The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe by Elton Townend Jones

Author:Elton Townend Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

(gets out of chair and comes downstage) Call me old-fashioned – and I can be – but a husband and wife should share the same bed. We even stopped eating together. It was like his love had died and he’d replaced me with silence. If Hedda held a party, I’d get him along, but he wouldn’t dance. Not that he liked dancing, but a drink would help him find the mood. That scene in Bambi, where he’s all tangled up on the ice? A dozen more legs and that was Arthur. But now I was dancing with strangers, when all I wanted was everyone to see me dance with him. He wouldn’t even touch me. It was Joe all over again.

The sudden shift of topic makes her miraculously upbeat and energised. And as she continues, she sits on the end of the bed and takes another dry pill from the bottle in her pocket.

Hey, d’you know, it’s ten years since I met Joe? I was only talking about this the other day, how I wasn’t interested at first. My agent arranged dinner. Joe saw me posing with other ball players and wanted to know why he never got shoots like that. Come the night, I’m bushed and trying to get out of it, but I’d promised, so… (self-aware) Yeah, I was late. I get all ready for something and people tell me I look great, but I don’t feel great and end up taking it off and starting all over again. Don’t get me wrong, I can be late just for kicks. Not on set, but in other parts of my life. Especially if someone’s eager to see me. It wasn’t always like that, see? There were times when no one gave a damn about seeing me. And those times’ll come again. I know that. So it’s a miracle I got to Joe at all. I was expecting some loudmouth with slick hair… But he was a gentleman. Well-dressed. Tanned, but grey. Grey suit, grey tie, grey in his hair. His suit was broad in the shoulder to make him look bigger than he was. (thinks) Does he still do that? (thinks) But there was no angle, no jokes even. He was so serious. Like Arthur, he’s not what you’d call handsome… with that goofy grin… but he was warm. Impeccable manners. I didn’t have the first clue about baseball.

(as Joe:) ‘That’s okay, kid. I know even less about movies’. But then Mickey Rooney’s gang spots us. They’re all over Joe, fussing and reliving all these DiMaggio moments that meant so much to them. And you know Joe. When Mickey’s gone, he’s chasing exorbitant spaghetti around his plate like nothing happened, but I begin to understand just who I’m eating with. And I’m not tired any more. I talk about Cary Grant and Joe talks about his restaurant. We laugh. We’re having fun. We have dinner the next night, and the next night, and every night till he heads back East.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.