Gone with the Wind Page #6

SCARLETT:

Ashley's picture and Charles' sword, she wants us to

bring them.

RHETT:

Get them.

(They venture all the way. At last they are pretty

near Tara. Rhett suddenly stops.)

SCARLETT:

Why did you stop?

RHETT:

This is the turn to Tara. I let the horse breathe a

bit. Mrs. Wilkes...

PRISSY:

Miss Melanie done fainted way back. Captain Butler.

RHETT:

She's probably better off. She couldn't stand the

pain if she were conscious. Scarlett, are you still

determined to do this crazy thing?

SCARLETT:

Oh, yes, yes, I know we can get through it, I'm sure

we can.

RHETT:

Not we, my dear, you. I'm leaving you here.

SCARLETT:

You're what? Rhett, where are you going?

RHETT:

I'm going, my dear, to join the army.

SCARLETT:

Oh, you're joking. I could kill you for scaring me

so.

RHETT:

I'm very serious, Scarlett. I'm going to join up with

our brave lads in gray.

SCARLETT:

But they're running away.

RHETT:

Oh, no, they'll turn and make a last stand, if I know

anything about them. And when they do, I'll be with

them. I'm a little late, but better late than...

SCARLETT:

Rhett, you must be joking.

RHETT:

Selfish to the end, aren't you? Thinking of your own

precious hide with never a thought for the noble

cause.

SCARLETT:

Rhett, how could you do this to me, and why should

you go now that, after it's all over and I need you,

why? Why?

RHETT:

Why? Maybe it's because I've always had a weakness

for lost causes, once they're really lost. Or maybe,

maybe I'm ashamed of myself. Who knows?

SCARLETT:

You should die of shame to leave me here alone and

helpless.

RHETT:

You, helpless? Heaven help the Yankees if they

capture you. Now climb down here. I want to say

goodbye.

SCARLETT:

No.

RHETT:

Climb down.

SCARLETT:

Oh Rhett, please don't go. You can't leave me,

please, I'll never forgive you.

RHETT:

I'm not asking you to forgive me. I'll never

understand or forgive myself. And if a bullet gets

me, so help me, I'll laugh at myself for being an

idiot. But there's one thing that I do know. And that

is I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and

the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I

love you. Because we're alike. Bad lots, both of us.

Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the

eyes and call them by their right names.

SCARLETT:

Don't hold me like that.

RHETT:

Scarlett, look at me. I love you more than I've ever

loved any woman. And I've waited longer for you than

I've ever waited for any woman.

(Butler is pressing his lips onto Scarlett's.)

SCARLETT:

Let me alone!

RHETT:

Here's a soldier of the South that loves you,

Scarlett. Wants to feel your arms around him, wants

to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with

him. Never mind about loving me. You're a woman who's

sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful

memory. Scarlett, kiss me, kiss me, once.

SCARLETT:

You're a low-down, cowardly, nasty thing, you! They

were right. Everybody was right, you, you aren't a

gentleman.

RHETT:

A minor point at such a moment. Here, if anyone lays

a hand on that nag, shoot him. But don't make a

mistake and shoot the nag.

SCARLETT:

Oh, go on. I want you to go. I hope a cannonball

lands slap on you, I hope you're blown into a million

pieces, I...

RHETT:

Never mind the rest, I follow your general idea. And

when I'm dead on the order of my country, I hope your

conscience heard you. Good-bye Scarlett.

(Scarlett drives on.)

SCARLETT:

Melanie, Melanie, we're home! We're at Tara! Hurry,

move brute!

PRISSY:

Oh, Miss Scarlett, he's dead!

SCARLETT:

I can't see the house, is it there? I can't see the

house, have they burned it? It's all right, it's all

right, they haven't burned it. It's still there!

(Tara had survived, to face the hell and famine of

defeat.)

SCARLETT:

Mother! Mother, I'm home! Mother, I'm home! Mother

let me in, it's me, Scarlett. Oh, Paw, I'm home, I'm

home... I'm home.

Mr. O'HARA

Careful, careful Scarlett...

SCARLETT:

Mammy, mammy, I'm home.

MAMMIE:

Oh, honey child...

SCARLETT:

Mammy, I'm so, so....where's mother?

MAMMIE:

Why...Miss Sue Ellen, Miss Carreen, they were sick

with the typhoid. They had it bad, but they's doing

all right now. Just weak like little kittens.

SCARLETT:

But, where's mother?

MAMMIE:

Well, Miss Ellen, she went down to nurse that Emmy

Sladdly, that white trash. And she took down with it,

too. Then last night, she...

SCARLETT:

Mother? Mother? Mother!

(Scarlett walks into her mother's room faintly.

There, in dark and quietness, lies Mrs. O'Hara. She's

dead.)

Mammy

Miss Scarlett honey...

SERVANT:

If there's anything I can do, Miss Scarlett...

SCARLETT:

What did you do with Miss Melanie?

MAMMIE:

Don't you worry your pretty head about Miss Melanie,

child. I done slapped her in bed already along with

the baby.

SCARLETT:

You better put that cow I brought into the barn,

Paul.

SERVANT:

There ain't no barn. MAMMIE

Don't you worry your pretty head about Miss Melanie,

child. I done slapped her in bed already along with

the baby.

SCARLETT:

You better put that cow I brought into the barn,

Paul.

SERVANT:

There ain't no barn no more, Miss Scarlett. The

Yankees done burned it to firewood.

MAMMIE:

They used the house for their headquarters Miss

Scarlett.

SERVANT:

They camped all around the place. SCARLETT

Yankees in Tara?

MAMMIE:

Yes'm. And they stole almost everything they didn't

burn. All the clothes, and all the rugs, and even

Miss Ellen's rosaries.

SCARLETT:

I'm starving, Paul. Get me something to eat.

MAMMIE:

There ain't nothing to eat honey. They took it all.

SCARLETT:

All the chickens, everything? SERVANT

They took them the first day. And what they didn't

eat they carried off across their saddles.

SCARLETT:

Don't tell me any more about what they did.

(Scarlett goes into the room, finding her father in

solitude.)

SCARLETT:

What's this , Paw? Whisky?

Mr. O'HARA

Yes daughter. Katie Scarlett, that's enough. Your not

knowing spirits, you'll make yourself 'tipsy.

SCARLETT:

I hope it makes me drunk. I'd like to be drunk. Oh,

Paw...what are those papers?

Mr. O'HARA

Bonds. They're all we've saved. All we have left.

Bonds.

SCARLETT:

But what kind of bonds, Paw?

Mr. O'HARA

Why, Confederate bonds of course, darling.

SCARLETT:

Confederate bonds. What good are they to anybody?

Mr. O'HARA

I'll not have you talking like that, Katie Scarlett.

SCARLETT:

Oh, Paw, what are we going to do with no money and,

...and nothing to eat?

Mr. O'HARA

We must ask your mother. That's it. We must ask Mrs.

O'Hara.

SCARLETT:

Ask Mother?

Mr. O'HARA

Yes. Mrs. O'Hara will know what's to be done. Now

don't be bothering me. Go out for a ride. I'm busy.

SCARLETT:

Oh, Paw. Don't worry about anything. It is God's

hope. You needn't worry.

(Scarlett leaves the room, closing the door behind

her.)

MAMMIE:

Miss Scarlettt? What are we going to do with nothing

to feed them sick folks and that child?

SCARLETT:

I don't know Mammy. I don't know.

MAMMIE:

We ain't got nothing but radishes in the garden.

PRISSY:

Miss Scarlett, Miss Sue Ellen and Miss Corrine,

They's fussin to be sponged off.

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