- 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!