Sunset Limited Missing the Magic Summary

  • Black tells more about his life—how he lets junkies crash on his couch and steal his stuff. Hence, he owns as little as possible, but wants to get a reinforced bedroom door, so he can get something to listen to music with and lock safely in there.
  • White says this is a horrible place full of horrible people who aren't worth saving, and says living here would be a horrible life.
  • Obviously, Black disagrees, though he admits it's a challenge—which he likes. Starting a ministry in prison was a challenge, too, he says, since some of the guys who joined just wanted it on their resume so they could get parole. Yet, strangely enough, a lot of them did really believe in God.
  • Again, White says he needs to go, and asserts that Black doesn't need him here and just doesn't want to feel responsible if White kills himself.
  • Black says that seems like the same thing as needing him here, and asks him if he ever had a day where everything seemed to fall into place. You know, a day that felt magical? White says he might have.
  • It seems to Black that White might not have had a day like that in awhile, and has started to feel that the world is long and dry and pointless. He's not having a bad day—he's having a "bad life".
  • White says he has to go, but Black is able to get him to stay by agreeing to tell a jailhouse story, even though he doesn't want to because White seems to have the wrong reasons for wanting to hear that kind of tale.
  • Black wants to put White in "the trick bag" (convince him to live) but wants to do it without White realizing it.