Scene 7


Three months later. In the Halligan living room, JOLENE is seated on the sofa while VERNA, in a Red Cross uniform, stands on one side of her, and DIXIE ANN on the other. THEY are staring at her in shock.
VERNA
You are what?!

DIXIE ANN

But you said…

VERNA

That was some walk in the moonlight!

JOLENE

One thing led to another…

VERNA

I should say it did! OK. How long?

                                                                      (JOLENE holds up three fingers.)

We gotta do somethin', and we gotta do it fast.

                                             There's a disbarred doctor up in Raleigh,
                                             Who's sixty-eight or nine years old…

DIXIE ANN

                                             His office is creepy and crawly,
                                                                    (VERNA and JOLENE regard her with raised eyebrows.)
                                             Or so I have been told.

                                             I've heard that disbarred doctor up in Raleigh
                                             Hasn't drawn a sober breath,
                                             You remember Joanne McCauley,
                                             He almost caused her death.

JOLENE

I couldn't. I couldn't possibly have a…you know what.

VERNA

Abortion, Jolene. That's what they call it.

JOLENE

Whatever they call it, I couldn't!

VERNA

I didn't know you were Catholic.

JOLENE

I just couldn't take a little life growin' inside me.

VERNA

You should have thought o' that before you took that moonlight walk!

JOLENE

Well, it started out as somethin' perfectly innocent.

VERNA

                                           Beware of moonlight
                                           When a man asks to date you,
                                           Everyone knows that moonbeams
                                           Can impregnate you.

                                           Beware of starlight
                                           When a serviceman spies you,
                                           Everyone knows that starlight
                                           Can fertilize you.

                                           The night may be fair, cherie,
                                           But I warn you take care, cherie,
                                           There's sperm in the air, cherie,
                                           So beware, beware…

                                           Beware of moonlight,
                                           It can drive you wild,
                                           And everyone knows that moonlight
                                           Can leave you with child.

DIXIE ANN

Oh, mama, don't make it worse. You still act as if you're teachin' economics at Central High.

VERNA

I don't understand what goes on in your brains! If you didn't read all those trashy magazines and see movies where Ann Harding kisses John Boles and the next thing ya know she's cuddlin' some curly-headed little monster…
                                                              (JOLENE bursts into tears.)
All right. If you won't go see that doctor in Raleigh, what options do we have? You can't pretend it's Russell's since you haven't seen him in a year and a half. You can't raise it yourself, because Russell, bless his United States Marines heart, would kill you. So there's only one alternative. Adoption.

DIXIE ANN

No. There's one other.
                                                             (after a pause)
Me.                     (VERNA and JOLENE regard her with surprise.
                    The music of "True Romance" builds.)
LIGHTS SLOWLY DIM