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Summer and Smoke Lines > Part I — Scene 1 > Flashcards

Part I — Scene 1 Flashcards

1
Q

WINEMILLER. Mother, hush! I believe they wanted to hear you sing again, Alma.

A

Open my bag, Father. My fingers have frozen stiff! I don’t know what came over me—absolute panic! Never, never again, it isn’t worth it—the tortures that I go through!

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2
Q

WINEMILLER. (Anxiously.) You’re having one of your nervous attacks?

A

My heart’s beating so! It seemed to be in my throat the whole time I was singing! Was it noticeable, Father?

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3
Q

WINEMILLER. You sang extremely well, Alma. But you know how I feel
about this; it was contrary to my wishes and I cannot imagine why
you wanted to do it, especially since it seemed to upset you so.

A

I don’t see how anyone could object to my singing at a patriotic occasion. If I had just sung well! But I barely got through it. At one point I thought that I wouldn’t. The words flew out of my mind. Did you notice the pause?

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4
Q

WINEMILLER. No.

A

Blind panic! They really never came back, but I went on singing—I think I must have been improvising the lyric! Is there a handkerchief in it?

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5
Q

WINEMILLER. Shh, Mother!

A

Circulation is slowly coming back…

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6
Q

WINEMILLER. Sit back quietly and take a deep breath, Alma.

A

Yes, my handkerchief—now…

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7
Q

WINEMILLER. Mother, there isn’t any ice-cream man.

A

No, there isn’t any ice-cream man, Mother. But on the way home Mr. Doremus and I will stop by the drug store and pick up a pint of ice cream.

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8
Q

WINEMILLER. Are you intending to stay here?

A

Until the concert is over. I promised Roger I’d wait for him.

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9
Q

WINEMILLER. I suppose you have noticed who is by the fountain?

A

Shhh!

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10
Q

WINEMILLER. Hadn’t you better wait on a different bench?

A

This is where Roger will meet me.

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11
Q

MRS. WINEMILLER. Strawberry, Alma. Chocolate, chocolate and strawberry mixed! Not vanilla!

A

Yes, yes, Mother— vanilla…

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12
Q

JOHN. Hey! Hey, you! Are you all right?

A

I can’t seem to— catch my breath! Who threw it?

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13
Q

JOHN. Some little rascal.

A

Where?

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14
Q

JOHN. He ran away quick when I hollered!

A

There ought to be an ordinance passed in this town forbidding firecrackers.

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15
Q

JOHN. Dad and I treated fifteen kids for burns the last couple of days. I think you need a little restorative, don’t you? Here!

A

What is it?

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16
Q

JOHN. Applejack brandy.

A

No, thank you.

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17
Q

JOHN. Liquid dynamite.

A

I’m sure. You’re—home for the summer? Summer is not the pleasantest time of year to renew an acquaintance with Glorious Hill—is it? The Gulf wind has failed us this year, disappointed us dreadfully this summer. We used to be able to rely on the Gulf wind to cool the nights off for us, but this season has been an exceptional season.

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18
Q

JOHN. Are you—disturbed about something?

A

That firecracker was a shock.

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19
Q

JOHN. You should be over that shock by now.

A

I don’t get over shocks quickly.

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20
Q

JOHN. I see you don’t.

A

You’re planning to stay here and take over some of your father’s medical practice?

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21
Q

JOHN. I haven’t made up my mind about anything yet.

A

I hope so. We all hope so. Your father’s so proud of you and so pleased over your accomplishments. Last time I went in the office, you should have heard him singing your praises. Telling me how you’d graduated Magna cum Laude from Johns Hopkins. That’s in Boston, isn’t it?

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22
Q

JOHN. No, Baltimore.

A

Oh, Baltimore! Baltimore, Maryland. Such a beautiful combination of names! And I have been told that Johns Hopkins is the finest medical college in the world—practically.

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23
Q

ALMA. And I have been told that Johns Hopkins is the finest medical college in the world—practically. (JOHN tries to interrupt, but she goes on.)

