We Survived The Black Prom is a book written by Norma Watson, where she tells the story of how she survived The Black Prom. It was released in Reader´s Digest, a year later.
There she tells everything that happened from her perspective, giving insight to her and the people´s behavior towards Carrie White and Tommy Ross on the way without giving any details of the conspiracy itself, which lead to the humiliation of Carrie while also lying about her role in it.
Text[]
From We Survived The Black Prom by Norma Watson published in the August, 1980, issue of the Reader's Digest as a "drama in real life" article:
…And it all happened so quickly that no one really knew what was happening. We were all standing and applauding and singing the school song. Then---I was at the ushers's table just inside the main doors, looking at the stage---there was a sparkle as the big lights over the stage apron reflected on something metallic. I was standing with Tina Blake and Stella Horan, and I think they saw it, too.
All at once there was a huge red splash in the air. Some of it hit the mural and ran in long drips. I knew right away, even before it hit them, that it was blood. Stella Horan thought it was paint, but I had a premonition, just like the time my brother got hit by a hay truck.
They were drenched. Carrie got it the worst. She looked exactly like she had been dipped in a bucket of red paint. She just sat there. She never moved. The band that was closest to the stage, Josie and the Moonglows, got splattered. The lead guitarist had a white instrument, and it splattered all over it.
I said: "My God, that's blood!"
When I said that, Tina screamed. It was very loud and it rang out clearly in the auditorium.
People had stopped singing and everything was completely quiet. I couldn't move. I was rooted to the spot. I looked up and there were two buckets dangling high over the thrones, swinging and banging together. They were still dripping. All of a sudden they fell, with a lot of loose string paying out behind them. One of them hit Tommy Ross on the head. It made a very loud noise, like an ancient Chinese gong.
That made someone laugh. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't the way a person laughs when they we something funny and gay. It was raw and hysterical and awful.
At the same instant, Carrie opened her eyes [real] wide.
That was when they all started laughing. I did too, I admit, I confess… yes, I laughed at Carrie White. God help me. It was so… weird.
When I was a little girl I had a Walt Disney storybook called Song Of The South and it had that Uncle Remus story about the tar baby in it. There was a picture of the tar baby sitting in the middle of the road, looking like one of those old-time Negro minstrels with the blackface and great big white eyes. When Carrie opened her eyes it was like that. They were the only part of her that wasn't completely red and the light had gotten in them and made them glassy. God help me, but she looked for all the world like Eddie Cantor doing that pop-eyed act of his.
That was what made people laugh. We couldn't help it. It was one of those things where you laugh or go crazy. Carrie had been the school goat, the butt of every prank and joke for so very long and we all felt that we were part of something special that night. It was as if we were watching a person rejoin the human race, to be sent back into reality and put back in their proper place. I for one thanked The Lord for it. And that happened. That horror.
And so there was nothing else to do. It was either laugh or cry and who could bring himself to cry over Carrie White after all those years?
She just sat there, staring out at them, at us and the laughter kept swelling, getting louder and louder. People were holding their bellies and doubling up and pointing at her. Tommy was the only one, who wasn't looking at her. He was sort of slumped over in his seat, as if he'd gone to sleep. You couldn't tell he was hurt, though he was splashed too bad.
And then her face… broke, I don't know how else to describe it. She put her hands up to her face and half-staggered to her feet. She almost got tangled in her own feet and fell over and that made people laugh even more. Then she sort of… hopped off the stage. It was like watching a big red frog hopping off a lily pad. She almost fell again, but kept on her feet.
Miss Desjardin came running over to her and she wasn't laughing any more, but it looked like she wanted to burst out at any given moment. She was holding out her arms to her. She went to hug Carrie, I think. But then she veered off and hit the wall really hard and fast, the wall beside that stage It was the strangest thing. She didn't stumble or anything. It was as if someone had pushed her, but there was no one there.
Carrie ran through the crowd with her hands clutching her face and somebody put his foot out. I don't know, who it was, but she went sprawling on her face. leaving a long red streak on the floor and she said, "Ooof!" I remember that. It made me laugh even harder, hearing Carrie say "Ooof!" like that. She started to crawl along the floor like a dog and then she got up and ran out after looking up at everyone crowded around her. She ran right past me. You could smell the vile scent of that blood. It smelled like something sick and rotted.
She went down the stairs two at a time and then out the doors and was gone.
