The Miracle Worker (4 page)

Here. For while I'm gone.

(
HELEN
sniffs, reaches, and pops something into her mouth, while
KATE
speaks a bit guiltily.)

I don't think one peppermint drop will spoil your supper.

(She gives
HELEN
a quick kiss, evades her hands, and hurries downstairs again. Meanwhile
CAPTAIN KELLER
has entered the yard from around the rear of the house, newspaper under arm, cleaning off and munching on some radishes; he sees
JAMES
lounging at the porch post.)

KELLER:
Jimmie?

JAMES
[
UNMOVING
]: Sir?

KELLER
[
EYES HIM
]: You don't look dressed for anything useful, boy.

JAMES:
I'm not. It's for Miss Sullivan.

KELLER:
Needn't keep holding up that porch, we have wooden posts for that. I asked you to see that those strawberry plants were moved this evening.

JAMES:
I'm moving your—Mrs. Keller, instead. To the station.

KELLER
[
HEAVILY
]: Mrs. Keller. Must you always speak of her as though you haven't met the lady?

(
KATE
comes out on the porch, and
JAMES
inclines his head.)

JAMES
[
IRONIC
]: Mother.

(He starts off the porch, but sidesteps
KELLER'S
glare like a blow.)

I said mother!

KATE:
Captain.

KELLER:
Evening, my dear.

KATE:
We're off to meet the train, Captain. Supper will be a trifle delayed tonight.

KELLER:
What, again?

KATE
[
BACKING OUT
]: With your permission, Captain?

(And they are gone.
KELLER
watches them offstage, morosely.

Upstairs
HELEN
meanwhile has groped for her mother, touched her cheek in a meaningful gesture, waited, touched her cheek, waited, then found the open door, and made her way down. Now she comes into the family room, touches her cheek again;
VINEY
regards her.)

VINEY:
What you want, honey, your momma?

(
HELEN
touches her cheek again.
VINEY
goes to the sideboard, gets a tea-cake, gives it into
HELEN'S
hand;
HELEN
pops it into her mouth.)

Guess one little tea-cake ain't gone ruin your appetite.

(She turns
HELEN
toward the door.
HELEN
wanders out onto the porch, as
KELLER
comes up the steps. Her hands encounter him, and she touches her cheek again, waits.)

KELLER:
She's gone.

(He is awkward with her; when he puts his hand on her head, she pulls away.
KELLER
stands regarding her, heavily.)

She's gone, my son and I don't get along, you don't know I'm your father, no one likes me, and supper's delayed.

(
HELEN
touches her cheek, waits.
KELLER
fishes in his pocket.)

Here. I brought you some stick candy, one nibble of sweets can't do any harm.

(He gives her a large stick candy;
HELEN
falls to it.
VINEY
peers out the window.)

VINEY
[
REPROACHFULLY
]: Cap'n Keller, now how'm I gone get her to eat her supper you fill her up with that trash?

KELLER
[
ROARS
]: Tend to your work!

(
VINEY
beats a rapid retreat.
KELLER
thinks better of it, and tries to get the candy away from
HELEN,
but
HELEN
hangs on to it; and when
KELLER
pulls, she gives his leg a kick.
KELLER
hops about,
HELEN
takes refuge with the candy down behind the pump, and
KELLER
then irately flings his newspaper on the porch floor, stamps into the house past
VINEY
and disappears.

The lights half dim on the homestead, where
VINEY
and
HELEN
going about their business soon find their way off. Meanwhile, the
railroad sounds off left have mounted in a crescendo to a climax typical of a depot at arrival time, the lights come on stage left, and we see a suggestion of a station. Here
ANNIE
in her smoked glasses and disarrayed by travel is waiting with her suitcase, while
JAMES
walks to meet her; she has a battered paper-bound book, which is a Perkins report, under her arm.)

JAMES
[
COOLLY
]: Miss Sullivan?

ANNIE
[
CHEERILY
]: Here! At last, I've been on trains so many days I thought they must be backing up every time I dozed off—

JAMES:
I'm James Keller.

ANNIE:
James?

(The name stops her.)

I had a brother Jimmie. Are you Helen's?

JAMES:
I'm only half a brother. You're to be her governess?

ANNIE
[
LIGHTLY
]: Well. Try!

JAMES
[
EYING HER
]: You look like half a governess.

(
KATE
enters.
ANNIE
stands moveless, while
JAMES
takes her suitcase.
KATE'S
gaze on her is doubtful, troubled.)

Mrs. Keller, Miss Sullivan.

(
KATE
takes her hand.)

KATE
[
SIMPLY
]: We've met every train for two days.

(
ANNIE
looks at
KATE'S
face, and her good humor comes back.)

ANNIE:
I changed trains every time they stopped, the man who sold me that ticket ought to be tied to the tracks—

JAMES:
You have a trunk, Miss Sullivan?

ANNIE:
Yes.

(She passes
JAMES
a claim check, and he bears the suitcase out behind them.
ANNIE
holds the battered book.
KATE
is studying her face, and
ANNIE
returns the gaze; this is a mutual appraisal, southern gentlewoman and working-class Irish girl, and
ANNIE
is not quite comfortable under it.)

