Two Trains Running

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1993

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Summary

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Act IAct Summaries & Analyses

Act I, Scene 1 Summary

Set in Pittsburgh in 1969, the play takes place in a restaurant. The menu is posted on a board, along with the number 651, which was the winner yesterday in the daily numbers game (numbers running, also called bolita or policy racket, is an illegal lottery system). The restaurant is small and has a counter with four stools, three booths, and a pay phone. It sits across the street from Lutz’s Meat Market and West’s Funeral Home. Wolf, a diner regular, enters from the phone booth, but the phone rings repeatedly, and he keeps answering it. Memphis, the middle-aged man who owns the restaurant, enters and tells Wolf to stop using his phone to run the numbers game, because his lawyer might be trying to get through. Wolf argues, and the two men discuss the merit of the numbers game. Memphis mentions that the number 651 has won twice that week and that it was the number that L. D., a man who is now dead, had always played. Risa, a young woman who cooks and waits tables, enters from the kitchen. Risa has deliberately scarred her legs with a razor blade to deter unwanted male attention. She calls the numbers game a waste of money, but Wolf and Memphis insist that the game gives Black people a chance to get ahead. Memphis explains that winning the game gave him the ability to change his clothes daily for the first time.

Wolf asks Memphis about his wife, and Memphis complains that he gave her everything she ever wanted—a Cadillac, a color TV, and he was even getting her a dishwasher—but she’s left because she was “tired of the way [he] treated her” (10) after Memphis asked her to make bread. Holloway, another diner regular, enters the restaurant and informs the others that people have been lined up around the block at West’s Funeral Home to get in and view the body of Prophet Samuel, who died of a stroke. According to Memphis, Risa was one of the prophet’s devoted followers, and he muses that Prophet Samuel was probably poisoned by one of the seven or eight women who lived with him. Holloway says that the women are greeting mourners and that one attempted to charge admission to the crowd, but West stopped them. Holloway claims that Prophet Samuel’s casket has been filled with $100 bills, and that he’s wearing diamond and gold jewelry. The men debate whether West, the undertaker, will actually bury Prophet Samuel with all of the cash and valuables.

Memphis and Holloway quip that West has been known to cut corners by reusing caskets and burial suits, although Risa interjects that that would be illegal. They wonder who is richer: Prophet Samuel or West. Holloway states, “Everybody know West got money. He get more business. More people dying than getting saved” (12), asserting that West has multiple millions of dollars. Memphis notes that West is cheap, living over the funeral home instead of buying a house. Memphis remembers buying the restaurant building before West could and refusing to sell it when West offered him thousands more than he paid. For the past 20 years, the city has been buying up the block, and Memphis has an appointment on Tuesday to hear the city’s offer for the building, which they will demolish. Memphis tells the others that when he first opened, the diner was constantly busy and full of customers. The man who owns the jukebox had been making even more money than Memphis. In recent years, however, business has slowed down, and the surrounding buildings have emptied. Memphis states that the city usually buys land from white people and that he is determined to get an equal price. He paid $5,500 for the building eight years prior, and he won’t sell for less than $25,000. Wolf agrees that they should pay it.

Memphis comments that he might buy new shoes and that West only wears old, worn-out shoes—although he always keeps them shined. They discuss West’s admittedly impressive skill as an undertaker, and the respectful, almost-deferent manner with which he treats clients. Memphis accuses West of selling mourners unnecessary and unverifiable services, like a lock on the casket and a 20-year guarantee against casket leaks. Wolf proclaims that he would rather have a stranger bury him than have West do it, because the thought of West handling his death makes him uncomfortable. Holloway insists that West sees all the people he buries as strangers and treats all of them the same way, even those whose burials are being financed by the state. Since his wife died, West hasn’t cared about anyone he’s buried. Hambone, a man in his forties with an intellectual disability, enters the restaurant. He can only say two phrases, which he reiterates repeatedly: “I want my ham” and “He gonna give me my ham” (17). Seeing him, Risa brings him some beans and cornbread. Then she offers him a warm coat. Wolf asks Risa if she has been to pay her respects to Prophet Samuel, but Risa replies, “I ain’t going. I don’t want to see him like that” (18). Memphis reveals that Risa has been crying for the man for the past two days.

