How to Make an American Quilt Page #5

Touch.

Excuse me?

It's a French expression.

So, what are you looking at?

Pegasus, Andromeda, Cassiopeia...

...Hercules...

...the Herdsman with the star Arcturus

in his knee, and...

Sorry.

You cold?

I'm okay.

I once took my coat off,

and put it around this girl...

...and she told me she could feel

the heat from my body...

...still in the lining.

You feel it?

Yeah, it's there.

You ever been with a boy before?

This okay?

You scared?

Of what?

This is your quilt now, Anna.

And you must tell the stories to your child.

Won't you get in trouble?

I'll pay her back the money.

It was arranged for me to stay

with the Rubens family...

... where I would do housework and mending

while I waited for the birth of my baby.

And it was there that I first met

your Grandma Hy, and your Aunt Glady Joe.

Hy, Glady Joe...

...the church has sent us over another girl.

She will be staying with us until it's her time.

And, as usual, I expect both of

you to treat her with kindness and tolerance.

Now, Anna is a Negro

so we must be especially nice to her.

Hyacinth, would you

put down the magazine, please?

Quit it.

Glady Joe, why don't you show Anna her room?

Anna, it's Glady Joe. Are you in there?

I was wondering if you'd ever read this.

It's called Wuthering Heights.

Would you like to borrow it?

It's the best book I've ever read.

Oh, my gosh!

This is very artistic.

How long have you been doing this?

All my family's women quilt.

Gee, I'd love to learn how to do that.

Hy plays the piano, but I haven't, as yet,

found an outlet for my artistic expression.

I've been reading about injustice and slavery

in America...

...and it just makes me want to cry.

Everyone says how great

Thomas Jefferson was...

... but he owned slaves just like the rest of them.

I brought this up with my teacher

and she says to me:

"Well, Glady Joe,

everybody owned slaves back then.

"It was considered normal."

Can you believe that? What a dimwit!

I swear this world is filled with ignorami.

Look, I gotta finish this quilt for my baby, and...

... I'm kind of in a hurry.

Oh, all right.

I'll leave this book for you.

Tell me how you like it.

Anna?

You're sewing crooked. Do it again.

Glady?

Mother!

You look much better, dear.

I made this for the baby.

Now, Anna...

... some ladies from the church

will be coming to see you today.

I'm not giving them my baby.

I'm raising Marianna myself.

But, Anna, don't you want

what's best for the child...

Yes, ma'am.

That's why I'm keeping her.

As Marianna grew,

I told her the story from the quilt.

And I came to realize,

I had become part of that story, too.

It wasn't the love of a husband...

... I was meant to find,

but the love of my daughter.

Oh, God, look at that!

I never liked full moons.

They give people an excuse to do foolish things.

I'm young. I'm supposed to do foolish things.

And spend the rest of your life paying for them?

It's better than spending the rest of my life

wondering what I missed.

I'd rather wonder than kick myself.

I'd rather kick myself.

Fine.

You will end up with a deeply-sore backside.

This is Eric

who made perfumes in Provence.

Michel, the Frenchman.

Fisherman from Marseille.

Paco. Paco raised bulls in Spain.

Luciano, who did marvelous things

with olive oil.

I was a wild thing.

All these men trying to tie me down.

"Marry me," in five different languages.

I refuse to be tied down to anyone.

Good. Good for you.

You think so?

Are you kidding?

To have that kind of courage?

Especially someone from your generation.

Really?

Yeah, what they don't tell us...

...is that marriage is an anachronistic institution

created for the sole convenience of the father...

...who needs to pass off his daughters

over to the care of another man, like:

"Here, here, she eats too much.

Take her off my hands."

But now that we've gotten our independence...

...that we earn our own livings,

there's no purpose in being someone's wife.

Why can't we love

as many people as we want in a lifetime?

Monogamy is really a very unnatural state

that's been forced on us for centuries...

...by screwed-up religious leaders...

...who are completely out of touch

with their own sexuality.

You know what I mean?

Have you been talking to your fianc

about any of this?

All right, let me ask you this:

If you had to choose

between marrying a lover or marrying...

...a friend, who would you chose?

I would marry my soul mate.

Who is it?

He's the only man I don't have a picture of.

I don't even know his name.

Mademoiselle?

I was in Paris.

Merci.

I had just turned 30

and my latest love affair was over.

The stranger sat down at my table

and ordered me some cake...

... while I cried into his handkerchief.

Before long I told him about my broken heart...

... then he told me about his poetry

and his thoughts on love.

The afternoon became night.

I knew he had somewhere else to go,

but I found myself...

... asking him to have dinner with me.

Then have dinner with me.

Look, I already have a dinner to go to,

with my wife.

This is what I wrote today.

As he left,

he gave me one of his poems.

Read it.

"Young lovers seek perfection.

"Old lovers learn the art

of sewing shreds together.

"And of seeing beauty

in a multiplicity of patches."

You better get home.

I think the weather's changing.

Mom?

Babe!

Hi.

Hey.

I thought that was you.

What?

Your father and I are getting remarried.

What?

Your father and I are getting remarried.

Since when?

Well...

We ran into each other, a couple months ago...

...and thought we'd have dinner.

You know, catch up.

It just turned into one of those...

... wild things...

...and we closed the restaurant.

And then...

... we took a long walk and pretty soon

we were making out in the moonlight.

Look, I got goosebumps.

- Does Grandma know?

- Yeah.

What does she think?

She's fine about it.

Was Dad planning

on letting me know about this?

No. He wanted me to tell you first.

And we want you to come to the wedding.

Thanks.

That's an odd response.

Well, Mom, give me a minute here.

You can't expect me to make an instant switch

after telling me my whole life...

...what an a**hole my dad is.

Honey, he was. And so was I.

But we've forgiven each other.

It would've been nice if you had done

this forgiving thing 20 years ago.

We couldn't. We had to grow up a lot.

In the meantime, I get to grow up

with you telling me that marriage is bullshit.

I never said that.

Yes, you did.

- You did say that, Mom.

- No.

You did, Mom.

No, I didn't.

We were sitting in your kitchen

a couple months ago...

... and you were pouring me that awful,

that Bachnia...

Bancha.

...Banachia tea and you said,

I remember your exact words...

You said that lifetime commitments

were impossible to keep...

... and that serial monogamy

was the only way to go.

- Why would I say such a bizarre thing?

- You say things like that all the time.

Well, I've changed my mind.

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