Annie John

Annie begins to deceive her mother by slamming the gate whenever she wants her mother to think that she has just left or returned home. This allows her to surreptitiously access the treasures she hides under the porch. She cannot bear to part with books she has read, so she steals them, and she has become very skilled at “putting on an innocent face” to avoid suspicion (55). Whenever she feels her mother’s disapproval, Annie purposely appears to be absorbed in books just to impress her.

One day, Annie tries to knock down a guava from a tree, and a local girl with hair the color of a penny walks up and asks her which one she wants. When Annie points, the “Red Girl,” as Annie calls her, climbs the tree, picks it, and climbs back down to present it to Annie. Annie has never seen a girl climb a tree, and the Red Girl climbs better than any boy Annie has ever seen. Annie remembers taking notice of the girl some years ago when they passed on the street, each clinging to her mother’s skirt, because of the girl’s distinctive hair. Annie’s mother commented on how dirty the Red Girl was, blaming the girl’s mother for allowing it. Now, as the two girls grow closer, Annie learns that the Red Girl only bathes and changes clothes once a week and very occasionally brushes her teeth and hair. She is also a great marble player and is so good that only a few of the best boys will play with her. Annie thinks the Red Girl’s life is “heaven” compared to her own. Annie, by contrast, must bathe every day, and her mother pays a woman to comb her hair each morning. Before bed, she must wash and press her school uniform, polish her shoes, and lay everything out for the next morning.

Annie begins to meet the Red Girl at an abandoned lighthouse near which Annie has been forbidden to play, and the Red Girl gives her three marbles. When she next sees Gwen, Annie finds her cleanliness and neatness “dull,” and despite classmates calling them “The Little Lovebirds,” Annie feels that the Red Girl now has a stronger claim on her heart. Annie begins to play marbles, and she, too, is good at it, interpreting this as a sign of her perfect relationship with the Red Girl. One day, her mother says how glad she is that Annie is not one of “those girls” who play marbles like boys, and this provokes Annie to play more often. She hides her winnings—more marbles—in old tins under the house.

After her chores each day, Annie runs to meet the Red Girl. She sees each chore as a “small rehearsal” for the dreaded day when she will marry and run her own household. She believes that when she is married, she will be forced to abandon her friends, clandestine meetings, marbles, “and every other secret pleasure” (61). When her mother grows suspicious of Annie’s post-chore walks, Annie feels as though she is her mother’s “prisoner” and avoids meeting the Red Girl for a few days. When she next goes, she learns that the Red Girl has come faithfully, though Annie does not explain why she missed their meetings. Watching the sunset, the Red Girl begins to pinch Annie so hard that Annie cannot help but cry. Then, the Red Girl stops pinching and kisses Annie everywhere that she pinched, and this combination of pinching and kissing is so wonderful to Annie that they enact this same scene at each new meeting. Annie begins to steal things to give to the Red Girl, even stealing money from her parents’ safe to purchase small trinkets for her. It pleases Annie that her parents don’t know everything about her life.

One day, Annie has procured a beautiful blue porcelain marble for the Red Girl, and she uses her gate-slamming technique to deceive her mother, creeping back quietly to retrieve the gift from under the house. However, her mother is waiting for her when she crawls out and demands to know what she is doing. Annie shows the marble to her mother but denies having any others. At this, her mother crawls under the house, searching high and low. Because the marbles are hidden in old cans and among other objects, Annie’s mother doesn’t find them, and Annie denies that she has any more. When her father comes home, Annie’s mother tells him about the marbles, part of a long list of her “horrible” transgressions. Annie fears she will have to abandon the Red Girl completely and return to Gwen and the others. Each day, Annie’s mother asks for the marbles, and Annie denies having any. One day, Annie’s mother tries a new strategy, telling Annie a story about herself as a girl. In the story, Annie’s mother had to carry a bunch of figs on her head, walking with her father home from collecting the fruit. The figs grew heavier, so heavy it hurt, and she walked slowly. When she put the load down, a long black snake slithered out and into the nearby bushes, and she collapsed from fright and relief. Annie feels like she might cry after hearing this story, thinking of how beautiful her mother was, how loved, and how shy she was at that age. Annie is on the verge of telling her mother where the marbles are until her mother asks for them in a soft and “treacherous” voice. Annie summons her own “newly acquired treacherous voice” and lies again (70).

Annie learns that the Red Girl has been sent away to live with her grandparents, and, that night, she dreams of the Red Girl. She dreams that the boat in which the Red Girl rides sinks, and Annie saves her. They both go to an island where they live together apart from the world. At night, they send confusing signals to passing cruise ships, making them crash on the rocks. They laugh when they hear the passengers’ happy shouts change to sorrow.