Wolf offers to accompany Risa to see Prophet Samuel, giving her money for the jukebox, but Risa informs him that it’s broken. Memphis tells Risa to get to work preparing the chicken, and Risa exits to the kitchen. Sterling, a young, nicely dressed man, enters the restaurant, having just been released from prison. Memphis calls Risa back to the front, and they banter because the restaurant is low on food that is ready to serve. Sterling complains when Risa offers him beans, since he’s been eating beans ad nauseam for the last five years. He chides them for being a restaurant with no food, and Memphis explains that he has yet to go shopping. Sterling orders a cup of coffee, which Risa pours. Then Sterling recognizes Risa as the once-skinny sister of his old friend Rodney. He asks Risa about her brother, and Risa replies, “He moved to Cleveland. He said he had to get out of Pittsburgh before he kill somebody” (21). Sterling asks for Risa’s number and address, but Risa deflects. Memphis orders Risa to get back to work and make the chicken so she can go and get the pie that West will come by to get. Risa returns to the kitchen.

Sterling says that he saw Wolf at Irv’s, but Sterling has now determined that he needs to avoid going to Irv’s or he might end up back in prison. Sterling tells the men that he needs a job, and they make suggestions. Their first ideas are ones that Sterling has tried, but work is hard to find. He was laid off after a week of working one job, and the second job barred him because he wasn’t in the union. Holloway tells him to seek work at the junkyard, which is usually hiring because the job doesn’t pay well, but Sterling is desperate enough for income that he still agrees to visit the junkyard. Sterling offers to sell one of the men a watch (which he has already attempted unsuccessfully to pawn), claiming that it has 17 jewels inside. The men are uninterested, so Sterling decides to “keep it till it stops ticking” (23). Wolf says goodbye and exits. Sterling comments on the line outside the funeral home, noting that he had considered going through the line multiple times because rubbing Prophet Sam’s head is supposed to be good luck. Holloway tells Sterling to go and see Aunt Ester instead, explaining, “Aunt Ester give you more than money. She make you right with yourself” (24). He gives specific instructions each time he talks about Aunt Ester: Her address is 1839 Wylie, and visitors should knock on the red door.

Hambone pipes up about ham. Holloway explains that Lutz, the white man who owns Lutz’s Meat Market across the street, promised a ham to Hambone nearly 10 years ago in exchange for painting his fence. Lutz gave him a chicken instead, and Hambone has been talking about it ever since. Memphis corrects Holloway and explains that Lutz had offered a chicken or a ham if Hambone did a good job, and Lutz had determined that Hambone had only done a good enough job to earn a chicken; Memphis says this is a lesson to never leave it up to someone else to decide how much to pay you, because they’ll always go with the cheaper option. Sterling wonders if Aunt Ester can help him to find a job. He dreams about opening a nightclub. Holloway insists that she can help with anything. She expects payment but won’t handle money; instead, people are told to throw the money in the river, but somehow Aunt Ester still lives well. She’s 322 years old, which Memphis doubts but Sterling believes. Holloway says, “I go up and see her every once in a while. Get my soul washed” (25), and it doesn’t seem like she does much, but he always feels more at peace afterwards. Holloway swears that West can attest to Aunt Ester’s age, as West has been waiting for years to handle her funeral, and he even offered to bury her for free.

Memphis is skeptical of Aunt Ester, who he has never seen make anyone richer, but Holloway retorts that Aunt Ester doesn’t make people rich—she changes their luck. If someone asks about getting rich, Aunt Ester would have sent them to Prophet Samuel, who, Holloway points out, died at a normal age, unlike Aunt Ester. Holloway explains that Prophet Samuel himself went to Aunt Ester. Before he was a prophet, he was a reverend, preaching out of his truck and occasionally being arrested when he preached in white neighborhoods. However, he got in serious trouble when he was arrested for tax evasion; he visited Aunt Ester, and when he left her house, he was a prophet instead of a pastor. Prophet Samuel insisted that if he was held culpable, then Mellon, the owner of Gulf Oil, must also be arrested and that God would give them a sign. The stock market had then taken a massive drop. Mellon had asked the mayor to exonerate Prophet Samuel—and the market had immediately risen. Mellon donated $500 to Prophet Samuel, and from that moment on, the police wouldn’t touch him. Sterling tells Risa to go ahead and fry the chicken because he’ll eat after he visits Aunt Ester. After Sterling exits eagerly, Memphis says, “That boy ain’t got good sense” (28).

