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“(CALEB hesitates, the takes up the book again.)

CALEB. “Once we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord, our God, brought us forth with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. If God had not brought our ancestors out of Egypt, we and our children and our children’s children might still be enslaved...” (He hesitates.)

SIMON. Go on.

JOHN. Caleb.”

“(CALEB is silent a moment longer.)
CALEB. He sold them.
SIMON. What?
CALEB. He sold them.
SIMON. Sold? Who?
CALEB. Sarah and Elizabeth.
(An eternity.)
SIMON. No.
CALEB. It’s true.
SIMON. No.
CALEB. I’m sorry.
SIMON. NO!!!
Why?
WHY!!!
CALEB. She was–
SIMON. WHY?!?
CALEB. She was expecting.”

“SIMON. Expecting?
CALEB. Yes.
SIMON. Yours?
(CALEB is taken aback by this question.)
(SIMON gets in CALEB’s face.)
Where’d they go?
CALEB. I don’t know.
SIMON. WHERE’D THEY GO?!?
CALEB. I don’t know, I promise you, Simon, I don’t.
SIMON. Who bought them?
(Silence.)
WHO BOUGHT THEM!!
(SIMON grabs CALEB’s wounded leg and squeezes. CALEB screams in agony.)
You think I’m playin’ around?
CALEB. John, tell him.
SIMON. John?”

“(He lets go of CALEB and swings violently around, setting his sights on JOHN.)
You knew about this?
JOHN. Simon–
SIMON. You knew about this?
(SIMON grabs the brick and pins JOHN against the wall, shaking him as he speaks, the brick hovering perilously close to JOHN’s skull.)
Three days. Three days you knew they was sold and you said NOTHING?
JOHN. Simon, I–
SIMON. You said NOTHING? Three days I coulda been out looking for my family. You said NOTHING.
JOHN. Simon–
SIMON. Where’d they go?
JOHN. I don’t know.
SIMON. Who has them?
JOHN. I don’t know!
SIMON. Why you keep it from me?”

“JOHN. Simon, I–
SIMON. WHAT HAPPENED?
JOHN. It was the day Richmond fell. Mr. DeLeon sold Elizabeth and Sarah–
SIMON. Oh, God!!
JOHN.–And I tried to stop him. He sent me to the Whipping Man andandand in the middle of the whipping, thestrapthestrap, the leather strap–
SIMON. (shakes him) What about it?
JOHN. It snapped during the whipping. It was old, brittle. It just snapped, snapped off. And I grabbed the whip from him, as it was coming to me. Right out of the air, Simon, and I snatched it from him. I don’t know why I did it.
SIMON. And?
JOHN. Andandandandandand I whipped him.
SIMON. John...
JOHN. Likelike he whipped me.
SIMON. John...
JOHN. Hehehe was on the ground. Andand I took the handle–the pearl the pearl handle he used on ”

“the handle–the pearl the pearl handle he used on me–and I beat him with it.
SIMON. John...
JOHN. I beat him and beat him and beat him.
And I I killed him.
I killed the Whipping Man, Simon.
I killed him.
SIMON. John, John, John...
JOHN. Freddy walked in, Freddy saw me. I ran. Freddy saw. Freddy saw.
SIMON. You are a dead man, you know that.
JOHN. Simon, I’m scared. / Please, Simon...
CALEB. That’s why you’ve done all this. It’s because you can’t leave, can you?
JOHN. And what have you been doing all this time?
(to SIMON)

Caleb, here...the reason he’s so afraid / to go to the hospital–”

“SIMON. I don’t need no explanations from you. Two lying, deceitful peas in a pod.
JOHN. I was scared, Simon. I had no choice.
SIMON. No. You’re free now. For the first time in your life, you do have a choice. You had a choice and you made a choice. When you was beating that man to death, you made a choice. When you hid from Freddy Cole, you made a choice. When you lied to me about my family, you made a choice. I see the choices you made. They tell me all I need to know about the man you are, about the free man you gonna be. You don’t get to be free, you work to be free. It’s what we been praying for tonight. What you should have learned from all your reading. Were we Jews or were we slaves? I know what you are. You ain’t no Jew. You ain’t even a man. You just a nigger, John. Nigger, Nigger, Nigger John.
(silence)
CALEB. Simon, I’m sorry.
SIMON. What good your sorries gonna do me? Your sorries gonna bring back my family?
CALEB. No.”

Excerpt From: Matthew Lopez. “The Whipping Man.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/ojekD.l


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story