Ma Tom, there's a whole lot I don't understand. But goin' away ain't gonna ease us. There was a time we was on the land. There was a boundary to us then. Old folks died off and little fellars come. We was always one thing. We was the family. Kind of whole and clear. But now we ain't clear no more. There ain't nothin' that keeps us clear. Al - he's a-hankerin' to be off on his own and Uncle John's just draggin' around. Your Pa's lost his place, he ain't the head no more. We're crackin' up, Tom. We ain't no family now. And Rosesharn - she's gonna have her baby, but it won't have no family. I've been a-tryin' to keep her goin' but [she sighs]...and Winfield, what's he gonna be this a-way? Grown up wild, and Ruthie too! Just like animals. Got nothin' to trust. [Tearfully] Don't go, Tom. Stay and help! Help me!
A Al
Ain't you gonna look back, Ma? Give the ol' place a last look?
Ma We're going' to California, ain't we? All right then let's go to California.
A Al
That don't sound like you, Ma. You never was like that before.
Ma I never had my house pushed over before. Never had my family stuck out on the road. Never had to lose everything I had in life.
Ma, there comes a time when a man gets mad.
Ma You told me, you promised me...
I know, Ma, I'm tryin' to. If there was a law they was workin' with, maybe we could take it but it ain't the law. They're workin' away on our spirits, tryin' to make us cringe and crawl, workin' on our decency.
Ma You promised Tom.
I know, I'm a-tryin' to, Ma...
Ma You gotta keep clear. The family's a-breakin' up. You gotta keep clear.
Ma Tommy, ain't ya gonna tell me goodbye?
I didn't know, Ma. I didn't know if I ought to...Come outside. There was some cops here tonight. They was takin' down license numbers. I guess somebody knows somethin'.
Ma I guess it had to come, sooner or later. Sit down for a minute.
I'd like to stay, Ma. I'd like to be with ya and see your face when Pa gets settled in some nice place. I'd sure like to see ya then. But I won't never get that chance, I guess, now.
Ma I would hide ya, Tommy.
I know you would, Ma, but I ain't gonna let ya. Ya hide somebody that's killed a guy and you're in trouble too.
Ma All right, Tommy, but what do ya figur you're gonna do?
You know what I've been thinkin' about? About Casy, about what he said, about what he done, about how he died. I remember all of it.
Ma He was a good man.
I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled...
Ma Oh, Tommy, they'd drag you out and cut you down just like they done to Casy.
They'd drag me anyways. Sooner or later they'd get me for one thing if not for another. Until then...
Ma Tommy, you're not aimin' to kill nobody?
No, Ma, not that. That ain't it. It's just, well as long as I'm an outlaw anyways... maybe I can do somethin'... maybe I can just find out somethin', just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that's wrong and see if they ain't somethin' that can be done about it. I ain't thought it out all clear, Ma. I can't. I don't know enough.
Ma How am I gonna know about ya, Tommy? Why they could kill ya and I'd never know. They could hurt ya. How am I gonna know?
Well, maybe it's like Casy says. A fellow ain't got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then...
Ma Then what, Tom?
Then it don't matter. I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be ever'-where - wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad - I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.
Ma I don't understand it, Tom.
Me, neither, Ma, but just somethin' I been thinkin' about.
Ma Scared, ha! I ain't never gonna be scared no more. I was though, for a while it looked as though we was beat, good and beat. Looked like we didn't have nobody in the whole wide world but enemies. Like nobody was friendly no more. Made me feel kind of bad, and scared too. Like we was lost and nobody cared.
P Pa
You're the one that keeps us goin', Ma. I ain't no good no more, and I know it. Seems like I spend all my time these days thinkin' how it used to be. Thinkin' of home. I ain't never gonna see it no more.
Ma Well, Pa. A woman can change better'n a man. A man lives, sorta, well, in jerks. Baby's born and somebody dies, and that's a jerk. He gets a farm or loses it, and that's a jerk. With a woman, it's all in one flow like a stream. Little eddies and waterfalls, but the river it goes right on. A woman looks at it that way.
P Pa
Well, maybe, but we sure taken a beatin'.
Ma I know. That's what makes us tough. Rich fellas come up an' they die an' their kids ain't no good, an' they die out. But we keep a-comin'. We're the people that live. They can't wipe us out. They can't lick us. And we'll go on forever, Pa... 'cause... we're the people.