Act I, Scene 2 Summary

There is a new winning lottery number, 229, on the menu board. Memphis and Wolf watch as Hambone approaches Lutz outside, and Holloway stands and watches from the corner. Risa enters from the kitchen and asks what they’re doing. Wolf answers, but Memphis tells Risa to hurry up and get to work. Wolf narrates that Lutz has gone inside and Hambone has followed, but Holloway remains on the street corner. Wolf notes that Lutz should just give Hambone a ham, but Memphis replies, “Lutz ain’t gonna give him no ham… ‘cause he don’t feel he owe him. I wouldn’t give him one either” (29). Wolf insists that it would be a small thing for someone who owns a meat shop. Memphis scolds Risa again, telling her to work more quickly because she needs to go to the bakery to get West’s pie. Wolf tells Memphis that someone tried to rob the funeral home the night before and steal the money and jewelry from Prophet Samuel’s casket, but that the alarm went off and West woke up.

Holloway enters, and Wolf immediately asks him to report on what Hambone said to Lutz. Holloway tells them that Hambone simply asked for his ham, and Lutz told him to take a chicken. Memphis wonders how Hambone can still think that he might get his ham after so many years, and Wolf says, “Anybody can see he ain’t in his right mind” (30). Holloway disagrees, suggesting, “He might be more in his right mind than you are. He might have more sense than any of us” (30). Memphis and Wolf express doubt, but Holloway elaborates that anyone else would have just taken the chicken and moved on, but the chicken wouldn’t have tasted very good because it would make them feel bad for being devalued. Hambone, however, is persisting and going after what he deserves, “‘cause he ain’t willing to accept whatever the white man throw at him” (31). Memphis disagrees and calls this “backward Southern mentality” (31). Memphis explains that he once lived in Jackson, but he had his farm stolen in 1931 by men who killed his mule in the process. He’s fantasized about revenge and has always intended to return and take his land back, adding that he only needs to make his way down to the train depot for the trip: “There are two trains running every day. I used to know the schedule” (31).

Risa enters from the kitchen and announces that she’s going to pick up the pie. After she exits, the men talk about her. Memphis finds her attractive but is unsettled by the way she sliced up her legs and asserts that no man—including himself—would want to be with her after she did that. Holloway claims that he knows her better than Memphis does and that she did it because men started sexualizing her when she was 12. Memphis thinks that a woman who doesn’t want a man has something wrong with her. Wolf argues that he knows her the best and that “all she need is a good man” (32). Holloway replies that no one knows Risa as well as they wish they did. Wolf insists that he does, and that he’s noticed Sterling taking interest in her, but that Sterling certainly doesn’t know her. Wolf changes the subject to the numbers lottery. Memphis makes a dollar bet on 421, and Holloway says that he’s waiting for an auspicious dream before he himself makes a bet.

After Wolf exits, Memphis tells Holloway that he spoke to Hendricks, the employer who had supposedly laid Sterling off; while talking to Hendricks, Memphis discovered that Sterling was the man they’d heard of who had robbed a bank and been caught spending the money immediately after. Additionally, Sterling hadn’t been laid off: He quit. Memphis criticizes Sterling for not wanting to work, but Holloway says that the job is hard labor for low pay, and he understands why he would quit. Holloway asserts that Black people are only trading the same money over and over until someone gives it to a white man. Memphis disagrees and calls Sterling lazy, but Holloway counters that Black people aren’t lazy and worked hard for 300 years without pay, stating, “If it wasn’t for you [Black people] the white man would be poor. Every little bit he got he standing on top of you. That’s why he could reach so high” (34). Holloway argues that people only started calling Black men lazy and not having enough work for them when they started having to pay them. Memphis holds fast to his belief that Sterling is just trying to avoid working.

