come on. Come on. - Whoo-hoo!
Paul D! Wanna ride with us?
We got the wagon today. Why don't we...
If I could just tell her.
Now, Sethe, you ain't gonna like what I'm about to say.
Somethin' is happening to me.
That girl do it.
Fixin' me. Yeah. She fixed me, Sethe.
She fixed me, and I can't break it.
She-She moved me out of the house...
and then she... she joined me.
No.
- Paul D?
Paul D?
Why, you make me feel like a young girl...
comin' by to pick me up after work.
Pupski. There you go, Pupski.
Better watch out. I might start lookin' forward to it.
You get off from work early or what?
I took off early.
- Anything the matter?
In a way of speakin'.
Sethe, you ain't gonna like what I'm about to say.
Well, say it, Paul D, whether I like it or not.
I want you pregnant.
You want me pregnant?
Is that what you come by here for?
Don't you think I'm a little too old to start that all over again?
Th-Think about it.
You crazy man.
Come on.
What has got into you?
You need some babies or somebody to play with.
I'm sure willin' to try. I need a willin' partner though.
I'll say. I'll say.
Mercy.
Let's run. Let's run.
I've been on my feet all day.
Oh, where I been, Sethe?
Stop, Paul D. My legs ain't made for this.
* Hard work ain't easy *
* Dry bread ain't greasy *
* Little rice, little bean *
Hey, Stamp! Stamp Paid!
I'm gonna take this one home with me!
Hey, you like this work so much, maybe you best get in the chute with the others.
You ain't got much more sense than they do.
* No meat in between **
I ain't singin' about this!
If a man can make a plan, the man can make the good times happen.
The man got plans? You savin' up for a gold mine, boy?
Better than gold. Me and my woman's plannin' on startin' a family.
Yeah, a new life. Born free!
Now, if that don't mean a good time, I don't know what does.
Nothin' born free ever again.
What you talkin'?
I been bought and sold five times.
The last time, to the Northpoint Bank and Railway Company.
No more! I walk and I sleep and I eat where I please.
I earn a free man's wage.
Nobody's gonna own us no more.
Nobody's gonna own my children either.
No more! No more!
Children inherit where they come from.
Just 'cause you can't see no chains don't mean they not there.
And as long as the world is white, that's where we stayin'.
Come on. Let's go get somethin' to eat.
Come on. Come on.
Mind if I join you?
Free country, no matter what nobody say.
You don't know, do you, son?
Know what?
You one of Baby Suggs' Sweet Home men, ain't ya?
Yes, sir.
Me. My brothers. Her son, Halle.
- You knew Baby? - Oh, yeah.
Baby Suggs Holy. God rest her soul.
Yeah. Sethe told me she died soft as cream.
Well, maybe on the outside.
Why is that?
It was me who had brung Sethe across the river when she run away from Sweet Home.
I was there the day it happened.
Who is it?
That there's a picture of Sethe.
Sethe?
That ain't her mouth.
I can see why you may think it...
around the eyes.
B-But that there ain't her mouth.
Besides, why would they put some coloured woman's picture in the paper?
You don't read, do you, son?
You want me to read to you?
Already fed the girls. You eat?
Want something?
Best you come inside.
I don't have to tell you about Sweet Home...
what it was.
Maybe you don't know what it was like for me to get away from there.
I did it. I got us all out.
Up until then, it was the only thing I ever did on my own.
Me... usin' my own head.
But it was more than that.
I was... I was big...
and wide, Paul.
So wide, when I stretched out my arms, all my children could get in between.
Looked like I... Looked like I loved 'em more after we got here.
Maybe I just knew that long as we was in Kentucky with Schoolteacher...
they really wasn't mine to love.
Look like when I jumped off that wagon...
wasn't nobody in this world I couldn't love if I want to.
Twenty-eight days.
Twenty-eight good days of free life.
I'd wake up in the morning and...
decide for myself what to do with the day.
Sometimes I... I hear my boys...
hear 'em laughin' a laugh I ain't never heard.
First I get scared, scared somebody might hear 'em...
and get mad.
Then I remembered that if they laughed that hard till it hurt...
that'd be the only hurt they have all day.
And when the people would gather...
they'd come from all around to hear Baby Suggs Holy...
I seen and heard things I ain't never seen before.
I seen what free Negroes look like for the first time.
Here in this place, we are flesh.
Flesh that weeps...
laughs...
dances barefoot in the grass.
Love your flesh.
Love it hard.
Yonder... they do not love our flesh.
Amen.
Oh, my people...
they do not love your hands.
