Drama: The Last Leaf

Story by O. Henry

SCENE ONE

One morning, after the doctor had finished his third visit, Sue followed him into the small dark space that served as a hallway.

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SUE:

How is she, Doctor? (worried)

DOCTOR:

Not good. Not good at all, I'm afraid. She has one chance in... let us say, ten. And that chance is for her to want to live. (patted her shoulder)

SUE:

Is there anything that I can do to help, Doctor? Even though we just have met six months ago and became friend since then, but I regard her as a sister. (sigh)

DOCTOR:

The little lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?

SUE:

She… well, she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day. (discern to the doctor)

DOCTOR:

Paint? Bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking about twice a man, for instance? (curiously)

SUE:

A man? Is a man worth… No, doctor, there's nothing of that kind.  (raising her voice)

DOCTOR:

Well, it's weakness, then. I'll do everything that medicine, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession, I subtract fifty percent from the curative power from medicines. What can you do to help? Well, if you can get her to show some interest in something, even the new winter styles in coat sleeves, then I'll promise you a one-in-five chance for her, instead of one-in-ten.

SCENE TWO

Sue arranged her board and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a magazine story in Johnsy’s room.

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JOHNSY:

[SHE IS COUNTING BACKWARDS.] Twelve! Eleven! Ten! Nine! Eight! (her eyes were wide open and she was staring out the window)

JOHNSY:

Seven! (coughs deeply)

SUE:

What is it, dear?

JOHNSY:

Six! They're falling faster now. Three days ago, there were almost a hundred. It made my headache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now. (gazing out the window from her bed)

SUE:

Five what, dear?

JOHNSY:

Leaves on the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known that for days. Didn't the doctor tell you?

SUE:

Oh, I've never heard of such nonsense. What do old ivy leaves have to do with your getting well? And you used to love that vine so much.

JOHNSY:

It's just a feeling I have. I don't know how I know, Sue, but somehow I do. I'm sure that when the last leaf falls off that vine, I'll die.

SUE:

Don't be a goose. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances of getting well real soon, were… Let's see, exactly what did he say? He said the chances were ten to one! Why, that's almost as good a chance as when we're in New York when we ride on the street cars or we pass a new building.

Try to take some broth now, won't you? And I'll go back to my drawing, so I can sell the editor with it, and buy port wine for my sick child, and pork chops for my greedy old self.

JOHNSY:

You needn't get any more wine. There goes another. No, I don't want any broth. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go, too. (teary eyes)

SUE:

Johnsy, dear, will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I'm done working? I must get those drawings done by tomorrow. I need the light, or I'd pull the shade down.

JOHNSY:

Couldn't you draw in the other room?

SUE:

I'd rather be here with you. Besides, I don't want you to keep looking at those silly ivy leaves. (pulled the blanket and wrapped her ‘till the chest)

JOHNSY:

All right, but tell me as soon as you've finished, because I want to see the last one fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.

SUE:

You try to get some sleep, now. I must go downstairs and see if Mr. Behrman will come up to be my model for the old hermit miner. I'll not be gone a minute. Don't try to move 'til I come back.

SCENE THREE

Sue found Behrman, an old man who lived one floor down smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly lighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece.

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SUE:

…she was counting backward. I asked her what she was counting and she said, "The ivy leaves." She's convinced when the last leaf falls, she will die too. I'm scared! (hasted)

BEHRMAN:

Vot are you speaking, dot my leetle Johnsy vants not to live? Nonsense! She must not think this vay. It is crazy. Why do you let it happen?

SUE:

Oh, I don't know, Mr. Behrman. It's... It's just that she's as light and fragile as a leaf herself. I guess I'm just afraid it'll all come true and she will die when the last leaf falls. (more anxious)

BEHRMAN:

Vass! Is dere people in der vorld with der foolishness to die because leaves they fall from a vine? I have not heard of such a thing. Why do you allow that silly business to come in der brain of her? No, I will not pose as a model for your fool hermit-dunderhead. Ach, poor leetle Miss Johnsy.

