The Miracle Worker (16 page)

Be
bountiful, it's at her expense.

(She turns to
JAMES,
flatly.)

Please pass me more of—her favorite foods.

(Then
KATE
lifts
HELEN'S
hand, and turning her toward
ANNIE,
surrenders her;
HELEN
makes for her own chair.)

KATE
[
LOW
]: Take her, Miss Annie.

ANNIE
[
THEN
]: Thank you.

(But the moment
ANNIE
rising reaches for her hand,
HELEN
begins to fight and kick, clutching to the tablecloth, and uttering laments.
ANNIE
again tries to loosen her hand, and
KELLER
rises.)

KELLER
[
TOLERANT
]: I'm afraid you're the difficulty, Miss Annie. Now I'll keep her to what she's learned, you're quite right there—

(He takes
HELEN'S
hands from
ANNIE,
pats them;
HELEN
quiets down.)

—but I don't see that we need send her from the table, after all, she's the guest of honor. Bring her plate back.

ANNIE:
If she was a seeing child, none of you would tolerate one—

KELLER:
Well, she's not, I think some compromise is called for. Bring her plate, please.

(
ANNIE'S
jaw sets, but she restores the plate, while
KELLER
fastens the napkin around
HELEN'S
neck; she permits it.)

There. It's not unnatural, most of us take some aversion to our teachers, and occasionally another hand can smooth things out.

(He puts a fork in
HELEN'S
hand;
HELEN
takes it. Genially:)

Now. Shall we start all over?

(He goes back around the table, and sits.
ANNIE
stands watching.
HELEN
is motionless, thinking things through, until with a wicked glee she deliberately flings the fork on the floor. After another moment she plunges her hand into her food, and crams a fistful into her mouth.)

JAMES
[
WEARILY
]: I think we've started all over—

(
KELLER
shoots a glare at him, as
HELEN
plunges her other hand into
ANNIE'S
plate.
ANNIE
at once moves in, to grasp her wrist, and
HELEN
flinging out a hand encounters the pitcher; she swings with it at
ANNIE; ANNIE
falling back blocks it with an elbow, but the water flies over her dress.
ANNIE
gets her breath, then snatches the pitcher away in one hand, hoists
HELEN
up bodily under the other arm, and starts to carry her out, kicking.
KELLER
stands.)

ANNIE
[
SAVAGELY POLITE
]: Don't get up!

KELLER:
Where are you going?

ANNIE:
Don't smooth anything else out for me, don't interfere in any way! I treat her like a seeing child because I
ask
her to see, I
expect
her to see, don't undo what I do!

KELLER:
Where are you taking her?

ANNIE:
To make her fill this pitcher again!

(She thrusts out with
HELEN
under her arm, but
HELEN
escapes up the stairs and
ANNIE
runs after her.
KELLER
stands rigid.
AUNT EV
is astounded.)

AUNT EV:
You let her speak to you like that, Arthur? A creature who
works
for you?

KELLER
[
ANGRILY
]: No. I don't.

(He is starting after
ANNIE
when
JAMES,
on his feet with shaky resolve, interposes his chair between them in
KELLER'S
path.)

JAMES:
Let her go.

KELLER:
What!

JAMES
[
A SWALLOW
]: I said—let her go. She's right.

(
KELLER
glares at the chair and him.
JAMES
takes a deep breath, then headlong:)

She's right, Kate's right, I'm right, and you're wrong. If you drive her away from here it will be over my dead—chair, has it never occurred to you that on one occasion you might be consummately wrong?

(
KELLER'S
stare is unbelieving, even a little fascinated.
KATE
rises in trepidation, to mediate.)

KATE:
Captain.

(
KELLER
stops her with his raised hand; his eyes stay on
JAMES'S
pale face, for a long hold. When he finally finds his voice, it is gruff.)

KELLER:
Sit down, everyone.

(He sits.
KATE
sits.
JAMES
holds onto his chair.
KELLER
speaks mildly.)

Please sit down, Jimmie.

(
JAMES
sits, and a moveless silence prevails;
KELLER'S
eyes do not leave him.

ANNIE
has pulled
HELEN
downstairs again by one hand, the pitcher in her other hand, down the porch steps, and across the yard to the pump. She puts
HELEN'S
hand on the pump handle, grimly.)

ANNIE:
All right. Pump.

(
HELEN
touches her cheek, waits uncertainly.)

No, she's not here. Pump!