West enters, and Risa brings him coffee. Memphis asks about Prophet Samuel’s viewing, and West confirms that people are lining up outside and trying to rub the body’s head, even with a partition rope up. However, Prophet Samuel is only wearing the basic jewelry he wore in life, and only has two $100 bills—one in his pocket, and one glued to his hand. Memphis wonders if West will bury the money, and West explains that he’ll bury whatever strange thing someone asks him to bury. West says that people often put strange things in their loved ones’ caskets and are often very particular about it. Once, a woman brought fresh tomatoes but was indecisive and concerned about the specific placement within the coffin. It’s as if, West comments, they don’t understand being dead and that the body won’t know the difference. Still, the family typically comes back to retrieve the money or jewelry before the burial, and they often annoy West throughout the process by constantly reminding him not to bury their valuables.

West asks Memphis about the city’s offer for his building, and he scoffs when Memphis states proudly that he won’t take less than $25,000. West offers $15,000 in cash, promising that the city won’t give him more than twice what he originally paid—but Memphis is stubborn, even when West points out that due to eminent domain, the city will get his building one way or another. After West leaves, Memphis tells Holloway that West’s offer means that the building is definitely worth at least $25,000. Sterling enters carrying fliers, and Holloway immediately asks about his visit to Aunt Ester. Sterling explains that he went to the door and was told that Aunt Ester is sick. Holloway’s faith in her is unshaken, but Sterling is unimpressed and no longer interested in seeing her. Sterling is certain that she isn’t as old as she says, but Holloway is sure that she is.

Sterling offers them all fliers, which are for a rally in honor of Malcolm X’s birthday. Memphis points out that it’s pointless to celebrate a birthday for a man who isn’t having any more birthdays. Holloway talks about hearing Malcolm X speak when he only had 12 people following him. Sterling asks why Holloway hadn’t become his 13th follower, and Memphis interjects that there was nowhere to follow Malcolm X, because it was obvious that he was going to end up dead. Holloway explains that he had found Aunt Ester, so he felt no need to follow anyone else. They all agree that Malcolm X, like Martin Luther King, was murdered for getting too much of a following and becoming like saints, although Memphis reminds them that Malcolm X was killed by Black men. Sterling wishes that he could have followed him. Memphis decries the entire Black Power movement because he believes that freedom requires work and protecting what one has with a shotgun. He thinks that saying “Black is beautiful” is people trying too hard to convince themselves that they aren’t ugly. Hambone enters, repeating his lines about ham, but Memphis is still worked up from his speech and doesn’t want to hear it. He pours out the coffee that Risa gave Hambone and kicks him out, telling him to go and talk to Lutz if he wants to talk about the ham. Hambone leaves. Risa defends him, asserting, “He don’t bother nobody,” but Memphis insists, “He bother me” (42). Angrily, Memphis slams the restaurant’s door.

Act I, Scene 3 Summary

The board has a new number posted. Sterling is eating beans, and he flirts with Risa. They discuss Hambone, with whom Sterling feels like he has a connection and who Risa believes is far more perceptive than people know. Sterling tells Risa about his life: His mother gave him up, and the woman who raised him died, so Sterling ended up in an orphanage. From the age of 18, Sterling took care of himself. He talks openly about going to prison for robbing a bank, adding that he waited until the man who raised him at the orphanage died so he didn’t disappoint him. He asks Risa about her scars, telling her about a boy at the orphanage who killed himself by slicing his wrists, and Sterling was the one to find him. Sterling asks Risa to go with him to the Malcolm X rally, where there might be dancing. Risa states that she’s only willing to dance with the right person, and Sterling admits that he doesn’t know how to dance. He suggests that Risa hang up a flier because it says, “Come one, come all” (45), meaning that everyone is invited. Risa doesn’t want to be around so many people, and Sterling promises that no one is judging her because people don’t tend to pay attention to others. While Sterling spent five years in prison, no one noticed that he was gone.