A

It must be a great satisfaction, it must be a real thrill to you, to be standing on the threshold of a career in such a noble profession as I think medicine is. And I seriously believe it is something to which some people are divinely appointed, just appointed by God!

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24
Q

ALMA. And I seriously believe it is something to which some people are divinely appointed, just appointed by God! (JOHN crosses R., below bench, to up R.)

A

There is so much suffering in the world it actually makes one sick to think about it, and most
of us are so helpless to relieve it, but a physician! Oh, my!

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25
ALMA. There is so much suffering in the world it actually makes one sick to think about it, and most of us are so helpless to relieve it, but a physician! Oh, my! (JOHN turns up to drink at fountain, ALMA follows, to his R.)
With his magnificent gifts and training what a joy it must be to know that he is equipped and appointed to bring relief to all of this fearful suffering—and fear!
26
ALMA. With his magnificent gifts and training what a joy it must be to know that he is equipped and appointed to bring relief to all of this fearful suffering—and fear! (JOHN tries to speak.)
And it’s an expanding profession— it’s a profession that is continually widening its horizons. So many diseases have already come under scientific control, but the commencement is just—beginning. I mean there is so much more that is yet to be done, such as mental afflictions to be brought under control… And with your father’s example to inspire you! Oh, my!
27
JOHN. I didn’t know you had so many ideas about the medical profession.
Well, I am a great admirer of your father, as well as a patient. It’s such a comfort knowing that he's right next door, within arm’s reach as it were!
28
JOHN. Why? Do you have fits?
Fits? Why, no, but I do have attacks!— of nervous heart trouble. Which can be so alarming that I run straight to your father!
29
JOHN. At two or three in the morning?
Yes, as late as that, even… occasionally. He’s very patient with me.
30
JOHN. But does you no good?
He always reassures me.
31
JOHN. Temporarily?
Yes...
32
JOHN. Don't you want more than that?
What?
33
JOHN. It's none of my business.
What were you going to say?
34
JOHN. You're Dad's patient. But I have an idea...
Please go on! Now you have to go on! You can't leave me up in the air! What were you going to tell me?
35
JOHN. Only that I suspect you need something more than a little temporary reassurance.
WHY? Why? You think it's more serious than———?
36
JOHN. You're swallowing air.
I'm what?
37
JOHN. You're swallowing air, Miss Alma.
I'm swallowing air?
38
JOHN. Yes, you swallow air when you laugh or talk. It’s a little trick that hysterical women get into.
Ha-ha!...
39
JOHN. You swallow air and it presses on your heart and gives you palpitations. That isn’t serious in itself but it’s a symptom of something that is. Shall I tell you frankly?
Yes!
40
JOHN. Well, what I think you have is a doppelganger! You have a doppelganger and the doppelganger is badly irritated.
Oh, my goodness! I have an irritated doppelganger!? How awful that sounds! What exactly is it?
41
JOHN. It’s none of my business. You are not my patient.
But that’s downright wicked of you! To tell me I have something awful-sounding as that, and then refuse to let me know what it is!
42
JOHN. I shouldn’t have said anything! I’m not your doctor…
Just how did you arrive at this—diagnosis of my case? But of course you're teasing me. Aren’t you?... There, the Gulf wind is stirring! He’s actually moving the leaves of the palmetto! And listen to it complaining…
43
JOHN. Who is that?
I’m surprised that you don’t know.
44
JOHN. I’ve been away quite a while.
That’s the Zacharias girl…. Her father’s the owner of the gambling casino on Moon Lake. She smiled at you, didn’t she?
45
JOHN. I thought she did.
I hope that you have a strong character.
46
JOHN. Solid rock.
The pyrotechnical display is late in starting.
47
JOHN. The what?
The fireworks.
48
JOHN. Aw.
I suppose you've lost touch with most of your old friends here?
49
JOHN. Yeah.
You must make some new ones! I belong to a little group that meets every Wednesday. I think you'd enjoy them, too. They’re young people with—intellectual interests…
50
JOHN. Aw, I see...