Those... they only use...
tie... bind...
chop off...
and leave empty.
Love your hands.
Raise them up...
and kiss them.
Twenty-eight days of... freedom.
On the 29th day, it was over.
Outside.
There's a look that white folks get.
Righteous look that's like a flag goin' up a pole.
A righteousness that...
comes along with the whip and the fist...
the burnin', the lie.
Long before it happens in the open.
No, no!
- Howard, Buglar, get in the shed!
Get in the shed! Run!
No!
Get in the shed! No!
No! No! No! No!
No, no, no!
- No, no, no! - Mama!
Mama!
- Sethe! Sethe! No!
- Sethe!
God Almighty.
What'd you go and do that for?
Y'all better go on. Nothin' here to claim, I guess.
- Look like your business is over.
Mine's started.
Animal.
Oh.
- Oh. - I'm going out. I'll send for a wagon.
Howard, Howard!
- Wake up. Buglar. Baby!
Come on, sweetheart. Wake up! Wake up!
- Oh!
I beg your pardon.
Sethe, you take my armload and give me your'n.
I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon.
I beg your pardon.
Your love is too thick, Sethe.
Love is or it isn't, Paul D.
Thin love ain't no love at all.
I stopped him.
I put my babies where'd they be safe.
Didn't work, though, did it?
Your boys are gone, you don't know where.
One girl's dead. The other can't get further than the yard.
How did it work?
They ain't at Sweet Home.
Schoolteacher ain't got 'em.
- Maybe there's worse. - It ain't my job to know what's worse, Paul D.
It's my job to know what is and keep my children away from it, 'cause I'd rather know...
they at peace in heaven than live in a hell here on Earth, so help me, Jesus.
- What you did was wrong, Sethe. - I should've gone back there?
Took my babies back to Sweet Home?
There could've been a way. Some other way.
What way, Paul D?
You got two feet, Sethe, not four.
You can set aside supper for me.
I might be late gettin' back.
After all I just told you, Paul D...
and after you tellin' me how many feet I got...
you think sayin' goodbye is gonna break me into pieces?
You're a sweet man.
So long, Paul D.
We could roast some taters.
Too late. Tomorrow.
I made that song up.
I made it up and sang it to my children.
Nobody knows that song but...
me and my children.
I know.
You came back to me.
Yeah.
- Ohh.
- Back stiff? - Mmm. Yeah.
- Sleeping on the floor's supposed to be good for you. - Hurt like the devil.
Should I wake her?
No. Let her rest.
She likes to see you off in the morning.
I'm gonna let her, but first get me that ham out of there.
I'm gonna make us a nice, big breakfast against the cold outside.
- Won't you be late for work? - First time I'll be late in 16 years.
It don't matter.
Whatever goes on out there goes on with or without me showin' up on time.
The world is right here in this room.
- Right here is all that is and all there needs to be.
- She ain't even mad at me. Not a bit.
Whoo.
- Mama! - Mama!
Put it back in there. Put it back.
That's it. You're late. You're fired.
That's all. I-I... I've had it.
You make potato salad always too sweet.
And you didn't make the pies today.
You take home too much food. Where are you going? Where are you going?
- My goodness. Is that... - Yes, it is.
- Did you see that? - What? That's a disgrace.
Sethe.
Don't look now, but there is Sethe.
- Mm. - Is she the one?
Will that be all, ma'am?
- * To get my grip *
* I came back home just a-pullin' the skiff, just a-pullin' the skiff *
* Went upstairs to make my bed *
* I made a mistake and bumped my head *
* Just a-pullin' the skiff Just a-pullin' the skiff *
* I came downstairs to milk that cow *
* I made a mistake and I milked that sow *
* Just a-pullin' the skiff Just a-pullin' the skiff *
- * Tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow never comes *
* Tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow never comes *
- The best part.
- Look at my pretty baby. She's my best thing. - Denver.
* Tomorrow never come *
- Thank you, Mama. - * Tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow in the barn **
This one?
- Would you wrap it, please? - What's she doing?
The first day we got here to Bluestone Road...
you dribbled clear spit on my face.
Just like when you come back and drink that water, it run down your chin.
I'd have recognized you right off...
- But Paul D, he distract me.
Then later on...
when you asked me about them earrings I used to dangle for you to play with...
- I'd have known that was you...
except for Paul D.
Looked to me like he wanted you out from the beginning.
But I wouldn't let him. What you think?
Hmm.
I mean, look how he run off first he hear about you and me in the shed.
Too tough for him to even listen to.
