Richard Wright and Eudora Welty

Rw: Germany and Argentina are playing on Friday.
Ew: Germany's going to win that one.
Rw: Are you getting up? Will you get me a beer?
Ew: I'm not getting up.
Rw: Are you mad for some reason?
Ew: No.
Rw: ...
Ew: Hey, here's that kid coming up the steps.

Knock Knock

Rw: I'll get it. (opens door) Hey, man. How's it goin?
Jay: Hey, are yall watching the World Cup?
Rw: Yeah, come on in.
JL: Cool. (Lugs wheeled cooler behind him toward kitchen).
Ew: Hey how many of those do you have? Give me one.

(Jay gives Miller Light to Eudora, puts cooler in kitchen, then joins the other two in front of the tv.)

Rw: Brazil is unbeatable. Ronaldo is unbeatable. Just watch the way he moves.
Ew: Yeah, but they're playing Ghana.
JL: You got plans for the fourth?

Knock Knock

(Richard gets up and looks behind the curtain)

Rw: It's Frank Melton.

(Jay hides his beer)

Ew: Don't do that, don't do that. We are watching the World Cup in my home and there is nothing wrong with having a beer. Richard, let him in. (Richard lets him in)
FM: Hi Richard, hi Jay, Miss Welty.
Ew: Well hey Frank.
FM: Hi Miss Welty. Are you watching the World Cup?
Ew: Yes, come on in. Have a seat.

(Jay shakes his head at Eudora)

FM: I don't have cable so I can't get it. (Sits down) Brazil will win this one for sure. Brazzilliamundo.
Rw: Hey Frank, watch Ronaldo. He puts this spin on it and it bends it.
FM: Ronaldo is a smalldo. Hey Miss Welty, you got a kangaroo in your yard!
Ew: What? A kangaroo!

(Jay shakes his head again at Eudora)

Ew: Oh. Well. That's good Frank. We like kangaroos.
FM: Kangarootetoos. Hey did you hear there were 82 arrests on the Bogue Chitto?
JL: So, what are you doing on the fourth? Who's having a cookout? Eudora, lets have it at your house this year.

(Tires screech outside, footsteps, the door is thrown open, a large man yells)

FRANK!

(Frank jumps up, does a karate chop, runs out the door, tires screech again, Jay downs his beer)

JL: Whew.
Ew: I think that's a good idea Jay. We'll have the fourth over here.

The three have drinks and talk and watch Brazil v. Ghana for a while. Then, after about thirty minutes, a voice comes from the window, and there is a shadow behind the curtain.

Voice: Heeeyyyyy Eee Dubya. Heeeyyyyy Eee Dubya.

(Richard pulls back the curtain and there is a stuffed kangaroo sticking up over the windowsill)

Voice: Heeeyyyyy Eee Dubya.

(the kangaroo hops down the windowsill and you can see the hand holding it)

JL: Ignore it. Richard. Just ignore him. He'll go away.
Rw: Frank! We know it's you Frank.
Voice: Heeeyyyyy Eee Dubya. I'm a kangaroo. I'm a kangaroo in your yard.

(the kangaroo continues to hop, but Richard lets the curtain fall back.)

Ew: What are we going to do about him?

History of the Mississippi State Fair

The fair has a long and relatively unknown origin here in our state. In 1859, ten years after the gold rush and two years before the civil war, our then governor Ed Wesley Jenkins decided his re-election campaign needed a boost. He sent telegrams to all neighboring states asking if they would send their worst toothless criminals to Jackson to be put on "display". The neighboring states gladly complied. Our governor then had barred cages constructed after the sort he had seen on plantations and in "zoos". He lined the field under the Capitol with two rows of twenty cages, and put a criminal in each cage with his crime listed on a sign by the cage. Jenkins sent word to churches all around his state: come bring your congregations and let them see how Satan can verily corrupt the souls of the unrepentant. People came in droves. The gov. gave a loud speech warning that the end was at hand and only a strong stick could weed from our garden the sinners you see here. That stick was he, Ed Wesley Jenkins. Vendors sold rotten vegetables to throw at the criminals. Tickets were sold to see who could hit the criminal on the head with a baseball. It was such a success that it became a tradition with the same convicts coming back year after year. They developed followings. "I wanna see Johnny Lee Mathers the rapist!", little Robbie would exclaim. Eventually the cages turned into chains, eventually the chains turned into ropes, ropes to a roped off area, then the roped off area to merely a guard standing watch. "Let's put them to work!" commanded the next governor Eugene Collins Summer, and it is from this genepool that we get the delightful drunks in our bars come October.