TROY: I ain’t but two seconds off you noway. The garbage sitting in there overflowing . . . you ain’t done none of your chores . . . and you come in here talking about “Yeah.” . . . Your first chore is to help me with this fence on Saturday. Everything else come after that. Now get that saw and cut them boards.
TROY: . . . It’s been over ten years since that roof was last tarred. See now . . . the snow come this winter and sit up there on that roof like it is . . . and it’s gonna seep inside. It’s just gonna be a little bit . . . ain’t gonna hardly notice it. Then the next thing you know, it’s gonna be leaking all over the house. Then the wood rot from all that water and you gonna need a whole new roof. . . . While you thinking about a TV, I got to be thinking about the roof . . . and whatever else go wrong around here.
TROY: I don’t care what nobody else say. I’m the boss . . . you understand? I’m the boss around here. I do the only saying that counts. . . . I asked you . . . did you understand? . . . You go on down there to that Aamp;P and see if you can get your job back. If you can’t do both . . . then you quit the football team. You’ve got to take the crookeds with the straights.
TROY: (Slow, methodical.) Woman . . . I do the best I can do. I come in here every Friday. I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of lard. You all line up at the door with your hands out. I give you the lint from my pockets. I give you my sweat and my blood. I ain’t got no tears. I done spent them. We go upstairs in that room at night . . . and I fall down on you and try to blast a hole into forever. I get up Monday morning . . . find my lunch on the table. I go out. Make my way. Find my strength to carry me through to the next Friday. That’s all I got, Rose.