"My love too thick," he said.
What do he know about it?
* High Johnny *
* Wide Johnny *
* Don't you leave my side *
* High Johnny *
* Wide Johnny *
* Sweet William, bend down low *
- * Jack, we raise up high *
- * Lambs wool ** - Why you hurt me?
Baby, you know.
Why you leave me?
Beloved, I wasn't never gonna leave you.
Never.
But there wasn't no way I was gonna let Schoolteacher come haul all of us off...
and measure your behind 'fore he tore it up.
- You leave me. - No, baby. No.
See, my plan was to get us all over to the other side where my own mammy is.
They stopped me from gettin' us all there, but you had to be put...
where you'd be safe, and I did that.
Now you come back...
and baby, I ain't gonna never let you go.
I want a sweet.
Sweet?
Sweet.
We don't have nothin' sweet no more, baby.
Why you don't let me eat the pie no more?
- Since Mama spent all the money, we don't have no more.
I want a sweet! I want a sweet!
- Sweet, sweet, sweet! - Beloved? Beloved!
- Beloved, baby?
Baby? Beloved!
It's all right.
- I understand.
Beloved?
Mama!
- Mama!
Mama!
You best leave that quilt alone.
That's Grandma's quilt.
I want a sweet. Where is sweet?
You mean I never tell you about your daddy, Halle?
How he bought my freedom with all that toil...
and never had a chance to see the promised land for hisself?
Didn't I tell you about the Bodwins...
who find me this here house...
and give me work in theirs?
How the Bodwins, they saved your Mama's neck from the rope.
I never tell you all this?
Is that why you scared...
to go down them steps and out yonder...
by yourself?
Is that why you didn't go back to Miss Lady...
and finish learnin' your letters?
You liked going there. I remember.
Bein' with the other children. All of a sudden you've stopped.
There was this boy...
and he said things about Mama.
- He said he could prove it.
My Jesus, my.
Come here, child.
We got to go sometime.
You got to go out yonder by yourself sometime.
You got to go on out of the yard.
Go on.
Come on, now.
I want to work, Miss Lady.
Work?
Start learnin' your letters again?
I mean "work" work.
Well, Denver...
what can you do?
I can't do nothin'.
But I could learn it for you... if you have a little extra.
Extra?
Food.
My mama...
she don't feel too good.
Oh, baby.
Eat. Bad Sethe.
Yes. Bad Sethe.
Eat.
Ohh, honey.
What you got?
- Thank you, ma'am.
You're more than welcome, my child.
Thank you.
No, no. That's not my bowl.
Sugar, mine got a blue ring on it.
You wanna come in a spell? Come on in.
- I got some warm gingerbread. You just go on in there. - Okay.
Shh. Shh. Go on. Move. Get off of me.
- You stink, and you messin' up my dress. Stop it.
I'm tellin' you, get off of me. Get off of me, now!
- Stop it.
- How far you goin', miss? - I goin' to Cincinnati.
- That's as far as we're goin', miss. Get off. - Thank you.
- How's it goin'? - Take care of yourself, all right?
Excuse me. I was lookin' for the Bodwin's house.
You bugger off, you hear me?
Yes?
What you want?
I wanted to see Mr and Mrs Bowman... Mr and Mrs Bodwin.
Ms Bodwin.
They brother and sister, darlin'. What you want with 'em?
I was lookin' for work, and I thought that they might know about some.
Ohh...
you Baby Suggs' kid, ain't you?
- Yes'm. - I heard your mother took sick.
- Is that so? - Yes'm.
Well, come on in. You're lettin' in flies. Come on.
You know what? I been here since I'm 14, and I can remember like yesterday...
when Baby Suggs Holy came here and sat right where you are.
White man, name of Garner, brought her. He and Mr Bodwin was good friends.
- That's how she got that house you all live in. Other things too. - Yes'm.
I never went to those woodland services, but she was always nice to me.
Always. Never be another like her.
I miss her.
Bet you do. Everybody miss her. That was a good woman.
Well...
I don't know whether the Bodwins think so or not, but they sure could use some extra help.
- You think?
Especially at night, when it's no good for me to come.
It'll take some convincin', but maybe you could come after supper.
Take care of your mama during the day. How's that?
- Fine.
But what would I do at night?
- Just be here in case. - In case what?
In case the house burned down or bad weather slopped the roads up so bad I can't get here on time.
Or late guests needed cleanin' up after.
Anything.
Don't ask me what white folks need at night.
- They good white folk? - Oh, yeah. They good.
