(RECAP- last chapter, everyone seemed to be visiting Bette in her hotel room. And then Tina arrived and the rest left. The two started to talk and Tina wanted Bette to come to the house so they could talk to Angelica who seemed to be having trouble with the state of affairs between her two distant mothers. Bette started to express her view that maybe they should try being more of a family, which got Tina agitated and she left, telling Bette to come to the house for dinner and a talk that evening as a family with Angelica. The previous reunions were brought up throughout their conversation, one of which was particularly contentious apparently…Tuscany. And, in your comments, many of you wanted to know what happened in Tuscany. Geeeeez…I had to go and mention Tuscany! Anyway…I don’t know if this is the kind of thing you were envisioning about it, but here it is…Tuscany, at least part of it, and more of the story. Thanks again for reading…those of you who are still around…)

(It was a warm spring day in Tuscany. The hazel eyed beauty, still ravishing in her almost middle age, stood next to the window sill and looked out onto the countryside. You could hear the wind blow ever so mildly and the quiet setting in. She felt a more meaningful wind tantalizing the back of her neck, causing the sensations to stir and her eyes to close as though taking a visual deep breath. She was impatiently awaiting the next touch…she new it would come and that it would be all encompassing, as the body that she had known so well cradled and enlivened the entire surface of her own.

As Bette’s arm took Tina’s left arm from behind, all along its length, and then evaded it as the tanned arm assumed a more desired position closer to Tina’s chest, Tina eyes opened as she leaned her body back and her head onto Bette’s right shoulder. Bette embraced her mate from behind and kissed the side of her face that was already comfortably closest to her lips.)

BETTE- “I can’t believe how long I’ve had to wait to come here, to be here, right in this place, behind this body, enjoying this view.”

TINA- “Shhhh…don’t speak.”

BETTE- “It’s been so long…”

TINA- “Shhh…I just want to feel…”

BETTE- “My voice doesn’t do the wonders it did once?”

TINA- “Bette…I don’t want you for your voice…I’m enjoying the feel of you, so please shut up…” (Bette chuckles and Tina follows suit.) “You feel so good…”

BETTE- “Shhhh…I’m enjoying the feel too…” (Tina breathes deeply and exhales.) “T?”

TINA- “Mmmmm?”

BETTE- “You think anyone can see us from out there standing naked in this window?”

TINA- (Rolling her eyes…) “You know you’re starting to get on my nerves…”

BETTE- (Smiling…) “Sorry…” (The moments pass as they enjoy the feeling of one another.)

TINA- “I don’t think I can do this Bette…I don’t think I can do this anymore…”

BETTE- “Ok I’ll shut up…”

TINA- “No…Bette…” (Bette moves a bit as Tina moves forward to turn and face her) “What’s…we have to go back tomorrow and there’s no future in this. What’s the point?” (Bette looks at her, as she secretly feels a wound emerge inside her. She almost ignores it and moves in closer, titillating Tina’s body as their fronts touch everywhere and Bette takes Tina’s face with her hands and gently captures her lips with her own. Bette suckles the helpless lips, intensifying the engagement with every tug and provoking a subtle moan. The merging bodies slowly move to the side of the window as Tina’s back feels the wall and senses Bette’s hand grasping her right leg and Bette’s other hand finding solace on the surface of her torso.)

BETTE- (She whisper’s into Tina’s ear…) “The point?” (Tina gasps, as the next gesture is swift and ‘to the point’, assisted by rhythmic yearning and accompanied by Tina’s grasps of Bette’s body for support. At the end of the passionate surge, Tina’s forehead rests on Bette’s shoulder. After the bodies recover some energy, they slowly make their way to the bed and Tina falls slowly on top of Bette, resting her head on the tanned chest.

That evening, Tina woke from her long slumber. She slowly looked and felt over to where Bette was supposed to be but she was gone. Tina rises, scanning the room. She gets out of bed and looks around. No one was in the bathroom. The room seemed mysteriously empty…none of Bette’s things were apparent. Then something catches her eye. She looks at a small table a few feet near the bed. There is something there. She walks over slowly and as her eyes fall towards its surface she suddenly feels very uneasy…she suddenly can’t feel anything as she picks up the letter penned by her lover and then a moment later, just as suddenly, she feels everything as she reads the first line… ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do this either.’)

(In present day Los Angeles, Tina is stirred by the cab driver’s voice.)

CABBY- “Madame…madame…we here.”

TINA- “Hmm? Oh…yes…” (She pays him.)

CABBY- “Sweet dreams madame?”

TINA- (She smirks a moment after realizing he was asking about her daydreaming…) “No…sour…”

CABBY- “Oh…no worry madame…is be ok. Dreams is for sweet things, good things, things you want so much…no bad, no history, just the best things your heart want…ok? You beautiful lady, you must think beautiful thoughts…no thoughts that put sadness on that beautiful face…ok?”

TINA- (Her eyebrows come together as she smiles…) “Mhm. Ok. Bye.”

CABBY- “Bye madame…bye…have good day.”

(No one was home so she fixed herself some tea and sat drinking it. At a restaurant near the Hilton, the girls’ lunch had progressed to desert and coffee as they quizzed Angelica on her life and chatted about ‘things’.)

ANGELICA- “I can’t believe mom came to the hotel.”

ALICE- “I think she probably got the hint after you came to meet us for lunch that you weren’t too pleased and neither was I.”

ANGELICA- “She’s so stubborn…they’re both so stubborn.”

KIT- “Not so much stubborn…” (Alice looks at her like she’s crazy…) “What?” (She looks back at Angelica…) “They’re just getting their love forces crossed…not meeting on the right path…you know?” (Angelica looks at her and doesn’t know what to say.)