You must come!—some time—I’m going to remind you of it…
51
JOHN. Thanks. Do you mind if I sit down?
Why, certainly not, there's room enough for two! Neither of us are—terribly large in diameter!
52
NELLIE. (Off R.) Good-bye!
Here comes someone much nicer! One of my adorable little vocal pupils, the youngest and prettiest one with the least gift for music.
53
JOHN. I know that one.
Hello, there, Nellie dear!
54
NELLIE. Oh, Miss Alma, your singing was so beautiful it made me cry.
It’s sweet of you to fib so, I sang terribly.
55
NELLIE. I did, but you know how dictionaries are. You look up one long word and it gives you another, and you look up that one and it gives you the long word you looked up in the first place. I’m coming over tomorrow for you to explain it all to me.
What book is she talking about?
56
JOHN. A book I gave her—about the facts of nature. She came over to the office and told me her mother wouldn’t tell her anything, and she had to know because she’d fallen in love.
Why, the precocious little—imp!
57
JOHN. What sort of a mother has she?
Mrs. Ewell’s the merry widow of Glorious Hill. They say that she goes to the depot to meet every train in order to make the acquaintance of traveling salesmen. Of course she is ostracized by all but a few of her own type of women in town, which is terribly hard for Nellie. It isn’t fair to the child. Father didn’t want me to take her as a pupil because of her mother’s reputation, but I feel that one has a duty to perform toward children in such—circumstances…. And I always say that life is such a mysteriously complicated thing that no one should really presume to judge and condemn the behavior of anyone else! There goes the first skyrocket! Oh, look at it burst into a million stars!
58
JOHN. Do you have a chill?
Why, no!—no. Why?
59
JOHN. You’re shaking.
Am I?
60
JOHN. Don't you feel it!
I have a touch of malaria lingering on.
61
JOHN. You have malaria?
Never severely, never really severely. I just have touches of it that come and go.
62
JOHN. Why do you laugh that way?
What way?
63
JOHN. Yeah. That way.
I do declare, you haven't changed in the slightest! It used to delight you to embarrass me, and it still does!
64
JOHN. I guess I shouldn't tell you this, but I heard an imitation of you at a party.
Imitation? Of what?
65
JOHN. You.
I?—I? Why, what did they imitate?
66
JOHN. You singing at a wedding.
My voice?
67
JOHN. Your gestures and facial expression!
How mystifying!
68
JOHN. No, I shouldn’t have told you. You’re upset about it.
I am not in the least upset, I am just mystified.
69
JOHN. Don’t you know that you have a reputation for putting on airs a little— for gilding the lily a bit?
I have no idea what you are talking about.
70
JOHN. Well, some people seem to have gotten the idea that you are just a little bit—affected!
Well, well, well, well. That may be so, it may seem so to some people. But since I am innocent of any attempt at affectation, I really don’t know what I can do about it.
71
JOHN. You have a rather fancy way of talking.
Have I?
72
JOHN. “Pyrotechnical display” instead of “fireworks,” and that sort of thing.
So?
73
JOHN. And how about that accent?
Accent? This leaves me quite speechless! I have sometimes been accused of having a put-on accent by people who disapprove of goof diction. My father was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and while over there he fell into the habit of using the long A where it is correct to use it. I suppose I must have picked it up from him, but it’s entirely unconscious. Who gave this imitation at this party you spoke of?
74
JOHN. I don’t think she’d want that told.
Oh, it was a she, then?
75
JOHN. You don't think a man could do it?
No, and I don't think a lady would either!
76
JOHN. I didn’t think it would have made you so mad, or I wouldn’t have brought it up.
Oh, I’m not mad, I’m just mystified and amazed as I always am by unprovoked malice in people. I don’t understand it when it’s directed at me—and I don’t understand it when it is directed at anybody else. I just don’t understand it—and perhaps it is better not to understand it. These people who call me affected and give these unkind imitations of me—I wonder if they stop to think that I have had certain difficulties and disadvantages to cope with—which may be partly the cause of these peculiarities of mine—which they find so offensive!
