E: I have a feeling we're in the same boat Marshall. You owe a lot?
Marshall Johnson: This woman-- she... follows me everywhere, won't leave me alone.
[waitress brings his drink]
Marshall Johnson: Thanks.
Hotel Employee: You're welcome.
Marshall Johnson: Just... can't believe this is actually happening. Two days ago, I had a good life, and now I'm being fucked by some shit that I didn't even do. I'm losing my wife, my house, my daughter.
E: I don't know.
Marshall Johnson: Didn't fucking do anything.
E: [moves closer to Marshall, speaks quietly] As I was sayin', I don't know.
Marshall Johnson: What?
E: I don't know. My grandfather used to tell me how his father built everything we had from the ground up; pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, you know? Turns out, he didn't. Turns out he had a lot of help. And a lot of kids.
[laughs softly]
E: Maybe it's only right.
Marshall Johnson: E, we don't deserve this.
E: Well, what do they deserve? We were treating slavery as if it were a mystery, buried in the past, something to investigate if we chose to. And now that history has a monetary value. Confession is not absolution. And in the case of this person... What's her name?
Marshall Johnson: Sheniqua.
E: To Sheniqua, to them... slavery is not past. I mean, it's not a mystery. It is not an historical curiosity. It is a cruel, unavoidable ghost that haunts in a way we can't see. None of us are perfect. So now you're what? You're separated from your wife? She's taking your kid? Now she has to be raised without a father? She has to build wealth and success from the ground up, right? It's similar to the position we put them in. But we're gonna be okay. You daughter's gonna be okay. The curse has been lifted from her. All of us-- we were running from it, but now we're free.
[taps Marshall's leg]
E: Excuse me.
[stands and leaves]