The laughter just sort of faded off, a little at a time. Some people were still hitching and snorting. Lennie Brock had taken out a big white handkerchief and was wiping his eyes. Sally McManus looked all white, like she was going to throw up, but she was still giggling and she couldn't seem to stop. Billy Bosnan was just standing there with his little conductor's stick in his hand and shaking his head. Mr. Lublin was sitting by Miss Desjardin and calling for a Kleenex. She had a bloody nose.
You have to understand that all this happened in no more than two minutes. Nobody could put it all together. We were stunned. Some of them were wandering around, talking a little, but not much. Helen Shyres burst into tears and that made some of the others start up.
Then someone yelled: "Call a doctor! Hey, call a doctor quick!"
It was Josie Vreck. He was up on the stage, kneeling by Tommy Ross and his face was white as paper. He tried to pick him up and the throne fell over and Tommy rolled on to the floor.
Nobody moved. They were all just staring. It's like everyone came to the realization that Tommy might have been a goner. I felt like I was frozen in ice. "My God", was all I could think. "My God, My God, My God". and then this other thought crept in and it was, as if it wasn't my own at all. I was thinking about Carrie and about God. It was all twisted up together and it was awful.
Stella looked over at me and said: "Carrie's back."
And I said: "Yes, that's right."
The lobby doors all slammed shut at the exact same time and it startled us all. The sound was like hands clapping. Somebody in the back screamed and that started the stampede. They ran for the doors in a rush. I just stood there, not believing it and when I looked, just before the first of them got there and started to push, I saw Carrie looking in, her face all smeared, like an Indian with war paint on.
She was smiling.
They were pushing at the doors, hammering on them, but they wouldn't budge. As more of them crowded up to them, I could see the first ones to get there being battered against them, grunting and wheezing. They wouldn't open. And those doors are never locked. It's a state law.
Mr. Stephens and Mr. Lublin waded in and began to pull them away, grabbing jackets, skirts, anything. They were all screaming and burrowing like cattle. Mr. Stephens slapped a couple of girls and punched Vic Mooney in the eye. They were yelling for them to go out the back firedoors. Some did. Those were the ones who lived.
That's when it started to rain… at least, that's what I thought it was at first. There was water falling all over the place. I looked up and all the sprinklers were on, all over the gym. Water was hitting the basketball court and splashing. Josie Vreck was yelling for the guys in his band to turn off the electric amps and mikes quick, but they were all gone. He jumped down from the stage.
The panic at the doors stopped. People backed away, looking up at the ceiling. I heard somebody Don Farnham, I think---said: "This is gonna wreck the basketball court."
A few other people started to go over and look at Tommy Ross. All at once I knew I wanted to get out of there. I took Tina Blake's hand and said, "Let's run, quick."
To get to the firedoors, you had to go down a short corridor to the left of the stage. There were sprinklers there too, but they weren't on. and the doors were open I could see a few people running out. But most of them were just standing around in little groups, blinking at each other. Some of them were looking at the smear of blood where Carrie fell down. The water was washing it away.
I took Tina's hand and started to pull her toward the exit sign. At that same instant there was a huge flash of light, a scream and a horrible feedback whine. I looked around and saw Josie Vreck holding on to one of the mike stands. He froze, he couldn't let go. His eyes were bugging out and his hair was on end and it looked like he was dancing. He looked like a scarecrow or a marionette doll with strings attached to his body… just wiggling all about, up and down. But it wasn't a funny type of wiggle dance, it was the dance of death. His feet were sliding around in the water and smoke started to come out of his shirt.
He fell over on one of the amps---they were big ones, five or six feet high and it fell into the water. The feedback went up to a scream that was head-splitting and then there was another sizzling flash and it stopped. Josie's shirt was on fire.
"Run!" Tina yelled at me. "Come on, Norma. Please!"
We ran out into the hallway and something exploded backstage the main power switches, I guess. For just a second I looked back. You could see right out on to the stage, where Tommy's body was, because the curtain was up. All the heavy light cables were in the air, flowing and jerking and writhing like snakes out of an Indian fakir's basket. Then one of them pulled in two. There was a violent flash when it hit the water and then everybody was screaming at once.
Then we were out the door and running across the parking lot. I think I was screaming. I don't remember very well. I don't remember anything very well after they started screaming. After those high-voltage cables hit that water-covered floor...