However, Risa says that she’s more concerned about a riot. Sterling offers to protect her, remembering that as a child, the woman who raised him had taught him to protect his sister over himself, which made him feel significant. Conversation turns to jobs and the numbers. Risa thinks that the game is a waste of money, but Sterling believes that he can strike it rich if he can only come up with a number that has enough meaning and importance. Risa tells him to play 781, because she has seven scars on one leg and eight on the other, but she won’t tell Sterling what the one represents, even when he prods. Sterling promises that when he has $5, he’ll play the number, suggesting that if he wins, they’ll get married. Holloway enters. Sterling asks about the fence around Lutz’s property, and Holloway confirms that it is the fence that Hambone painted years ago. Sterling exclaims that it’s a massive fence—worth far more than one ham—and that even now he could see that Hambone did a good job. Sterling had considered going to Lutz to demand that he give him the ham, but decided that wanting the ham gives Hambone purpose, which is more than Sterling has.

Holloway asks Risa to bring him sugar for his coffee, wondering why Risa doesn’t bring people sugar and makes them ask for it. Circuitously, Risa replies that she’ll bring it to people if they ask, noting that West always asks for it but often doesn’t even use it. Wolf enters with stockings for Risa and some cologne for Memphis. Sterling asks to borrow $2 so he can play the numbers and buy Risa a gift, but Wolf insists that he doesn’t have it, and Holloway tells Sterling to work on getting a job. Sterling complains that he can’t get one of the high-paying jobs that white people get, even though he believes can do anything that a white person can—and even do it better. He had even told the judge that he could do the judge’s job. Holloway states that Sterling sounds like someone who will end up back in the penitentiary, but Sterling disagrees. Sterling and Wolf agree that neither want to have kids in a world that is so messed up, a world that Wolf characterizes as constant wanting. Sterling comments, “If I can’t find no job I might have to find me a gun” (49), and asks the group if they know where he might buy one. Wolf gives him a lead.

Holloway suggests again that Sterling is likely to go back to prison, but Sterling argues that anyone can get picked up and sent to prison. Wolf chimes in, agreeing that most of the Black men he’s met have been to prison at some point. Once, a police officer had been chasing a suspect and had run into Wolf and knocked them both to the ground. The officer had arrested him for obstruction of justice, and Wolf waited in jail for three months before he saw a judge to throw the case out. Still, Wolf says learned to be more careful while walking down the street. Sterling adds, “That’s why I said if I was going I was going for something” (51). Hambone enters, and Sterling greets him. He starts talking about ham, and Sterling urges Risa to give him some food, which she offers. Wolf tells Holloway about a man they know, Bubba Boy, and that his wife died of an overdose the night before. The couple had been inseparable for 15 years. In his grief, Bubba Boy went to an expensive dress store, where dresses cost hundreds of dollars, and tried to walk out with a dress for her to be buried in, so he was arrested and is now in jail.

Wolf tells the others that he’s collecting bail money so Bubba Boy doesn’t have to miss her funeral. He needs to put up $200 of a $2000 bail, and requests that everyone donate a dollar. Sterling asks Holloway for $2, but Holloway doesn’t have it and suggests that Sterling get a job. Risa gives Sterling the money, which Sterling hands to Wolf, designating it as a donation from both himself and Hambone. Sterling suggests that Wolf ask West, but Wolf replies, “West ain’t gonna give a dime” (52). Sterling comments that whoever wins the numbers game ought to put in at least $10, and then Holloway gives Wolf 10¢ to play on a number that came to him in a dream. Wolf leaves, and Sterling starts a conversation with Hambone. Risa tells him not to tease him, but Sterling insists that they have a rapport. Sterling manages to get Hambone to repeat after him and say, “Black is beautiful” (53), and Hambone is proud of himself. Sterling tells him to remember it, and Hambone goes back to talking about ham.

Memphis enters, furious because the city has informed him that his deed includes a clause that allows the city to buy his property at any price they set. They are offering him $15,000 and refuse to go any higher. Memphis raged at the judge, and the judge postponed the proceedings and told him to speak to his lawyer. Memphis’s lawyer is a Black man who was supposed to be a high-powered attorney. His lawyer’s father was the first Black judge in the district and had been extremely tough on Black defendants, once handing out a 500-year sentence. However, the lawyer had glanced at the deed and agreed that the city was correct. Memphis fired him on the spot because he expected his lawyer to figure out a way to fix the situation instead of accepting it. He has called a white lawyer as a replacement. Sterling suggests that he might burn the building down for insurance money, but Memphis explodes at this idea. He doesn’t have insurance because it’s so much more expensive than the worth of the building. Instead, he’s extremely careful, keeping several fire extinguishers in the kitchen and only renting the apartment upstairs to people he trusts. Fire is the only thing that scares Memphis. If the building burns down, Memphis gets nothing.

