SCENE SEVEN
Enter ROLAND, STELLA, and ROSEMARY
STELLA
Fifteen years straight, without a break. Fifteen years. It’s hard to even, y’know, conceive of fifteen years, every summer, four hours a day. I’m completely boy crazy at this point, I’m ‘studying’ with some of the straight guy dancers ‘on the side, Mom, you want me to be good at this.’ But that summer was going to be different.
ROLAND
So you stabbed her, shucked her skin like corn on the cob, dumped her - -
STELLA
No, don’t mind Roland, he likes to finish my stories, sometimes the endings are, well, then other times he’s inappropriate.
ROSEMARY
So, how long have you two been together?
STELLA
I forget.
STELLA crosses to pour drinks.
ROLAND
Sometimes it feels like forever.
In a good way.
ROSEMARY
That’s nice, I wish I could meet a nice guy, y’know, boyfriend material, not skeevy… bar guys.
STELLA
We aren’t skeevy.
ROSEMARY
I know, I can tell, I’m good at reading people.
STELLA
So are we, aren’t we?
ROLAND
I read palms. And auras.
ROSEMARY
Stop, you do not.
ROLAND
No, it’s true. I’ll read yours.
ROSEMARY
Palm or aura?
ROLAND
C’mere.
ROSEMARY crosses to ROLAND who takes her hand.
The practice of palm reading goes back centuries, but it’s all a trick. Fake. You can’t tell the future of a person by their hand, but you can tell some things about their past and their present. I don’t read the lines, I read the hand. Your hand says you think you’re delicate, but your bright nails tell me otherwise. You don’t do hard work. You moisturize, because you’re afraid of looking old. Someone had dry, scratchy hands and then they died. You also like having soft hands because they feel good, sliding over your skin and others too. I like these hands. Stella, can I keep them?
STELLA
Maybe if you’re a good boy you’ll earn them. Impress me.
ROLAND
I thought I was.
ROSEMARY
Uh, that was weird. I thought we were going to have drinks?
STELLA
Just finishing them up now, dear.
ROSEMARY
Oh, booze booze booze, who doesn’t love booze?
STELLA
Roland doesn’t. He doesn’t drink anymore.
ROLAND
It makes you stupid.
ROSEMARY
I like it. I forget how boring life is.
ROLAND
Pointless?
ROSEMARY
Huh?
STELLA
I really like that outfit you’re wearing.
ROSEMARY
Oh, thank you! I picked it up the other day, I wanted something to go out in.
STELLA
It looks good on you.
ROSEMARY
Thanks.
STELLA
How good do you look without it?
ROSEMARY
Oh, ho! You looking to find out?
STELLA
Maybe. We don’t bring people back here unless we think they’d be willing.
ROSEMARY
Ha, I know. I was wondering when you’d get around to, uh, ‘making your move’.
ROLAND
You don’t mind then.
ROSEMARY
I’m open-minded, you’re both cute, and I want to get laid.
STELLA
Oh, Roland, we found a good one.
ROLAND
A good one.
ROSEMARY
So, yeah, it’s all good to me, just don’t go around town, y’know, saying shit, I don’t want a reputation as being the girl who goes home with couples or girls or whatever. People start tracking you down and creepy shit like that.
ROLAND
Don’t worry, nobody will know anything happened.
STELLA
So what do you prefer? Men or women?
ROSEMARY
It’s all a matter of the moment, y’know? And of the person.
STELLA
Who do you think is hotter, me or Roland?
ROSEMARY
I can’t answer that!
STELLA
Try.
ROSEMARY
Uh, well, you’ve got a great body and I like the clothes, they’re that sexy black goth thing. Roland, though, you’ve got something manly about you, not like big tough guy frat manly, but real manly… a little scary too, but I like that.
STELLA
You didn’t answer the question.
Nevermind. We both like you.
ROSEMARY
Oh, yeah? Then who is going to make the first move?
STELLA
Flip a coin. Heads, me, tails, him.
ROSEMARY takes out a coin, flips it.
ROSEMARY
Heads.
STELLA crosses to ROSEMARY. She
moves in for a kiss, but before their lips
meet…
STELLA
I’d tie you up for days- -
ROSEMARY
What?
STELLA
Leave you lying in bed- -
ROSEMARY
Uh, hah- -
STELLA
You’d get hungry and thirsty-
ROSEMARY
This is-
STELLA
Dreaming of standing, sitting-
ROSEMARY
Baby, you’re creeping me out.
STELLA
Oh, I’m just playing. Roland is better at it anyway.
STELLA crosses behind ROSEMARY. She
starts giving her a backrub.
ROLAND
Here’s a good one. Do you know who Henry Lee Lucas is?
ROSEMARY
No. Should I?
ROLAND
No.
Born in 1936. Backwoods. Father lost both his legs in a train accident. Mother made extra cash turning tricks, made both of them watch. Lost an eye to a knife. Got arrested for burglary. After he was released, he left his mother behind. She followed him. He stabbed her in the neck.
STELLA
Relax. This is our thing.
ROLAND
Served ten years. Arrested again for attempted kidnaping. He drifted around, hooking up with a transvestite and his retarded niece. Lucas went away with her. They met up with a preacher who gave Lucas a job at a place called “The House of Prayer.” How odd. His girlfriend got homesick, and then nobody saw her again.
STELLA crosses to ROLAND.
An old lady they had lived with turned up dead. Lucas confessed to killing her, and then his girlfriend. After his conviction, he confessed to killing seventy-seven women, then a hundred, then six hundred. Open case files were being closed all over the country, places Lucas couldn’t have gotten to, Japan even. He told these stories over and over again, changing the details to suit the crime. Telling stories that people desperately wanted to be real.
STELLA and ROLAND kiss.
ROSEMARY
Yeah, uh.
STELLA and ROLAND kiss. In between, ROLAND speaks.
ROLAND
Stories of blood, rape, death. Sodomy. Cults. Stalking. Dirt. Awful. Evil. Cannibalism. Torture. Hellfire. Brimstone. Punishment. Guilt. Paranoia. Depravity.
They kiss now, lost in each other, ignoring ROSEMARY
ROSEMARY
Uh.
Yeah.
Hey, uh…
Guys?
I’m, uh… gonna…
Gonna go now.
See you around. Or something.
Bye!?
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