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Continued from page 163…
Wednesday, September 22nd, 1988, 9:50 P.M.
“You know this doesn’t change things,” said Belinda, bending over and carefully examining the wound on her leg.
Kathy knew what she meant, but tried to avoid the subject as long as she could. She knew that Belinda was frightened and paranoid about all the things that were happening around her. She also knew that these fears were starting to conjure up conspiracy theories in Belinda’s mind. She decided to deflect the issue for a moment.
“Belinda, what’s the matter with you, seriously? Why would you take such a chance like that? You know this neighborhood… You coulda’ been shot as an intruder,” Kathy explained.
“Hey, I didn’t know they would have a pack of killer dogs over there,” said Belinda. “How was I supposed to know?”
Neither Gina nor Kathy knew how to respond to this because this was exactly what Kathy was referring to. Jumping into someone’s gated backyard in her neighborhood could result in severe catastrophe in one form or another. In the meantime, amongst all the heated debate, Kathy had rinsed off and wrung out a clean washcloth and was starting to dab Belinda’s wound over the tattered pair of jeans. After careful consideration, however, she realized this was a somewhat futile endeavor.
“You know, when Jane comes back, those jeans are gonna have to come off,” said Kathy.
“I’m not taking my pants off in front of you guys,” said Belinda, defiantly. “I’ve already been halfway naked in front of you once already today, Gina.”
Gina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After all that had been said and done on this extraordinary day and evening, Belinda was now going to revert back to some childish, henhouse shit like that.
“Oh, God, you gotta’ be kidding me,” she blurted out. “You know.. you should probably show me a little more respect than that, Babe.. I did get you out of a mental hospital, ya’ know… How bout’ a little appreciation for that, huh?”
“You chucked me down a laundry chute!!” cried Belinda. “I coulda’ been killed.. or seriously injured. You didn’t know there was a laundry basket under there!”
Now it was Kathy’s turn to be astonished. She placed a puzzled look on her face, complete with the blinking eyes and the nodding head. She folded her arms and glanced over at Gina.
“You what?” she asked in the usual, deadpan manner. It was going to take a long time before the girls would be able to shed six years of television training.
Almost as if on cue from the director, Gina responded as if the three of them were still on set over at the studio.
“I… threw her down a laundry chute, okay?” said Gina with perfect timing. “You got a problem with that?”
Kathy moved her head around in all sorts of directions, placing a look on her face as if to say— “no.. why would I have a problem with that?” She could almost hear the live, studio audience in the background. “Uh-huh,” she said as if she understood that Gina would do something like that.
“It was the only thing I could think of to get her out of there,” Gina explained. “Otherwise, we woulda’ been busted.”
Kathy continued on—
“Uh-huh, uh-huh,” she added before pausing for the ultimate punchline. “Gina… have you ever had an actual, full-blown, psychiatric evaluation from a certified doctor?”
“Oh, shut up, Kathy, you don’t know the circumstances. It worked, didn’t it? She’s here!”
Kathy had no choice but to concede to Gina’s unique sense of logic.
“Yeah, I’m here,” stated Belinda. “And pretty soon I’m gonna start foaming at the mouth from rabies… As opposed to the other times when I foam at the mouth just for the fun of it.”
“Hey, I didn’t tell you to start acting like Nadia Comaneci! You did that all to yourself!” observed Gina.
Before another word could be spoken, the sight and sounds of Jane entering the kitchen interrupted everything. She was carrying her life-saving medical kit in hand and singing a song from “South Pacific.” It was a welcome relief from the current bickering.
“Okay, okay.. Dr. Weidlin is here to the rescue,” Jane self-proclaimed. “I’m gonna fix you right up, honey… Take those pants off.”
Kathy laughed slightly with amusement, but Gina broke out into a full-fledged cackle.
“I’m not taking my pants off,” Belinda insisted. The scene was all the more funny with Gina’s laughter in the background.
“What do you mean?” Jane asked. “You have to take them off.. How else am I gonna get to the wound?”
“I’m not taking them off in front of those two,” Belinda pointed out.
Jane seemed confused as she looked around, but decided to be a fellow smart-ass along with everyone else. She immediately surmised that Belinda was the butt of some sort of ridicule.
“Why? We’ve all seen your big, hairy bush before,” said Jane.
“That’s not what I’m talking about!” Belinda fumed as the cackling got louder. “Besides, I’m certainly not taking my underwear off, anyways… So you don’t have to worry about seeing my… whatever it is that you just said.”