You didn't bring Helen, I was hoping you would.

KATE:
No, she's home.

(A pause.
ANNIE
tries to make ladylike small talk, though her energy now and then erupts; she catches herself up whenever she hears it.)

ANNIE:
You—live far from town, Mrs. Keller?

KATE:
Only a mile.

ANNIE:
Well. I suppose I can wait one more mile. But don't be surprised if I get out to push the horse!

KATE:
Helen's waiting for you, too. There's been such a bustle in the house, she expects something, heaven knows what.

(Now she voices part of her doubt, not as such, but
ANNIE
understands it.)

I
expected—a desiccated spinster. You're very young.

ANNIE
[
RESOLUTELY
]: Oh, you should have seen me when I left Boston. I got much older on this trip.

KATE:
I mean, to teach anyone as difficult as Helen.

ANNIE:
I mean to try. They can't put you in jail for trying!

KATE:
Is it possible, even? To teach a deaf-blind child
half
of what an ordinary child learns—has that ever been done?

ANNIE:
Half?

KATE:
A tenth.

ANNIE
[
RELUCTANTLY
]: No.

(
KATE'S
face loses its remaining hope, still appraising her youth.)

Dr. Howe did wonders, but—an ordinary child? No, never. But then I thought when I was going over his reports—

(She indicates the one in her hand)

—he never treated them like ordinary children. More like—eggs everyone was afraid would break.

KATE
[
A PAUSE
]: May I ask how old you are?

ANNIE:
Well, I'm not in my teens, you know! I'm twenty.

KATE:
All of twenty.

(
ANNIE
takes the bull by the horns, valiantly.)

ANNIE:
Mrs. Keller, don't lose heart just because I'm not on my last legs. I have three big advantages over Dr. Howe that money couldn't buy for you. One is his work behind me, I've read every word he wrote about it and he wasn't exactly what you'd call a man of few words. Another is to
be
young, why, I've got energy to do anything. The third is, I've been blind.

(But it costs her something to say this.)

KATE
[
QUIETLY
]: Advantages.

ANNIE
[
WRY
]: Well, some have the luck of the Irish, some do not.

(
KATE
smiles; she likes her.)

KATE:
What will you try to teach her first?

ANNIE:
First, last, and—in between, language.

KATE:
Language.

ANNIE:
Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye. Dr. Howe said that.

KATE:
Language.

(She shakes her head.)

We can't get through to teach her to sit still. You are young, despite your years, to have such—confidence. Do you, inside?

(
ANNIE
studies her face; she likes her, too.)

ANNIE:
No, to tell you the truth I'm as shaky inside as a baby's rattle!

(They smile at each other, and
KATE
pats her hand.)

KATE:
Don't be.

(
JAMES
returns to usher them off.)

We'll do all we can to help, and to make you feel at home. Don't think of us as strangers, Miss Annie.

ANNIE
[
CHEERILY
]: Oh, strangers aren't so strange to me. I've known them all my life!

(
KATE
smiles again,
ANNIE
smiles back, and they precede
JAMES
offstage.

The lights dim on them, having simultaneously risen full on the house;
VINEY
has already entered the family room, taken a water pitcher, and come out and down to the pump. She pumps real water. As she looks offstage, we hear the clop of hoofs, a carriage stopping, and voices.)

VINEY:
Cap'n Keller! Cap'n Keller, they comin'!

(She goes back into the house, as
KELLER
comes out on the porch to gaze.)

She sure 'nuff came, Cap'n.

(
KELLER
descends, and crosses toward the carriage; this conversation begins offstage and moves on.)

KELLER
[
VERY COURTLY
]: Welcome to Ivy Green, Miss Sullivan. I take it you are Miss Sullivan—

KATE:
My husband, Miss Annie, Captain Keller.

ANNIE
[
HER BEST BEHAVIOR
]: Captain, how do you do.

KELLER:
A pleasure to see you, at last. I trust you had an agreeable journey?

ANNIE:
Oh, I had several! When did this country get so big?

JAMES:
Where would you like the trunk, father?

KELLER:
Where Miss Sullivan can get at it, I imagine.

ANNIE:
Yes, please. Where's Helen?

KELLER:
In the hall, Jimmie—

KATE:
We've put you in the upstairs corner room, Miss Annie, if there's any breeze at all this summer, you'll feel it—

(In the house the setter
BELLE
flees into the family room, pursued by
HELEN
with groping hands; the dog doubles back out the same door, and
HELEN
still groping for her makes her way out to the porch; she is messy, her hair tumbled, her pinafore now ripped, her shoelaces untied.
KELLER
acquires the suitcase, and
ANNIE
gets her hands on it too, though still endeavoring to live up to the general air of propertied manners.)

KELLER:
And
the suitcase—

ANNIE
[
PLEASANTLY
]: I'll take the suitcase, thanks.

KELLER:
Not at all, I have it, Miss Sullivan.