飘（第五章）Gone with the wind(5)

Chapter 5 Scarlett Taking Care of Melanie


(Atlanta prayed while onward surged the triumphant Yankees...Heads were high, but hearts were heavy, as the wounded and the refugees poured into unhappy Georgia......In the hospital, Scarlett helps out as a nurse there, but her patience was easily suffocated by the dying and screaming there.)

Priest: With the Lord as my shepherd I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. With the sword at my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of "righteousness for his namesake. Yea, though I walked through the valley at the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

VOICE: Mrs. Hamilton, Dr. Wilson is waiting.

SCARLETT: Let him wait, I\'m going home, I\'ve done enough.I don\'t want any more men dying and screaming, I don\'t want anymore.

(Scarlett runs out of the hospital onto the street, where she finds the whole city is shaking in the flame of war. Everyone is fleeing. She is totally at a loss what to do, then Butler comes with a carriage.)

RHETT: Scarlett! Whoah. Climb into this buggy, this is no day for walking, you\'ll get run over.

SCARLETT: Rhett, ride me to where Aunt Pitty is, please.

RHETT: Panic\'s a pretty sight, isn\'t it. Whoah, whoah. That\'s just another one of General Shermans calling cards. He\'ll be paying us a visit soon.

SCARLETT: I\'ve gotta get out of here, I gotta get out of here before the Yankees come.

RHETT: And leave your work at the hospital? Or have you had enough of death and lice
and men chopped up? Well I suppose you weren\'t meant for sick men, Scarlett.

SCARLETT: Don\'t talk to me like that, Rhett, I\'m so scared, I wish I\'d get out of here!

RHETT: Let\'s get out of here together. No use staying here, letting the South come down around your ears. There are too many nice places to go and visit. Mexico, London, Paris...

SCARLETT: With you?

RHETT: Yes Ma\'am. I\'m the man who understands you and admires you for just what you are. I figure we belong together, being the same sort. I\'ve been waiting for you to grow up and get that sad-eyed Ashley Wilkes out of your heart. Well, I hear Mrs. Wilkes is going to have a baby in 60another month or so. It\'s be hard loving a man with a wife and baby clinging to him. Well, here we are. Are you going with me or are you getting out?

SCARLETT: I hate and despise you, Rhett Butler. And I\'ll hate and despise you till I die!

RHETT: Oh, no, you won\'t, Scarlett, not that long.
(The Hamiltons. Scarlett is packing, preparing for leaving.)

DR. MEADE: What is this? You ain\'t planning on running away?

SCARLETT: And don\'t you dare try to stop me. I\'m never going back to that hospital, I\'ve had enough of smelling death and rot and death...I\'m going home, I want my mother. My mother needs me.

DR. MEADE: You\'ve got to listen to me. You must stay here.

AUNT PITTY: Without a chaperone, Dr. Meade, it simply isn\'t done.

DR. MEADE: Good Heaven\'s woman, this is war, not a garden party. Scarlett, you\'ve got to stay, Melanie needs you.

SCARLETT: Oh, bother Melanie!

DR. MEADE: She\'s ill already. She shouldn\'t even be having a baby. She may have a difficult time.

SCARLETT: Can\'t we take her along?

DR. MEADE: Would you want her to take that chance? Would you want her to be taunted over rough roads and have the baby ahead of time in the buggy?

SCARLETT: It isn\'t my baby, you take care of it.

DR. MEADE: Scarlett, we haven\'t enough doctors, much less nurses to look after a sick woman. You\'ve got to stay for Melanie.

SCARLETT: What for? I don\'t know anything about babies being borne.

PRISSY: I knows! I knows! I knows how to do it. I\'ve done it lots and lots. let me doctor, let me. I can do everything.

DR. MEADE: Good. Then I\'ll rely on you to help us.

PRISSY: Yes Doctor.

DR. MEADE: Ashley\'s fighting on the field. Fighting for the cause. He may never come back. He may die. Scarlett, we owe him a well borne child. AUNT PITTY: If you\'re coming Scarlett, hurry!

SCARLETT: I promised Ashley, something.

DR. MEADE: Then you\'ll stay? Good. Go along Miss Pittifett. Scarlett\'s staying.

SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy! Come here Prissy! Go pack my things and Miss Melanie\'s, too. We\'re to Tara right away, the Yankees are coming.

MELANIE: Scarlett! Scarlett! SCARLETT: Oh, Melanie, we\'re going to... Melanie.

MELANIE: I\'m sorry to be such a bother, Scarlett. It\'ll begin at daybreak.

SCARLETT: But, the Yankees are coming.

MELANIE: Poor Scarlett...you\'d be at Tara now with your mother, wouldn\'t you? If it weren\'t for me...Oh, Scarlett darling, you\'ve been so good to me. No sister could have been sweeter. I\'ve been lying here thinking, if I should die, will you take my baby?

SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee, Melanie, aren\'t things bad enough without you talking about dying? I\'ll send for Dr.Meade right away.

MELANIE: Not yet, Scarlett. I couldn\'t let Dr. Meade sit here for hours while, while all those poor, badly wounded boys...

SCARLETT: Prissy! Prissy come here quick! Prissy, go get Dr. Meade, run quick! Don\'t stand there like a scared goat, run! Hurry, Hurry! I\'ll sell you South I will, I swear I will! I\'ll sell you South!
(Later, Prissy comes back alone. Scarlett has to find the doctor herself.)

PRISSY: Is the doctor coming?

SCARLETT: No, he can\'t come.

PRISSY: Oh, Miss Scarlett, Miss Melanie bad off!

SCARLETT: He can\'t come, there\'s nobody to come. Prissy,you\'ve got to manage without the doctor. I\'ll help you.

PRISSY: Oh, lawdsy, Miss Scarlett!

SCARLETT: What is it?

PRISSY: Lawdsy, we\'ve got to have a doctor! I don\'t know nothing about birthing babies.

SCARLETT: What do you mean? You told me you knew everything about it!

PRISSY: I don\'t know how can I tell such a lie. Ma ain\'t never let me around when folks was having them.


SCAELETT: Go! Stop it! Go light a fire on the stove. Get boiling water in the kettle. Get me a ball of twine, and all the clean towels you can find, and, the scissors. And don\'t come telling me you can\'t find them. Go get them and get them quick!