Chapters (79)
- EXT. BALCONY - MALIBU SHORES INN
- MAIN TITLES
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- MALIBU COLONY HOME
- COLONY COFFEE SHOP
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. BANQUET HALL
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOUSE,
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- EXT. MALIBU COLONY BEACH
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. DEPARTMENT STORE, BEVERLY HILLS
- INT. MALIBU COLONY HOME
- INT. BEVERLY HILLS HOME
- INT. BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. BEL AIR MANSION
- EXT. BEVERLY HIGH
- INT. BELAIR MANSION
- LIHUE, HAWAII AIRPORT
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. PEYSER AGENCY
- EXT. FRANKLIN APTS
- INT. SUNSET GOWER STUDIOS
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. SUNSET GOWER STUDIO
- INT. HUGO’S RESTAURANT
- INT. SUNSET GOWER STUDIO
- INT. WINNEBAGO
- INT. BEVERLY HILLS MANSION
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- EXT. THE GATES OF HEAVEN
- EXT. PARAMOUNT STUDIOS
- INT. HOSPITAL ICU
- PARAMOUNT STUDIOS
- CLOSE UP: BRETT HANEY’S FACE
- INT. ICU
- INT. SPAGO RESTAURANT
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S HOUSE
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S KITCHEN
- INT ICU
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S HOUSE
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S KITCHEN
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S HOUSE
- CLOSE UP: JACKIE’S HAND HOLDING A LETTER
- INT. MEDICAL OFFICE
- INT: HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. SPAGO RESTAURANT
- UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- EXT. DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. BEL AIR MANSION
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. JACKIE AND BRETT’S HOUSE
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU SHORES INN
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- INT. MALIBU SHORES INN
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- EXT. MALIBU SHORES INN
- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
- FADE IN:
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Merilee slipped her key into the ignition and backed cautiously out of the garage, a space bigger and nicer than the whole of her mother’s apartment. The engine purred under her seat as she shifted into first gear and expertly guided her dream machine over the speed bumps and down the Colony road. The convertible still smelled new. Merilee had never owned a new car, much less a Mercedes. She had grown up so poor that her mother, a waitress at Denny’s, had been chosen as a contestant on Queen for a Day. Unfortunately, when the date came, Marva was too hungover to get out of bed, thereby blowing her shot at the crown and her chance to own a dishwasher.
Merilee had never brought friends home, fearing Marva might be passed out on the floor. She’d cruised the streets of Van Nuys in souped-up cars with hopped-up guys, aware from an early age of the power and sway of her looks and budding bosom.
After high school, Marva got Merilee a job at the Denny’s. Then one afternoon, Merilee and a surfer friend took the bus out to Malibu, and on a whim, she applied at the coffee shop.
As my mother drove to the Mayfair to buy her ginger ale, she considered stopping at a payphone to call one of her old beaus. Wouldn’t it be fun just to talk? She missed Earl, the pear-shaped banker from Newport Beach who liked to take her dancing. And that sweet Bob Katz, the married doctor she slept with on and off. She thought wistfully of Hank, with whom Merilee had fooled around, letting him finger her in the back of his Mustang. As the payphone on the corner loomed closer, Merilee hesitated, then planted her foot firmly on the gas pedal. No, she was determined to remain faithful to Sidney. And though she hadn’t exactly broken things off with her suitors, she’d clearly informed them she’d moved and was presently unreachable.
INT. BANQUET HALL
BEVERLY HILTON HOTEL
NIGHT
OCTOBER
1968
“So, um, Rita,” Merilee chirped, “Sid tells me you bought a brand-new house?”
They were clustered with several of Sidney’s set—the Sandersons, the Calloways, and the Boshowitzes—attending another charity event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the third this month.