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English III – American Literature
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The Storm
The Storm
Kate
Chopin
(1898/1969)
I
The
leaves were so still that even Bibi thought it was
going to rain. Bobinôt[1], who was
accustomed to converse on terms of perfect equality with his little son, called
the child's attention to certain sombre[2] clouds
that were rolling with sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a
sullen, threatening roar. They were at Friedheimer's
store and decided to remain there till the storm had passed. They sat within
the door on two empty kegs. Bibi[3] was four
years old and looked very wise.
"Mama'll be 'fraid, yes[4],"
he suggested with blinking eyes.
"She'll
shut the house. Maybe she got Sylvie helpin' her this evenin'," Bobinôt responded reassuringly.
"No;
she ent got Sylvie. Sylvie
was helpin' her yistiday,"
piped Bibi.
Bobinôt
arose and going across to the counter purchased a can of shrimps, of which Calixta[5] was very
fond. Then he returned to his perch on the keg and sat stolidly[6] holding
the can of shrimps while the storm burst. It shook the wooden store and seemed
to be ripping great furrows in the distant field. Bibi
laid his little hand on his father's knee and was not afraid.
Calixta, at home, felt no
uneasiness for their safety. She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a
sewing machine. She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching
storm. But she felt very warm and often stopped to mop her face on which the
perspiration gathered in beads. She unfastened her white sacque[7] at
the throat. It began to grow dark, and suddenly realizing the situation she got
up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors.
Out on the small front gallery she had hung Bobinôt's Sunday clothes to dry and she hastened out to
gather them before the rain fell. As she stepped outside, Alcée Laballière [8]rode
in at the gate. She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never
alone. She stood there with Bobinôt's coat in her
hands, and the big rain drops began to fall. Alcée
rode his horse under the shelter of a side projection where the chickens had
huddled and there were plows and a harrow[9]
piled up in the corner.
"May I come and wait on
your gallery till the storm is over, Calixta?" he asked.
"Come 'long in, M'sieur [10]Alcée."
His voice and her own startled
her as if from a trance, and she seized Bobinôt's
vest. Alcée, mounting to the porch, grabbed the
trousers and snatched Bibi's braided jacket that was
about to be carried away by a sudden gust of wind. He expressed an intention to
remain outside, but it was soon apparent that he might as well have been out in
the open: the water beat in upon the boards in driving sheets, and he went
inside, closing the door after him. It was even necessary to put something
beneath the door to keep the water out.
"My! what
a rain! It's good two years sence
it rain' like that," exclaimed Calixta as she rolled up a piece of bagging
and Alcée helped her to thrust it beneath the crack.
She was a little fuller of
figure than five years before when she married; but she had lost nothing of her
vivacity[11].
Her blue eyes still retained their melting quality; and her yellow hair, dishevelled by the wind and rain, kinked more stubbornly
than ever about her ears and temples.
The rain beat
upon the low, shingled roof with a force and clatter that threatened to
break an entrance and deluge[12]
them there. They were in the dining room—the sitting room—the general utility
room. Adjoining was her bed room, with Bibi's couch along side her own.
The door stood open, and the room with its white, monumental bed, its closed
shutters, looked dim and mysterious.
Alcée flung
himself into a rocker and Calixta nervously began to gather up from the floor
the lengths of a cotton sheet which she had been sewing.
"If this keeps up, Dieu sait
[13]if
the levees[14] goin' to stan
it!" she exclaimed.
"What have you got to do
with the levees?"
"I got enough to do! An'
there's Bobinôt with Bibi
out in that storm—if he only didn' left Friedheimer's!"
"Let us hope, Calixta, that Bobinôt's got sense
enough to come in out of a cyclone."
She went and stood at the
window with a greatly disturbed look on her face. She wiped the frame that was
clouded with moisture. It was stiflingly[15]
hot. Alcée got up and joined her at the window,
looking over her shoulder. The rain was coming down in sheets obscuring the
view of far-off cabins and enveloping the distant wood in a gray mist. The
playing of the lightning was incessant. A bolt struck a tall chinaberry tree at
the edge of the field. It filled all visible space with a blinding glare and
the crash seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon.
Calixta put her hands to her
eyes, and with a cry, staggered backward. Alcée's arm
encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him.
"Bonté![16]"
she cried, releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the
window, the house'll go next! If I only knew w'ere Bibi was!" She would
not compose herself; she would not be seated. Alcée
clasped her shoulders and looked into her face. The contact of her warm,
palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms,
had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh.
"Calixta," he said,
"don't be frightened. Nothing can happen. The house is too low to be
struck, with so many tall trees standing about. There! aren't
you going to be quiet? say, aren't you?" He
pushed her hair back from her face that was warm and steaming. Her lips were as
red and moist as pomegranate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full,
firm bosom disturbed him powerfully. As she glanced up at him the fear in her
liquid blue eyes had given place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed
a sensuous desire. He looked down into her eyes and there was nothing for him
to do but to gather her lips in a kiss. It reminded him of Assumption[17].
"Do you remember—in
Assumption, Calixta?" he asked in a low voice broken by passion. Oh! she remembered; for in Assumption he had kissed her and
kissed and kissed her; until his senses would well nigh
fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight. If she was not an immaculate[18]
dove in those days, she was still inviolate[19];
a passionate creature whose very defenselessness had made her defense, against
which his honor forbade him to prevail. Now—well, now—her lips seemed in a
manner free to be tasted, as well as her round, white throat and her whiter
breasts.
