Carson McCullers

by Carson McCullers

  T. T.: I thought I’d better not minch the matter. Honey was in a bad way when I saw him this morning.

  BERENICE: Honey Camden don’t have too large a share of judgment as it is, but when he gets high on them reefers, he’s got no more judgment than a four-year-old child. Remember that time he swung at the police and nearly got his eyes beat out?

  T. T.: Not to mention six months on the road.

  BERENICE: I haven’t been so anxious in all my life. I’ve got two people scouring Sugarville to find him. (in a fervent voice) God, you took Ludie but please watch over my Honey Camden. He’s all the family I got.

  T. T.: And Frankie behaving this way about the wedding. Poor little critter.

  BERENICE: And the sorry part is that she’s perfectly serious about all this foolishness. (FRANKIE enters the kitchen through the hall door.) Is it all over? (T. T. crosses to the icebox with sandwiches.)

  FRANKIE: Yes. And it was such a pretty wedding I wanted to cry.

  BERENICE: You told them yet?

  FRANKIE: About my plans—no, I haven’t yet told them.

  (JOHN HENRY comes in and goes out.)

  BERENICE: Well, you better hurry up and do it, for they going to leave the house right after the refreshments.

  FRANKIE: Oh, I know it. But something just seems to happen to my throat; every time I tried to tell them, different words came out.

  BERENICE: What words?

  FRANKIE: I asked Janice how come she didn’t marry with a veil. (with feeling) Oh, I’m so embarrassed. Here I am all dressed up in this tacky evening dress. Oh, why didn’t I listen to you! I’m so ashamed.

  (T. T. goes out with a platter of sandwiches.)

  BERENICE: Don’t take everything so strenuous like.

  FRANKIE: I’m going in there and tell them now! (She goes.)

  JOHN HENRY (coming out of the interior bedroom, carrying several costumes): Frankie sure gave me a lot of presents when she was packing the suitcase. Berenice, she gave me all the beautiful show costumes.

  BERENICE: Don’t set so much store by all those presents. Come tomorrow morning and she’ll be demanding them back again.

  JOHN HENRY: And she even gave me the shell from the Bay. (He puts the shell to his ear and listens.)

  BERENICE: I wonder what’s going on up there. (She goes to the door and opens it and looks through.)

  T. T. (returning to the kitchen): They all complimenting the wedding cake. And drinking the wine punch.

  BERENICE: What’s Frankie doing? When she left the kitchen a minute ago she was going to tell them. I wonder how they’ll take this total surprise. I have a feeling like you get just before a big thunder storm.

  (FRANKIE enters, holding a punch cup.)

  BERENICE: You told them yet?

  FRANKIE: There are all the family around and I can’t seem to tell them. I wish I had written it down on the typewriter beforehand. I try to tell them and the words just—die.

  BERENICE: The words just die because the very idea is so silly.

  FRANKIE: I love the two of them so much. Janice put her arms around me and said she had always wanted a little sister. And she kissed me. She asked me again what grade I was in in school. That’s the third time she’s asked me. In fact, that’s the main question I’ve been asked at the wedding.

  (JOHN HENRY comes in, wearing a fairy costume, and goes out. BERENICE notices FRANKIE’s punch and takes it from her.)

  FRANKIE: And Jarvis was out in the street seeing about this car he borrowed for the wedding. And I followed him out and tried to tell him. But while I was trying to reach the point, he suddenly grabbed me by the elbows and lifted me up and sort of swung me. He said: “Frankie, the lankie, the alaga fankie, the tee-legged, toe-legged, bow-legged Frankie.” And he gave me a dollar bill.

  BERENICE: That’s nice.

  FRANKIE: I just don’t know what to do. I have to tell them and yet I don’t know how to.

  BERENICE: Maybe when they’re settled, they will invite you to come and visit with them.

  FRANKIE: Oh no! I’m going with them.

  (FRANKIE goes back into the house. There are louder sounds of voices from the interior. JOHN HENRY comes in again.)

  JOHN HENRY: The bride and the groom are leaving. Uncle Royal is taking their suitcases out to the car.

  (FRANKIE runs to the interior room and returns with her suitcase. She kisses BERENICE.)

  FRANKIE: Good-bye, Berenice. Good-bye, John Henry. (She stands a moment and looks around the kitchen.) Farewell, old ugly kitchen. (She runs out.)

