Dear Eleanor Page #2

---

I'll see you later.

Come on. Ellie's all right.

You have no idea how bad it is, Billy.

She's no fun anymore.

She doesn't even want to play dolls.

You guys still play dolls?

Stop giving me the business.

How would an autographed picture

of Mrs. Roosevelt make Ellie be fun again?

It just would.

Billy, I'm 15 years old, okay?

Fifteen is the age when girls start

to lose it and Ellie's almost 16.

- So what do you think that means?

- I really...

- I really have no idea.

- Of course, you're a boy.

Are you going

to the Rock Around the Clock hop?

If no other fellow has asked you to go,

we could go together.

I mean, I'm sure... I'm sure

that you have a lot of guys you like, so.

Listen, Billy,

'cause I'm only gonna say this once.

I know you think us girls think about

you guys all the time, but we don't.

Okay?

So I'll see you soon.

And next time, can I have my cone swirled

instead of just plain vanilla?

And can you dip it, too, please?

- Yeah, sure.

- Au revoir.

"Dear Max,

"thank you so much for your letter.

"At the moment,

I'm out of pictures of myself.

"But I was thinking

"maybe someday you and your friend Ellie

"can come to visit me

at my home in New York.

"Sincerely, Eleanor Roosevelt."

Now you look like you came from New York.

- Don't forget to check the mail, by the way.

- All right.

Guess what? Okay, I wrote

a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt

to get an autographed picture for you

and she wrote me back,

and she wants to meet us, so pack your bags

because we're going to New York!

We're going to New York!

Gee whiz!

...rainfall have left many homes

in the metro area knee deep in floodwater.

Power was out for three hours

in eastern metro

because of downed hydro-fines

and police report at feast 200 accidents.

No injuries were reported.

The search for escaped prisoner Frank Morris

and the Anglin brothers has been called off.

The three escaped from Alcatraz

five months ago,

but no bodies have been recovered.

I don't know why

I said those things to my mother.

I regretted them

the second they fell out of my mouth.

My mother never gave her speech.

She never got to meet Eleanor Roosevelt.

But I could.

Heads,

I go.

Tails,

I don't.

We're gonna get to see

the whole country, Ellie.

- Gosh, I love America.

- You've never even been out of Manteca,

and New York's a metropolis.

And you can't drive.

Yeah, I can. My mom was a feminist.

She taught me early.

Yeah, her mom's a feminist,

and I'm gonna be one, too.

You don't even know what that means.

It means you're gonna stay home

and take care of the Little Elvis, Billy!

Do you think she's gonna make us

recite the pledge of allegiance?

Maybe.

She wrote to you.

Why can't you be satisfied with that?

We should go visit my Aunt Daisy

in Las Vegas.

And I also want to stop by the actor studio

to give that Lee Strasberg a holler.

- Who's Lee Strasberg?

- Wait, who's Aunt Daisy?

I got a picture of her right here.

- What happened to her head?

- Little Elvis ate her face off.

She's really cool. She's a showgirl

and she has her own theater on the strip.

This is gonna be so boss.

So we're gonna skip school on Friday,

and I'll tell my dad I'm staying with you

over the weekend,

and you tell your mom

you're staying with me over the weekend,

and then when they find out,

we'll already be long gone.

You two don't have no money.

Shut your mouth, Billy.

I know where we can get some.

Yeah. Stop giving us the business, Billy.

We know where we can get some money.

Why are you touching Mom's piano?

I can touch it if I want.

Dad don't want no one

touching Mama's piano.

If I told you a good secret,

would you help me out?

But you have to promise

not to tell a soul, not even Dad.

Dad don't want me

keeping secrets from him!

I'm doing something for Mom.

But to do it,

I have to sell her piano.

And if she were here right now,

she'd be okay with it

because people are more important

than stuff, right?

I'll give you 5 bucks.

My mom and Marilyn Monroe

died on the same day.

I imagined Marilyn picking my mom up

like some kind of girls' night out.

Just the two of them.

The 1948 Chrysler Windsor

with a drop top in Robin's egg blue?

- The very one.

- Smile!

We're going to New York!

They'd hop into Marilyn's pink Thunderbird

and hit the road.

Didn't seem so lonely.

Seemed nice.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, in the summer sun!

Put away the books, we're out of school

The weather's warm but we play it cool

We're on vacation in the summer sun!

How many miles to New York?

3,000

- You kidding me?

- No.

And here is our money.

That's all we've got

so put it in a safe spot, okay?

Holy moly, that's a lot of moolah.

I don't think I've ever seen

this much money in my whole life.

- All safe.

- Great.

Okay, I was gonna wait,

but since we're about to have

the time of our lives...

Okay, just some pictures of Mrs. Roosevelt

that I cut out of the library books

during study hall.

And I thought that we could put

some of our own pictures

- and some stuff in the back, too.

- Thanks, Max.

Okay.

Close surveillance

of the Soviet military buildup

on the island of Cuba

- within the past week...

- This place is a real dump.

...unmistakable evidence has established

the fact that a series of offensive

missile sites is now in preparation

on that imprisoned island.

The purpose of these bases

- seems to be none other...

- It just ate my quarter again!

...than to provide a nuclear strike capability

against the Western hemisphere.

And having now confirmed and completed

our evaluation of the evidence

and our decision on a course of action,

this government feels obliged to report...

A rodent just walked through the bathroom.

He did not look like the Little Elvis.

Well, who did he look like?

Like a little Jerry Lee.

Several of them include

medium range ballistic missiles.

- I think Steve will like this one.

- Capable of carrying a nuclear warhead

for a distance of more than

1,000 nautical miles.

Each of these missiles, in short,

is capable of striking Washington, D.C.,

the Panama Canal,

Cape Canaveral, Mexico City,

or any other city in the southeastern part

of the United States.

Why is he talking about missiles?

In central America,

or in the Caribbean area.

Additional sites, not yet completed,

appear to be designed for

intermediate range ballistic missiles

capable of traveling more than...

Capable of striking most of the

major cities in the western hemisphere.

- Ellie?

- My fellow citizens, let no one doubt...

- Where's the western hemisphere?

- ...that this is a difficult

and dangerous effort

- on which we have set out.

- It's right here.

No one can foresee precisely

what course it will take,

and what course or casualties

will be incurred.

Many months of sacrifice

and self-discipline fie ahead.

Months in which both our patience...

- Commies want us bad, Little E.

- ...and our willpower will be tested.

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