Gem of the Ocean

It is Saturday morning. Eli and Black Mary are in the kitchen; they have just finished breakfast. Eli looks out the window and sees Citizen standing across the street. He has not left that spot since the night before. Eli comments that Citizen is “still wearing clodhoppers” and notes that it looks as though he just arrived in the northern city (9). Black Mary speculates that Citizen might not have anywhere to go and says that he will probably end up sleeping under the Brady Street Bridge, where a group of unhoused people have found temporary shelter.

There is a knock on the door. Rutherford Selig enters carrying a frying pan and a can of kerosene. Selig is a local peddler and has come to sell his wares. After briefly haggling, Selig and Black Mary settle on a price. The two exchange money for goods and the deal is done.

Selig then tells the pair that he came by way of the local mill. It was shuttered and he was not sure why. Eli explains that the closure is due to a suicide. A worker named Garret Brown, wrongfully accused of stealing a bucket of nails, drowned himself in the river rather than be captured by Caesar, a local police officer, as well as landlord, baker, and brother to Black Mary. Brown’s funeral is to be held that day. Black Mary wonders why Brown didn’t just come out of the water when Caesar asked, and Eli fills in an additional detail: Caesar promised not to arrest Brown and told him that if he would leave the river, he would provide him with dry clothes and a bowl of soup. Brown was not fooled by that promise, and refused. Caesar then attempted to beat Brown over the head with a two-by-four. Unable to withstand the cold water, Brown drowned. Black Mary finds little sense in this story, noting that, had Caesar arrested him, the man would have received only a 30-day sentence.

There is yet another knock on the door, and Solly enters. He is a 67-year-old man wearing a long coat and a tattered hat. He carries a basket and a stick. He reports that there is a throng of mourners lined up around the block at Tolliver’s church, waiting to pay their final respects to Garret Brown. Black Mary interrupts him, admonishing him for not leaving his basket outside as she had asked. Solly responds that he is worried someone will steal it. Black Mary scoffs, for the basket contains “pure,” which is dog excrement that Solly collects to sell to shoemakers, who use it to work leather, and gardeners, who use it as fertilizer.

Selig leaves, and Eli asks Solly to help him build a stone wall. Although Solly thinks that it might be easier to build a wooden fence, Eli’s mind is made up. He wants to build a wall in order to “keep Caesar on the other side” (14). Eli thinks that Caesar, as cop and landlord, is too quick to arrest and too quick to evict. Defending her brother, Black Mary argues that Caesar is just doing his job.

Solly has a letter from his sister Eliza and asks Black Mary to read it for him. Black Mary reads the letter aloud. Eliza is still in the South, and she reports that “the people are having a hard time with freedom” (15). White residents are preventing their Black neighbors from fleeing north. They will not allow formerly enslaved people to purchase railway tickets and they are threatening to sink any ferry carrying Black passengers. Eliza asks for Solly’s help escaping, as she is desperate to join him in Pittsburgh. Solly feels compelled to return south to rescue his sister.

Aunt Ester enters. She comments on the racket that everyone is making and asks for a pot of tea. Eli worries that she is getting sick, but Aunt Ester assures him that she isn’t sick, just cold. She inquires about Solly’s pure. He has different types with him, and Aunt Ester closely examines the bags, noting that even the pure was God’s creation, and “Ain’t nothing that’s in God’s creation that ain’t good” (16). She says it will make good fertilizer and pays Solly for a small bag. Black Mary is not amused by this exchange and announces that she intends to go shopping.

Ester speculates that Black Mary is actually going to see Percy Saunders, and notes that she used to see both Percy Saunders and Robert Smiley. She is sure that Black Mary is going to be judged for her behavior, but Solly replies that he, too has more than one love interest—“one for each arm” (18). Aunt Ester reveals that she dreamed about Black Mary the day before the girl had arrived on her doorstep. In her dream, Black Mary had 17 rings and Aunt Ester had given her a dollar for each one. When Black Mary showed up, she asked if Aunt Ester needed someone to do the washing. Aunt Ester recalls thinking that anyone willing to take on the laundry was welcome to stay, and in the three years since, the girl has never left. She also tells Solly that she had a dream about him. She dreamed that he had a ship full of men and was sailing across the water. In the dream, Aunt Ester asked for a ride, and Solly said that he had some work to do but would return and part the waters for Aunt Ester with a magic stick. When he returned, the men had drowned and the ship was sinking. Solly claimed that he would find another ship and more men, and that he was headed for Alabama.

