Page:Plunder (Perlman).djvu/51

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45

EDWARD

They'd have gotten him to sue us for all we had and had us in court for years!

CECIL

Right after the accident the Executive Director ran to the woman's house to make out the contract with her husband; he found out there were three children there. The older boy and, besides him, two babies. One was colored and the other one white.

EDWARD

They'd have liked to break into the plant and tear us to pieces!

CECIL

She hadn't listed the white one on the application, can you imagine that? The older boy had some kind of a problem, as I remember--a complex of some sort. The accident report said the woman committed suicide, but the kid just kept on insisting the report was a lie, as if he knew something that wasn't in the report.

EDWARD

That's what I was preventing!

PRETORIA

(To Edward)

Animal! Lying animal! I called you brother. No! Harold, it isn't true! Mother couldn't have died like that. Father and Indio sent her into the factory because they couldn't work. But she wouldn't stand for it! She worked hard enough taking care of them--she didn't want to support all of them! She had enough! Harold, tell them my mother killed herself.

HAROLD

Pretoria! In heaven's name stop that bawling! I should think you'd be relieved to know your mother didn't commit suicide but died in an accident.