The Miracle Worker (2 page)

KATE
[
FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME
]: Helen.

(She is down the steps at once to them, seizing
HELEN'S
wrists and lifting her off
MARTHA; MARTHA
runs off in tears and screams for momma, with
PERCY
after her.)

Let me have those scissors.

(Meanwhile the family inside is alerted,
AUNT EV
joining
JAMES
at the window;
CAPTAIN KELLER
resumes work.)

JAMES
[
BLANDLY
]: She only dug Martha's eyes out. Almost dug. It's always almost, no point worrying till it happens, is there?

(They gaze out, while
KATE
reaches for the scissors in
HELEN'S
hand. But
HELEN
pulls the scissors back, they struggle for them a moment, then
KATE
gives up, lets
HELEN
keep them. She tries to draw
HELEN
into the house.
HELEN
jerks away.
KATE
next goes down on her knees, takes
HELEN'S
hands gently, and using the scissors like a doll, makes
HELEN
caress and cradle them; she points
HELEN'S
finger housewards.
HELEN'S
whole body now becomes eager; she surrenders the scissors,
KATE
turns her toward the door and gives her a little push.
HELEN
scrambles up and toward the house, and
KATE
rising follows her.)

AUNT EV:
How does she stand it? Why haven't you seen this Baltimore man? It's not a thing you can let go on and on, like the weather.

JAMES:
The weather here doesn't ask permission of me, Aunt Ev. Speak to my father.

AUNT EV:
Arthur. Something ought to be done for that child.

KELLER:
A refreshing suggestion. What?

(
KATE
entering turns
HELEN
to
AUNT EV,
who gives her the towel doll.)

AUNT EV:
Why, this very famous oculist in Baltimore I wrote you about, what was his name?

KATE:
Dr. Chisholm.

AUNT EV:
Yes, I heard lots of cases of blindness people thought couldn't be cured he's cured, he just does wonders. Why don't you write to him?

KELLER:
I've stopped believing in wonders.

KATE
[
ROCKS THE CRADLE
]: I think the Captain will write to him soon. Won't you, Captain?

KELLER:
No.

JAMES
[
LIGHTLY
]: Good money after bad, or bad after good. Or bad after bad—

AUNT EV:
Well, if it's just a question of money, Arthur, now you're marshal you have this Yankee money. Might as well—

KELLER:
Not money. The child's been to specialists all over Alabama and Tennessee, if I thought it would do good I'd have her to every fool doctor in the country.

KATE:
I think the Captain will write to him soon.

KELLER:
Katie. How many times can you let them break your heart?

KATE:
Any number of times.

(
HELEN
meanwhile sits on the floor to explore the doll with her fingers, and her hand pauses over the face: this is no face, a blank area of towel, and it troubles her. Her hand searches for features, and taps questioningly for eyes, but no one notices. She then yanks at her
AUNT'S
dress, and taps again vigorously for eyes.)

AUNT EV:
What, child?

(Obviously not hearing,
HELEN
commences to go around, from person to person, tapping for eyes, but no one attends or understands.)

KATE
[
NO BREAK
]: As long as there's the least chance. For her to see. Or hear, or—

KELLER:
There isn't. Now I must finish here.

KATE:
I think, with your permission, Captain, I'd like to write.

KELLER:
I said no, Katie.

AUNT EV:
Why, writing does no harm, Arthur, only a little bitty letter. To see if he can help her.

KELLER:
He can't.

KATE:
We won't know that to be a fact, Captain, until after you write.

KELLER
[
RISING, EMPHATIC
]: Katie, he can't.

(He collects his papers.)

JAMES
[
FACETIOUSLY
]: Father stands up, that makes it a fact.

KELLER:
You be quiet! I'm badgered enough here by females without your impudence.

(
JAMES
shuts up, makes himself scarce.
HELEN
now is groping among things on
KELLER'S
desk, and paws his papers to the floor.
KELLER
is exasperated.)

Katie.

(
KATE
quickly turns
HELEN
away, and retrieves the papers.)

I might as well try to work in a henyard as in this house—

JAMES
[
PLACATING
]: You really ought to put her away, Father.

KATE
[
STARING UP
]: What?

JAMES:
Some asylum. It's the kindest thing.

AUNT EV:
Why, she's your sister, James, not a nobody—

JAMES:
Half sister, and half-mentally defective, she can't even keep herself clean. It's not pleasant to see her about all the time.

KATE:
Do you dare? Complain of what you
can
see?

KELLER
[
VERY ANNOYED
]: This discussion is at an end! I'll thank you not to broach it again, Ev.

(Silence descends at once.
HELEN
gropes her way with the doll, and
KELLER
turns back for a final word, explosive.)

I've done as much as I can bear, I can't give my whole life to it! The house is at sixes and sevens from morning till night over the child, it's time some attention was paid to Mildred here instead!

KATE
[
GENTLY DRY
]: You'll wake her up, Captain.

KELLER:
I want some peace in the house, I don't care how, but one way we won't have it is by rushing up and down the country every time someone hears of a new quack. I'm as sensible to this affliction as anyone else, it hurts me to look at the girl.

