Now the
VOA Special English Program "American Stories". Our
story today is called "Paul's Case". It was written by Willa Cather.
"Paul's Case" will be
told in two parts. Here is Kay Gallant with part one of the story.
Paul hated school. He did not do his homework.
He did not like his teachers. Paul's father did not know what to do with him.
His teachers did not know either. One afternoon, all his teachers at Pittsburgh
high school met together with him to discuss his case. Paul was late. When he
entered the room his teachers sat waiting for him.
He was tall for his age and very thin. His clothes were
too small for him, but they were clean. He had a bright red flower in the button
hole of his black jacket. One of the teachers asked paul why he had come to the
meeting. Paul said politely that he wanted to do better in school. This was a
lie. Paul often lied. His teachers began to speak. They had many complaints. One
said Paul talked to the other students instead of paying attention to the
lessons. Another said Paul always sat in class with his hands covering his eyes.
A third teacher said Paul looked out the window instead of looking at her. His
teachers attacked him without mercy.
Paul's eyesbrows moved up and down as his teachers spoke.
His smile never left his face, but his fingers shook as he touched the flower on
his coat. At last the meeting was over. Paul's smile got even wider. He bowed
gracefully and left the room.
His teachers were angry and confused. The art teacher
spoke for all of them when he said there was something about paul that he didn't
understand. "I don't think he really means to be bad," he said. "There's just
something wrong with that boy." Then the art teacher remembered one warm
afternoon when Paul had fallen asleep in his class. Paul's face was white with
thin blue veins under the skin. The boy's face looked tired and lined, like an
old man's. His eyebrows moved up and down, even in his sleep.
After he left the meeting, Paul ran down the hill from the
school whistling. He was late for his job at the concert hall. Paul was an usher
there. He showed people to their seats. He carried messages for them. He brought
them their programs with a polite bow. Everyone thought he was a charming boy
and the best usher at the hall.
When Paul reached the concert hall that evening, he went
immediately to the dressing room. About six boys were already there. Paul began
changing his clothes with excited hands. He loved his green uniform with the
gold pockets and design.
Paul rushed into the concert hall as soon as he had
changed clothes. He ran up and down the hall, helping people. He became more and
more excited. His face became pink and his eyes seemed larger and very bright.
He looked almost handsome. At last everyone was seated. The orchestra began to
play and Paul sat down with a sign of relief.
The music seemed to free something in Paul's spirit. Then
a woman came out and began to sing. She had a rich, strong soprano voice. Paul
felt truly happy for the first time that day.
At the end of the concert Paul went back to the dressing
room. After he had changed his clothes again he went outside the concert hall.
He decided to wait for the singer to come out. While he waited he looked across
the street to the large hotel called "The Schenley." All the important people
stayed at The Schenley when they visited Pittsburgh. Paul had never been inside
it, but he used to stand near the hotel's wide glass doors. He liked to watch
the people enter and leave. He believed if he could only enter this kind of a
hotel, he would be able to leave school, his teachers, and his ordinary, gray
life behind him... forever.
At last the singer came out of the concert hall. Paul
followed her as she walked to the hotel. He was part of a large crowd of
admirers who had waited to see her. When they all reached the hotel, she turned
and waved. Then the doors opened and she disappeared inside. Paul stared into
the hotel as the doors slowly closed. He could feel the warm, sweet air inside.
And for a moment, he felt part of a golden world of sparkling lights and marble
floors. He thought about the mysterious dishes of food being served in the
hotel's dining room. He thought about green bottles of wine growing cold in
silver buckets of ice.
He turned away from the hotel and walked home. He thought
of his room with its horrible yellow wallpaper, the old bed with its ugly red
cover. He shook his head.
Soon he was walking down the street where he lived. All
the houses on Cordelia Street were exactly alike. Middle class businessmen had
bought them for their families. All their children went to school and to church.
They loved arithmetic. As Paul walked toward his house he felt as if he were
drowning in ugliness. He longed for cool colors and soft lights and fresh
flowers. He didn't want to see his ugly bedroom or the cold bathroom with its
cracked mirror and gray floor.
Paul went around to the back of his father's house. He
found an open window and climbed into the kitchen. Then he went downstairs to
the basement. He was afraid of rats. But he did not want to face his own
bedroom. Paul couldn't sleep. He sat on the floor and stared into the darkness
until morning came.
The following Sunday Paul had to go to church with his
family. Afterwards, everyone came home and ate a big dinner. Then all the people
who lived on Cordelia Street came outside to visit each other.
After supper Paul asked his father if he could visit a
friend to get some help with his arithmetic. Paul left the house with his school
books under his arm. But he didn't go to his friend's house. Instead he went to
see Charley Edwards. Charley was a young actor. Paul liked to spend as much time
as he could at the theater where Charley Edwards and his group acted in their
plays.
It was only at the theater and the concert hall that Paul
felt really alive. The moment he smelled the air of these places he felt like a
prisoner suddenly set free. As soon as he heard the concert hall orchestra play
he forgot all the ugly, unpleasant events in his own life.
Paul had discovered that any kind of music awakened his
imagination.
Paul didn't want to become a musician, however. He didn't
want to become an actor, either. He only wanted to be near people who were
actors and musicians. He wanted to see the kind of life these artists led.
Paul found a schoolroom even worse after a night at the
theater or the concert hall. He hated the school's bare floors and cracked
walls. He turned away from his dull teachers in their plain clothes. He tried to
show them how little he thought of them and the studies they taught.
He would bring photographs of all the actors he knew to
school. He would tell the other students that he spent his evenings with these
people at elegant restaurants. Then he would announce that he was going away to
Europe or to California, or to Egypt for a while. The next day he would come to
school smiling nervously. His sister was ill, he would say. But he was still
planning to make his trip next spring.
Paul's problems at school became worse. Even after the
meeting with his teachers, things did not get better. He told them he had no
time to study grammar and arithmetic. He told them he had to help the actors in
the theater. They were old friends of his.
Finally, his teachers went to Paul's father. He took Paul
out of school and made him get a job. He told the manager at the concert hall
that Paul could not work there anymore. His father warned the doorman at the
theater not to let Paul into the place. And Charley Edwards promised Paul's
father not to see Paul again.
All the actors at the theater laughed when they heard
about the stories Paul had been telling. The women thought it was funny that
Paul had told people he took them out to nice restaurants and sent them flowers.
They agreed with the teachers and with his father that Paul's was a bad case.
You
have just heard part one of the American story "Paul's Case". It was
written by Willa Cather. Your storyteller was
Kay Gallant. |