Summer and Smoke Page #7

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Here you are.

Well, this takes care.

Of almost all my

Christmas shopping.

Probably think of something

I forgot when I get home.

We'll be open till 9:00.

Thank you.

Hello, Twyla.

Oh, Nellie, merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Bye.

Oh, Miss Alma!

Miss Alma, it's good to see you.

Why, Nellie. Nellie Ewell.

I tried to see you, but

they said you were sick.

Not sick. Just not well.

My, you are grown up, Nellie.

It's just my clothes.

I pick my own clothes now.

Your voice is grown up, too.

They taught me diction.

I'm learning to talk like you.

Long A's and everything...

Can't, bath, laugh.

Yesterday I slipped.

I said I laughed and laughed.

Until I nearly died laughing.

Johnny was so amused at me.

Johnny?

Your next-door neighbor

Dr. Johnny,

Somebody whose feelings

you've hurt very badly,

Somebody who says you've

refused to see him.

Did he say that?

Yes, he did.

Oh, but I thought he

didn't want to see me.

Of course, I've seen nobody.

For the last several months.

The wind is penetrating

this afternoon.

Gosh. I almost forgot your

present for Christmas.

Open it. Now?

Please. So prettily wrapped.

Since it was for you,

I did a dainty job of it.

I'll save this sprig of holly.

I'll pin it on you.

Yes. Do.

What an exquisite handkerchief.

It's from Maison Blanche.

Smell it.

Sachet of roses.

Well... I can't tell you how...

How touched and pleased I am.

Read the card.

"Joyous Noel to Alma..."

From John"?

I was helping him

wrap presents last night.

When we came to yours,

We started talking about you.

You mean, he spoke well of me?

Well of?

We raved, simply raved.

He told me the influence

you had on him.

He told me about you last summer.

When he was so mixed up.

And how you were responsible.

For his pulling himself together.

After his father was killed.

He regards you

as an angel, Miss Alma.

This is the only angel

in Glorious Hill,

And her body is stone,

And her blood is mineral water.

Run along now, Nellie,

And deliver

your Christmas presents.

Wait till I've told you

the wonderfullest thing.

Nellie, good-bye.

Good-bye, Miss Alma.

[Knock on door]

No greeting?

No greeting at all?

Hello, Miss Alma.

It's rather late to tell

you how happy I am.

And how proud of you, John.

I feel almost as your

father might have if...

And are you happy now, John?

I've settled with life.

On fairly acceptable terms.

Isn't that all a

reasonable person can ask?

No.

I think he can

ask for much more.

I think he can ask

for the coming true.

Of his most improbable dreams.

It's best not to ask

for too much.

Oh, I disagree.

I say ask for all.

And, of course,

be prepared to get nothing.

You know, I haven't been well.

Your father told me.

For a while, I felt as

though I were going to die.

When did you have that feeling?

August, September.

Soon after you left.

But now the gulf wind.

Has blown that feeling away.

Like a cloud of smoke.

I know now that I am not dying.

It isn't going to

turn out to be...

Quite that simple.

Have you been anxious

about your heart again?

And now the stethoscope.

Why don't you say anything?

What can I say, Miss Alma?

Oh, you've gone back.

To calling me Miss Alma again.

We never really

got past that point.

Yes, we did.

We were so close we

almost breathed together.

Did you think that?

I knew it.

Is it impossible now?

I don't think

I know what you mean.

Please, be honest with me.

I once said no.

You may remember the time,

With all that demented

howling from the cockfight,

But the girl who said no,

She doesn't exist anymore.

She died last summer,

Suffocated from the smoke,

Something on fire inside of her,

And she doesn't live now,

But she left me

her ring, you see?

And she said to me,

When she slipped

this ring on my finger,

"Remember. I died empty-handed,

So make sure that your hands

have something in them."

And I said, "What about pride?"

And she said,

"Forget about pride.

"Whenever it stands.

Between you

and what you must have."

And I said...

"But what if he

doesn't want me?"

I don't know what she said then.

I don't know whether she

said anything at all.

Her lips stopped moving.

I think...

she stopped breathing.

You've won the argument.

What argument?

About the chart.

Chart.

Yes.

It shows we're not a

package of rose leaves.

I've come around to

your way of thinking.

Something else is there,

An immaterial something,

Thin as smoke.

It can't be seen,

It can't be shown,

But it's there, just the same.

Are you speaking of

a spiritual relationship?

I don't want to be talked to.

As though I were some

incurably sick patient.

That you have to comfort.

I wasn't trying...

I'm glad you've come around.

To my way of thinking,

But don't try to deceive me.

I've come here to speak

on equal terms.

It's no longer a secret

that I love you.

It never was.

I have loved you.

As long ago as our childhood,

When I used to hear your

friends calling your name.

"Johnny, Johnny."

Oh, how it went through me.

Just to hear your name called.

Yes...

It had begun that early,

this affliction of love,

And it's never

let go of me since.

But kept on growing

until at last.

It's overwhelmed

and possessed me.

Tell me, how did I fail?

Why didn't it happen between us?

How can two people

come so close and no closer?

Whenever we've gotten together,

Those three or four times...

As few as that?

We seem to be trying

to find something.

In each other.

Something...

It wasn't body hunger,

Although I acted as if I thought.

It might be that one night.

I know.

It wasn't the physical you.

That I really wanted.

You've told me.

You didn't have that to give.

Not at that time!

You had something else to give.

You couldn't name it,

And I couldn't recognize it.

I thought it was

a puritanical ice.

That glittered like flame.

Now I believe it was flame,

Mistaken for ice.

I still don't understand it...

But I know it was there,

Just as I know that your

eyes and your voice.

Are the two most

beautiful things

I've ever known,

And also the warmest,

Although they don't

seem to be set.

In your body at all.

You talk as though my... my body.

Had ceased to exist

for you, John,

In spite of the fact.

That you just counted my pulse.

Oh...

The tables have turned.

Yes.

The tables have turned

with a vengeance.

Ha ha ha!

I've come around

to your old way of thinking,

You, to mine,

Like two people who

call on each other.

On the same day.

Each finds the other gone out,

And the door locked,

And no one to answer the bell.

I came here this afternoon.

To tell you that

your being a gentleman.

Isn't important to me anymore.

You're telling me that

I must remain a lady.

Yes...

The tables have turned

with a vengeance.

The air in here smells of ether.

It's making me dizzy.

Do you remember.

Those little white tablets

you once gave me?

I've used them all up,

And I would like some more.

I'll write the

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