Scene 9
A spot falls downstage
right. It is a section of Etienne's bedroom. SHE is seated at a frilly
night table, a bottle of scotch in front of her and a glass in her hand.
In the background we hear "Crazy Lady".
ETIENNE
Mummy…mummy, can you hear
me? You've got to help me. What they told me isn't true. I know
it isn't true! You've got to tell me what to do.
(SHE sits up, almost
as if a voice had spoken in her ear. SHE opens a drawer and pulls
out a telephone directory and begins to search wildly through the pages.
The spot is extinguished, then the lights come up in Jolene's living room,
and it is the same scene, a week later, only now ETIENNE is standing in
the living room with her suitcase. She is hurt and angry. VERNA and JOLENE
are across from her.)
ETIENNE
Why did you lie to me?
VERNA
What are you talkin' about?
ETIENNE
Everything you told me was
a lie.
VERNA
Don't be a fool!
ETIENNE
Why you would make up that
ridiculous story is beyond me, except that you hated my mother and you
wanted me to hate her, too.
JOLENE
Honey, please. Every word
your Grandmama said is the truth. You are my baby, and I don't know
the name o' your father.
ETIENNE
Well, I called the Naval
Department, and they told me that all the records from the war have been
moved to the National Archives. So I called the National Archives, and
they went and looked up the U.S.S. Joseph Hewes, and they found my father,
Brian Costello. He was a seaman first class, and he drowned on November
8, 1942 when the transport went down off the coast of North Africa after
being torpedoed by a U-boat. Exactly what my mother told me!
(VERNA and JOLENE regard each other in shock.)
JOLENE
Buzz…
VERNA
He must have mentioned a
sailor on the ship.
JOLENE
Dixie Ann was always goin'
over to cheer him up.
VERNA
Etienne, there was a boy
named Buzz Nordlander. He was Margaret Casey's grandson. He'd been on the
USS Joseph Hewes and he had his spine severed during Operation Torch…
ETIENNE
What more lies are you going
to tell me? I'm leaving here and I'm never coming back. I won't live in
the same house with two absolutely evil women.
JOLENE
Come back here this minute!
You are still a minor and in my custody!
(ETIENNE ignores
her, grabs her suitcase and marches out the front door slamming it behind
her.)
VERNA
(sinking onto the sofa)
Oh, my God in heaven!
LIGHTS SLOWLY DIM
