Victoria Lewis-Davis 6th Period Final Draft

A Friendship's End


Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes used to be very goods friends. Their friendship ended though in 1930 because of a play they were suppose to write together. I was there when it happened. Let me tell you how it all started.

It was Friday evening and the Cotton Club packed as it always is on a Friday night. Ella Fitzgerald was performing that night. Zora and I had just entered the club. Langston had been waiting for her arrival, he didn’t know I was coming. When saw her he rushed over to her, so he could greet her, and showed her to the table. He seemed to not even notice me. I just sat at a table near by. I close enough to hear every word. “Zora, I’m so glad you could make it,” he said as they sat down. “Yeah, but I can’t stay to long. What is it you needed to ask me,” she replied. “Well I was wondering if you’d like to write a play with me.” “Of course I’d love to. Let’s get together at your house Monday to talk about the details,” Zora said. “Sure, at six o’clock,” Langston cheerfully. “Yeah, see ya soon,” Zora said as she began to walk away. Langston sat there and watched as she walked off. Then I followed her out.

Monday seemed to come rather quickly. Zora decided she wanted me to come along with her again, to help out. I wasn’t one to say no to a friend, so me and her went to his house. She knew he wouldn’t mind. Zora knocked on the door and he opened it with a huge smile on his face. “Come on in. Ya’ll right on time,” he said as he showed us in. “You must be Gladys? I’ve heard so much about you,” he asked as he gave me a hug as though we was family. “Sit.” We sat down started to talk about ideas. Every idea that we came up with, someone didn’t like it. We just sat there for hours shooting each other’s ideas down. Finally, we decided to call it a quits for that day, and reschedule. This time it was at Zora’s house on Saturday.

When Saturday arrived, Langston was two hours late. When he came he hand a piece of paper to Zora. Zora asked, “What is this?” “It’s the plot for the story,” he said as though he was in a hurry. Then she said, “While ain’t you gonna stay and help with the rest?” “What more help do you need?” “What you mean? All this is, is the setting and conflict. I’m gonna need help with the characters, resolution, and details,” she replied. “You got Gladys,” he said and walked off. When she came back, she looked pissed. I asked, “What happened?” “He gave me a piece of paper and left,” she replied. “What you mean?” “It has an idea for the setting and conflict,” she replied. “This is tons of help,” she mumbled under her breath, and she said some other words, that I ain’t gonna mention. We then started on the rest. Personally, I believed that it helped.

For the next few days, me and Zora tried reaching Langston, but had no luck. We decided to just write it ourselves. I asked as we were finishing the story up, “Are you gonna give Langston credit?” “NO! Why would I do that, he barely does any of the work,” she yells. I have never seen her so upset before. So I just decided to shut up, before she started to get upset with me. I had a feeling that something bad was gonna happen, and I was right. I was glad it wasn’t something too bad.

About a week after we finished I bumped into Langston. “Hey, how’s the play coming along?” “Good. We are all done,” I replied. “Look I think you should stop by Zora’s house to talk to her about the play.” “Why?” he questioned, knowing that something was going on. “Just go,” I said. “But why,” he continued to ask. Annoyed, I said, “Stop asking questions and do as I say.” He replied, “Alright, I’ll go. See ya.” Then he walked away.

He dropped by the next day. I was really hoping that I wouldn’t be there when he came over, but I ain’t have no such luck. When Zora opened the door and saw that it was him, she immediately asked, “What are you doing here?” “Gladys said that I should come over and ask about the play,” he replied. “Oh did she? I wonder why the is?” she said as she look at me. “Me too. I was hoping you could answer that,” he said now more curious. “I’ll just let you see a copy of the play,” she said as she handed it to him. The first thing to come out his mouth after reading was, “Where’s my name?” “Well, it ain’t on it, as you can see,” she said. “Well, why ain’t it?” he yelled at her. “Cause you ain’t help,” she yelled back and slammed the door in his face. He pushed the door open and stomped inside. “I did help,” he said still angry. “Two sentences out of over thirty pages, yeah huge help. And how you just gonna barge into my house like that,” she replied. “Just as I did. Now I want my name on this story.” “You don’t always get what you want,” she replied. Langston had no more to say, not wanting say anything he might regret. He vowed that their friendship was over and turned away. I sat there confused because I didn’t understand how they let that ruin their friendship.