The Miracle Worker by William Gibson Page B

momma.)
    KATE [ PRESENTLY ]: You run along, Martha.
    ( AUNT EV blows her nose.)
    AUNT EV [ WRETCHEDLY ]: I can’t wait out here a minute longer, Kate, why, this could go on all afternoon, too.
    KATE: I’ll tell the captain you called.
    VINEY [ TO THE CHILDREN ]: You hear what Miss Kate say? Never you mind what’s going on here.
    (Still no one moves.)
    You run along tend your own bizness.
    (Finally VINEY turns on the children with the feather duster.)
    Shoo!
    (The two children divide before her. She chases them off. AUNT EV comes to KATE, on her dignity.)
    AUNT EV: Say what you like, Kate, but that child is a Keller.
    (She opens her parasol, preparatory to leaving.)
    I needn’t remind you that all the Kellers are cousins to General Robert E. Lee. I don’t know who that girl is.
    (She waits; but KATE staring at the house is without response.)
    The only Sullivan I’ve heard of—from Boston too, and I’d think twice before locking her up with that kind—is that man John L.
    (And AUNT EV departs, with head high. Presently VINEY comes to KATE, her arms out for the baby.)
    VINEY: You give me her, Miss Kate, I’ll sneak her in back, to her crib.
    (But KATE is moveless, until VINEY starts to take the baby; KATE looks down at her before relinquishing her.)
    KATE [ SLOWLY ]: This child never gives me a minute’s worry.
    VINEY: Oh yes, this one’s the angel of the family, no question bout that.
    (She begins off rear with the baby, heading around the house; and KATE now turns her back on it, her hand to her eyes. At this moment there isthe slamming of a door, and when KATE wheels HELEN is blundering down the porch steps into the light, like a ruined bat out of hell. VINEY halts, and KATE runs in; HELEN collides with her mother’s knees, and reels off and back to clutch them as her savior. ANNIE with smoked glasses in hand stands on the porch, also much undone, looking as though she had indeed just taken Vicksburg. KATE taking in HELEN’S ravaged state becomes steely in her gaze up at ANNIE. )
    KATE: What happened?
    ( ANNIE meets KATE’S gaze, and gives a factual report, too exhausted for anything but a flat voice.)
    ANNIE: She ate from her own plate.
    (She thinks a moment.)
    She ate with a spoon. Herself.
    ( KATE frowns, uncertain with thought, and glances down at HELEN. )
    And she folded her napkin.
    ( KATE’S gaze now wavers, from HELEN to ANNIE , and back.)
    KATE [ SOFTLY ]: Folded—her napkin?
    ANNIE: The room’s a wreck, but her napkin is folded.
    (She pauses, then:)
    I’ll be in my room, Mrs. Keller.
    (She moves to re-enter the house; but she stops at VINEY’S voice.)
    VINEY [ CHEERY ]: Don’t be long, Miss Annie. Dinner be ready right away!
    ( VINEY carries MILDRED around the back of the house. ANNIE stands unmoving, takes a deep breath, stares over her shoulder at KATE and HELEN, then inclines her head graciously, and goes with a slight stagger into the house. The lights in her room above steal up in readiness for her.
    KATE remains alone with HELEN in the yard, standing protectively over her, in a kind of wonder.)
    KATE [ SLOWLY ]: Folded her napkin.
    (She contemplates the wild head in her thighs, and moves her fingertips over it, with such a tenderness, and something like a fear of its strangeness, that her own eyes close; she whispers, bending to it:)
    My Helen—folded her napkin—
    (And still erect, with only her head in surrender, KATE for the first time that we see loses her protracted war with grief; but she will not let a sound escape her, only the grimace of tears comes, and sobs that shake her in a grip of silence. But HELEN feels them, and her hand comes up in its own wondering, to interrogate her mother’s face, until KATE buries her lips in the child’s palm.
    Upstairs, ANNIE enters her room, closes the door, and stands back against it; the lights, growing on her with their special color, commence to fade on KATE and