Dessi Blue
June, 1939 – THE FRENCH RIVIERA – HOTEL DU CAP
EXTERIOR – BEACH – DAY
The shore is crowded with people sunbathing and swimming. Dessi and Cal lounge on the sand beneath a large umbrella, both in swimwear typical of the 1930s. Sheet music is spread on the blanket between them, along with a basket of fruit, cheese and wine.
DESSI
Why you gotta write all these sad songs, Cal?
CAL (LAUGHING)
Now you know you lying. Look at this one. It’s happy.
Cal offersher a sheet of music and Dessi rolls her eyes.
DESSI
Gon’ have them poor folks tonight crying in their champagne. This hotel is mighty fine. I’m glad we’re here for a little while.
CAL
We’re lucky. The Hot Club, those students from Paris, want to promote Negro jazz. The band seems to love it here, too, so far.
DESSI (LAUGHING AND HOLDING UP ANOTHER PIECE OF SHEET MUSIC)
The band gon’ get as tired of playing these sad old songs as I am singing ’em. Like this one. “Walk Away?” What made you want to write a song this sad?
CAL (SOBERING)
“Walk Away” is about a girl who finds somebody else to love. She tells the boy to just walk away or she will.
DESSI (WATCHING CAL’S EXPRESSION)
And was that boy you?
CAL
I don’t want to talk about it, Dess. You’re right. We need to sing some happy songs for the people tonight. We’re in France on a beach and got nothing to be sad about. Look at all these white folks. Back home, they wouldn’t be caught dead on the beach with us. I wish every Negro could come here. Could see how it feels to be treated like you a human being.
DESSI
You still writing that travel column for The Chicago Defender?
CAL
Yes, I am, and the people back home love hearing about what we up to here traveling all over Europe.
DESSI
Galivanting is what Mama would call it. Galivanting all over Europe. It was reading The Defender that made Daddy want to move to New York. That and our cousins having to buy their own farm three times. Not to mention the lynching.
CAL
They got war brewing here in Europe. We got war at home right there in the South, and who’s fighting for us? In my last column I wrote that the only discrimination I’ve experienced here has been from Americans.
DESSI