After hearing about Aunt Ester’s dream, Solly tells her that he’s had a letter from his sister Eliza, who needs his help. He is worried enough about her situation that he feels compelled to make the trip south to help her. Eli returns, saying that he’s fixed the stove. After flirting briefly with Aunt Ester, Solly leaves.

The stage is lit to reveal Aunt Ester’s parlor. Citizen enters from the upstairs window, heads into the kitchen, and grabs some bread. He accidentally wakes Ester, who comes out and asks him if he is hungry. He assures her that he means no harm, but that he desperately needs to see her and cannot wait until Tuesday. He says he has been sent to Aunt Ester by those who claim that she “can wash people’s souls” (20). Aunt Ester replies that the only individual with the power to wash souls is God, but continues to chat amiably with Citizen. She tells him that he reminds her of one of her former husbands and offers him money. He declines the charity and reiterates that he has come for her spiritual services. Aunt Ester speaks in a roundabout way, telling Citizen the story of Garrett Brown. Citizen notes that he witnessed the man’s death. Like others, Citizen does not quite understand why Brown didn’t come out of the river. Aunt Ester speculates that dying was the one way that the man could prove his innocence, and notes that Jesus Christ also died innocent.

Aunt Ester asks Citizen where he is from. He has just come north from Alabama, and confirms the contents of Solly’s sister’s letter. White Alabamans are indeed refusing to let Black people leave and he had great difficulty getting out of the state. It took him two weeks to make it to Pittsburgh, and his struggles continued when he arrived. He found employment at the local mill, but the owners were dishonest, under-paying their workers, charging them for room and board, and withholding wages unfairly. Their labor practices were akin to indentured servitude and Citizen left to find better employment elsewhere. He did so without the permission of his employers, who argued that he still owed them money. Citizen is short on details at this point, but he admits that he killed a man. This is why he has come to Aunt Ester: He wants his soul cleansed of this transgression.

Eli and Black Mary are in the kitchen. There is a knock at the door, and Solly enters. There has been a riot at the mill: Protesting Garret Brown’s death, mill workers threw bottles at the police and damaged the building. Many, but not all, were arrested. Together, Eli, Black Mary, and Solly read Garret Brown’s obituary. Born to enslaved parents in South Carolina, he fled north at an early age. He leaves behind a widow and four children. Solly asks Black Mary to write a letter to his sister. Although he can find no one to accompany him on his journey, he intends to go to Alabama to help Eliza make her way north.

Aunt Ester introduces Citizen, who is now staying at the house, to Solly. Citizen explains that his mother gave him his name after they gained their freedom. Solly tells Citizen that his mother has given him a heavy burden, and relates the story of his own name, changed during his escape from the South to confuse his would-be captors. As an enslaved man, he was known as Uncle Alfred. During his escape, he renamed himself Two Kings, after biblical figures David and Solomon. That proved a mouthful for many, so it was shortened to Solomon, and then Solly. Solly asks where Citizen is from, and he knows that part of Alabama well. He asks if Citizen will help him bring his sister back to Pittsburgh, but Citizen is reluctant. The two discuss freedom, agreeing that it doesn’t look the way that they envisioned it. It certainly doesn’t seem easy for Black people in the South, who might be free but have few means with which to make a living.

Caesar knocks at the door and enters the kitchen, where Eli and Black Mary are sitting with Solly and Citizen. Caesar also tells the story of the riot at the mill, although in his version the workers are lazy, ungrateful, and destructive. Noticing Citizen, he asks where the man came from. Hearing that Citizen is from Alabama, Caesar warns him not to steal anything and tells him to “get you some real shoes” (31). He thinks that Citizen’s boots, better suited to farm work, are out of place in the city. Caesar threatens to arrest Citizen if he sees him standing around, and urges Citizen to go down to the mill to get a job. He tries to give Citizen a quarter, telling him that if he’s able to turn that quarter into five dollars, then he’ll give him a job. Citizen declines and leaves. Caesar tells those gathered that he finds Citizen suspicious, and that he’s liable to steal something.

