A Mercy

by Toni Morrison
Script

When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes,
anybody`s shoes, even on the hottest days. My mother , a minha mae, is frowning.
Minha mae: What are those prettify ways of yours? Only bad women wear high
heels. You`re dangerous and wild.
but she relents and let me wear the throwaway shoes from Senhora` s house,
pointy toe, one raised heel broke, the other worn and buckle on top.
Lina: my feet are useless, will always be too tender for life and never have the
strong soles, tougher than leather, that life requires.
Mistress: Lina is correct. Florens, it`s 1690. Who else these days has the hands of a
slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady?
mistress give me Sir`s boots that fit a man not a girl. They stuff them and tell me to
hide the letter inside my stocking_ no matter the itch of the sealing wax. I am
lettered but I do not read what Mistress writes an Lina an sorrow cannot.
Florens begins her journey!!!
She narrates part of her story, how she got there, how she was offered by
her mother instead of leaving her baby boy to pay a debt their Owner had.
Chapter 2
Jacob Vaark
A great and long introduction of this character
Jacob arrives to Jublio with Regina.
A boy: Water?
Jacob: No, Feed!
boy: yes, sir. Nice lady. Nice lady
Inside the house:
Jacob: grandiose, but easy, easy to build in that climate. Soft southern wood,
creamy stone, no coaking needed, everything designed for breeze, not freeze. Long
hall, probably, parlors, chamberseasy work, easy living, but, Lord, the heat.
Jacob Vaark: Afternoon Sir! Mister Ortega is expecting me.

Old man: Yes sir. Your hat, sir? Senhor D`Ortega is expecting you. Thank you, sir.
This way, sir.
D`Ortega: Well timed! Come, Jacob.
Jacob: Good day, sir. Thank you, sir.
They get into business
D`Ortega: Disaster strucked me. My ship anchored a nautical mile from shore for a
month waiting for a vessel, due any day, to replenish what I lost. A third of my cargo
died of ship fever. Fined five thousand pounds of tobacco by the Lord Proprietary`s
magistrate for throwing their bodies too close to the bay, force to scope up the
corpses.