Ларри Макмертри - The Last Picture Show

Jacy was waiting for -the boys when they came out. "My folks are gone to Wichita," she said. "Let's go get a hamburger."

They got in the convertible and drove to the drive-in, a place called The Rat-Hole. The boys were starved and ordered two hamburgers apiece; while they were cooking,

Jacy and Duane smooched a little and Sonny cleaned his fingernails and looked out the back window. About the time their order came Abilene drove up in his Mercury and parked beside them. They all waved at him and he nodded in reply, barely moving his head. He was drinking a can of beer.

"You need a haircut," Jacy said, putting her hand lightly on the back of Duane's neck. They were sitting very close together, and were feeding one another French fries when the Farrow's big blue Cadillac pulled in and parked beside them. Lois Farrow was driving. She had her sunglasses on, even though it was a cloudy day. Duane scooted back to his side of the car as quickly as he could, but the Farrows gave no indication that they even noticed him. In a minute Mrs. Farrow got out and walked around to Jacy's window.

"We're having supper at home tonight," she said. "As soon as the boys get through with their hamburgers you take them to town and get yourself home, you hear?"

Mrs. Farrow looked bored, even with her sunglasses on. For some reason Sonny felt scared of her, and so did Jacy and Duane. All three were nervous. Mrs. Farrow noticed Abilene sitting there and she calmly thumbed her nose at him. He gave her a finger in return and took another swallow of his beer. Lois went back to the Cadillac and the three kids hastily finished their meal, Jacy dripping tears of annoyance into her strawberry milk shake.

"She didn't have to look so hateful," Jacy said, sniffling. "I just wish my grandmother was alive. She'd see we got married even if we had to run away and do it."

chapter five

At the Farrow supper table an hour later, Lois and Jacy politely ignored one another, while Gene made conversation with desperate good cheer. After supper, though, he gave up, watched Groucho Marx, and then got in bed and quickly drank himself to sleep. He just wasn't built to withstand the quality of tension Lois and Jacy could generate.

The one thing Lois envied Gene was his ability to drink himself to sleep quickly. He went to sleep on so little alcohol that he was never bothered with hangovers the next day, whereas Lois had to drink for hours before the liquor would turn her off. If she just had to sleep, she took pills.

When it was almost Jacy's bedtime Lois stopped at her door for a minute, knocked, and went in. Jacy had already showered and was sitting on the bed in pink pajamas, rubbing cleansing cream into her face. Occasionally, despite her precautions, Jacy got what she called a blemish, but she took great pains with her complexion and didn't have many.

"Go on, don't let me interrupt your facial," Lois said. She walked around the room, frowning. Almost every object in the room annoyed her; she couldn't decide whether Jacy simply had bad taste or had deliberately chosen ugly objects as a means of affronting her. There were five or six stuffed animals, all of which Duane had won for her at ball-throwing booths in the State Fair; they were grouped in one corner, around a large Mortimer Snerd doll, also a gift from Duane. One wall was mostly bulletin board, and every picture of Jacy or Duane that had ever appeared in the Thalia Times was tacked on it. In addition to the pictures there were football programs, photographs of Jacy as cheerleader (sophomore year) and as Football Queen (junior year), the menu of the junior dinner dance, the program of the junior play, and many other mementos. On the bedside table there was a framed picture of Duane, and on the wall, a framed picture of Jesus. Next to the picture of Duane was an alarm clock and a white zipper Bible, and on the other side of the bed was Jacy's pile of movie magazines, most of them with Debbie Reynolds on the cover. Debbie Reynolds was Jacy's ideal.

"Well, I guess you hate me tonight, right?" Lois said. "Oh, Momma you know I love you," Jacy said, wiping the cream off. "But I love Duane too, even if you don't like it."

"Like it? Liking it or disliking it hasn't entered my head, because I don't believe it. Who you love is your own pretty self and what you really love is knowing you're pretty I'm sure he tells you how pretty you are all the time so I don't doubt you're fond of him. Even your grandmother learned that much about you. And you are pretty, you ought to enjoy it. I'd just sort of hate to see you marry Duane, though, because in about two months he'd quit flattering you and you wouldn't be rich anymore and life wouldn't be near as much fun for you as it is right now."

"But I don't care about money," lacy said solemnly. "I don't care about it at all."

Lois sighed. "You're pretty stupid then," she said. "If you're that stupid you ought to go and marry him-it would be the cheapest way to educate you."

Jacy was so shocked at being called stupid that she didn't even cry. Her mother knew she made straight A report cards!

"You married Daddy when he was poor," she said weakly. "He got rich so I don't see why Duane couldn't."

"I'll tell you why, beautiful," Lois said. "I scared your Daddy into getting rich. He's so scared of me that for twenty years he's done nothing but run around trying to find things to please me. He's never found the right things but he made a million dollars looking."

"If Daddy could do it Duane could too," Jacy insisted, pouting.

"Not married to you, he couldn't," Lois said. "You're not scary enough. You'd be miserable poor but as long as you had somebody to hold your hand and tell you how pretty you are you'd make out."

"Well you're miserable and you're rich," Jacy countered. "I sure don't want to be like you."

"You sound exactly like your grandmother," Lois said, looking absently out the window. "There's not much danger you'll be like me. Have you ever slept with Duane?"

It was undoubtedly the most surprising conversation Jacy had ever had!

"Me?" she said. "You know I wouldn't do that, Momma."

"Well, you just as well," Lois said quietly, a little amused at herself and at life. She never had been able to resist shocking her mother; apparently it was going to be almost as difficult to resist shocking her daughter.

"Seriously," she added. "There's no reason you shouldn't have as much fun as you're capable of having. You can come with me to the doctor sometime and we'll arrange something so you won't have to worry about babies. You do have to be careful about that."

To Jacy what she was hearing was almost beyond belief. "But Momma," she said. "It's a sin unless you're married, isn't it? I wouldn't want to do that."

"Oh, don't be so mealymouthed," Lois shouted. "Why am I even talking to you? I just thought if you slept with Duane a few times you'd find out there really isn't anything magic about him, and have yourself some fun to boot. Maybe then you'd realize that pretty things and pretty people are what you like in life and we can send you to a good school where you'll marry some good-looking kid with the wherewithal to give you a pleasant life."

"But I don't want to leave," Jacy said plaintively. "Why can't I just stay here and go to college in Wichita?"

"Because life's too damn hard here," Lois. said. "The land's got too much power over you. Being rich here is a good way to go insane. Everything's flat and empty and there's nothing to do but spend money."

She walked over to Jacy's dresser and picked up the big fifty dollar bottle of Chanel No. 5 that Gene had given his daughter the Christmas before.

"May I have some of your perfume?" she asked. "I suddenly feel like smelling good."

"Help yourself," Jacy said, suddenly wishing her mother were gone. "Don't you have any?"