Caesar then engages in a lengthy monologue about Garret Brown’s suicide, the riot, and its impact on the mill. He argues that the town needs the mill to function, that individuals are dependent on industry, and that the workers are not seeing the bigger picture. He’s sure of Brown’s guilt, and finds the workers’ actions appalling. Solly, Eli, and Black Mary largely ignore him. Solly prepares to leave and Caesar hassles him about his walking stick, claiming that it is a weapon and thus not a permissible item to carry. Solly scoffs at him and leaves, walking stick in hand.

Caesar is left alone with Black Mary. He sees himself as a “big man” in the neighborhood and is ashamed that his sister is a washerwoman. She used to help him run his bakery and he asks her to come back. Although Black Mary does love and respect her brother because he is family, she objects to the way he runs the bakery, his overzealous arrest record, and the ease with which he evicts his Black tenants who are even a little late with their rent. She reminds him that she vowed to stop working with him when he killed a young man for stealing bread. Caesar launches into another lengthy monologue in his defense, detailing the way in which he has had to fight for success. To him, freedom means the ability to participate fully within the system of American capitalism, and he feels superior to people of more modest means. Additionally, as an officer of the law, he is duty-bound to uphold it and feels perfectly justified in arresting those who do not. Caesar’s story falls on deaf ears, and he leaves.

Black Mary and Aunt Ester are in the kitchen. Black Mary washes vegetables in the sink. The two speak briefly about the vegetables and then Aunt Ester returns to her room. Citizen enters the kitchen. Black Mary tells him that he knocked some paint off the windowsill as he was entering the house, and Citizen defends his actions, saying that he was desperate to see Aunt Ester. Black Mary tells him that Aunt Ester can’t clean his soul and he must play a role in his own spiritual healing. Citizen then asks Black Mary if she has a man, and tells her that she is too young and pretty to be single. She returns his question and he responds that he left his woman in Alabama, that the two didn’t get along. He notes that his room is right next to Black Mary’s and asks if she wants to come see him that night. Although she demurs at first, she ultimately agrees to meet him later.

Black Mary is washing Aunt Ester’s feet in the parlor. Aunt Ester says that although Black Mary thinks she is supposed to figure everything out, “life is a mystery” (42), and all she has to do is live it. She also tells a bit of her own story. She is 285 years old and has lived through both enslavement and freedom. She explains the origins of her name, noting that her mother gave her to a Miss Ester Tyler when she was nine years old, and Miss Ester named her after herself. She cared for the woman until her death and although she finds the woman’s name a heavy burden, she carries it anyway. She asks Black Mary to go and fetch Citizen, as she’d like to speak with him further.

Aunt Ester asks Citizen to tell her more of his story. She wants to know about the man he killed. As it turns out, he had been speaking figuratively: It was Citizen, not Garret Brown, who stole the bucket of nails. He did so because he’d been refused payment for work. Although he understands that he caused the man’s death, he has found himself unable to confess to his crime.

Black Mary tells him that “the bucket of nails is at the center” of his life (44). He will never forget the bucket of nails or Garret Brown, but he needs to move on and find something else to put at the center of his life. She tells him that his life is his own, that no one can take it from him, but that he needs to live it in a way that honors him. The two discuss Brown, and Ester argues that Brown stayed true to himself in choosing to die. He knew he hadn’t stolen the nails, and killed himself rather than be wrongfully convicted.

Aunt Ester says that she will help Citizen. She instructs him to go upriver and find two pennies lying side by side. Once he’s found them, he’s to wrap them in a handkerchief and find a man named Jilson Grant. He’s to tell the man that Aunt Ester sent him.

After Citizen leaves, Aunt Ester admits to Black Mary that most of the people who come to her for spiritual guidance only need to find love. She’s sent Citizen on a mission only to give him time to think and process. Fetching the pennies is merely a task to accomplish as he’s figuring out how to re-center himself.

Suddenly, Eli enters with the news that the mill is on fire.