VL-IV (15) Hard, Soft & Helpless, pages 330/333

[Robin Landseadel]

Closing out this little vignette of Prairie Wheeler's social life, Ché  
's home life is presented largely as a contrast to Prairie's far more  
cohesive and healthy family life.

	They sauntered along companionably as New Age mindbarf 	
	came dribbling out of the PA system. "Moms are a mixed
	blessing," Ché  announced.
	
	"Rilly. But try having that part of your life missing."

	"You'd love it in the joint, Prair, 'cz that's exactly what the
	girls are into, 's that hookin' up together in threes, one's the
	Mommy, one's the Daddy, and one's the little child—hard,
	soft, and helpless. I figure, what's the difference, bein' in a
	family out here, or being in the joint?

Again, we are in a made for TV movie, the differences between DL-ish  
Ché  and Frenesi's daughter Prairie are very much the point.

	' . . .you could see he was torn between coming after me and
	tryin' to save that bourbon—last I saw as I was running out he
	was down tryin' to suck what he could up off of the floor, had to
	keep spittin' out little slivers of Elvis's head—but he looked up
	at me, and his face was just full of murder, you know that look?"

	Prairie realized she didn't. . . and then, with a stab of sadness,
	that Ché  did.

At the same time, there's a bit of cheap romance here, as Ché  in her  
deft shoplifting selects something perfectly innocent in its sexiness  
for Prairie:

	"While on the other hand you, my dear," Ché  flinging at Prairie
	something almost weightless in those colors, "belong inside this
	item, stolen expressly for you." Which turned out to be an
	intricate silk teddy full of lace, ribbons, ruffles, bows, which it
	took awhile for Prairie, blushing and protesting, to be
	persuaded to try on.

But "now, oh now I needs must part"—Prairie & Ché  say their goodbyes  
knowing that they are crossing a rubicon:

	. . . Prairie felt like it was steps of a boat landing and that one of
	them was setting off on a dangerous cruise across darkened
	seas, and that it could be a long time, this time, till they saw
	each other again.

In the next scene, we return to "real time."