  (There are sounds of good-byes as the wedding party and the family guests move out of the house to the sidewalk. The voices get fainter in the distance. Then, from the front sidewalk there is the sound of disturbance. FRANKIE’s voice is heard, diminished by distance, although she is speaking loudly.)

  FRANKIE’S VOICE: That’s what I am telling you. (Indistinct protesting voices are heard.)

  MR. ADDAMS’ VOICE (indistinctly): Now be reasonable, Frankie.

  FRANKIE’S VOICE (screaming): I have to go. Take me! Take me!

  JOHN HENRY (entering excitedly): Frankie is in the wedding car and they can’t get her out. (He runs out but soon returns.) Uncle Royal and my Daddy are having to haul and drag old Frankie. She’s holding onto the steering wheel.

  MR. ADDAMS’ VOICE: You march right along here. What in the world has come into you? (He comes into the kitchen with FRANKIE who is sobbing.) I never heard of such an exhibition in my life. Berenice, you take charge of her.

  (FRANKIE flings herself on the kitchen chair and sobs with her head in her arms on the kitchen table.)

  JOHN HENRY: They put old Frankie out of the wedding. They hauled her out of the wedding car.

  MR. ADDAMS (clearing his throat): That’s sufficient, John Henry. Leave Frankie alone. (He puts a caressing hand on FRANKIE’s head.) What makes you want to leave your old papa like this? You’ve got Janice and Jarvis all upset on their wedding day.

  FRANKIE: I love them so!

  BERENICE (looking down the hall): Here they come. Now please be reasonable, Sugar.

  (The bride and groom come in. FRANKIE keeps her face buried in her arms and does not look up. The bride wears a blue suit with a white flower corsage pinned at the shoulder.)

  JARVIS: Frankie, we came to tell you good-bye. I’m sorry you’re taking it like this.

  JANICE: Darling, when we are settled we want you to come for a nice visit with us. But we don’t yet have any place to live. (She goes to FRANKIE and caresses her head. FRANKIE jerks.) Won’t you tell us good-bye now?

  FRANKIE (with passion): We! When you say we, you only mean you and Jarvis. And I am not included. (She buries her head in her arms again and sobs.)

  JANICE: Please, darling, don’t make us unhappy on our wedding day. You know we love you.

  FRANKIE: See! We—when you say we, I am not included. It’s not fair.

  JANICE: When you come visit us you must write beautiful plays, and we’ll all act in them. Come, Frankie, don’t hide your sweet face from us. Sit up. (FRANKIE raises her head slowly and stares with a look of wonder and misery.) Good-bye, Frankie, darling.

  JARVIS: So long, now, kiddo.

  (They go out and FRANKIE still stares at them as they go down the hall. She rises, crosses towards the door and falls on her knees.)

  FRANKIE: Take me! Take me!

  (BERENICE puts FRANKIE back on her chair.)

  JOHN HENRY: They put Frankie out of the wedding. They hauled her out of the wedding car.

  BERENICE: Don’t tease your cousin, John Henry.

  FRANKIE: It was a frame-up all around.

  BERENICE: Well, don’t bother no more about it. It’s over now. Now cheer up.

  FRANKIE: I wish the whole world would die.

  BERENICE: School will begin now in only three more weeks and you’ll find another bosom friend like Evelyn Owen you so wild about.

  JOHN HENRY (seated below the sewing machine): I’m sick, Berenice. My head hur
ts.

  BERENICE: No you’re not. Be quiet, I don’t have the patience to fool with you.

  FRANKIE (hugging her hunched shoulders): Oh, my heart feels so cheap!

  BERENICE: Soon as you get started in school and have a chance to make these here friends, I think it would be a good idea to have a party.

  FRANKIE: Those baby promises rasp on my nerves.

  BERENICE: You could call up the society editor of the Evening Journal and have the party written up in the paper. And that would make the fourth time your name has been published in the paper.

  FRANKIE (with a trace of interest): When my bike ran into that automobile, the paper called me Fankie Addams, F-A-N-K-I-E. (She puts her head down again.)

  JOHN HENRY: Frankie, don’t cry. This evening we can put up the teepee and have a good time.

  FRANKIE: Oh, hush up your mouth.

  BERENICE: Listen to me. Tell me what you would like and I will try to do it if it is in my power.

  FRANKIE: All I wish in the world, is for no human being ever to speak to me as long as I live.

  BERENICE: Bawl, then, misery.

  (MR. ADDAMS enters the kitchen, carrying FRANKIE’s suitcase, which he sets in the middle of the kitchen floor. He cracks his finger joints. FRANKIE stares at him resentfully, then fastens her gaze on the suitcase.)