Memphis tells the group that he feels like he did when his mother died, declaring, “I’m ready to walk through fire” (54). He had received a letter telling him to go and see her, and then he immediately got the telegram that said that she died. Memphis had been distraught and broke, trying to get train fare together to go to her funeral. He had broken down, weeping on the floor. Then he realized that he was feeling relieved: His mother was the last person to whom he felt like he owed something, and with her gone, he felt free. Memphis stood up, went to ask West to lend him $50, and went to the funeral. When he returned, Memphis felt unstoppable, unsure about where he was trying to go but certain that he needed to hurry up and get there quickly. Memphis says that he has the same feeling now, avowing, “They don’t know I got a clause of my own. I’ll get up off the canvas if I have to. They can carry me out feet first… but my clause say… they got to meet my price!” (55).

Act I Analysis

The first act sets up the characters’ lives as a race against the inevitable—namely death, but also loss. Wolf describes his experience of the world as an endless wanting of things that other people already have, and the wanting compounds over time. All of the characters are shaped and defined by their own wanting, whether they want money, property, love, prestige, a clean soul, or even just a ham. None of them seem to believe that they can cheat death. They’ve seen enough to know that death can come at any moment. Throughout the act, they continuously mention offstage characters, people of the community who have died. At the beginning of the play, Prophet Samuel has died, an example of someone who achieved all the things that the characters want but who died anyway. Memphis talks about a man named L. B. who has died recently, and his number has come up twice in the past week in the numbers lottery. Therefore, he’s a sad example of someone who almost got what he wanted, but death took him first. Bubba Boy loses his chance to get rich and buy his wife an excessively expensive dress, so in his grief, he tries to take one from the store so his wife can at least be buried in it.

The only person who has been able to cheat death is Aunt Ester, who Holloway claims is 322 years old. And although the other characters are skeptical of this claim, Aunt Ester has indeed been alive since at least 1904 in the world of the play: Aunt Ester appears in Gem of the Ocean (2003), which is chronologically the first play in Wilson’s Century Cycle. In Gem, she is very old and says that she is 285 years old. The fact that Aunt Ester is still alive in 1969 proves that she has at least lived far beyond a normal human lifespan—but when Sterling tries to visit her, he discovers that she is ill. Although Holloway brushes this off, illness suggests that she is mortal, which means that eventually, like everyone, Aunt Ester will die. West, who looms over the play as the specter and embodiment of death, has been waiting patiently to claim her. West isn’t even interested in being paid for her funeral and has already offered to bury her for free. Aunt Ester is the only person in the play (although she is an offstage character) who does not want money at all. Her life somehow transcends money. She lives for some unknown higher purpose, and the community cares for her.

All of the characters have, in some way, pushed away personal relationships and close connections for the sake of their own wanting. Risa has closed herself off from men who would pursue her. Sterling and Wolf have both rejected having children because they would be beholden to them and responsible for a child’s own wanting and suffering in the world. Holloway has replaced his desire to form personal connections with spirituality and a devotion to Aunt Ester. Hambone is entirely consumed by his wanting for the ham he deserves. Even West has become cold and almost inhuman in his pursuit of money. He is a multi-millionaire who refuses to elicit any enjoyment from his money, or even the practical comforts that he can easily afford such as a home or new shoes. His wife is the last person he cared about, and she is dead. As the protagonist, Memphis encapsulates the misguided wanting in the play. He felt happy and relieved when his mother, the last human who made him feel obligated to have a connection, died. He drove his wife away by buying her things instead of giving her intimacy and appreciation. At the end of Act I, Memphis is determined to demand respectability in exchange for his building. He could easily walk away with $15,000, which is likely more money than he has ever had, but he is determined to be paid the respect that he believes the city would pay a white owner.