The Member of the Wedding Page #6

Well, I was riding along

and I passed two stores with an alley

in between. The sun was frying hot.

And just as I passed this alley,

I caught a glimpse of something

out of the corner of my left eye.

A dark double shape.

And this glimpse brought to my mind,

so sudden and clear,

my brother and the bride, that I just stopped

and couldn't hardly bear

to look and see what it was.

And then I turned slowly and look.

And you know what was there?

It was just two boys. That was all.

But it gave me such a queer feeling.

This is the most remarkable thing

I ever heard of.

- What I mean is...

- I know. I know what you mean.

You mean right here

in the corner of your eyes,

you suddenly catch something.

A shiver runs through you.

You whirl around,

stand there facing you don't know what.

But not Ludie, not who you want.

And for a minute, you feel like

you've been dropped down a well.

Yes, that's it.

It's mighty remarkable.

It's a thing been happening to me all my life.

Yet, just now is the first time

I ever heard it put into words.

Yes, that's the way it is when you're in love.

I always maintained I never believed in love.

I never believed in love.

I have something to tell you,

and it's to be a warning.

You hear me, Frankie?

You hear me, John Henry?

Yes. I hear you, Bernice.

I'm here to tell you I was happy.

No human woman in all the world

was happier than I was in them days.

And that includes everybody.

The five years you were married to Ludie.

From that autumn morning

when I first met him

on the road in front

of Campbell's Filling Station,

up until the very night he died,

November, the year 1940.

The very year and the very month

I was born.

It was Thursday.

Thursday, long towards 6:00.

Around this time of day, only November.

I remember I went to the passage

and opened the front door.

Dark was coming on.

An old hound was howling far away.

And I go back in the room

and lay down on Ludie's bed.

And I lay myself over Ludie

with my arms spread out

and my face on his face.

And I prayed and asked the Lord

to contage my strength, my strength to him.

I even asked the Lord to let it be anybody,

but please don't let it be Ludie.

I laid there, I prayed.

Oh, how I've prayed.

Prayed for a long time,

until night.

Yet, that night he died.

I tell you he died.

Ludie.

Ludie Freeman.

Ludie Maxwell Freeman died.

It seems to me, I feel sadder

about Ludie than any other dead person,

although I never knew him.

I know I ought to cry sometimes

about my mother,

but it looks like I can't.

But Ludie...

Maybe it was because I was born

so soon after Ludie died.

But you were starting out to tell

some kind of a warning.

Don't you see what I was doing?

I loved Ludie.

He was the first man I ever loved.

Therefore, I had to go

and copy myself forever after.

And what I did was to marry off

just little pieces of Ludie

wherever I run across them.

And it was my misfortune

they all turned out to be the wrong pieces.

But my intentions

was to repeat me and Ludie.

Now don't you see?

I see what you're driving at. But I don't see

how it is a warning applied to me.

You don't?

Then I'll tell you.

You and that wedding tomorrow,

that's what I'm warning you about.

I see what you have in mind,

don't think I don't.

You think you're going to march up

to the preacher,

right in between your brother and the bride.

You think you're going

to break into that wedding,

and heavens only knows what else.

No.

I don't see myself walking

to the preacher with them.

I see through them eyes,

don't argue with me.

And what I'm warning you is this.

If you fall in love

with some unheard of thing like this,

what is ever going to happen to you?

Will you be trying to break into weddings

the rest of your days?

It makes me sick to listen to people

who don't have any sense!

You just like to talk about Ludie, that's all,

it's got nothing to do with me!

You're setting yourself this fancy trap

to catch yourself in trouble,

and you know it.

They will take me, you wait and see!

I'm only trying to reason seriously,

but I see it's no use.

You're just jealous!

You're just trying to deprive me

of all the pleasure of leaving town.

Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, Ti, Ti!

It could drive you wild!

Well, you didn't say anything

about Willis Rhodes. Why'd you marry him?

He have a mashed thumb,

or a code or something?

Now that... That really was something.

I only know he stole your furniture.

He was so terrible, you had to call the law.

That ain't all.

He was always running off somewhere.

So, imagine a cold, bitter January night,

if you can.

Me laying by myself on a big old pile of bed

and no one in the house,

'cause everybody had gone out

for the Saturday night.

Me, mind you, hates to sleep

in a big old empty bed by myself at anytime.

Well, come past 12:00 on this cold,

bitter January night...

Can you remember winter time, John Henry?

Well, imagine,

suddenly there come a sloughing sound,

and a tap, tap, tap, on the window,

and Miss me...

I...

So what? What happened?

The way you look. Will you look at yonder.

Just look at my two pigeons

and their four big ears.

What happened?

Come on, sugar. Let's roll out the dough

for the wind cookies.

If it's anything I mortally despise,

it's a person who starts off to tell something

and works up people's interest

and then stops!

I admit it.

I'm sorry, but it was one of them things

I suddenly realized

I couldn't tell you and John Henry.

You could've sent him

out of the room and told me.

Oh, no, precious,

Bernice couldn't do that either.

Don't think I care a particle

about what happened.

I just wish Willis Rhodes had come in

about that time and slit your throat.

I wish you'd stop talking so rude.

Now, here, candy. Here's a scrap of dough

for you to make your cookie then.

Cookies. Cookies. Cookies!

I intend to take two baths tonight.

One long soaking bath and scrub

with the brush.

I'm gonna try and scrape this crust

off my elbows,

then let out the dirty water,

take a second bath.

Great. Good idea.

I'd be glad to see you clean for a change.

I will take two baths.

Why is it against the law

to change your name?

What's that on your neck?

Thought that was a head you carried

on that neck. Just think.

Suppose I ups and calls myself

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.

John Henry here tries to palm himself off

as Henry Ford.

Don't talk childish.

That's not the kind of changing I mean.

I mean from a name that doesn't suit you

to a name you prefer.

Like I'd change from Frankie to F. Jasmine.

But it would still be confusion.

Suppose we all decided to change

to entirely different names.

Nobody would know

who anybody was talking about.

The whole world would go crazy.

I don't see what that has to do with it.

Because things accumulate around a name.

You have a name,

one thing after another happens to you,

things have accumulated around your name.

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