The Miracle Worker (15 page)

KELLER:
Your first month's salary.

(He puts it in her hand.)

With many more to come, I trust. It doesn't express what we feel, it doesn't pay our debt. For what you've done.

ANNIE:
What have I done?

KELLER:
Taken a wild thing, and given us back a child.

ANNIE
[
PRESENTLY
]: I taught her one thing, no. Don't do this, don't do that—

KELLER:
It's more than all of us could, in all the years we—

ANNIE:
I wanted to teach her what language is. I wanted to teach her yes.

KELLER:
You will have time.

ANNIE:
I don't know how. I know without it to do nothing but obey is—no gift, obedience without understanding is a—blindness, too. Is that all I've wished on her?

KELLER
[
GENTLY
]: No, no—

ANNIE:
Maybe. I don't know what else to do. Simply go on, keep doing what I've done, and have—faith that inside she's—That inside it's waiting. Like water, underground. All I can do is keep on.

KELLER:
It's enough. For us.

ANNIE:
You can help, Captain Keller.

KELLER:
How?

ANNIE:
Even learning no has been at a cost. Of much trouble and pain. Don't undo it.

KELLER:
Why should we wish to—

ANNIE
[
ABRUPTLY
]: The world isn't an easy place for anyone, I don't want her just to obey but to let her have her way in everything is a lie, to
her,
I can't—

(Her eyes fill, it takes her by surprise, and she laughs through it.)

And I don't even love her, she's not my child! Well. You've got to stand between that lie and her.

KELLER:
We'll try.

ANNIE:
Because
I
will. As long as you let me stay, that's one promise I'll keep.

KELLER:
Agreed. We've learned something too, I hope.

(A pause)

Won't you come now, to supper?

ANNIE:
Yes.

(She wags the envelope, ruefully.)

Why doesn't God pay His debts each month?

KELLER:
I beg your pardon?

ANNIE:
Nothing. I used to wonder how I could—

(The lights are fading on them, simultaneously rising on the family room of the main house, where
VINEY
is polishing glassware at the table set for dinner.)

—earn a living.

KELLER:
Oh, you do.

ANNIE:
I really do. Now the question is, can I survive it!

(
KELLER
smiles, offers his arm.)

KELLER:
May I?

(
ANNIE
takes it, and the lights lose them as he escorts her out.

Now in the family room the rear door opens, and
HELEN
steps in. She stands a moment, then sniffs in one deep grateful breath, and her hands go out vigorously to familiar things, over the door panels, and to the
chairs around the table, and over the silverware on the table, until she meets
VINEY
;
she pats her flank approvingly.)

VINEY:
Oh, we glad to have you back too, prob'ly.

(
HELEN
hurries groping to the front door, opens and closes it, removes its key, opens and closes it again to be sure it is unlocked, gropes back to the rear door and repeats the procedure, removing its key and hugging herself gleefully.

AUNT EV
is next in by the rear door, with a relish tray; she bends to kiss
HELEN'S
cheek.
HELEN
finds
KATE
behind her, and thrusts the keys at her.)

KATE:
What? Oh.

(To
EV
)

Keys.

(She pockets them, lets
HELEN
feel them.)

Yes,
I'll
keep the keys. I think we've had enough of locked doors, too.

(
JAMES,
having earlier put
ANNIE'S
suitcase inside her door upstairs and taken himself out of view around the corner, now reappears and comes down the stairs as
ANNIE
and
KELLER
mount the porch steps. Following them into the family room, he pats
ANNIE'S
hair in passing, rather to her surprise.)

JAMES:
Evening, general.

(He takes his own chair opposite.)

VINEY
bears the empty water pitcher out to the porch. The remaining suggestion of garden house is gone now, and the water pump is unobstructed;
VINEY
pumps water into the pitcher.

KATE
surveying the table breaks the silence.)

KATE:
Will you say grace, Jimmie?

(They bow their heads, except for
HELEN,
who palms her empty plate and then reaches to be sure her mother is there.
JAMES
considers a moment, glances across at
ANNIE,
lowers his head again, and obliges.)

JAMES
[
LIGHTLY
]: And Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with an angel until the breaking of the day; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him; and the angel said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Amen.

(
ANNIE
has lifted her eyes suspiciously at
JAMES,
who winks expressionlessly and inclines his head to
HELEN.
)

Oh, you angel.

(The others lift their faces;
VINEY
returns with the pitcher, setting it down near
KATE,
then goes out the rear door; and
ANNIE
puts a napkin around
HELEN.
)

AUNT EV:
That's a very strange grace, James.

KELLER:
Will you start the muffins, Ev?

JAMES:
It's from the Good Book, isn't it?

AUNT EV
[
PASSING A PLATE
]: Well, of course it is. Didn't you know?

JAMES:
Yes, I knew.

KELLER
[
SERVING
]: Ham, Miss Annie?

ANNIE:
Please.

AUNT EV:
Then why ask?

JAMES:
I meant it
is
from the Good Book, and therefore a fitting grace.