(She forces
HELEN'S
hand to work the handle, then lets go. And
HELEN
obeys. She pumps till the water comes, then
ANNIE
puts the pitcher in her other hand and guides it under the spout, and the water tumbling half into and half around the pitcher douses
HELEN'S
hand.
ANNIE
takes over the handle to keep water coming, and does automatically what she has done so many times before, spells into
HELEN'S
free palm:)

Water. W, a, t, e, r.
Water.
It has a—
name—

(And now the miracle happens.
HELEN
drops the pitcher on the slab under the spout, it shatters. She stands transfixed.
ANNIE
freezes on the pump handle: there is a change in the sundown light, and with it a change in
HELEN'S
face, some light coming into it we have never seen there, some struggle in the depths behind it; and her lips tremble, trying to remember something the muscles around them once knew, till at last it finds its way out, painfully, a baby sound buried under the debris of years of dumbness.)

HELEN:
Wah. Wah.

(And again, with great effort)

Wah. Wah.

(
HELEN
plunges her hand into the dwindling water, spells into her own palm. Then she gropes frantically,
ANNIE
reaches for her hand, and
HELEN
spells into
ANNIE'S
hand.)

ANNIE
[
WHISPERING
]: Yes.

(
HELEN
spells into it again.)

Yes!

(
HELEN
grabs at the handle, pumps for more water, plunges her hand into its spurt and grabs
ANNIE'S
to spell it again.)

Yes! Oh, my dear—

(She falls to her knees to clasp
HELEN'S
hand, but
HELEN
pulls it free, stands almost bewildered, then drops to the ground, pats it swiftly, holds up her palm, imperious.
ANNIE
spells into it:)

Ground.

(
HELEN
spells it back.)

Yes!

(
HELEN
whirls to the pump, pats it, holds up her palm, and
ANNIE
spells into it.)

Pump.

(
HELEN
spells it back.)

Yes! Yes!

(Now
HELEN
is in such an excitement she is possessed, wild, trembling, cannot be still, turns, runs, falls on the porch steps, claps it, reaches out her palm, and
ANNIE
is at it instantly to spell:)

Step.

(
HELEN
has no time to spell back now, she whirls groping, to touch anything, encounters the trellis, shakes it, thrusts out her palm, and
ANNIE
while spelling to her cries wildly at the house.)

Trellis. Mrs. Keller!
Mrs. Keller!

(Inside,
KATE
starts to her feet.
HELEN
scrambles back onto the porch, groping, and finds the bell string, tugs it; the bell rings, the distant chimes begin tolling the hour, all the bells in town seem to break into speech while
HELEN
reaches out and
ANNIE
spells feverishly into her hand.
KATE
hurries out, with
KELLER
after her;
AUNT EV
is on her feet, to peer out the window; only
JAMES
remains at the table, and with a napkin wipes his damp brow. From up right and left the servants—
VINEY,
the two Negro children, the other servant—run in, and stand watching from a distance as
HELEN,
ringing the bell, with her other hand encounters her mother's skirt; when she throws a hand out,
ANNIE
spells into it:)

Mother.

(
KELLER
now seizes
HELEN'S
hand, she touches him, gestures a hand, and
ANNIE
again spells:)

Papa— She
knows!

(
KATE
and
KELLER
go to their knees, stammering, clutching
HELEN
to them, and
ANNIE
steps unsteadily back to watch the threesome,
HELEN
spelling wildly into
KATE'S
hand, then into
KELLER'S, KATE
spelling back into
HELEN'S;
they cannot keep their hands off her, and rock her in their clasp.

Then
HELEN
gropes, feels nothing, turns all around, pulls free, and comes with both hands groping, to find
ANNIE.
She encounters
ANNIE'S
thighs,
ANNIE
kneels to her,
HELEN'S
hand pats
ANNIE'S
cheek impatiently, points a finger, and waits; and
ANNIE
spells into it:)

Teacher.

(
HELEN
spells it back, slowly;
ANNIE
nods.)

Teacher.

(She holds
HELEN'S
hand to her cheek. Presently
HELEN
withdraws it, not jerkily, only with reserve, and retreats a step. She stands thinking it over, then turns again and stumbles back to her parents. They try to embrace her, but she has something else in mind, it is to get the keys, and she hits
KATE'S
pocket until
KATE
digs them out for her.

ANNIE
with her own load of emotion has retreated, her back turned, toward the pump, to sit;
KATE
moves to
HELEN,
touches her hand questioningly, and
HELEN
spells a word to her.
KATE
comprehends it, their first act of verbal communication, and she can hardly utter the word aloud, in wonder, gratitude, and deprivation; it is a moment in which she simultaneously finds and loses a child.)

KATE:
Teacher?

(
ANNIE
turns; and
KATE,
facing
HELEN
in her direction by the shoulders, holds her back, holds her back, and then relinquishes her.
HELEN
feels her way across the yard, rather shyly, and when her moving hands touch
ANNIE'S
skirt she stops. Then she holds out the keys and places them in
ANNIE'S
hand. For a moment neither of them moves. Then
HELEN
slides into
ANNIE'S
arms, and lifting away her smoked glasses, kisses her on the cheek.
ANNIE
gathers her in.