- Stage directions tell us that it's two weeks later on a Friday.
- Cory starts out of the house, carrying his football equipment.
- The phone rings and Cory answers.
- It's a guy named Jesse who wants to borrow Cory's spikes (football shoes).
- Cory tells his friend that his old spikes aren't any good.
- Rose yells to Cory, telling him to clean up his room.
- Cory yells back that he has to go to the game.
- He says he'll clean his room when he gets back, then runs off.
- Rose worries about what Troy will say if he sees Cory's messy room.
- Troy and Bono enter.
- Stage directions tell us that Troy is wearing something other than his work uniform.
- Apparently he was called down to the Commissioner's office because of his complaint.
- Bono observes that Troy ran down to Taylors' to tell Alberta about it.
- Troy says he just went down there to cash his check.
- His friend seems unconvinced.
- Troy yells for his wife. She tells him not to holler at her like that.
- Troy says a woman is supposed to come when she's called.
- Rose replies that she doesn't have to come like a dog.
- Her husband says he used to have a dog named Blue, who never came when called.
- He starts to sing a little ditty about Blue.
- Rose tells him that nobody wants to hear him sing.
- She recalls that Cory used to sing the song when he was little.
- Troy says his daddy used to sing the song.
- Rose tells him she still doesn't want to hear it.
- She says things must have gone well at the Commissioner's office, or else Troy wouldn't be in such a good mood.
- Troy proudly announces that they've made him a driver.
- Rose seems happy for him.
- Lyons enters.
- Troy acts like he isn't happy to see his son.
- He says that he thought Lyons would be in jail, since a place where Lyons plays music got raided by the police.
- Lyons says he was just playing music, not gambling.
- Rose tells Lyons he should have brought his lady friend Bonnie over.
- He says he was just in the neighborhood.
- Troy predicts that Lyons is about to ask him for money.
- Rose tells Lyons about Troy's promotion. Troy is going to be the first black driver.
- Bono points out that Troy doesn't have a driver's license.
- Troy doesn't seem to be bothered by this; by the time his boss, Mr. Rand, finds that out, he'll have one.
- Lyons tries to pay Troy back the ten dollars he borrowed.
- Troy stubbornly refuses to take the money, saying that Lyons should keep it for the next time he wants to borrow money.
- Lyons gives the money to Rose.
- Gabriel enters, singing about Judgment Day.
- He gives a rose to Rose.
- Proudly, he tells them that he's spent the day chasing hell hounds.
- He's trying to make sure that everything is ready for the Battle of Armageddon.
- Rose offers everybody some food.
- Gabe says he wants a sandwich.
- Lyons says he doesn't want to eat before he goes to play music tonight.
- He invites Troy to come listen.
- Troy says he doesn't like the kind of music Lyons plays.
- Gabriel tells Lyons that Troy is mad at him.
- Lyons asks what that's all about.
- Rose replies that Gabe thinks Troy is mad because Gabe moved to Ms. Pearl's.
- Troy says he's not mad at all, but implies that it sucks that Gabe is no longer around to help with rent.
- Rose says she doesn't want to hear about it anymore.
- Gabe asks if he can have the sandwich now.
- As Rose exits, she tells her husband he should sign the paper to let Cory play football.
- Troy is determined not to sign.
- He says Cory has been lying to him; he hasn't kept his job at the A&P at all – not even on the weekends.
- Troy says that once a boy is old enough to disobey his father, it's time to move on.
- Bono says he never got a chance to disobey his father because he never knew the man.
- Troy wishes he had never known his father, because he was selfish and mean.
- He says all his father lived for was the cotton crop.
- Even though his father was hard on him, Troy recognizes that the man felt a duty to his family. He thinks his father probably felt trapped by this sense of duty.
- Even so, says Troy, his daddy was straight-up evil. The man was so bad that Troy's mother left when he was a little boy and never came back.
- Troy talks about the day he left home. He was 14 and had started to take an interest in Joe Canewell's daughter.
- His daddy had told him to go plow a field with a mule named Greyboy.
- Instead, Troy tied up the mule and went to make out with Joe Canewell's daughter by a stream.
- Greyboy got loose and wandered back to the house, so Troy's father came looking for him.
- He found Troy and the girl by the stream.
- Troy's father started whipping him with the leather straps from the mule.
- At first Troy thought his daddy was just mad at him for not doing his work.
- He was about to run off when he realized that his father just wanted the girl for himself.
- Troy lost all fear of his daddy when he figured that out.
- He picked up the same strap his father had just beat him with and started whipping on him.
- The girl ran away.
- Troy's daddy beat him senseless after that.
- When Troy woke up, his eyes were swollen shut.
- The dog named Blue was licking his face.
- Troy says this was the moment he realized he had to leave his father's house.
- Gabriel enters, eating a ham sandwich.
- Troy says he walked all the way from the creek bed to Mobile, two hundred miles away.
- Rose calls from the house saying that Bonnie called for Lyons, wanting him to pick her up.
- Troy talks about how he walked from Mobile to the city they now live in, looking for work. (Note: The play is set in Pittsburgh, though none of the characters ever says so specifically.)
- When Troy got to Pittsburgh, he couldn't find a job.
- He lived on the riverbank in a shack made of tar paper and sticks.
- There were a lot of other black people living there as well.
- Troy started stealing to survive. At first he just stole food, but then he started stealing money as well.
- During that time he met Lyons's mother.
- Before too long, Lyons came into the world.
- Troy recognizes that it was a bad idea to have a kid when he could barely feed himself.
- One day he tried to rob a man. The man shot Troy in the chest and Troy killed him with a knife.
- Troy ended up spending fifteen years in prison.
- This is where he met Bono and learned to play baseball.
- Troy says prison totally cured him wanting to rob people.
- He met Rose after he got out.
- Troy says he told Rose that the only two things he cared about were her and baseball.
- He says he told her that baseball was the important thing, but that if she stuck around eventually it would be her.
- Rose calls him out, saying that he told her she was the most important thing.
- Lyons says he has to go.
- He asks Troy to come watch him play that evening.
- Troy makes a bunch of excuses.
- Lyons exits.
- Troy asks Rose what's for dinner.
- He makes some sexually suggestive remarks.
- Rose tells him not to talk like that.
- Bono exits, saying he's got to get home to his wife.
- Cory enters. He seems really pissed off.
- The boy throws his football helmet in Troy's direction.
- It seems that Troy told Cory's coach that Cory couldn't play football anymore.
- Troy also told the coach to tell the college recruiter not to come.
- Rose tells Troy that he ought to let Cory play football.
- Troy accuses Cory of lying to him – he hasn't kept up with his chores, and he hasn't kept his job at the A&P.
- Cory tells Troy that he never listens; he says that his boss, Mr. Stawicki, is holding his job for him until after the season.
- Cory accuses his father of purposely holding him back out of jealousy.
- Troy tells his son that now he's got one strike.
- He warns the boy not to strike out.