Free Riot by Walter Dean Myers Page A

and said that I would have to consult the new owners.
I asked him if he didn’t mean the new white owners, even though they made an offer that was less than ours? He said he had an obligation to the community. Then he looked away. Just looked away.
    SLOW DISSOLVE
    INT. NASSAU HALL LIBRARY, PRINCETON
    ROBERT VAN VORST sits at a desk, talking to two older STUDENTS who stand near him. After a brief conversation, the two leave and ROBERT picks up his pen and begins writing.
ROBERT
    (voice-over)
Dear Claire,
Well, I’m firmly ensconced (a new word) at Princeton now. I haven’t made any real friends, and it’s quite strange to be only in the company of boys all the time. We are not supposed to talk about the war, but that is really all that we talk about when someone is not arguing about religion, which is also a less than temperate topic here. Some of the Southern boys have actually brought their Negroes with them as servants. Living in New Jersey, they have to be free, of course, but I sense a kind of understanding that makes them somewhat less than completely free.
Oh, how I miss our running down to the docks and watching the ships come in. We study geography and learn of many of the places from where the ships sail, but I believe it more fun to imagine the places than to be burdened with actual knowledge.
I also miss your laughing. It always seemed that you laughed a lot, and that made me feel good even on the gloomiest of days.
Father writes me dutifully once every two weeks, giving me parental advice.Sometimes the other boys compare their letters from home, and it is amazing how similar they all are. He tells me that the best guess is that the South will lose the war and that will make an end to slavery. I hope that is true because the words of the founding fathers—did you know they sometimes met at Princeton?—did promote freedom for all peoples.
I wrote to Priscilla in Connecticut but have received no reply. It has never occurred to me before to ask if she can read. Some of the Southern men say that Negroes (they never actually use that term unless we are in class) are gifted storytellers and only pretend to be reading.
If she visits New York and you see her, you will have to give her my regards and let me know how she is doing.
Love to your family,
Robert Van Vorst
    EXT. A HOUSE IN MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
    Two middle-aged WHITE WOMEN are talking by awhite picket fence. A YOUNG BLACK WOMAN walks down the path, smiles, and nods toward the WHITE WOMEN before entering the house.
FIRST WHITE WOMAN
They are such lovely people.
SECOND WHITE WOMAN
You would hardly know they were Negroes. Of course, you can see them. I mean, they don’t act like Negroes, do they?
    INT. A SMALL ROOM IN THE HOUSE—SAME DAY (CONTINUOUS)
    We see a figure sitting at a small table in front of the window. From her POV we see the WHITE WOMEN still talking at the picket fence. The camera moves so that we see the face of PRISCILLA as she picks up a pen and begins to write. The camera is focused sometimes on the paper before her and sometimes on the view from the window.
PRISCILLA
    (voice-over)
Dear Claire,
We are settled now here in Middletown. Mother is still very much upset in a noisy sort of way but I fear most for Father. He isso quiet. At night he often sits by himself in the parlor. There’s no talking to him, for he only answers in grunts. I think I know what he is feeling. The business that we worked so hard to build in New York was torn down so quickly during the riots.
Claire, I miss you so much. I want to run all the way to New York and throw my arms around you the way we used to do. Did you read in the papers about how our colored soldiers are doing? I knew that after the wonderful showing of the 54th Massachusetts in South Carolina, they would all do well. A woman down the street knew the family of Colonel Shaw, who was killed with the 54th. All the papers speak of how brave our soldiers have been and what a difference they are making