The Miracle Worker by William Gibson Page A

sets the plate down. HELEN discarding the spoon reaches with her hand, and ANNIE stops it by the wrist; she replaces the spoon in it. HELEN impatiently discards it again, and again ANNIE stops her hand, to replace the spoon in it. This time HELEN throws the spoon on the floor. ANNIE after considering it lifts HELEN bodily out of the chair, and in a wrestling match on the floor closes her fingers upon the spoon, and returns her with it to the chair. HELEN again throws the spoon on the floor. ANNIE lifts her out of the chair again; but in the struggle over the spoon HELEN with ANNIE on her back sends her sliding over her head; HELEN flees back to her chair and scrambles into it. When ANNIE comes after her she clutches it for dear life; ANNIE pries one hand loose, then the other, then the first again, then the other again, and then lifts HELEN by the waist, chair and all, and shakes the chair loose. HELEN wrestles to get free, but ANNIE pins her to the floor, closes her fingers upon the spoon, and lifts her kicking under one arm; with her other hand she gets the chair in place again, and plunks HELEN back on it. When she releases her hand, HELEN throws the spoon at her.
    ANNIE now removes the plate of food. HELEN grabbing finds it missing, and commences to bang with her fists on the table. ANNIE collects a fistful of spoons and descends with them and the plate on HELEN; she lets her smell the plate, at which HELEN ceases banging, and ANNIE puts the plate down and a spoon in HELEN’S hand. HELEN throws it on the floor. ANNIE puts another spoon in her hand. H ELEN throws it on the floor. ANNIE puts another spoon in her hand. H ELEN throws it on the floor. When ANNIE comes to her last spoon she sits next to HELEN, and gripping the spoon in HELEN’S hand compels her to take food in it up to her mouth. HELEN sits with lips shut. ANNIE waits a stolid moment, then lowers HELEN’S hand. She tries again; HELEN’S lips remain shut. ANNIE waits, lowers HELEN’S hand. She tries again; this time HELEN suddenly opens her mouth and accepts the food. ANNIE lowers the spoon with a sigh of relief, and HELEN spews the mouthful out at her face. ANNIE sits a moment with eyes closed, then takes the pitcher and dashes its water into HELEN’S face, who gasps astonished. ANNIE with HELEN’S hand takes up another spoonful, and shoves it into her open mouth. HELEN swallows involuntarily, and while she is catching her breath ANNIE forces her palm open, throws four swift letters into it, then another four, and bows toward her with devastating pleasantness.)
    ANNIE: Good girl.
    ( ANNIE lifts HELEN’S hand to feel her face nodding; HELEN grabs a fistful of her hair, and yanks. The pain brings ANNIE to her knees, and HELEN pummels her; they roll under the table, and the lights commence to dim out on them.
    Simultaneously the light at left has been rising, slowly, so slowly that it seems at first we only imagine what is intimated in the yard: a few ghostlike figures, in silence, motionless, waiting. Now the distant belfry chimes commence to toll the hour, also very slowly, almost—it is twelve—interminably; the sense is that of a long time passing. We can identify the figures before the twelfth stroke, all facing the house in a kind of watch: KATE is standing exactly as before, but now with the baby MILDRED sleeping in her arms, and placed here and there, unmoving, are AUNT EV in her hat with a hanky to her nose, and the two Negro children, PERCY and MARTHA, with necks outstretched eagerly, and VINEY with a knotted kerchief on her head and a feather duster in her hand.
    The chimes cease, and there is silence. For a long moment none of the group moves.)
    VINEY [ PRESENTLY ]: What am I gone do, Miss Kate? It’s noontime, dinner’s comin’, I didn’t get them breakfast dishes out of there yet.
    ( KATE says nothing, stares at the house. MARTHA shifts HELEN’S doll in her clutch, and it plaintively says