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
In the weeks after my mother left us, Daddy came home every night with a present for me. Sometimes it was a doll, a Barbie or Skipper, sometimes a coloring book or a puzzle. One night, he walked into the house carrying a cage with two hamsters. I threw my arms around my father’s neck, my heart bursting with joy. Daddy was allergic to cats and dogs, so these were my first ever pets! I stayed awake all night watching them burrow under their bedding and spin the wheel. I named the fat one Ed and the skinny one Johnny, for the Carson show, Daddy’s favorite. A week after their arrival, Fat Ed gave birth.
It was a wondrous thing, witnessing the tiny hamster pups, bald and vitreous as they tumbled out, Ed maneuvering around the cage to keep her new babies from being crushed under her body. One after another they emerged while Johnny watched from atop his wheel, a baker’s dozen in full until Ed was as empty and skinny as her mate. I huddled with Anna until after midnight when the last baby was born. The next morning, I jumped out of bed and rushed to see them. The babies were dead, every one of them murdered while Ed and Johnny huddled in a corner of the cage.
Anna held me in her lap while I sobbed. “Why?” I wailed long and hard while Daddy covered the cage with a tablecloth and rushed it out of the room.
“Because the babies must have been sick or diseased, and the mother killed them because she loved her babies. She did not want them to suffer.”
“That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” I screamed.
The next day, my father bought me a pink Barbie convertible. Ed and Johnny were banished.
Who will decide to end my suffering? Not my mother; Merilee couldn’t find the plug much less pull it. Not Brett. He could put a lame horse down in the movies but killing me would kill him. Daddy? No, Anna?
Definitely Anna. I pray she it does soon.
Flo is snoring now, a cluster of spit bubbles in the corners of her open mouth. If I could reach the call button, someone would come in and catch her red-handed, Enquirer on her lap, sleeping on the job.
But maybe the money she made from my photo will help in ways I can’t imagine. Maybe she has kids in college. Or a husband with cancer.
Can I forgive Florence? Sure. Too easy. Ask me another.
SLOW DISSOLVE TO: