The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Author:William Gibson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

ACT III

The stage is totally dark, until we see ANNIE and HELEN silhouetted on the bed in the garden house. ANNIE’S voice is audible, very patient, and worn; it has been saying this for a long time.

ANNIE: Water, Helen. This is water. W, a, t, e, r. It has a name.

(A silence. Then:)

Egg, e, g, g. It has a name, the name stands for the thing. Oh, it’s so simple, simple as birth, to explain.

(The lights have commenced to rise, not on the garden house but on the homestead. Then:)

Helen, Helen, the chick has to come out of its shell, sometime. You come out, too.

(In the bedroom upstairs, we see VINEY unhurriedly washing the window, dusting, turning the mattress, readying the room for use again; then in the family room a diminished group at one end of the table— KATE, KELLER, JAMES —finishing up a quiet breakfast; then outside, down right, the other Negro servant on his knees, assisted by MARTHA, working with a trowel around a new trellis and wheelbarrow. The scene is one of everyday calm, and all are oblivious to ANNIE’S voice.)

There’s only one way out, for you, and it’s language. To learn that your fingers can talk. And say anything, anything you can name. This is mug. Mug, m, u, g. Helen, it has a name. It—has—a—name—

(KATE rises from the table.)

KELLER [GENTLY]: You haven’t eaten, Katie.

KATE [SMILES, SHAKES HER HEAD]: I haven’t the appetite. I’m too—restless, I can’t sit to it.

KELLER: You should eat, my dear. It will be a long day, waiting.

JAMES [LIGHTLY]: But it’s been a short two weeks. I never thought life could be so—noiseless, went much too quickly for me.

(KATE and KELLER gaze at him, in silence. JAMES becomes uncomfortable.)

ANNIE: C, a, r, d. Card. C, a—

JAMES: Well, the house has been practically normal, hasn’t it?

KELLER [HARSHLY]: Jimmie.

JAMES: Is it wrong to enjoy a quiet breakfast, after five years? And you two even seem to enjoy each other—

KELLER: It could be even more noiseless, Jimmie, without your tongue running every minute. Haven’t you enough feeling to imagine what Katie has been undergoing, ever since—

(KATE stops him, with her hand on his arm.)

KATE: Captain.

(To JAMES.)

It’s true. The two weeks have been normal, quiet, all you say. But not short. Interminable.

(She rises, and wanders out; she pauses on the porch steps, gazing toward the garden house.)

ANNIE [FADING]: W, a, t, e, r. But it means this. W, a, t, e, r. This. W, a, t—

JAMES: I only meant that Miss Sullivan is a boon. Of contention, though, it seems.

KELLER [HEAVILY]: If and when you’re a parent, Jimmie, you will understand what separation means. A mother loses a—protector.

JAMES [BAFFLED]: Hm?

KELLER: You’ll learn, we don’t just keep our children safe. They keep us safe.

(He rises, with his empty coffee cup and saucer.)

There are of course all kinds of separation, Katie has lived with one kind for five years. And another is disappointment. In a child.

(He goes with the cup out the rear door. JAMES sits for a long moment of stillness.

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