ANNIE
Where’s
Lonnie?
GEORGETTE
But
I don’t understand why all the planes crashed.
COUNTESS
VAN DER CAVE
(Awaking)Don’t you? She must have a big magnet---
GEORGETTE
Big enough to suck Grace into a plane and convince her to fly?
GRACE
I
never flew before---
GEORGETTE
We never took a plane to Orlando---
GRACE
Indiatlantic---
GEORGETTE
---before.
COUNTESS VAN DER CAVE
Strong
magnet.
ANNIE
Where’s
Lonnie?
FOOFEE
But
there are still unanswered questions: why
us?
Why these particular women: one,
a lithe womanservant---
COUNTESS
VAN DER CAVE
Another,
a sleepy old royal---
GRACE
Then a
couple of grayheads---
ANNIE
And
an ordinary couple---where’s Lonnie?
FOOFEE
Why
us?(At ELINOR RADLEY’s beck, the PANTHER LADY rises and starts closing
banana leaves, like curtains, around the clearing.)
ELINOR
RADLEY
Yyyaaawww
. . . It’s getting late. What do you
think, Panther Lady? beddy-bye?(She settles in the leaves for a snooze. The COUNTESS is already asleep. The
PANTHER LADY kindles a fire.)
ANNIE
Really . . . where’s Lonnie . . . ?
FOOFEE
So
many questions . . . (The PANTHER LADY’s yellow eyes dart. She throws something ambergrissy
onto the pyre. Sputter sputter spurt. Fumes. They all get hazy.)
END OF EPISODE 21.
