There was in the neighbourhood a clubhouse, and Frankie was not a member. The members of the club were girls who were thirteen and fourteen and even fifteen years old. They had parties with boys on Saturday night. Frankie knew all the club members, and until this summer she had been like a younger member of their crowd, but now they had this club and she was not a member. They had said she was too young and mean. On Saturday night she could hear the terrible music and see from far away their light. Sometimes she went around to the alley behind the clubhouse and stood near a honeysuckle fence. She stood in the alley and watched and listened. They were very long, those parties.
"Maybe they will change their mind and invite you", John HENRY said.
"The son-of-a-bitches."
Frankie sniffled and wiped her nose in the crook of her arm. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her shoulders slumped and her elbows resting on her knees. "I think they have been spreading it all over town that I smell bad," she said. "When I had those boils and that black bitter smelling ointment, old Helen Fletcher asked what was that funny smell I had. Oh, I could shoot every one of them with a pistol."
Carson Mac CULLERS The Member of the Wedding. 1946 by C. Mac Cullers, renewed by F.V. Lasky
QUESTIONS
1. Is Frankie a girl or a boy? How do you know?
2. Is Frankie
a) under thirteen?3) What is Frankie's problem?
b) thirteen?
c) fourteen?
d) fifteen?
a) She would like to be a boy.4) True or false or we don't know. Quote from the text to justify your choice.
b) She is not a member of the club
c) She is ill and staying in bed
d) She needs a pistol.
e) We don't know
a) The parties took place every Friday night.5. Frankie is talking to...
b) The members of the club were between thirteen and fifteen.
c) Frankie did not know any members of the club.
d) Frankie did not like the music at the club.
e) Frankie stood behind the clubhouse every Saturday night.
f) The girls at the club sometimes invited Frankie but she refused to go.
a) John Henry?6. Does Frankie feel excited/happy and relaxed/furious/depressed/or tired? Justify your choice.
b) Helen Fletcher?
c) Herself?
7. Why does she think the girls rejected her?
8. Put the following words in the right order to express in one sentence what Frankie would like to do:
/like / all / would / the / members / a gun / with / to / kill / the club / she / of.