Dramatic Interpretation
“Bridge To Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson
May Belle: Where you going Jess? Gonna run?
Jesse: Maybe. Of course I’m gonna run. I get up early every morning to fun. I figure if I work at it, I can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade when school opens up. I have to be the fastest… not one of the faster or next to the fastest, but the fastest and the best. Watch out Wayne Pettis… I’m gunna beat you again this year.
Narrator: On the first day of school Jesse Aaron’s lost the big race but he didn’t lose to Wayne Pettis. He lost to a girl, named Leslie Burke who just happened to be his new next-door neighbor. In Katherine Paterson’s book, Bridge to Terabithia, Jesse and Leslie become great friends and together they imagine and create a special kingdom where they feel safe from those who don’t understand them.
Leslie: Do you know what we need? We need a place... just for us. It might be a while secret kingdom and you and I will be the rulers of it.
Jesse: Ok… Where would we have it?
Leslie: Over there in the woods where nobody would come and mess it up. I know… it could be a magic country like Narnia, and the only way you can get in is by swinging across on this enchanted rope. Come on… lets find a place to build our castle stronghold... How about right here?
Jesse: Sure
Leslie: The grounds almost level… This’ll be a good place to build… we’ll call it Terabithia. You should draw a picture of Terabithia to hang in the castle.
Jesse: I can’t…
Leslie: Why not?
Jesse: I just can’t get the poetry of the trees.
Leslie: You will someday, this will be a place where everything’s possible. We own the world and no one, not Janice Avery or any foes can ever defeat us.
--------------Time passes--------------
Jesse: Whatcha doing?
Leslie: Reading, I had to do something… That girl… She makes me so mad… You didn’t trip her and she knows it!
Jesse: It don’t matter… What’s a little hike compared to what Janice Avery might have chosen to do to me on the bus.
Leslie: It’s the principle of the ting, Jesse. That’s what you’ve got to understand. You have to stop people like that.
Jesse: Is that book giving you some ideas on how to stop Janice Avery?
Leslie: No stupid, we’re trying to save the whales. They might become extinct.
Jesse: You save the whales and shoot the people huh?
Leslie: Something like that I guess… Say, did you ever hear the story about Moby Dick?
Jesse: Who’s that?
Leslie: Well there was once this huge white whale named Moby Dick and this crazy sea captain who was bent on killing it.
Narrator: Leslie began to spin out the entire story to Jesse. He sat with his fingers itching to draw the wonderful pictures she illustrated with words. A special, sacred place was developed in Terabithia where they could go in times of greatest sorrow or in times of greatest joy.
Jesse: It’s been almost a month since we’ve visited our kingdom.
Leslie: Sssh we’ve been away for many years… conquering the hostile savages on our northern borders, the lines of communication have been broken.
Jesse: You think anything bad as happened?
Leslie: We must have courage my King, it may indeed be so. Thy sword sire…
Jesse: Hey queen watch out behind you.
Leslie: They have sounded the retreat! Let’s drive them out so they may never return to prey upon our people! Out you go… Out! Out! At last Terabithia is free once more… Sire, we must go at once to the grove of pines to give thanks for our victory.
Jesse: Who do we thank?
Leslie: Oh God, your right arm has given us victory. Now grant protection to Terabithia and all its people, and to us its rulers.
-------------Time passes------------
Narrator: on Easter Sunday Jess invite’s Leslie to Church.
Leslie: Gee, I’m really glad I came. It was better than a movie.
Jesse: You’re kidding…?
Leslie: No I’m not, that whole Jesus thing is really interesting isn’t it? All those people wanting to kill him when he hadn’t done anything to hurt them, it’s really kind of a beautiful story.
May Belle: It aint beautiful. It’s scary, nailing holes right through somebody’s hand.
Jesse: May Belle’s right, it’s because we’re all vile sinners that God made Jesus die.
Leslie: Do you think that’s true?
Jesse: It’s in the bible Leslie.
Leslie: It’s crazy isn’t it? You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it and I think it’s beautiful.
May Belle: You gotta believe the bible Leslie…
Leslie: Why?
May Belle: Cause if you don’t believe the bible God’ll damn you to hell when you die. Ain’t I right Jesse?
Jesse: I reckon
Leslie: I don’t believe it. I don’t even think you’re read the bible.
Jesse: I’ve read most of it. S’bout the only book we got around our place.
Leslie: Ok, but I still don’t think God goes around damning people to hell.
May Belle: But Leslie… What if you die? What’s going to happened to you?
Narrator: Spring rains flood the river making it increasingly difficult to visit Terabithia. Jesse, if he were to admit it, was scared.
May Belle: Some Lady wants you on the phone, sounds like Miss Edmunds.
Jesse: Yes’m, Yes’m. I’ll go ask her… Momma, teacher wants me to go to Washington to the Smithsonian, something for school. You don’t need to get up. Don’t worry, I done the milking… It’s ok Miss Edmunds I can go.
Narrator: As soon as he saw Miss Edmunds car, Jesse raced out the kitchen door through the rain and met her halfway up the drive. He was glad May Belle was absorbed in the TV. He didn’t want her waking momma up before he got away. It didn’t occur to him until he past Millsburg that he might have asked Miss Edmunds if Leslie could have come too. It didn’t matter because even without Leslie, Jesse had a perfect day spending time with his favorite teacher. When he got home, he raced in to the Kitchen door, and he saw them all sitting there, his parents and the little girls. But there was not food on the table; the TV wasn’t even turned on.
Jesse’s Mom: Jesse, oh my god, you’re all right!
May Belle: I tolja, he just gone off somewhere
Jesse: What?
Maybe Belle: You’re girl friend’s dead, and momma though you was dead too.
Father: They found the Burke girl this morning down in the creek. That old rope you kids been swinging on broke. They think she musta hit her head on something when she fell. I’m really sorry son.
Jesse: Nooo. Nooooo… I don’t believe you…. You’re lying to me. Leslie wouldn’t drown, she could swim real good. No… No… It’s a lie… Leslie aint dead.
Narrator: after the funeral, Jesse raced up to his home with angry tears streaming down his face. He raced into his bedroom and retrieved the papers and paint that Leslie had given him for Christmas. He knew where he had to go. It was a time of great sorrow. He raced out the back door, through the field to the river, without ever looking back. His dad was worried, so he followed him. He stood there looking at the tree where a frayed end of a rope swung gently.
Jesse: Lesile, now that you’re dead, I am the fastest runner in the fifth grade.
Father: That was a fool thing to do son.
Jesse: I don’t care… I don’t care… I hate her; I wish I’d never seen her in my whole life.
Father: There There…Sssh… It’s hell aint it?
Jesse: Do you believe people go to hell? I mean… really go to hell?
Father: You aint worrying about the Burke girl are you?
Jesse: Well… May Belle Said…
Father: May Belle? May Belle ain’t God. Lord boy, don’t be a fool! God aint gonna send any little girl to hell.
Jesse: I didn’t mean that about hating her, I don’t know what made me say that.
-----Time passes------
Narrrator: Jesse entered Terabithia once more, into the castle stronghold.
Jesse: Leslie, I was scared to come to Terabithia that day. I’m just a dumb dodo and you know it. What am I suppose to do now? Were you scared? Like me? Did you know you were dying? A funeral wreath for the queen… Father into thy hands I commend her spirit.
