Elephant Gerald asks leading
questions, impersonating the talk show hosts. Why yes I did find a nickel
and two pennies at the supermarket. Ada keeps her money pinned in the
pocket of her daffodil print dress. She says you aren't the only lucky
one, Mister Smarty. Elephant Gerald is Aristotle Onassis around here. On
every birthday he receives a tape recorder and batteries. He spends his
allowance on Memorex. Last night Elephant Gerald recorded his sleep and
discovered he laughs like Mister Ed. You're a lucky lady, Ada--always
been. At bingo I never lose. Lips pursed tight. You're just plain lucky,
and I'm going home with my mother. Elephant Gerald changes the subject and
Ada doesn't like it. I don't want to hear about your mother, Gerald. Shut
up about her. You can't talk about your mother all the time. He pulls out
the plug in his ear. Beatles played by tin fairies. You talked about your
mother, Ada. I can talk about mine. I didn't. You did. I didn't. You did.
Didn't. Did. Didn't. Did. Didn't. Did. Call Jimmy Carter.Ariel
Lightbody strolls and hums to herself, hands clasped around her bliss. Ada
stops arguing long enough to notice that Ariel looks more like Humpty
Dumpty than herself. It was Ada's curse to be beautiful like her mother,
strong minded like her father. Ada asks what Ariel is humming. Ariel yanks
to attention like electrocuted Jello, yet when she speaks the words melt
in her mouth. Was I humming, dear? Beneath close-cropped hair Ariel's
slumping face follows a massive chin onto her shoulders. A corpulent trunk
perches precariously like funeral statuary in the National Museum in
Athens--the ones with human torsos on bird legs. I thought you were a
ventriloquist, Elephant Gerald says. Someone who can take off her skin and
talk to it instead of herself. That would be real nice, Ariel answers
from Elsewhere. All she can think about is her brain. She has spent the
whole day digging out her memory. Like many of the guests, Ariel Lightbody
knows very little about her past, but
she confides that her father puts windshield wipers on
submarines.