AUNT EV:
Well. I don't know about
that.

KATE
[
WITH THE PITCHER
]: Miss Annie?

ANNIE:
Thank you.

AUNT EV:
There's an awful
lot
of things in the Good Book that I wouldn't care to hear just before eating.

(When
ANNIE
reaches for the pitcher,
HELEN
removes her napkin and drops it to the floor.
ANNIE
is filling
HELEN'S
glass when she notices it; she considers
HELEN'S
bland expression a moment, then bends, retrieves it, and tucks it around
HELEN'S
neck again.)

JAMES:
Well, fitting in the sense that Jacob's thigh was out of joint, and so is this piggie's.

AUNT EV:
I declare, James—

KATE:
Pickles, Aunt Ev?

AUNT EV:
Oh, I should say so, you know my opinion of your pickles—

KATE:
This is the end of them, I'm afraid. I didn't put up nearly enough last summer, this year I intend to—

(She interrupts herself, seeing
HELEN
deliberately lift off her napkin and drop it again to the floor. She bends to retrieve it, but
ANNIE
stops her arm.)

KELLER
[
NOT NOTICING
]: Reverend looked in at the office today to complain his hens have stopped laying. Poor fellow,
he
was out of joint, all he could—

(He stops too, to frown down the table at
KATE, HELEN,
and
ANNIE
in turn, all suspended in mid-motion.)

JAMES
[
NOT NOTICING
]: I've always suspected those hens.

AUNT EV:
Of what?

JAMES:
I think they're Papist. Has he tried—

(He stops, too, following
KELLER'S
eyes.
ANNIE
now stops to pick the napkin up.)

AUNT EV:
James, now you're pulling my—lower extremity, the first thing you know we'll be—

(She stops, too, hearing herself in the silence.
ANNIE,
with everyone now watching, for the third time puts the napkin on
HELEN. HELEN
yanks it off, and throws it down.
ANNIE
rises, lifts
HELEN'S
plate, and bears it away.
HELEN,
feeling it gone, slides down and commences to kick up under the table; the dishes jump.
ANNIE
contemplates this for a moment, then coming back takes
HELEN'S
wrists firmly and swings her off the chair.
HELEN
struggling gets one hand free, and catches at her mother's skirt; when
KATE
takes her by the shoulders,
HELEN
hangs quiet.)

KATE:
Miss Annie.

ANNIE:
No.

KATE
[
A PAUSE
]: It's a very special day.

ANNIE
[
GRIMLY
]: It will be, when I give in to that.

(She tries to disengage
HELEN'S
hand;
KATE
lays hers on
ANNIE'S.
)

KATE:
Please. I've hardly had a chance to welcome her home—

ANNIE:
Captain Keller.

KELLER
[
EMBARRASSED
]: Oh, Katie, we—had a little talk, Miss Annie feels that if we indulge Helen in these—

AUNT EV:
But what's the child done?

ANNIE:
She's learned not to throw things on the floor and kick. It took us the best part of two weeks and—

AUNT EV:
But only a napkin, it's not as if it were breakable!

ANNIE:
And everything she's learned
is
? Mrs. Keller, I don't think we should—play tug-of-war for her, either give her to me or you keep her from kicking.

KATE:
What do you wish to do?

ANNIE:
Let me take her from the table.

AUNT EV:
Oh, let her stay, my goodness, she's only a child, she doesn't have to wear a napkin if she doesn't want to her first evening—

ANNIE
[
LEVEL
]: And ask outsiders not to interfere.

AUNT EV
[
ASTONISHED
]: Out—outsi—I'm the child's
aunt
!

KATE
[
DISTRESSED
]: Will once hurt so much, Miss Annie? I've—made all Helen's favorite foods, tonight.

(A pause)

KELLER
[
GENTLY
]: It's a homecoming party, Miss Annie.

(
ANNIE
after a moment releases
HELEN.
But she cannot accept it, at her own chair she shakes her head and turns back, intent on
KATE.
)

ANNIE:
She's testing you. You realize?

JAMES
[
TO ANNIE
]: She's testing you.

KELLER:
Jimmie, be quiet.

(
JAMES
sits, tense.)

Now she's home, naturally she—

ANNIE:
And wants to see what will happen. At your hands. I said it was my main worry, is this what you promised me not half an hour ago?

KELLER
[
REASONABLY
]: But she's
not
kicking, now—

ANNIE:
And not learning not to. Mrs. Keller, teaching her is bound to be painful, to everyone. I know it hurts to watch, but she'll live up to just what you demand of her, and no more.

JAMES
[
PALELY
]: She's testing
you.

KELLER
[
TESTILY
]: Jimmie.

JAMES:
I have an opinion, I think I should—

KELLER:
No one's interested in hearing your opinion.

ANNIE:
I'm
interested, of course she's testing me. Let me keep
her to what she's learned and she'll go on learning from me. Take her out of my hands and it all comes apart.

(
KATE
closes her eyes, digesting it;
ANNIE
sits again, with a brief comment for her.)