Sordid Lives Page #3

anguished face--it haunts me.

[ Wardell ]

Don't tell me you ain't finished.

- I got sidetracked.

- No.

Hey, do you all think I'm pretty?

Then that poor, old pig fell over,

started rollin' around, convulsing.

And then it just laid down

and-- and--

And died! The damn pig died.

Done. Finished. Kaput.

-End of story.

-Didn't even get to compete in the fair.

- Well, ain't that too damn bad?

- Yeah.

I guess life can go on, huh, G.W.?

Except for the pig's.

Except of the pig's!

Goddamn.

Oh, that's a good un. Sh*t.

- But it ain't funny!

- Yeah it is.

This is the first time G.W.'s laughed

since Peggy died.

Sh*t.

Well, I tell you, Latrelle--

Now, you know I never

say nothing bad about my sister--

She was like a second mama to me,

being so much older and all.

But, honey, she just sort of

went a little crazy towards the end...

after your daddy died.

Just kind of cut loose.

- Started honky-tonking.

- Honky-tonking?

Honky-tonking out at Bubba's

almost every night.

Her best friend toward the end

was Bitsy Mae Harling.

Bitsy Mae Harling

who used to date blacks in high school?

The one and the same.

She's been singing

on the weekends out at Bubba's

since she got out of jail.

- Said she was framed. [ Laughs ]

- Prison trash.

[ Coughing ]

- [ Coughing Continues ]

- That's a cigarette cough.

- No sh*t.

- You're gonna die of lung cancer

just like Aunt Bertha did.

You mark my word.

Lord, that was an awful death.

She suffered so.

Well, for your information,

Miss Smarty Britches,

I quit smokin' three days ago.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Besides, the damage

you've done to your lungs

is most likely irreparable.

I read all about it in a magazine

at the doctor's office.

Bitsy Mae Harling and Mama.

Yes, ma'am. Then the last couple

of months she started carrying

on with G.W. Nethercott.

- Sh*t.

- Listen, buddy. I know how you feel.

I still have nightmares

over that pig myself.

I don't give a sh*t about that filthy,

dirty, slop-eatin', mud-wallerin' pig!

I have killed a woman!

By irresponsibly leaving my legs

in the middle of the motel room...

after making long, passionate love

with the woman of my dreams.

You'll get over that pig, Odell.

I ain't ever gonna

get over killing Peggy.

G.W., take it easy on yourself, buddy.

She tripped on your legs

on the way to the bathroom.

It was an accident.

It's not your fault. It could

have happened to anybody.

- You mean anybody with two wooden legs.

- Shut up.

- Well, they are, Wardell.

- Sh*t.

I want to remember Mama

the way I want to remember her.

Not shacked up in a motel

with a seedy lowlife

with two wooden legs.

Ooh, apple pie.

- Do you want a piece?

- No, not right now.

Maybe in a little while.

How's Ty?

Is he still out in Los Angeles?

Uh-huh. Too busy to come to

his one and only grandmother's funeral.

My grandmother died yesterday...

and I do not want to

go back down to the funeral.

Maybe that's why I'm here.

I just can't be who I am down there.

At least here I can choose to be

in the places where I can be who I am.

Down there I'll have to butch it up.

I just get so tired of butching it up.

I mean, not that

I'm a big, old girl or anything...

but, you know, it's Texas.

Rednecks.

For the life of me,

I never understood that boy.

Mmm, this pie is good.

- Who made this?

- Evelyn Crawley.

Oh, maybe

I will have a little piece after all.

I swear, I'm gonna get

as big as Vera Lisso

without my nicotine.

Oh, my Lord.

I saw Vera today.

I stopped by the Corner Stop

to get a cold drink.

I had a craving for something sweet.

- My Lord, she's gotten big.

- You could move in.

Well, I almost didn't recognize her.

Do you know that she can't even

stand up behind that cash register

no more?

They had to put in a bar stool

for her to sit on.

And Leticia Bustamante,

that sweet, little Mexican girl

that stocks the shelves...

told me that Tom Ed had to

reinforce that stool with lug nuts.

I swear!

Oh, Vera's

so sweet though.

She used to always slip me

a few extra Green Stamps.

And she never bothers to look

at the expiration date on my coupons.

She's my best friend.

But why on God's green Earth would

anyone let themselves get that big?

Well, she says it's glandular.

[ Laughs ]

Glandular.

Oh! Oh, I saw Ty's Alpo commercial...

the one where the dog licks his face.

Ooh, that is real cute.

He is so good-lookin'.

- Y'all must be proud.

- Well, we're not.

When I got off the soap,

I rebelled...

and started seeking out gay roles.

I was always so scared to play gay.

Scared someone would...

you know, suspect.

After he got off the soap opera,

he started doing theater, Sissy.

Awful. Awful stuff.

I got this play

in this tiny, little theater

known for doing gay plays.

Male nudity, the works.

Every night the theater

was just packed. It was just

one big, old homo hoedown.

He calls it art.

I call it trash.

Did this one play--

begged me and Wilson to come out

to Los Angeles and see him in it.

Well, I was just dying

to see Bernadette Peters

in Annie Get Your Gun.

So I talked Wilson

into going out there.

The play was called--

Oh, I forget the name.

Some musical term.

Allegro. Allegre.

- Crescendo?

- No.

Whatever it was,

it had nothing whatsoever

to do with the subject matter.

And I invited my parents...

Latrelle and Wilson.

Oh, God.

What was I thinking?

Anyhow, the play

was going along all nice-like.

And, all of a sudden, my son...

walks out on the stage... naked.

- Buck naked, Sissy.

- Oh, sweetJesus. Naked?

And you could see everything.

His tallywhacker?

[ Sighs ]

Everything.

[ singing:
[ New Age ]

[ Ty ]

It was the single, bravest

moment of my life though.

Came out on the stage

completely, balls-out naked.

Hidin'nothin

Nothin

[ singing:
[ Continues ]

[ Latrelle ]

Then, all of a sudden,

these other boys...

start parading out naked too.

And they start touching each other...

sexual-like.

I mean, there was dim lighting and all,

but the provocative movements...

the illusion was complete,

thank you very much.

And he was playing a homosexual.

[ Ty ]

I had come out to my parents.

Or so I thought.

[ Latrelle ]

Wilson walked out early on.

I just looked down at my lap

till it was over.

I have never been so humiliated

in all my life.

Oh, and you know what

he had the audacity to do?

Came up to us after and said...

""So, what did you think?''

What did I think?

What was I supposed to think?

I just stared at him

with my mouth open.

And then he said,

""Okay. Let's go get some dinner.''

All through dinner

we just talked about nothin'.

Absolutely nothin'.

Wilson said we're not ever

going back to Los Angeles.

Said it was worse than Dallas.

I raised him better than that, Sissy.

I did. Oh, and on top of everything...

when we went to see Annie Get Your Gun

the next night...

Bernadette Peters had lost her voice.

And this other girl

that I never heard of in my life

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