PARTISAN REVIEW
493
FATHER
(to
SHELLEY): What are you thinking?
SHELLEY
turns away.
FATHER: Are you - are you well enough to understand what I'm
showing yOU?
PETER: She's afraid of crowds. You brought a crowd into the room.
FATHER: I don't understand you.
PETER: She came running out of a crowd and into my arms, this
girl you claim as your daughter. It's the same protoplasm as the
infant up on the wall, I suppose, but you can't prove it. Really,
you can't prove anything. The crowd opened up and a girl ran
toward me, I could see she was terrified, she needed love, she
needed me to mythologize her. So I took her in my arms. I saved
her from the crowd. You're bringing the crowd back, you're con–
fusing her.
FATHER: Shelley? Come here.
SHELLEY
approaches him as if against her will. Her hands are
pressed against her face.
SHELLEY:
I
can't see anything.
FATHER: More pictures of Shelley. .. eight months old ... a year
old ... eighteen months ... two years ... three years ... this was
taken on Christmas Day
1957....
SHELLEY: Stop it!
FATHER: Your sister Jeanne....
SHELLEY:
I
don't have any sister!
FATHER: Easter Sunday
1960.
How can
1960
be so long ago?
PETER: The sister is quite pretty!
FATHER: Shelley in high school, fourteen years old....
SHELLEY:
It
isn't me! Go to hell!
FATHER: Another picture of Shelley. Her mother took it; that's me
in the background. Do you recognize this, Shelley? Cape Cod. Do
you recognize that bathing suit, Shelley?
SHELLEY: My head is being blown up like a balloon. You're killing
me.
If
my head gets much bigger I'll float up against the ceil–
ing ... you'll have to pull me down by grabbing hold of my
ankles.
FATHER: This was taken the same day. Look at her beautiful long
hair!
PETER: Did you love her?
FATHER: Why - why do you speak in the past tense?
PETER: Do you love her?