  MR. ADDAMS: Well, it looks like the show is over and the monkey’s dead.

  FRANKIE: You think it’s over, but it’s not.

  MR. ADDAMS: You want to come down and help me at the store tomorrow? Or polish some silver with the shammy rag? You can even play with those old watch springs.

  FRANKIE (still looking at her suitcase): That’s my suitcase I packed. If you think it’s all over, that only shows how little you know. (T. T. comes in.) If I can’t go with the bride and my brother as I was meant to leave this town, I’m going anyway. Somehow, anyhow, I’m leaving town. (FRANKIE raises up in her chair.) I can’t stand this existence—this kitchen—this town—any longer! I will hop a train and go to New York. Or hitch rides to Hollywood, and get a job there. If worse comes to worse, I can act in comedies. (She rises.) Or I could dress up like a boy and join the Merchant Marines and run away to sea. Somehow, anyhow, I’m running away.

  BERENICE: Now quiet down—

  FRANKIE (grabbing the suitcase and running into the hall): Please, Papa, don’t try to capture me.

  (Outside the wind starts to blow.)

  JOHN HENRY (from the doorway): Uncle Royal, Frankie’s got your pistol in her suitcase.

  (There is the sound of running footsteps and of the screen door slamming.)

  BERENICE: Run catch her.

  (T. T. and MR. ADDAMS rush into the hall, followed by JOHN HENRY.)

  MR. ADDAMS’ VOICE: Frankie! Frankie! Frankie!

  (BERENICE is left alone in the kitchen. Outside the wind is higher and the hall door is blown shut. There is a rumble of thunder, then a loud clap. Thunder and flashes of lightning continue. BERENICE is seated in her chair, when JOHN HENRY comes in.)

  JOHN HENRY: Uncle Royal is going with my Daddy, and they are chasing her in our car. (There is a thunder clap.) The thunder scares me, Berenice.

  BERENICE (taking him in her lap): Ain’t nothing going to hurt you.

  JOHN HENRY: You think they’re going to catch her?

  BERENICE (putting her hand to her head): Certainly. They’ll be bringing her home directly. I’ve got such a headache. Maybe my eye socket and all these troubles.

  JOHN HENRY (with his arms around BERENICE): I’ve got a headache, too. I’m sick, Berenice.

  BERENICE: No you ain’t. Run along, Candy. I ain’t got the patience to fool with you now.

  (Suddenly the lights go out in the kitchen, plunging it in gloom. The sound of wind and storm continues and the yard is a dark storm-green.)

  JOHN HENRY: Berenice!

  BERENICE: Ain’t nothing. Just the lights went out.

  JOHN HENRY: I’m scared.

  BERENICE: Stand still, I’ll just light a candle. (muttering) I always keep one around, for such like emergencies. (She opens a drawer.)

  JOHN HENRY: What makes the lights go out so scarey like this?

  BERENICE: Just one of them things, Candy.

  JOHN HENRY: I’m scared. Where’s Honey?

  BERENICE: Jesus knows. I’m scared, too. With Honey snow-crazy and loose like this—and Frankie run off with a suitcase and her Papa’s pistol. I feel like every nerve been picked out of me.

  JOHN HENRY (holding out his seashell and stroking BERENICE): You want to listen to the ocean?

  THE CURTAIN FALLS

  SCENE 2

  The scene is the same. There are still signs in the kitchen of the wedding: punch glasses and the punch bowl on the drainboard. It is four o’clock in the morning. As the curtain rises, BERENICE and MR. ADDAMS are alone in the kitchen. There is a crepuscular glow in the yard.

  MR. ADDAMS: I never was a believer in corporal punishment. Never spanked Frankie in my life, but when I lay my hands on her . . .

  BERENICE: She’ll show up soon—but I know how you feel. What with worrying about Honey Camden, John Henry’s sickness and Frankie, I’ve never lived through such a anxious night. (She looks through the window. It is dawning now.)

  MR. ADDAMS: I’d better go and find out the last news of John Henry, poor baby. (He goes through the hall door.)

  (FRANKIE comes into the yard and crosses to the arbor. She looks exhausted and almost beaten. BERENICE has seen her from the window, rushes into the yard and grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her.)

  BERENICE: Frankie Addams, you ought to be skinned alive. I been so worried.

  FRANKIE: I’ve been so worried too.

