TRUE ROMANCE2-Scene 3

Scene 3

The Halligan living room a few days later. It is a far cry from the one we saw in the first act. This is their new house, and it's all 50s moderne, pink and black with kidney-shaped tables. JOLENE is moderne, too, with a poodle cut and a Dior dress copy. DIXIE ANN, looking particularly tacky next to her affluent sister, stands in the center of the room, JOLENE on one side of her, VERNA on the others. ALL THREE are in the midst of a furious argument.
VERNA Brian Costello! It sounds like a Chicago gangster. Where did you get that from? One o' those trashy magazines you're still readin'! Etienne's father didn't have a name. Not as far as Jolene has figured out.

DIXIE ANN

So I gave him one. What's wrong with that?

JOLENE

Everythin's wrong with it. From the moment I went into Strums' the other day to invite you and Etienne to Betsy Claire's birthday party, and Wanda Luspinski tells me you're out to lunch, and then says, "Oh, I am so sorry about your sister's tragic love affair," and I say, "Oh?", and she says, "That poor sailor she met at the USO, and how he drowned off the coast of North Africa."

VERNA

That whole history you concocted---Operation Torch, his havin' been on the U.S.S. Joseph Hewes, and how it was torpedoed off Port Lyautey near the Casbah. I know where you got that! You got that all from poor Buzz Nordlander!

DIXIE ANN

So what if I did?

VERNA

That was his story, Dixie Ann. Except instead o' drownin', he had his spinal cord severed. You've made a mockery out o' that fine boy's heroism.

DIXIE ANN

So what did you want me to tell her? That my sister screwed a sailor she met at the U.S.O. and wanted to have the baby only she was afraid her husband would kill her so she gave her to me! Is that what you wanted me to say?

JOLENE

You didn't have to say anythin'. You could have kept your big trap shut.

DIXIE ANN

And what do I tell Etienne? That I'm not your mother, I'm your aunt and your aunt is your mother, and your four cousins are really your half-sisters, and that big Pontiac blowhard is your stepfather!?

VERNA

I warned you about what you were gettin' into when you made the decision to take Jolene's baby. You were married to Clois, and Clois would be her father.

DIXIE ANN

Everyone knew Clois couldn't be anyone's father!

JOLENE

I hear he's done okay with two sons in Biloxi.

DIXIE ANN

Well, he certainly couldn't be the father of any child as beautiful and lovely as that little girl!

VERNA

So you created this whole absurd romantic fantasy!

DIXIE ANN

So what if I did? The truth would hurt everybody. This is hurtin' no one.

VERNA

Hurtin' no one? What's it going to do to Etienne when she finally finds out?

DIXIE ANN

As long as you two keep yo' mouths shut, she never has to find out!

VERNA

Oh, Dixie Ann! What is goin' on in that brain o' yours? To live a lie for years and years and not know it's a lie, and then wake up one day and find out the truth! Lies have a way of eventually comin' out. She'll hate you for it! Don't you see? You've done a terrible thing!

DIXIE ANN

I don't see anythin' terrible about it at all. Everyone changes the past.

VERNA

Not like this, they don't! You believe in this fantasy, don't you? You believe this actually happened!

DIXIE ANN

What if I do? It's a beautiful story. I want beautiful stories. My marriage was crap. And so's yours, Jolene.

JOLENE

I don’t have to listen to this!

DIXIE ANN

That foul-mouthed husband o' yours tries to lay every lady who comes in askin' to see a four-door sedan!

VERNA

What goes on in your sister's life is no business o' yours!

DIXIE ANN

And what goes in my life is no business o' yours!
(to Jolene)
Or yours!

VERNA

But it is, Dixie Ann! There's a little innocent child involved. How many times did I try to tell the two o' you what life is really like. It's not that drivel that you both filled your heads with when you were young.

DIXIE ANN

What's wrong with imaginin' that the world is beautiful and romance will last forever?

VERNA

It's like livin' on a diet of chocolate eclairs.

DIXIE ANN

I like chocolate eclairs.

VERNA

So I see.

DIXIE ANN

What's the advantage to goin' through life without goose bumps?

VERNA

Oh, you and your goose bumps!

DIXIE ANN

                                        What's wrong with goose bumps?
                                        What can they possibly harm?
                                        What's wrong when goose bumps
                                        Go tremblin' and quiverin'
                                        And tinglin' and shiverin'
                                        Up and down your arm? I want there to be a world
Of elegance and grace;
I want to see a world
Through a scrim made of lace.

What's wrong with goose bumps
When that feelin's divine?
What's wrong when goose bumps
Go floatin' and flitterin'
And dancin' and skitterin'
Up and down your spine?

I know the world is filled
With all sorts o' strife---
But I've more pity when seeing
An unfortunate being
Who never felt a goose bump
In his entire life.

VERNA I'll tell you what's wrong with goose bumps. If it hadn't been for those goddamned goose bumps, none o' this would have ever happened!

JOLENE

Mama and I think you should give Etienne up.

DIXIE ANN

Give her up?!!!

JOLENE

You can't really support her. You earn $28.50 a week.

VERNA

You're in debt to just about every store in town.

DIXIE ANN

Give her up to who? To you, Mama? To you, Jolene?

JOLENE

Yes, to me. I spoke to Russell about it. We can certainly afford it now. And Etienne loves coming here. She loves her cousins and her cousins love her.

DIXIE ANN

So instead of livin' my lie---she's to live yours, is that it?

VERNA

Dixie Ann, use your head. You can't even make ends meet.

DIXIE ANN

And Jolene has an electric dishwasher and a new Westinghouse TV and an atomic-bomb shelter comin' any day.

JOLENE

It's not that, Dixie Ann. It's that Mama and I are worried about you. We're worried about your mental state. After what I learned from that Miss Luspinksi…

DIXIE ANN

I'm not listenin' to this! I'm takin' my baby out o' this place---far away from the two o' you!

JOLENE

She is not your baby!

DIXIE ANN

She's more my baby than Betsy Claire or Sallyjo or the twins are yours! I'm gettin' out o' this awful place. I'm takin' her to Hollywood! She's beautiful. A man stopped us comin' out o' the picture show the other day and said, "That girl oughta be in movies."

VERNA

You think just because some stranger comin' out o' the picture show tells you she oughta be in the movies, every studio in Hollywood is goin' to clamor to sign her to a seven year contract?

DIXIE ANN

Some people are meant to lead a charmed life. And Etienne is one of those people.

VERNA

(sighing and shaking her head)
Oh, Dixie Ann!

DIXIE ANN

Well, I got a piece of Spanish news for you, Mama. I took Etienne to a palm reader in Fayetteville last year, and she said that some day she was going to be known throughout the country.

VERNA

A palm reader? I'm surprised this revelation didn't come to you from a fortune cookie.

JOLENE

And what are you goin' to use for money? You can barely afford to pay your telephone bill.

DIXIE ANN

Don't you worry. I'll find a way. I'll show you! I'll show you both! And I don't care if I ever see either one o' you again.
(SHE rushes upstage, opens the front door and slams it behind her.) BLACKOUT