Beloved

- Buglar, make it stop! - I can't! I can't!

- Please! - Mama!

Make it stop, please!

Mama, help me!

Here, Boy!

- Oh, Grandma Baby. - Mmm-mm.

Shh!

- We're gonna need some food. Wait here. - Okay.

Good boy, here Boy.

Howard, come on!

- Come on. - Howard, Buglar!

Where you goin'?

- Bye, Denver. - Bye?

We gotta go!

Buglar, come on.

- No! Buge! - Go ahead.

Howard!

Now what'd you go and do that for?

Mama.

Watch out there, Here Boy.

Paul?

Paul D?

Is that you?

What's left.

How you been, girl? Besides barefoot.

Messed up my legs back yonder.

Chamomile.

I don't even wanna hear about it.

I always did hate that stuff.

You're lookin' good.

Devil's confusion, Sethe.

He lets me look good as long as I feel bad.

How long has it been?

Eighteen years.

Eighteen years?

I swear, I've been walkin' every one of 'em.

- Mind if I join you? - You wanna soak 'em? Let me get you some water.

No. Can't baby feet.

They's got a whole lot more tramplin' to do.

You ain't leavin' right away. You stay awhile.

Ah, well, long enough to see Baby Suggs...

and you.

Where is she?

Dead.

Oh, no.

- When? - Eight years ago now.

Almost nine.

Was it hard? I hope she didn't die hard.

Soft as cream.

Bein' alive was the hard part.

Sorry you missed her, though.

Is that what you came by for?

That's some of what I came for.

Rest is you.

Truth be known...

these days I go anywhere they let me sit down.

I wouldn't have to ask you about him, would I?

You'd tell me if there was anything to tell, wouldn't you?

I'd tell you. You know I would.

So you don't know nothin' either.

Halle, Halle.

We got spare rooms.

Could stay the night if you had the mind to.

You don't sound too steady in the offer.

Oh, it's truly meant.

It's just that I hope you'll pardon my house.

"My house."

I like the sound of that.

Come on in.

Come on in.

Good God, girl. What kind of evil you got in there?

It ain't evil. Just sad. Come on.

Step on through.

I-I thought you said she died soft.

That's not Baby Suggs.

- Who then? - My daughter.

- The one I sent ahead with the boys before I run off. - She didn't live?

- No. - Boys too?

No, they alive, I pray.

They run off just before Baby Suggs went and died.

Probably best. Ahh!

Negro boy got legs, he ought to use 'em.

Sit around too long, somebody'll figure out a way to tie 'em up.

Ahh!

- By yourself then? - No.

Got the girl I was carryin' when I left Sweet Home.

You had that baby, did you? Damn, I didn't think you'd make it.

Runnin' off pregnant, all by yourself too.

Denver!

Come here, baby.

I want you to meet somebody.

Paul D, this here is my Denver.

Uh, mornin', Miss Denver. It's a pleasure.

Mornin', Mr. D.

Uh, Garner, baby. Paul D Garner.

- Yes, sir. - Glad to get a look at you.

She a fine-lookin' young lady, Sethe.

Yeah. Got her daddy's sweet face.

You know my daddy?

Of course he know your daddy. He from Sweet Home.

Yeah.

Sweet Home.

How come everybody who run off from Sweet Home can't stop talkin' about it?

It looks like if it was so sweet, you wouldn't run away.

Girl, who you think you talkin' to?

True, true. She-She right, Sethe.

It wasn't sweet, and it sure wasn't home.

But it's where we were, all together.

Come back whether we wanted to or not.

We have a ghost here, you know?

We met.

Denver, heat up that stove.

Can't have a friend stop by and don't feed him.

Oh, don't go to no trouble on my account.

Bread ain't no trouble.

The rest I bring back from where I work.

Least I can do workin' dawn to noon is bring home supper.

Got any objections to pike?

If he don't object to me, I don't object to him.

Why don't you spend the night, Mr. Garner?

That way, two of you can talk about Sweet Home all night long.

Denver, what is the matter with you?

I never known you to behave this way.

Mama, I can't no more.

I can't no more.

You can't what? What can't you?

Can't live here.

I don't know where I'm gonna go or what I'm gonna do...

but I can't stay here!

Nobody speaks to us, nobody comes by...

nobody even knows I'm alive.

Oh, Denver.

Come here, baby.

- It's all right. - Sethe.

I'm a grown man...

with nothin' new left to see or do...

but I tell you it can't be easy...

a young girl livin' in a haunted place.

Maybe you ought to move.

No.

No movin'. No leavin'.

It's all right the way it is. It's all right.

You wanna tell me it's all right, Sethe...

and that child's half outta her mind.

Hush, I say!

I got a tree on my back...

and a haint in my house...

and nothin' in between but the daughter I'm holdin' in my arms.

No leavin'. No runnin' from nothin'.

You hear me?

I will never run from another thing on this Earth.

Come on.

You can sit down and eat...

Or you can leave us be.

Lord.

What tree, Sethe?

Huh?

I don't see nothin' growin' on your back.

It's there all the same.

Chokecherry tree.

Leaves, branches.

That was 18 years ago.

- Happened that night. - That night?

- Tree could have cherries by now for all I know.

I ain't followin' you, Sethe.

I had milk, Paul D.

I had milk, see?

I was pregnant with Denver...

but I hadn't stopped nursin' my baby girl...

before I sent her and the boys off.

All I knew was, I had to get milk to my baby girl.

I thought we was talkin' about a tree.

We was all supposed to meet in the cornfield. None of you came.

I had to leave my children, go back lookin' for Halle.

That's when I saw you in the shed.

Sixo dead. Schoolteacher done gone and burnt him.

Paul A too. They hang him from a tree.

Said you were gonna run no matter what.

I didn't think you would make it to the gate.

- I went back in the barn to look for Halle. - Animal.

That's when Schoolteacher saw me.

What's it taste like?

Came in there with his boys after me.

You've got animal characteristics.

Them boys took my milk.

That's my baby's food!

That's what they come in there for.

Hold me down, take it.

I told Miss Garner on 'em.

They're lyin', the animals!

She had that lump on her neck and couldn't speak.

But her eyes rolled out tears, I remember.

Them boys found out I told on 'em.

You're horrible and beaten up!

You're horrible and beaten up!

Schoolteacher had one of 'em whoopin' up my back.

And when they closed...

it left a tree.

They used cowhide on you.

And they took my milk.