KATE:
It was not our affliction I meant you to write about, Captain.

(
HELEN
is back at
AUNT EV,
fingering her dress, and yanks two buttons from it.)

AUNT EV:
Helen! My buttons.

(
HELEN
pushes the buttons into the doll's face.
KATE
now sees, comes swiftly to kneel, lifts
HELEN'S
hand to her own eyes in question.)

KATE:
Eyes?

(
HELEN
nods energetically.)

She wants the doll to have eyes.

(Another kind of silence now, while
KATE
takes pins and buttons from the sewing basket and attaches them to the doll as eyes.
KELLER
stands, caught, and watches morosely.
AUNT EV
blinks, and conceals her emotion by inspecting her dress.)

AUNT EV:
My goodness me, I'm not decent.

KATE:
She doesn't know better, Aunt Ev. I'll sew them on again.

JAMES:
Never learn with everyone letting her do anything she takes it into her mind to—

KELLER:
You be quiet!

JAMES:
What did I say now?

KELLER:
You talk too much.

JAMES:
I was agreeing with you!

KELLER:
Whatever it was. Deprived child, the least she can have are the little things she wants.

(
JAMES,
very wounded, stalks out of the room onto the porch; he remains here, sulking.)

AUNT EV
[
INDULGENTLY
]: It's worth a couple of buttons, Kate, look.

(
HELEN
now has the doll with eyes, and cannot contain herself for joy; she rocks the doll, pats it vigorously, kisses it.)

This child has more sense than all these men Kellers, if there's ever any way to reach that mind of hers.

(But
HELEN
suddenly has come upon the cradle, and unhesitatingly overturns it; the swaddled baby tumbles out, and
CAPTAIN KELLER
barely manages to dive and catch it in time.)

KELLER:
Helen!

(All are in commotion, the baby screams, but
HELEN
unperturbed is laying her doll in its place.
KATE
on her knees pulls her hands off the cradle, wringing them;
HELEN
is bewildered.)

KATE:
Helen, Helen, you're not to do such things, how can I make you understand—

KELLER
[
HOARSELY
]: Katie.

KATE:
How can I get it into your head, my darling, my poor—

KELLER:
Katie, some way of teaching her an iota of discipline has to be—

KATE
[
FLARING
]: How can you discipline an afflicted child? Is it her fault?

(
HELEN'S
fingers have fluttered to her
MOTHER'S
lips, vainly trying to comprehend their movements.)

KELLER:
I didn't say it was her fault.

KATE:
Then whose? I don't know what to do! How can I teach her, beat her—until she's black and blue?

KELLER:
It's not safe to let her run around loose. Now there must be a way of confining her, somehow, so she can't—

KATE:
Where, in a cage? She's a growing child, she has to use her limbs!

KELLER:
Answer me one thing, is it fair to Mildred here?

KATE
[
INEXORABLY
]: Are you willing to put her away?

(Now
HELEN'S
face darkens in the same rage as at herself earlier, and her hand strikes at
KATE'S
lips.
KATE
catches her hand again, and
HELEN
begins to kick, struggle, twist.)

KELLER:
Now what?

KATE:
She wants to talk, like—
be
like you and me.

(She holds
HELEN
struggling until we hear from the child her first sound so far, an inarticulate weird noise in her throat such as an animal in a trap might make; and
KATE
releases her. The second she is free
HELEN
blunders away, collides violently with a chair, falls, and sits weeping.
KATE
comes to her, embraces, caresses, soothes her, and buries her own face in her hair, until she can control her voice.)

Every day she slips further away. And I don't know how to call her back.

AUNT EV:
Oh, I've a mind to take her up to Baltimore myself. If that doctor can't help her, maybe he'll know who can.

KELLER
[
PRESENTLY, HEAVILY
]: I'll write the man, Katie.

(He stands with the baby in his clasp, staring at
HELEN'S
head, hanging down on
KATE'S
arm.

The lights dim out, except the one on
KATE
and
HELEN.
In the twilight,
JAMES, AUNT EV,
and
KELLER
move off slowly, formally, in separate directions;
KATE
with
HELEN
in her arms remains, motionless, in an image which overlaps into the next scene and fades only when it is well under way.

Without pause, from the dark down left we hear a man's voice with a Greek accent speaking:)

ANAGNOS:
—who could do nothing for the girl, of course. It was Dr. Bell who thought she might somehow be taught. I have written the family only that a suitable governess, Miss Annie Sullivan, has been found here in Boston—

(The lights begin to come up, down left, on a long table and chair. The table contains equipment for teaching the blind by touch—a small replica of the human skeleton, stuffed animals, models of flowers and plants, piles of books. The chair contains a girl of 20,
ANNIE SULLIVAN,
with a face which in repose is grave and rather obstinate, and when active is impudent, combative, twinkling with all the life that is lacking in
HELEN'S,
and handsome; there is a crude vitality to her. Her suitcase is at her knee.
ANAGNOS,
a stocky bearded man, comes into the light only towards the end of his speech.)