Crimes of the Heart

[last lines]

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Oh, how I do love birthday cake.

[first lines]

Lucille Botrelle:
The damage to the spinal column's not yet been determined. But his breathing's stabilized and his liver's been saved.

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
Oh, well, that's good news.

Lucille Botrelle:
None of this is good news Lennie Magrath! It's all a grueling nightmare and you mark my word those resposible will pay dearly!

Chick Boyle:
Annie May you be sure to defrost that chicken for supper and there's a can of Vienna sausages in the cupboard for your lunch and you give peanut butter and jelly to those children.

Annie May Jenkins:
Yes, mam.

Chick Boyle:
Lennie! You who, Lennie! Well this is just too awful. How I'm gonna continue to hold my head high in this community, I do not know. Did you get those pantyhose I asked you to?

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
They're in the sack.

Chick Boyle:
Now daddy has called twice already. He says we gotta get ourselves to town to help out with this thing with Babe before they change their simple minds.

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
I was sorta hoping' that Meg would call. I sent her a telegram about Babe.

Chick Boyle:
A telegram? Couldn't you just phone her up or something?

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
No, I couldn't because her phone was out of order.

Chick Boyle:
Out of order?

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
That's right. It was disconnected. I don't know...

Chick Boyle:
Now that sounds just like Meg. What all did you say to her in this telegram?

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
Well, I just told her to come on home.

Chick Boyle:
To come on home? Lennie, have you lost your only mind or what? Babe is gonna be incurring mighty negative publicity in this town and Meg's appearance isn't gonna help things out one bit.

[indicating the pantyhose]

Chick Boyle:
These are awful snug. Did you get my right size?

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
Well let's see, I think they're... size extra petite.

Chick Boyle:
Well they are scrimping on the nylon material. Anyway, Meg is known all over Copiah County as cheap Christmas trash. Why the whole town knows about her sordid dealings with Doc Porter and leaving him a cripple.

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
A cripple? He's got a limp, he barely has a limp!

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Why'd you do it, Babe ? Why'd you put your head in the oven?

Rebeca 'Babe':
I don't know ... I'm having a bad day.

Rebeca 'Babe':
I don't know what's happening to Lennie.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
What do you mean?

Rebeca 'Babe':
Well, she's turned into old grandmama.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
You think so?

Rebeca 'Babe':
Well more and more. Look there. She's even taken to wearing old grandmama's torn sun hat and her lime green garden gloves. Lennie works out in the garden wearing the lime green gloves of a dead woman.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
So how are things with you Babe?

Chick Boyle:
Well, things are dismal if you want my opinion. She's refusing to cooperate with her lawyer, that nice looking young Lloyd boy, and she won't tell any of us why she's committed this heinous crime.

Rebeca 'Babe':
Oh look! Lennie brought my saxophone from home and my suitcase. Thank you.

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
You're welcome.

Rebeca 'Babe':
Meg, look at my saxophone. Went to Jackson and bought it used. It's so heavy.

Chick Boyle:
Now listen Rebecca, that lawyer wants some concrete answers. No more stubborness or they're gonna put you in jail and throw away the key. Isn't that right daddy? Won't they just put her in jail and throw away the key?

Uncle Watson:
Well honey, umm, I don't know about that.

Chick Boyle:
Well they will, and they'll leave you there to rot!

Chick Boyle:
So Rebecca, what are you going to tell Mr. Lloyd about shooting Zachery, uh, what are your reasons gonna be?

Rebeca 'Babe':
That I didn't like his looks. That I didn't like his stinkin' looks! I don't like yours either Chickie stick. So leave me alone and I mean it. Just leave me alone!

Chick Boyle:
Uh! Well! I was just trying to warn her that she is gonna have to help herself. She just doesn't seem to have any idea how serious this situation is, now does she? She doesn't have the vaguest idea.

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
Well it's true. She does seen... confused.

Chick Boyle:
That is putting it mildly Lennie honey. That is putting it mighty mild.

Chick Boyle:
So, cousin Margaret, how's your singing career goin'? We've been looking to see your picture in all those movie magazines.

[Meg takes out a cigarette and lights it]

Chick Boyle:
Oh, you shouldn't smoke. It causes cancer of the lungs. Each one of those little cigarettes is a stick of death.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
That's what I like about it Chick, taking a drag off death.

[Meg takes a drag off of the cigarette]

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
What power! What exhilaration! Here, you want a drag?

[Meg offers Chick the cigarette]

Lennora Josephine 'Lenny' Magrath:
Did ya'll hear that Zachery's liver's been saved? His sister told me his liver's been saved. I think that's just the best news.

Uncle Watson:
Yes, that's fine news. That's mighty fine news. Did you hear all that news about the liver, little chicken?

Chick Boyle:
I heard it.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Cluck.

Chick Boyle:
And don't call me chicken!

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.

Chick Boyle:
I have told you a hundred times if I've told you once, do not call me chicken! I'm not twelve years old anymore!

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Cluck cluck, cluck cluck cluck.

Rebeca 'Babe':
You know, Chick's hated us ever since we had to move here from Dixieville to live here with old grandmama and old granddaddy.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Well, she's an idiot.

Rebeca 'Babe':
Yeah. You know what she said to me this morning when I was still behind bars and couldn't get away?

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
What?

Rebeca 'Babe':
She told me how embarrassing it was for her all those years ago. You know, when mama...

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Yeah, down in the cellar.

Rebeca 'Babe':
She said our mama had shamed the entire family and that we were known notoriously all through Hazelhurst. Then she went on to say how I would now be getting just as much bad publicity and humiliating her and the family all over again.

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Just forget about it Babe.

Rebeca 'Babe':
I told her, I said mama got national courage, NATIONAL! If Zachery wasn't a senator from Copiah County, I probably wouldn't even get statewide!

Margaret 'Meg' Magrath:
Of course you wouldn't.