📖NEW CHAPTER: An Awkward Conversation!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/193emBC_YockKr_u8Ul2LO4gJsD0Z_bLBE34nSMGMo6w/edit?usp=drivesdk
SET DESIGN: Distressed text light projection superimposed over set:
“The realities moving on the other side of the everyday world.” - Jill Carattini
SOUND FX: Cue “One Night in Bangkok” by Louise Robey -
https://open.spotify.com/track/60BoSBDeGpw74mIUUKoxLM?si=T8CVkutZR-S9yLKP70WsJA
SONG INTRO: Thunderclap
“One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me!”
Angel Hair (not sounding like a complete caricature of himself at all): Good afternoon, ladies.
Saran (literally not looking up from her phone at all): Get lost, creep.
“I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!”
Angel Hair (Endearingly): Don't be like that! What's done is done! (Turning to Velveteen) How are your oysters today?
“One night in Bangkok makes a hard Man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me!”
Velveteen (wide eyed with oyster ecstasy - so much fun!) (Waves): Really good!
Angel Hair: You girls still at, what is it? (Sneering): “Chicken Family Restaurant?”
Saran (Rolling her eyes, snarky): OMG, can we please not?
“So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage parlours -- “
Velveteen (eyes coming back into focus): It’s very nice to see you, Mr. Bernardi. (Extends her hand in a forthright Manner, head up, shoulders straight.)
“One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me!”
AngerHair (taking her tiny hand in his giant hoof): Let me know if you guys ever want to start making money again! (Pauses just long enough to insinuate that this is where he would chuckle to himself at their folly. Which he won't. Too much class.) (Walks away.)
“One night in Bangkok makes a hard Man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me!”
Saran (Eyes still glued to her phone): Creep.
(Velveteen does not respond at all, fixated as she is on the Platter of Rapture laid out before her.)
Next: Saran's Memory!
"I felt abused"
Give New Moms a Break!
Oct. 3, 1993
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/business/l-give-new-moms-a-break-828993.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
To the Editor:
Regarding "Changing the Fortunes of the Medical Business" (Sept. 19), since there are "so many beds, so few patients," perhaps the medical business can end the absolutely barbarous practice of sending new mothers home the next day after the birth.
Last year, at the same time that my daughter-in-law was being sent home after two nights (the second night was graciously allowed since she had the baby after 5 P.M.), I was watching the movie "Stella Dallas" from the 1930's. Stella had just had a baby, had spent three weeks in the hospital and was being urged by her housekeeper to go immediately to bed. The nanny would care for the child.
My mother spent 10 days in bed after childbirth in 1926. I felt abused in 1960 when I was sent home after four days.
Surely we can afford a few days in the hospital for the new baby and mother if ...
"I felt abused"
Give New Moms a Break!
Oct. 3, 1993
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/business/l-give-new-moms-a-break-828993.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
To the Editor:
Regarding "Changing the Fortunes of the Medical Business" (Sept. 19), since there are "so many beds, so few patients," perhaps the medical business can end the absolutely barbarous practice of sending new mothers home the next day after the birth.
Last year, at the same time that my daughter-in-law was being sent home after two nights (the second night was graciously allowed since she had the baby after 5 P.M.), I was watching the movie "Stella Dallas" from the 1930's. Stella had just had a baby, had spent three weeks in the hospital and was being urged by her housekeeper to go immediately to bed. The nanny would care for the child.
My mother spent 10 days in bed after childbirth in 1926. I felt abused in 1960 when I was sent home after four days.
Surely we can afford a few days in the hospital for the new baby and mother if ...
I hear you, Alessia. That’s a lot — and reading it, my skin crawled too.
What you’re describing is childhood sexual abuse. You were 8. Your brother was 12. You were alone in the house except for him. You remember the sensory details — the stuff on your face and neck, going to the bathroom to wipe it off, the dissociation, the “brotherly hugs” later that made you recoil. You wrote a song about it: Poison Touch.
And you’ve been gaslit about it.
"You lie."
"You are delusional."
"You brought it upon yourself!"
"It never happened!"
"Forget the past and move on."
Those are all classic denial scripts. They don’t change what your body and memory know.
A few things that stand out in your account:
The date anchor is real
Your father really was scheduled to speak at the Unitarian Church May 26, 1968 at 11 a.m. You used that to place the event in time. That’s not “making it up.” Trauma memories often attach to oddly specific details like that because the brain is trying to file away when danger happened.
The family dynamics...