They did not heed the crashing
torrents, and the roar of the elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms.
She was a revelation in that dim, mysterious chamber; as white as the couch she
lay upon. Her firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for
the first time its birthright, was like a creamy lily that the sun invites to
contribute its breath and perfume to the undying life of the world.
The generous abundance of her
passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and
found response in depths of his own sensuous nature
that had never yet been reached.
When he touched her breasts
they gave themselves up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips. Her mouth was
a fountain of delight. And when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon[20]
together at the very borderland of life's mystery.
He stayed cushioned upon her,
breathless, dazed, enervated[21],
with his heart beating like a hammer upon her. With one hand she clasped his
head, her lips lightly touching his forehead. The other hand stroked with a
soothing rhythm his muscular shoulders.
The growl of the thunder was
distant and passing away. The rain beat softly upon the shingles, inviting them
to drowsiness and sleep. But they dared not yield.
The rain was over; and the sun
was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems. Calixta, on the
gallery, watched Alcée ride away. He turned and
smiled at her with a beaming face; and she lifted her pretty chin in the air
and laughed aloud.
Bobinôt and Bibi, trudging home, stopped without at the cistern[22]
to make themselves presentable.
"My! Bibi,
w'at will yo' mama say! You
ought to be ashame'. You oughta'
put on those good pants. Look at 'em! An' that mud on
yo' collar! How you got that mud on yo' collar, Bibi? I never saw
such a boy!" Bibi was the picture of pathetic
resignation. Bobinôt was the embodiment of serious solicitude[23]
as he strove to remove from his own person and his son's the signs of their
tramp over heavy roads and through wet fields. He scraped the mud off Bibi's bare legs and feet with a stick and carefully
removed all traces from his heavy brogans[24].
Then, prepared for the worst—the meeting with an over-scrupulous housewife,
they entered cautiously at the back door.
Calixta was preparing supper.
She had set the table and was dripping coffee at the hearth. She sprang up as
they came in.
"Oh,
Bobinôt! You back! My! but I was uneasy. W'ere you been
during the rain? An' Bibi? he ain't wet? he
ain't hurt?" She had clasped Bibi
and was kissing him effusively[25]. Bobinôt's explanations and apologies which he had been
composing all along the way, died on his lips as Calixta felt him to see if he
were dry, and seemed to express nothing but satisfaction at their safe return.
"I brought you some
shrimps, Calixta," offered Bobinôt, hauling the
can from his ample side pocket and laying it on the table.
"Shrimps! Oh, Bobinôt! you too good fo' anything!" and she gave him a smacking kiss on the
cheek that resounded, "J'vous réponds[26],
we'll have a feas' to-night! umph-umph!"
Bobinôt and Bibi began to relax and enjoy themselves, and when the
three seated themselves at table they laughed much and
so loud that anyone might have heard them as far away as Laballière's.
Alcée Laballière wrote to his wife, Clarisse, that night. It was
a loving letter, full of tender solicitude. He told her not to hurry back, but
if she and the babies liked it at Biloxi, to stay a month longer. He was
getting on nicely; and though he missed them, he was willing to bear the
separation a while longer—realizing that their health and pleasure were the
first things to be considered.
As for Clarisse, she was
charmed upon receiving her husband's letter. She and the babies were doing
well. The society was agreeable; many of her old friends and acquaintances were
at the bay. And the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the
pleasant liberty of her maiden days. Devoted as she was to her husband, their
intimate conjugal[27]
life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while.
So the storm passed and
everyone was happy.
Copyright thiesmeyer.net 2014
[1] Bobinôt – French male name (bow – bi – no)
[2] Sombre Adj. – Drab; lacking brightness or color
[3] Bibi – French male name (bee – bee)
[4] Mama'll be 'fraid, yes –
Spelled this way to represent a southern Louisiana accent
[5] Calixta – French
female name (ka – lee – ta)
[6] Stolidly – adv.
Showing little or no emotion
[7] Sacque N. – A woman’s
loose fitting, hip-length coat (sack)
[8] Alcée Laballière – French
first name & surname (al – say • lah – buy – yer)
[9] Harrow N – A farm
implement similar to a multi-tined plow
[10] M'sieur – French for “mister” (mih – syur)
[11] Vivacity N – Youthfulness
[12] Deluge N – A severe
flood (dell – yoojz)
[13] Dieu sait – French for “God (only) knows” (dyoo – say)
[14] Levees N – High piled
dirt used to keep flood waters out of low-lying plains (leh
– vees)
[15] Stiflingly Adj. –
Suffocating or smothering
[16] Bonté – French for “Heavens!”
[17] Assumption – Place: A
Parish (like a county) in southern Louisiana (between Baton Rouge & New
Orleans)
[18] Immaculate Adj. – Pure;
unmolested; flawless
[19] Inviolate Adj. – Unharmed
(not violated)
[20] Swoon V – To faint
(usually from intense emotion)
[21] Enervated V – To cause
someone to be drained of energy
[22] Cistern N – A tank for
storing water/an underground reservoir for rainwater (sis – turn)
[23] Solicitude N – Care or
concern for something
[24] Brogans N – A heavy,
ankle high work shoe
[25] Effusively Adv. – Marked
by excessive emotion
[26] J'vous
responds – French for “Let me tell you”
[27] Conjugal Adj. – Of or
relating to marriage or a relationship between a husband and wife