SUE:

She's very ill and weak, and the fever has left her mind full of strange, and morbid thoughts. Very well, Mr. Behrman, if you don't care to pose for me, you needn't. But I think you're a horrid old… old… old… fibbertigibbett.

BEHRMAN:

You are chust like a voman! Who said I vill not bose? Go on. I will come with you. For half an hour I haf peen trying to say dat I am ready to bose. Gott! Dis is not any place in which one so schones as Miss Johnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall all go avay. Goot? Ya!

SCENE FOUR

The next morning when Sue awoke from an hour's sleep, she found Johnsy with dulled, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn shade.

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SUE:

Have something to eat this morning, won't you Johnsy? Just a little broth or a taste of fruit.

JOHNSY:

Pull it up! I want to see. (pointed to the curtain)

SUE:

Look! Johnsy! It's still there! All that weather, and it's still there! (excited)

JOHNSY:

It's the last one. I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard so much wind. It will fall today, and I'll die at the same time. (amazed)

SUE:

Dear! Dear, Johnsy! Think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do if you should die?  (resuscitate her)

SCENE FIVE

JOHNSY:

Sue, come in here for a moment, will you? Sit here beside me. I have something to say.

SUE:

Johnsy, I wish you wouldn't keep on about the leaf. I really can't stand to hear you talk that way.

JOHNSY:

I know, Sue. I know. I promise. Don't go! Please don't go. (tagging Sue’s shirt)

SUE:

Well, all right. If you promise not to talk about death.

JOHNSY:

Oh, Sue! What an awful person I've been! I've been sitting here for the longest time, staring out the window at the last leaf, thinking of the past few days. All of a sudden it came to me. (affected)

SUE:

What? What came to you, Dear? (shocked)

JOHNSY:

Sue, something made that last leaf stay on the vine so that I'd realize how bad I've been. It was a message. Don't you see, Sue, something wanted me to live. (happy tears)

SUE:

Oh, Johnsy!

JOHNSY:

Someday, Sue, I'm going to paint the Bay of Naples.

SUE:

Oh, Johnsy! Johnsy! How wonderful! I'm so happy!

JOHNSY:

You can bring me a little broth now, and some milk with a little port in it, and, no; bring me a hand-mirror first; and pack some pillows about me, and I'll sit up and watch you cook.

SCENE SIX

The doctor came in the afternoon, and found Johnsy full of the color of life, and declared the battle won.

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DOCTOR:

She'll be just fine. All she needs now is good food and nursing.

SUE:

Thank you, Doctor. I'll see that she gets them.

DOCTOR:

Good! And now I must see another case I have downstairs. Behrman, his name is. Some kind of an artist, I believe.

SUE:

Oh, no, not Mr. Behrman. I hadn't heard. What's wrong with him?

DOCTOR:

Pneumonia, too.

SUE:

Oh, my God! Is it bad?

DOCTOR:

Yes, I'm sorry to say. Quite bad! He's an old man, he's very weak, and it was too late for me to do very much. There's no hope for him. But he goes to the hospital today to be made more comfortable.

SCENE SEVEN

[And late that afternoon, Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and very useless woolen shoulder scarf, and put one arm around Johnsy, pillows and all.]

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SUE:

I have something to tell you, dear. Our Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia today.

JOHNSY:

Oh, dear God, no!

SUE:

He'd been ill for only two days. On the morning of the first day, the janitor found him downstairs. His shoes and his clothing were wet, his apartment icy cold, and he was helpless with pain. At first, they couldn't imagine where he'd been on such a dreadful night. But then they found a lantern, still burning, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and in his room, they found brushes and a palette with green and yellow colors on them. Look out the window, at the last leaf. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? That leaf is Mr. Behrman's masterpiece. He painted it there that night--the night the last leaf fell.

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Jessica Nathania