Can't say they ain't good. I wouldn't trade 'em for another pair, I tell you that.
But you come back in a few days. Give me a chance to lead up to it.
All right?
What is it, child?
What's the trouble with Sethe?
Is it really the daughter, Janey? The killed one?
That's what the girl say.
- How do you know it's her? - It's sittin' there, Lucille.
It sleeps, eats and raises hell.
- I'll be. A baby.
Nah. It's grown. It's the age it would've been had it lived.
- Mercy. - What you talkin' about? You talkin' about flesh?
- I'm talkin' about flesh... and it's whoopin' her...
like she was batter.
- I guess she had it comin' a little. - Nobody got that comin'.
But Ella, you just don't up and kill your children.
No, and the children can't just up and kill the mama.
Them that die bad don't stay in the ground.
Schoolteacher...
Mama?
Nobody ain't makin' nothin'.
- Nobody. - Mama, I'm going out now.
I got a job workin' nights over at the Bodwins.
Mr Bodwin's coming to pick me up now.
Writin' my baby's characteristics!
Lay that down.
We have money now.
Mama!
Hey.
It's comin' out. It's over.
- Help us, help us.
Ohh!
Ohh, amen!
- Help us, Jesus!
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
- * I heard the voice * - Yes.
- I heard the voice. - * I heard the voice *
* I heard the voice say *
* Come unto me and rest *
* I *
- * Heard * - * The voice *
* The *
* Voice *
* Of *
- * Jesus *
* Say *
* Come *
* Un-to *
* Me *
* And *
* Rest *
- * Lay down, thou weary one * - It's all right.
* Lay down thy head upon my breast *
* Lay *
* Down *
* Thou *
* Weary *
* One *
- Mama? - * Lay *
- * Down *
- * I came to Jesus *
- Oh, Lord, please. - * As I was *
* The weary one who said *
* I *
* Came *
* To *
* Je-sus *
* As *
* I *
* Was *
* He *
* Had *
* Hold and *
- * Said * - No.
- No, no, no, no. - * Tilt your eyes down low *
No, no, no, no.
- Mama? - * I **
Mama?
- Mama, that's Mr Bodwin!
- Mama!
Mama!
- Mama! - No, no, no! No, no, no!
- No! - Mama! Mama!
Paul D? Is that you?
Good morning.
Well, it is now.
- How you gettin' along? - Don't pay to complain.
- Yeah. Right. You on your way home? - No.
I got an afternoon job at the shirt factory.
I figure between that and my night work at the Bodwins...
I might be able to put somethin' aside for me and Mama.
- They treatin' you right over at the Bodwins? - Mm-hmm. More than all right.
Ms Bodwin, she teachin' me stuff. Book stuff.
She say I might go to Oberlin College.
That's fine, mighty fine.
Well.
Your mother all right?
No. She's not a bit all right.
She hasn't gotten out of bed since that day.
Think I should stop by? Think she'd welcome it?
I don't know.
I think I lost my mama, Paul D.
Th-That girl. You know. Beloved.
She-She gone like they say?
Haven't seen her since that day.
Mama say she gone. She can feel it.
You think she sure enough your sister?
At times.
At other times...
I think she was more.
But who would know that better than you, Paul D?
You sure enough knew her.
- Well, if you want my opinion... - I don't.
I have my own.
- You grown.
Yes, sir.
Well, good luck with your job.
Thank you.
Bye, now.
Watch your step.
Paul D?
You don't have to stay away.
But you watch how you talk to my mama, you hear?
Don't worry.
Hey, Miss Denver! Wait up!
Hi.
Watch it, miss.
Yeah.
Ohh.
Sethe?
Paul D?
You shaved.
Yeah. Look bad?
Lookin' good.
Devil's confusion.
- I seen Denver. She tell ya?
You gotta get up from here, girl.
Look. Denver be here in the day. I'll be here at night.
I'm gonna take care of you, ya hear?
Startin' now.
What, baby? What?
She leave me.
She gone again.
Oh, girl. Don't cry.
She leave me.
Sethe, Sethe.
Paul...
she my best thing.
You your best thing, Sethe.
You are.
Me?
And the beat, beat of your heart.
- Love it...
more than the lungs...
that need yet...
to breathe free air;
more than the womb...
that holds life;
more than the private parts... that give life.
- That's right. - Love your heart.
- Yes! Love your heart!
This... this...
this is the prize.
- Amen. - Yes!
- Amen. - This is the prize.
Amen.
- Thank you, sister. - Thank you, sister.
I feel it.
Bless you. Bless you.
- Bless you. - Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!