Her voice echoed in grating counterfeit and then, in brisk rejoinder, — Christina? I called you some time ago and I would appreciate it if you could take a moment from your thrilling domestic pursuits to do me the courtesy of calling me back. It might be important. I might be having a seizure. The house might be burning down. I'd like to speak to Harry too. Please call me back.
— Oscar?
— What is it. Will you hang this up?
Had he got that card she'd sent him, she wanted to know, abruptly straining upright to dislodge his hand, — with a picture of Mickey Mouse in a cowboy suit? But he wasn't talking about Mickey Mouse, he loathed him in fact, said he was everything that was wrong with this country, a cheap smug little racist no, no he was talking about the last time he'd seen her, he'd asked her then hadn't he? whether she'd ever slept with this, this lawyer of hers, and she'd told him she hadn't? — It was true, she sulked. Was, was true, what about now? She'd said she'd never been to bed with him hadn't she? — It was true, Oscar.
— I don't believe it.
— I don't care if you believe it! You haven't even said you're glad to see me. It's too late to say so now anyway so don't bother. Are you? But he just wanted, demanded to know what happened down there, she'd said she had to fly down for that funeral and instead she'd driven down there to Disney World with him and — I just told you didn't I? You don't believe me anyway you just said so, that I even went to the funeral? where this Reverend Bobby Joe gets his hand on my knee because the dressmaker didn't have time to let down that hem right up under my skirt while Daddy and Mama are sitting right there listening to him tell how my brother's sitting up there on the right hand of Jesus where he's already set this dinner table with these presents from his enemies while we can all see Bobbie laying right there in the casket ten feet away? It was spooky.
— I believe it, that you went to the funeral I believe it, that's why I gave you money for the plane ticket when you…
— I knew you'd say that, about the money. That you'd remind me about the money because it humiliates me, that's why you do it isn't it. Isn't it? That's even why you think I came over to see you now isn't it, the first thing when I'm back, you haven't even asked how I am. I'm exhausted, can't you see that? how my hand quivers, look. Why do you keep it so cold in here, what do you care about the money anyway, with this seventy five million dollars you're getting at least couldn't you turn up the heat? But this was getting ridiculous he broke in again, what seventy five million dollars, that was just a number, it could have been a million, a hundred million and what made her think he was getting it anyhow? — It said it right in the newspaper didn't it? in that story he showed me about that war movie we saw and your father down there with that dog he's got trapped in that junkpile that bit somebody didn't you see it? with that same picture of him you've got in there in the room with all the books?
— That's my grandfather no, they got everything wrong and that seventy five million dollars look, look at that pile of papers on the chair it's all motions affidavits and depositions I don't know how much it's going to cost, it's all…
— Well he said you'll win, he's always on the side of the creative individual he said standing up for your rights like he's helping you with your accident and you haven't even thanked him?
— Thanked him for what! Where is he anyhow, he's never helped anybody but himself has he? He's not standing up for my rights he's standing up for his own right to exploit my misery here for every penny he can, it's not his pain and suffering is it? it's not his scar he's going to wear to the grave, he's not going to pay all these doctor and hospital bills is he? I haven't heard anything from him since both of you were, what happened down there? Do you know how long you've been gone?
— I've been trying to tell you haven't I? When I thought by now you'd be all well and we can sit and talk without you getting mad like these two regular human beings now that you're almost able to sit up while I can hardly even, I think I'm catching cold here, put your hand back where it was, can't you twist around a little? Just unbutton my, feel it? how my heart's racing? her hand hard on his pressing it close there, lingering long enough only to make its absence felt as it emerged to trace a sharp nail down his cheek — where that old scar was that you're so mad about? You can hardly see it…
— Because it's on the other side! wrenching his face around, — there. Now can you see it?
— You're not even listening to me are you, no keep your hand there, you can be so cold Oscar. You don't think other people notice it but I do, you're thinking about something else I can tell when you do that with your eyes like the last time I saw you when tragedy struck? But all she got back for that was her own words scorned with a muttered edge to them — and that's all you can say? When my own brother gets killed in a car crash and you don't even call that when tragedy struck? just because this new lawyer was right there to help me I don't know what I would have done down there, Daddy sitting there just kind of numb with Mama staring at him and him staring at me like he didn't know who I am? Where I hardly got to ever talk to them alone because Reverend Bobby Joe was always there comforting them with how happy Bobbie is in the next world so Daddy wouldn't feel so bad about the car Reverend Bobby Joe kept calling the death instrument, that Daddy gave Bobbie the money to buy the death instrument and maybe this is all some grand design of the Lord where all this money's coming back because it was insured so Daddy can cleanse it by putting it in the Lord's service, look at these shoes. I just got them when I went down there where the heel's practically coming apart if I have to go to the Philippines but you don't want to know about that either do you where I can't even go to the doctor and…
— Well go to the doctor! I told you I'd help you with that didn't I?
— It's not my fault if they can't give me an appointment till he gets back from Acapulco is it? Can you feel it? that lump? if it got any bigger?
— It just feels harder, it's…
— That's not it, you know what that is. It's the other one anyway, the other side, no. Lower. Did it? I'm not getting any younger, look at my, now what are you looking at. You're thinking about something else aren't you.
— What do you think I'm thinking about! I'm thinking about you and that, that, about what went on down there with you and…
— See? You're not even listening. That's what I'm trying to tell you isn't it? How he was so kind and understanding with Daddy trying to help straighten up this old misunderstanding so maybe we can make up and have this reconciliation now that Bobbie's gone and they'll maybe give me some help where Daddy's going to get back all this money he put into Bobbie's name so the government wouldn't get it before tragedy struck?
— What about before tragedy struck. You said you hadn't gone to bed with him didn't you?
— I said I didn't go to bed with him because it was in his car, so there.
— But you, in his car? that BMW?
— Because I was mad at you that's why, because you hurt my feelings.
— What are you talking about.
— That you don't take me seriously as if I didn't have any feelings except my, don't squeeze it so hard, that's why.
— So you thought I wouldn't care if you climbed in the…
— If I didn't care for you it would never have happened in the first place! Because I care more for you than you do for me because if I didn't care for you then you couldn't hurt my feelings could you. Could you!
— So you climb in the back seat of his BMW and…
— Anyway it was the front seat, so there. When he was teaching me to drive.
— Front seat back seat and every motel in, you know how to drive! between here and Disney World that's the way you show how much you care for me? that you've thought of me once?