494
JOYCE CAROL OATES
FATHER: Yes, I love her. I only followed her here to talk with her,
quietly. To show her these things. I don't want to force her into
anything, I want to prove something to her, I won't make demands
upon her ... I want to prove something to her. ...
SHELLEY: He wants to prove that I exist!
PETER
(motioning her away):
Calm down, please. There's an odor
released from you when you're excited. It isn't very cute. Men don't
smell like that.
SHELLEY: I'm not a man but I'm not a girl either. I'm not male and
I'm not female. Look at that ugly body in the picture! That body!
Breasts and hips and legs and long hair and that smile, that stupid
smile! I could hack that girl into pieces with a knfe! I could tear
her into pieces with my teeth!
FATHER: This one was taken in the fall ... the light was a little
dim ...
PETER: The three women in your family, eh? Your wife and your
two daughters.... Why did you take all these pictures?
FATHER: Because... .
PETER: Why do Americans take so many pictures?
FATHER: Because.... because ....
SHELLEY: They want to prove that they exist!
PETER: Don't stand so near me. You smell like that mattress, you
smell like blood. . . . Women stink; they smell so much of blood
that dogs are drawn to them.
SHELLEY: I don't smell of blood!
PETER: Your underwear was stained when I first met you.
FATHER
(as if not hearing):
And this is your mother on her birth–
day last year. Remember those flowers? Your mother was saying,
just as I took this picture, "It won't turn out, it's too dark in
here...."
SHELLEY: He's bringing everyone in this room!
FATHER: Another of Shelley. Look at that smile ! She knows she's
much prettier than her sister ... she seems to offer her face up to
the camera like a flower, a lovely flower....
SHELLEY: They are all coming in this room, all of them ...
SHELLEY
rushes at her father and tries to knock the projector
over. H er
FATHER
takes hold of her and they struggle.
SHELLEY: He's touching me! I can feel him touching me!
In the struggle the apparatus is knocked over.
PETER
tries to pull
SHELLEY
away.
!
