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—
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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.)
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 han
d, 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.
KATE torn both ways turns from this, gestures the servants off, and makes her way into the house, on KELLER’S arm. The servants go, in separate directions.
The lights are half down now, except over the pump. ANNIE and HELEN are here, alone in the yard. ANNIE has found HELEN’S hand, almost without knowing it, and she spells slowly into it, her voice unsteady, whispering:)
ANNIE: I, love, Helen.
(She clutches the child to her, tight this time, not spelling, whispering into her hair.)
Forever, and—