77
JOHN. Now, Miss Alma, you’re making a mountain out of a mole-hill!
I wonder if they stop to think that my circumstances are somewhat different from theirs? My father and I have a certain—cross—to bear!
78
JOHN. What cross?
Living next door to us, you should know what cross.
79
JOHN. Oh—Mrs. Winemiller?
She had her breakdown while I was still in high school. And from that time on I have had to manage the rectory and take over the social and household duties that would ordinarily belong to a minister’s wife, not his daughter. And that may have made me seem strange to some of my more critical contemporaries. In a way it may have—deprived me of—my youth…
80
JOHN. You ought to go out with young people.
I am not a recluse. I don’t fly around here and there giving imitations of other people at parties. But I am not a recluse by any manner of means. Being a minister’s daughter I have to be more selective than most girls about the—society I keep. But I do go out now and then…
81
JOHN. I have seen you in the public library and the park—but only two or three times have I seen you out with a boy, and it was always someone like this Roger Doremus.
I’m afraid that you and I move in different circles. If I wished to be as outspoken as you are—which is sometimes just an excuse for being rude—I might say that I’ve yet to see you in the company of a—well, a—reputable young woman. You’ve heard unfavorable talk about me in your circle of acquaintances, and I’ve heard equally unpleasant things about you in mine.
82
ALMA. You’ve heard unfavorable talk about me in your circle of acquaintances, and I’ve heard equally unpleasant things about you in mine. (She rises.)
And the pity of it is that you are preparing to be a doctor. You’re intending to practice your father’s profession here in Glorious Hill. Most of us have no choice but to lead useless lives! But you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you with your wonderful gifts and your looks and your charm! You were given—surgeon’s fingers! You have a chance to serve humanity. Not just to go on enduring for the sake of endurance, but to serve a noble, humanitarian cause, to relieve human suffering.
83
ALMA. Not just to go on enduring for the sake of endurance, but to serve a noble, humanitarian cause, to relieve human suffering. (Crossing down to him.)
And what do you do about it? Everything that you can to alienate the confidence of nice people, who love and respect your father—driving your automobile at a reckless speed from one disorderly roadhouse to another! Heaven have mercy! What are you thinking of, John?—Behaving like an overgrown schoolboy who wants to be known as the wildest fellow in town! You know what I call it? I call it a desecration!
84
JOHN. You’re not going to run off, are you?
Singing in public always—always upsets me!—Let go of my hand. Please let go of my hand.
85
JOHN. Don’t run off mad.
Let’s not make a spectacle of ourselves.
86
JOHN. Then sit back down.
You threw that firecracker and started a conversation just in order to tease me as you did as a child. You came to this bench in order to embarrass me and to hurt my feelings with the report of that vicious—imitation! No, let go of my hand so I can leave, now. You’ve succeeded in your purpose. I was hurt, I did make a fool of myself as you intended! So let me go now!
87
JOHN. You’re attracting attention! Don’t you know that I really like you, Miss Alma?
No—you don’t.
88
JOHN. Sure I do. A lot. Sometimes when I come home late at night I look over at the rectory. I see something white at the window. Could that be you, Miss Alma? Or is it your doppelganger looking out of the window that faces my way?
Enough about doppelganger—whatever that is!
89
JOHN. There goes a nice one, Roman candle they call it! Four—five—six—that’s all? No! Seven!
Dear me...
90
JOHN. How about going riding?
When?—now?
91
JOHN. Oh—some afternoon.
Would you observe the speed limit?
92
JOHN. Strictly with you, Miss Alma.
Why, then, I’d be glad to—John.
93
JOHN. —And wear a hat with a plume!
I don't have a hat with a plume!
94
ROGER. Whew! Golly! Moses!—Well, how did it go, Miss Alma?
How did—what—go?
95
ROGER. My solo on the French horn?
—I paid no attention to it.—I’ll have to hang on your arm—I’m feeling so dizzy!

Summer and Smoke Lines (13 decks)

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