  BERENICE: Where have you been this night? Tell me everything.

  FRANKIE: I will, but quit shaking me.

  BERENICE: Now tell me the A and the Z of this.

  FRANKIE: When I was running around the dark scarey streets, I begun to realize that my plans for Hollywood and the Merchant Marines were child plans that would not work. I hid in the alley behind Papa’s store, and it was dark and I was scared. I opened the suitcase and took out Papa’s pistol. (She sits down on her suitcase.) I vowed I was going to shoot myself. I said I was going to count three and on three pull the trigger. I counted one—two—but I didn’t count three—because at the last minute, I changed my mind.

  BERENICE: You march right along with me. You going to bed.

  FRANKIE: Oh, Honey Camden!

  (HONEY CAMDEN BROWN, who has been hiding behind the arbor, has suddenly appeared.)

  BERENICE: Oh, Honey, Honey. (They embrace.)

  HONEY: Shush, don’t make any noise; the law is after me.

  BERENICE (in a whisper): Tell me.

  HONEY: Mr. Wilson wouldn’t serve me so I drew a razor on him.

  BERENICE: You kill him?

  HONEY: Didn’t have no time to find out. I been runnin’ all night.

  FRANKIE: Lightfoot, if you drew a razor on a white man, you’d better not let them catch you.

  BERENICE: Here’s six dolla’s. If you can get to Fork Falls and then to Atlanta. But be careful slippin’ through the white folks’ section. They’ll be combing the county looking for you.

  HONEY (with passion): Don’t cry, Berenice.

  BERENICE: Already I feel that rope.

  HONEY: Don’t you dare cry. I know now all my days have been leading up to this minute. No more “boy this—boy that”—no bowing, no scraping. For the first time, I’m free and it makes me happy. (He begins to laugh hysterically.)

  BERENICE: When they catch you, they’ll string you up.

  HONEY (beside himself, brutally): Let them hang me—I don’t care. I tell you I’m glad. I tell you I’m happy. (He goes out behind the arbor.)

  FRANKIE (calling after him): Honey, remember you are Lightfoot. Nothing can stop you if you want to run away.

  (MRS. WEST, JOHN HENRY’s mother, comes into the yard.)

  MRS. WEST: What was all that ra
cket? John Henry is critically ill. He’s got to have perfect quiet.

  FRANKIE: John Henry’s sick, Aunt Pet?

  MRS. WEST: The doctors say he has meningitis. He must have perfect quiet.

  BERENICE: I haven’t had time to tell you yet. John Henry took sick sudden last night. Yesterday afternoon when I complained of my head, he said he had a headache too and thinking he copies me I said, “Run along, I don’t have the patience to fool with you.” Looks like a judgment on me. There won’t be no more noise, Mrs. West.

  MRS. WEST: Make sure of that. (She goes away.)

  FRANKIE (putting her arm around BERENICE): Oh, Berenice, what can we do?

  BERENICE (stroking FRANKIE’s head): Ain’t nothing we can do but wait.

  FRANKIE: The wedding—Honey—John Henry—so much has happened that my brain can’t hardly gather it in. Now for the first time I realize that the world is certainly—a sudden place.

  BERENICE: Sometimes sudden, but when you are waiting, like this, it seems so slow.

  THE CURTAIN FALLS

  SCENE 3

  The scene is the same: the kitchen and arbor. It is months later, a November day, about sunset.

  The arbor is brittle and withered. The elm tree is bare except for a few ragged leaves. The yard is tidy and the lemonade stand and sheet stage curtain are now missing. The kitchen is neat and bare and the furniture has been removed. BERENICE, wearing a fox fur, is sitting in a chair with an old suitcase and doll at her feet. FRANKIE enters.

  FRANKIE: Oh, I am just mad about these Old Masters.

  BERENICE: Humph!

  FRANKIE: The house seems so hollow. Now that the furniture is packed. It gives me a creepy feeling in the front. That’s why I came back here.

  BERENICE: Is that the only reason why you came back here?

  FRANKIE: Oh, Berenice, you know. I wish you hadn’t given quit notice just because Papa and I are moving into a new house with Uncle Eustace and Aunt Pet out in Limewood.

  BERENICE: I respect and admire Mrs. West but I’d never get used to working for her.

  FRANKIE: Mary is just beginning this Rachmaninoff Concerto. She may play it for her debut when she is eighteen years old. Mary playing the piano and the whole orchestra playing at one and the same time, mind you. Awfully hard.