THE STORIES: The Past is the Past. The scene is a pool hall, where Earl Davis, a man in his mid-forties, plays a solitary game. He is joined by Eddie Green, a young college student, who watches the older man in silence, and then challenges him to a game. Their conversation, casual at first, soon makes it clear that these two men, who have never met before, do, in fact recognize each other; are, in truth, father and son. In the end, this truth is conceded—but so is the fact that the years of neglect that separate them are too great a gulf to be bridged, and the past must, indeed, remain the past. (2 men.)
Gettin' It Together. The action begins in a Newark park, where Nate and Coretta, the mother of his child, have been picnicking. A mood of bitterness has been generated by Coretta's suspicion that Nate has been seeing another woman, a mood that is not dispelled when, later at her apartment, she tries to entice Nate into staying the night. She is convinced he no longer loves her, while Nate, who wants security and some measure of success before committing himself to marriage, tries to make her understand his position. In the end, a kind of truce is reached, but one as uncertain, and conditional, as the life that circumstance has forced on them. (1 man, 1 woman.)
