Chaos Surrounding

VI. A Light Supper

EXT. ALLEY - 1961

Energy crackled and wind whooshed.

Allison gasped. She panted and stood. She gasped and panted softly.

She left the alley and walked towards Stadler's and entered. She looked around, but didn't see a familiar face and exited.

As she stood on the sidewalk, an old police siren wailed in the distance.

Allison walked along the sidewalk.

"What do we got here?" man one asked.

"You lost?" man two questioned.

Man one stopped her. "You're a pretty thing." Allison walked past him. "Hey, girl! Hey, girl!"

"You're in the wrong part of town," man two told her as they followed her. "Hey, girl! We're talking to you!"

Allison attacked the second man and he grunted. She started running and man one said, "Hey, get back here!"

She panted as she ran.

The men chased her, jeering at her and saying they were gonna get her.

Allison ran into a beauty parlor and tried speaking, but gasped instead.

Odessa stepped in front of Allison, holding a pair of scissors in front of the white men who'd just entered. "You boys must be lost. I suggest you find a barber shop in Oak Lawn. The specialize in your kind of hair."

The men left and Odessa quickly shut the door.

Odessa made her way back to Allison as she sobbed quietly.

"Okay, come on, girl," Odessa said. "Let's sit you down."

"Yeah," woman two said as they sat her down. "Poor thing."

"That's right, take it easy," woman three told her.

Won't Be Long by Aretha Franklin played and scissors snipped.

Allison emptied the trash as a woman said, "Her husband chased him five blocks down Patterson, blitzed out of his mind, in his drawers." she laughed.

"You're jiving me," woman two told her.

"Allison, am I lying?"

"Don't pull her into your mess," Odessa said. "You know the girl can't speak."

Woman one snorted and scoffed.

The beauty parlor was crowded with black folk.

Ray walked into the beauty parlor. "Sorry I'm late. Good to see everybody. Hey!" he chuckled and pulled papers from his bag. "All right, so I have been getting a lot of questions from the young folk asking me about why... why is it that the S.J.C.C. chooses to be nonviolent." Allison glanced at him. "And they'll say to me things like, "Ray, these people are killing us. So why don't we just fight back?" And I understand their sentiment. Believe me, I understand it. 'Cause I was there once myself. Now go ahead and take a look at that." He noticed Allison staring.

The chatter resumed.

Allison began leaving and a man said, "Excuse me? In case you wanted to get involved, sister." He offered her a flyer.

She took it, glanced at Ray, and left.

Christmas had arrived.

Allison was handed a gift. The person said, "Here you are, darlin'."