and this dry comedy moves tl1e proceedings in tl1e direction of what I will call, lor the sake of brevity, the abyss. Suddenly, the mystery of existence opens up in front of Marian and the reader. Eudora Welty does all tlus by carefully inllecting every moment of the scene. Arter a few pages Marian's old ladies stop being pitiful creatures, old Southern ladies down on tl1eir luck, and seem more like Samuel Beckett's tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, in Wa~iing for Godot, struggling with time itself. The reader is given, moment by moment, very careful and close direction and detailing of the scene. Notice iliat this is a scene and is not summarized. Marian has walked into tl1e room with her gift of the potted plant. There are two old ladies in the room, one lying down and one standing up. The one who is standing up has a "terrible square smile stantped on her bony face." Think of that: a Lernble square smile. We're not told what makes it terrible. Nor are we told exactly how to visualize it. It seems contradictory. H er hand, "quick as a bird claw," grabs at Marian's cap. The room is dark and dank, and Marian starts to think of tl1e old ladies as robbers and the room as tl1e robbers' cave: '"Did you come to be our little girl for a while?' the first robber asked." The plant is snatched out of Marian's hand. "Flowers!" screan1ed ilie old woman. She stood holding the pot in an tmdecided way. "Pretty llo路wers," she added. Then tl1e old woman in bed cleared her tl1roat and spoke. "They are not pretty," she said, still 路without looking around, but very distinctly. After the first old woman repeats that tl1e flowers are pretty, the old woman who is lying down says in return, batting tl1e hall back, that the flowers are "stinkweed." So much for nice old ladies. Somewhat disarmingly, the old womau in bed is described as having a bunchy white forehead and red eyes like a sheep. '\Vhen she asks Marian, ''Who arc you?" tl1e line is interrupted by dashes to indicate slowness of speech, and tl1e author tells us iliat ilie words rise like fog in her iliroat and that tl1e words are FALL 2001
67