perhaps you could, oh I don't know, explain how it is that now you're not with Bette suddenly and commiserating with this Henry characteryou're shagging a fella- that's a shocking news bulletin even for me."
TINA- "Spoken with Alice I see. That's quite a mouthful"
HELENA- "It's going to be more than a mouthful if you don't explain yourself"
TINA- "Explain myself? Who do you think you are?"
HELENA- "Your friend, a woman who fell for you before your child was born, your boss who values your continued and uninterrupted contribution to my company, a woman who has made love to you and who hurt your former lover beyond words I suspect, a woman who wants to help youa very confused woman who has no patience for all these unresolved issues and plain silliness taking up her time and energy when she could be seeing her friend under much happier circumstances and enjoying her company without all this rubbish clouding everything. Damn it Tina, explainhow about you start by telling me what this Henry fellow is up toso to speak."
TINA- "I'm dating him. I've been dating him. Since before we all went to Vancouver for the wedding."
HELENA- "You know I wasn't planning to be pulling teeth after such a seductive brunch I prepared. Do I have to ask a question for every little tidbit of information? I know you're dating him. Perhaps you should introduce yourself. I'm Helena Peabody. I fell for Tina Kennard, a pregnant lesbian who was separated at the time from a rather beautiful though slightly egotistical and self-absorbed lesbian named Bette. Tina decided she was still in love with Bette, moved back in with her, gave birth to their love child, and now, several months laterTina, the lesbian, broke up with Bette, is forbidding Bette's involvement with the love child, and is shagging a manwell, I think you'll have to take it from thereand maybe just take it from the beginning. What the hell happened with Bette?"
TINA- "Helena I've barely even discussed all this with Bette. What exactly do you expect me to share with you? I can't. I don't even know where to begin. Look, I feltwell, I don't know what I was feeling after Angelica was born and after those first months. Betteshe seemed so far away, no matter how close she tried to getshe was justit's like it didn't make sense inside me that she was next to me, near me, it was odd. I almost felt like I wanted to run from her."
HELENA- "Not so oddmother made me feel like that at times."
TINA- (She frowns at Helena) "Okay that's just weird"
HELENA- "Yes I know, I'm working on itwell it wasn't quite the same thing but I understand being angry with someone you love.so go on"
TINA- "Angry? I didn't say I was angry with Bette."
HELENA- "No, but apparently she gave you an allergic reaction.just continue."
TINA- (Tina raises her eyebrows and purses her lipsshe looks away and looks back) "I loved her, but it was like being with her was like I was a last piece to a puzzle and as much as I was being pulled in to click into that last place in the puzzle I just felt like the edges of me and the world that included Bette just didn't come together, they didn't match. I felt repelled, I felt like I was falling away. And yet"
HELENA- "Yes?"
TINA- "I can't explain it. I don't know. You're not going to tell me that's just like how it is with Mrs. Peabody are you?"
HELENA- "Well, try as I might to repel like hell, I feel like I'm inexorably linked to the womanthere's no breaking that bond, such as it is. But now I'm seeing how rather bizarre the comparison isperhaps I shouldn't have brought up mummy. Now, forget Peabody psychosesback to you and the ravishing Ms. Porter." (Tina does a double take.) "Wellyou know that leads me to another point"
TINA- "Oh really and what's that?"
HELENA- "The sexual onethis lack of penile aversionexplaindid you feel repelled from Bette physically? From women? All those years with herno man tickled your fancy?"
TINA- "Penile aversion?"
HELENA- "You know what I mean"
TINA- "I felt drawn to, interested, attractedto men."
HELENA- "Well, you were that way before Betteyes?"
TINA- "I guess, yes. But never really had with any man what I had with Bettenot even close."
HELENA- "Men tickle your fancy during Bette?"
TINA- "No. In fact, I was curious about what it would be like to sleep with other women, no one specific, but I'd look at Bette and would want or dream or think of no other."
HELENA- "But not men?"
TINA- "No."
HELENA- "Tina"
TINA- "Yes Dr. Peabody?"
HELENA- "I'm trying heretell me something, after we hooked up, why did you get back together with Bette?"
TINA- "I thought we were talking about men?"
HELENA- "I'm asking the questions here Ms. Kennardnow, answer the question. You know I was ready to provide for you"
TINA- "Yes, and any other woman that tickled your fancy"
HELENA- "Ouchfinebut we're talking about you. What I'm trying to say is thatwell, did you turn back to her because you needed the security of a home? Because obviously I could have provided thatfor example."
TINA- "It felt safe going back to her, but I guess you're right, not because she had the ability to provide me with securityI guess that wasn't operative."
HELENA- "Of course not, because I could have provided far more 'security' and then somebut that's a different story."
TINA- "I wasn't in love with you."
HELENA- "Yes, I think we've beaten that dead horse enough, don't you think? Now, so you went back to her because you were in love with her."
TINA- "This was the family that I had worked for all those years with her. After we lost our son I got pregnant and was going to tell herthe night I found out she had been cheating on me."
HELENA- "Porter is such an idiot. But, be that as it mayso, how did it feel then, being a family? You must have been deliriously happy."
TINA- "I was but B"
HELENA- "B.? What 'B'? Speak."
TINA- "BetteI wasn't sure how she felt. She was very good to me and took care of me. She lived and breathed Angelica. She rose and Angelica was her first thought. She dropped her head to her pillow every night and Angelica as her last thought. She was devoted."
HELENA- "Of course, she fell in love with her. This wondrous new being in her life. Sometimes they become your life. I don't know what I'd do with myself without my children, even though I didn't give birth to them and emotionally I'm not obsessed with them. I love them dearly." (She turns to look at Tina.) "My God Tina, were you really going to take Angelica away? I don't understand that."
TINA- "I seem to recall Winnie was asking the same question not long ago about your children."
HELENA- (She looks away and then back again) "Yes, well, that was different."
TINA- "Really? How so?"
HELENA- (She looks into Tina's eyes intensely) "I realized I was doing it for the wrong reasons. It wasn't about them or for them; it was all about me. And it's a good thing that mother intervened, because I was on a one-track mind kind of road. I would have fought tooth and nail to get full custody and in the process take, unjustifiably, take their other mother away from them."
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