Participants:
| Scene Title | Shush Girl, Shut Your Lips |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abigail receives a surprise phone call. |
| Date | April 30, 2009 |
Village renaissance Building, Al & Abby's Apartment
An average middle class apartment, it's populated with decidedly not middle class furniture. A solitary red suede couch occupies the immediate living room, with a battered coffee table and side tables as it's companion. A decent sized TV sits on a cupboard with a stereo, DVD player. The kitchen sports a relic from the 70's, with matching chairs that still seem to be in decent condition. The two bedrooms off the hall are distinguishable from the other, one bearing a gold cross nailed above the door, the other not.
In the corner of the living room is an ornate cage on a bird stand, a blue budgie within it's depths. In another corner is a massive cat tree house, and often occupied by a black cat with a red suede collar. It looks barely lived in, like the owners are not yet investing their effort quite yet to move in.
"Black dress with the tights underneath,
I got the breath of the last cigarette on my teeth,
And shes an actress (actress),
But she ain't got no need.
Shes got money from her parents in a trust fund back east.
T-t-t-tongues always pressed to your cheeks,
While my tongue is on the inside of some other girls teeth,
T-tell your boyfriend if he says hes got beef,
That I'm a vegetarian and I ain't blanking scared of him."
"She wants to touch me (Woah),
She wants to love me (Woah),
She'll never leave me (Woah, woah, oh, oh),
Don't trust a ho,
Never trust a ho,
Won't trust a ho,
Won't trust me."
This is not music that is normally played in this place. Maybe once in a blue moon, with a new song added. A rotation if you would. But that is Abigails voice singing along with the music and the blow dryer in the bathroom, imagine the camera panning, through the livingroom, following the church choir voice as it drifts through the place, all the way down the hall and focusing on the bathroom door. Red hair whipping in the stream of hot air that attempts to tame and dry it.
"X's on the back of your hands,
Wash them in the bathroom to drink like the bands.
And your setlist (setlist),
You stole off the stage,
Had red and purple lipstick all over the page.
B-b-b-bruises cover your arms,
Shaking in the fingers with the bottle in your palm.
And the best is (best is),
No one knows who you are,
Just another girl alone at the bar."
At one point the healer points the hairdryer at her face, thumb switching it to cool - cause high heat hurts people - and sings into it like a microphone while she shifts her hips from side to side. This si a dirty little secret that Abigail keeps to herself. She has a CD with songs that are not what people expect her to listen much less sing to. Everyones got their vice.
"Shush girl shut your lips,
Do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips.
I said, Shush girl shut your lips,
Do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips.
I said, Shush girl shut your lips,
Do the Hellen Keller and talk with your hips."
Thank you Cat for good solid walls. Lest her neighours be complaining at 8 in the morning as to why their generally good christian neighbours is singing about unmentionable acts, like thrusting their hips as instructed in the song.
It's in the transition from that refrain to the next that her phone starts ringing and the redhead turns the hairdryer off, dashing for the phone out in the livingroom, one hand securing the towels around her chest and picking up the cordless phone out of it's cradle even as "Don't trust a ho, Never trust a ho" Suddenly picks up on the CD player. when she says "Hello". The lack of reporters finally outside her door is what prompted her to plug her phone back in.
"Abigail! Abigail are you there?!" There's a pause on the other line and then. "What is that racket!" Momma beauchamp in all her southern glory is on the phone.
If they could see her daughter, there would be no blood in the young womans face as suddenly she's scrabbling to unplug the CD player. Oh lord. "Just.. um, the cat stepped on the radio, hit the preset"
"oh! well then, that's fine. Abigail, your father and I are coming up to visit you" Yuuuuu. Not You. Every single possible letter drawn out. "We'll be out there on the 8th. Staying for four days. We just got plane tickets out to Newww Yohrk!" She sounds so perky, and thanks to Aaron, she is too.
There's a click on the line and then a man's voice. "Abigail? Are you there?" The gruff man's voice, and you can imagine the man on the other side with the phone to his ear and the other hand in his pan pockets, thumb hooked onto the outside.
"I'm here Daddy" Reverting to that little idiom when dealing with them in a private setting. "I'll.. have to see about getting you set up in the apartment and I can.. I'll rent a car for while your down here. I can get work off" Maybe. Ouch. Thin month, maybe. With them coming. "I'm happy your coming, it's a surprise, really, but.. it beats me going down there"
"Well now Abigail, your our babygirl" her father drawls. "Gotta make sure that your being fed up there. We haven't seen you in over a year and you aren't making the effort to come down, what are parents supposed to do?"
"It's not that I didn't try, just.. things came up" The redhead protests, taking the phone back to the bathroom with her, a pause as she looks in the mirror. Oh god. Her hair. A second glance and she turns to the side, the cross poking up from behind the towel and more blood draws away from her face. The tattoo. hair, they already saw her hair on the news. It wasn't quite hers but it was. But the tattoo.
"Well, we're coming up, a nice friend of yours had plane tickets delivered. Your fathers taking vacation and we even have a hotel! And you don't need to rent us a car, there's one, Everythings been taken care of! You must have a very good friend up there" her mother drawls on. "We didn't want to take it, but the person said that you would be so happy to see us. That you deserved it and after what we saw on Tee vee we.."
Abigails father cuts off her mother. "We're worried bout you girl. It's a big city up there and we haven't seen you in a year and that's just not christian to not see your baby girl so infrequently. What with you going to school and all, just wanna make sure your doing right. you going to church today?"
"Yes sir. There's even a new Baptist Church that opened up not far from the apartment. Pastor Joseph Sumter from Tenessee" Comes abigails voice, taking the part of the dutiful daughter despite she's standing in front of a mirror with just a large blue towel and staring at the tattoo on her back. "I think you'll like him Sir"
"Did you get the shirts I sent Abigail!" Her mother cuts in. "You saying your prayers at night? I hope your not gonna turn your blessed hair blue next because red is such a shade" Shade said as if it was something bad.
"Momma, Daddy, I'm getting ready for my appointment. I have class today. I need to go and learn about British hi…." Her mouth snaps shut. Noooope, not saying that. Conrad and flint call her intolerant and a whole lot of other things, but neither had ever met her parents. Just.. just call back tonight and leave a message with your flight numbers and i'll… I'll get out to the airport. I promise, but my hair is soaking wet and I have an early day"
"Alright Abigail" Her father gruffs into the phone. "You have a blessd day now ya hear. Don't yew forget about us none"
"And don't forget to buy what we need for a baloney cake. They probably won't let me bring one on the plane and we'll be wanting to all have one! I love you abigail!" Her mother sing songs over the phone. Likely both have been up for hours already, compared to their daughter. Oh how far the apple has fallen from the tree. Not every far, but still.
"I love you both too. Oh! Daddy, who gave you the tickets again?" the littlest healer asks since she never got the answer the first time.
"A Mr. Monroe"
"Oh." Adam Monroe. "Okay. I love yewww" Abby murmurs before hitting end on the phone and looking at herself in the mirror. Out in the livingroom the cat this time really does step on the CD player's volume, cranking the tune that's next on the CD while the redhead just stares.
Look at you
Gettin' more than just re-up
Baby, you
Got all the puppets with their strings up
Fakin' like a good one, but I call 'em like I see 'em
I know what you are, what you are, baby
Womanizer