The Member of the Wedding Page #8

as long as I live.

Well, bawl then, misery.

Well, it looks like the show is over

and the monkey's dead.

- You think it's over, but it's not.

- Now, now, now, now, now.

You want to come down

and help me in the store tomorrow?

Polish some silver with the chamois rag?

You can even play

with those old watch springs.

If you think it's all over,

that only shows how little you know.

They all complimented the wine punch.

- You got a touch with liquor, T.T.

- I do for a fact.

Well, I reckon it's because

I keep the liquor on the outside of me

instead of on the in, most of the time.

Who's that?

- Bernice.

- What are you doing out there?

- Douse the light.

- What are you doing out there?

- What are you afraid of?

- Turn off the light.

- Are you drunk?

- I'm scared out of being drunk.

- You in trouble.

- The law's after me.

Honey, what have you done now?

Well, I borrowed this car, and...

John Henry, what are doing here like that?

You want to catch your death?

- I feel funny, Bernice.

- No, you don't.

Now, go home to bed before

your mama comes back and finds you here.

- I'm sick, Bernice.

- No, you're not. You just want attention.

Now, run on home, candy.

I don't have the patience

to fool with you tonight.

- What happened?

- Well, I borrowed this car.

- The car hit a man hard, like, to kill him.

- And you run away?

You fool, Honey Brown, you fool.

- Was it a white man?

- I think so.

Bernice, you got to help me.

They put me on the road again

for this for sure.

- Lf I'm lucky, they put me on the road.

- Don't talk like that.

T.T., I have to ask you to do this for me.

Here's all the money I got.

You want me

to take him out of town in my car?

Please.

Bernice, I...

Honey. Honey.

You will be careful.

You be careful, both of you.

Lord, you took Ludie,

won't you please

watch over Honey Camden?

He's all the family I've got left.

- You heard me, pick that up!

- Pick it up yourself.

You clean that up.

I'm not your slave to walk around

after you and clean up your dirt.

You pig, you. Get out!

Get out of here! Go someplace and die!

Hey, there.

I saw you through the window.

Hello.

- Where are you going?

- I don't know, Savannah, I guess.

I have to go back to camp tomorrow.

Boy, I sure will be glad

to get out of this old town.

Three days I've been here, three days,

and nobody has even said hello to me.

All they want to say

is how much something costs.

What's the matter?

Well, what's the matter?

I think they're after me.

My father might have sent them.

You see, I've decided to leave home.

There's a back room.

We can go in there.

Come on. Bring the beer.

Well, let's sit down.

- Drink up.

- No, I don't think I want anymore, thank you.

Well, don't be scared.

Let's go outside. They probably went away.

It's nicer in here.

Let go!

Papa.

Bernice? Bernice?

Bernice?

John Henry. John Henry!

John Henry's bad sick.

Don't make any noise.

I'll come up.

You stay there. The doctor doesn't know

what ails John Henry yet,

it might be catching.

But he'd like to see me.

He's too sick, Frankie. Now you go to bed.

How bad is he sick, Bernice?

He's... He's...

The whole house seems so hollow.

It gives me a creepy feeling

watching them take our things out.

Occasionally, when it gets so quiet like this,

I have a strange feeling.

It's like John Henry

is hovering in this kitchen,

solemn-looking and ghost-gray.

I don't see why he had to suffer so,

that poor little soul.

I never believed John Henry would die.

It's funny.

I felt so sad, and I missed him so much,

but lately I can hardly even picture him.

He's like a little white ghost

going further and further away.

And to think I said, "Run along, candy.

I don't have the patience to fool with you. "

- It's just judgment on me.

- I'm forgetting about him.

Sometimes I never think of him once,

all day long.

That's natural. You're growing up.

I'll thank you not to be banging

that old sewing machine around like that.

I've had 22 years service out of it,

and there's still plenty use in it yet.

Okay, okay.

Bernice, I wish

you didn't have to give quitting orders

just because we're all moving together.

But your papa won't be needing me

with your Aunt Pat keeping house.

- What's that?

- Rachmaninoff.

I'm just mad about Rachmaninoff.

Mary is just beginning this concerto.

She may play it for her debut

when she is 18 years old.

Mary playing the piano,

and a whole orchestra playing at one

and the same time, mind you.

- Awfully hard.

- Mary Littlejohn?

I don't know why you always have to speak

her name in a tinged voice like that.

Have I ever said anything against her?

All I said was she's too lumpy,

marshmallow white,

and she makes me nervous to see her

sitting there sucking on them pigtails.

Braids.

Furthermore, there's no use

our discussing a certain party.

You could never possibly understand,

it's just not in you.

Be that as it may,

let us not fuss or quarrel our last afternoon.

I don't want to fuss either.

Besides, it's not our last afternoon.

I'll come and see you often.

No, you won't, baby.

You'll have other things to do.

Your road is already strange to me now.

You still have the fox fur

that Ludie gave you.

Somehow this little fur

looks so sad, so thin,

with a sad little fox-wise face.

Got every reason to look sad with

what's happened these past few months.

And I just don't know...

I don't know what I've done to deserve it.

The way Honey looked

when the judge said 10 years.

John Henry, my little boy, gone.

It's peculiar the way it all happened so fast.

First Honey caught,

then later in that same week,

John Henry died,

and then I got to know Mary.

As the irony of fate would have it,

we first got to know each other

in front of the lipsticks

and cosmetics counter at Woolworth's.

And it was the week of the fair.

- Frankie. Hey, Frankie.

- Yes, Barney.

- Is Mary there?

- No.

It's Barney McKean.

I'm meeting her at our new house at 5:00.

- Come on in, Barney, won't you?

- Okay.

Barney puts me in mind of a Greek god.

- Barney puts you in mind of what?

- Of a Greek god.

Mary remarked

that Barney reminded her of a Greek god.

It looks like I can't understand

a thing you say no more.

You know, those old-timey Greeks

worshipped those Greek gods.

But what has that got to do

with Barney McKean?

On account of the figure.

Hi, Greek god Barney.

This afternoon I seen your initials

chalked down on the sidewalk.

"M.L. Loves B.M."

If I could find out who did it,

I'd rub it out with their faces.

- Did you do it, Frankie?

- I wouldn't do a kid thing like that.

I even resent you asking me.

Resent you asking me.

- Mary can't stand me anyhow.

- Yes, she can stand you.

I'm her most intimate friend,

I ought to know.

As a matter of fact, she's told me

several lovely compliments about you.

I'm riding on the moving van

to our new house.

Would you like to come along?

- Sure.

- Okay.

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