While Gina remained enveloped in her state of hysterics, Kathy decided to take the straight-man approach to this high-brow level of comedy. She stood calmly with her arms folded and waited for the perfect time to jump in.
“Jane… I hate to interrupt this touching episode of “Nancy Drew, Mountain Nurse,” but why don’t you take Belinda and her big, hairy bush upstairs so you can attend to her wound in private,” she instructed. “She obviously has a problem with the two of us being around.”
“Okay, good idea,” Jane agreed, helping Belinda to her feet. “Come on, Babe, let’s get you upstairs so we can take care of you.”
Belinda sneered and stuck out her tongue at Kathy as she walked by. As she continued on, she also informed Jane that her assessment of her anatomy was not exactly correct.
“It’s not that big… And it’s not that hairy, either.”
“I know, I know, honey.. Let’s not think about that,” soothed Jane.
After Jane and Belinda had left the room, Kathy addressed the entire situation.
“Can you believe that shit?” she wondered. “Can you believe that she was worried about us seeing her in her underwear?”
“That was funny,” said Gina, still laughing. “That was fuckin’ funny… I liked that.”
Kathy went over to one of her cabinets to retrieve some much needed relief from all the goofy tension.
“I need a fuckin’ drink,” she stated.
“Make me one, too.. whatever it is,” Gina chimed in.
Kathy pulled down a couple of glasses from the other cabinet and began preparing two Jack and Cokes on ice for the two of them. As she was preparing, Gina was contemplating a thought that desperately needed to be addressed.
“You know… I’m not done talking to you,” she said.
As Kathy was stirring the two drinks with a spoon, she remained silent for a moment before speaking up.
“Now what?” she asked. “Haven’t we seen enough for awhile?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” Gina insisted.
“No, Gina… I don’t know what you are talking about… You still wanna jam? Is that it?” Kathy asked as she handed Gina her drink. She sensed what Gina was about to say.
“Why are you doing this to Belinda?” asked Gina.
Kathy took a sip of her drink, savored the taste in her mouth for a few seconds, then swallowed.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she lied, staring, then turning her head away.
“No, no, no, don’t hand me that shit… You and her must have discussed something upstairs that made her come down here and start accusing us of all kinds of wild shit… and then made her storm out of here thinkin’ that we were all against her in some kind of.. conspiracy or something… She was totally freaking-out, Kathy… She thought that we were all conspiring against her… That’s what made her freak-out and run out of here.. Now what the fuck did you guys talk about?”
Kathy could no longer brush-off Gina with some innocent denial of the situation. She swayed her head back and forth, then spit out the truth—
“She wanted to know why I was still doing business with Charlotte… You know… in spite of all the things that she’s done,” admitted Kathy. “There… ya’ happy?”
Gina went silent for several moments.
“We’ve all wondered that from time to time, Kath.”
Kathy accepted Gina’s skepticism of her answer. She stood steadfastly and stared directly into Gina’s face.
“Gina.. dammit… Charlotte is sick, okay? And despite everything that she’s done.. business has to go on, ya’ know? And we can’t just sit around and let everything go to shit… We have our lives to think about… We have our futures to think about.”
Gina could only accept about half of what Kathy was saying. In a matter-of-fact way, she shrugged her shoulders and actually agreed with her.
“Hey.. I get it… We have our lives to think about,” she pondered. “But get this through your head.. I’m rich enough.. And I’m famous enough… What I care about most.. is that we all remain friends forever… You got that? I wanna be a band forever.
Kathy thoroughly agreed with her. Again, it was all she ever wanted.
“Gina, so do I,” she gushed. “That’s all I want, too.. You know that. You know that about me.”
Like before, Gina was willing to accept Kathy’s heartfelt plea. Indeed, she knew that Kathy wanted all of that stuff every bit as much as she wanted it. There was only one question that was burning in her mind. A question that she just had to know the answer for.
“I do know that,” she agreed. “There’s only one thing that bugs me though.”
“What’s that?” asked Kathy.
“Why do you protect Charlotte so much? I mean.. we’ve all accepted that she has a split personality.. and that we’re willing to forgive her for certain transgressions… But you seem to protect her in a different type of way.. In some kind of personal way.. What? Does she have you hypnotized or something?”
Kathy froze dead in her tracks. She whirled around to face Gina directly.
“What did you say?” she asked.