ALICE- “Love forces? Who do you think you are, Yoda?”

SHANE- “No Alice…I think she’s right…”

ALICE- “Will the real Yoda please stand up?”

SHANE- “Alice…”

KIT- “I’m not as crazy as I sound. I think there’s always been a powerful force between these two…created by the joining or meeting of their individual forces. But I think they’ve each been so volatile and out of sinc sometimes…it’s just complicated matters.”

HELENA- “Have you been visiting Madama Madeleina again Kit?” (Alice chuckle and Kit smirks and looks exasperated…)

SHANE- “Who’s Madama Madeleina?”

ALICE- “Sooth sayer to the stars!”

HELENA- “More like nutbar…”

KIT- “Hey hey… I haven’t gone to see her since that first time several years ago so don’t you start on me again.”

ALICE- “Yeah, didn’t she say that what’s his name…Angus…was a woman trapped in a man’s body and that he used to be a champion harp player in a former life?” (Helena laughs with Alice.)

HELENA- “As I recall, she had told you to spit thrice and blow five kisses to the east and then three to the west before calling on him again.”

SHANE- “You’re kidding?”

KIT- “Unfortunately, my friends with the long memory aren’t kidding…she was a little odd.”

ALICE- “A LITTLE????”

KIT- “Whatever…will stop interrupting me Alice before I bop you one? I was trying to explain…Ok…Angelica…the things you gotta accept is that these two mamas love you like nothing and no one else. That’s first. Second…they will always love one another. That ain’t changing no matter what. But, as lovers and partners…well…you have to accept that it’s just none of your business.”

ALICE- “WHAT???”

KIT- (To Alice…) “Will you PLEASE just listen!” (Alice pipes down.) “Angelica, I know they’ve been difficult when it comes to their own relationship, and certainly improvements can be made on how they’ve dealt with that and with their family…the members of which are sitting around this table. But just keep in mind that as far as their relationship…you’re not responsible for it, it’s not yours or ours to decide, and we have no right to expect or dictate anything as far as their ‘union’, such as it has been or might be. Just let it go. I think sometimes we’ve put a little too much pressure on them. And you know they love you so much…they want to make you happy and they’re afraid of hurting you, so you have to let them know that it’s up to them to decide that part of their lives…that you’re ok with them just being friends and parents to you. Because it’s just not fair otherwise. Now, that doesn’t give them the right to be jackasses, and that’s a different story, but as far as their love…leave that to them.”

HELENA- “And this from the woman who held Tina as she cried those years ago and almost committed some serious bodily harm on Porter after she found her at the Planet….”

SHANE- “Shit…yeah…remember?”

ALICE- “THAT was classic.”

HELENA- “I didn’t know who was more scared, Bette or Jenny…I thought Jenny was going to faint or wet her pants.”

ALICE- “I think she was normal after that incident…Kit shocked her into sanity. The next day she was all normal and everything.”

HELENA- “Really?”

KIT- “Yeah, poor thing, she was helping me at the Planet and following me around…it was funny. Her book wasn’t doing so well at the time.”

SHANE- “Man, we have an interesting little family don’t we…”

ANGELICA- “I’ll say…and would want to have it any other way ladies.”

ALICE- (Kisses her on the cheek…) “My earth daughter is so sweet!” (Everyone chuckles.)

(About an hour later, back at the Kennard hall of remembrance…well ok…Tina’s house, which used to be Bette and Tina’s…the hazel eyes are just transfixed and she drinks her tea. The front door opens. Angelica wanders in and makes her way to the kitchen table. She sits down.)

ANGELICA- “Had lunch with the ladies.”

TINA- “How was it?”

ANGELICA- “Great. Wonderful to be with them again.”

TINA- “Mmmm. They love you very much.”

ANGELICA- “The feeling is mutual.”

TINA- “Always has been. It seemed to start early and just continued. I’m so glad they remained a part of your life.”

ANGELICA- “Me too.” (They sit in silence for a while.) “So they said you went to see mamma.” (Tina looks at her briefly and back at her tea and nods.) “How did it go?”

TINA- “Fine.” (Angelica examines her with her gaze.) “I asked her to come see us tonight.” (Angelica’s eyes grow a little wide and then Tina turns to look at her.) “I think it might be a good idea if we all sit down and talk.”

ANGELICA- “Talk about what?”

TINA- “Everything I guess.” (She reaches out and puts her hand on top of her daughter’s.) “You especially.”

ANGELICA- “Me? I think you’re…”

TINA- “ANGIE! Relax.” (She gazes pointedly into Angelica’s eyes and her daughter remembers her place as she looks into her mother’s knowing stare.) “We’ll talk about it everything tonight, ok? I admit, it’s been strange, with your mother half way across the world. You’re the light of both our lives and yet somehow, in a space of thousands of miles, you’re our green zone…the safe buffer between energies drawn so close together and with that same passion driven so far apart. We’ve fallen into a complacent acceptance of this life, with only brief respites of togetherness all these years.”

ANGELICA- (Looking at her mother like she has almost no idea what she’s talking about…) “Mom, I don’t understand…brief respites?”

TINA- “Tonight, ok? I’m tired of fighting with you so much recently. I love you more than anything and so does Porter senior. You’ve never really doubted that have you?” (Angelica shakes her head.) “Good.”

ANGELICA- “Except…I think that’s beside the point…the real issue, speaking as Porter junior I suppose, you’ve never really doubted your love for each other have you?” (Tina just looks at her.)

TINA- “Yes, there was a time.”

ANGELICA- “A long time ago.”

TINA- “Well, obviously we didn’t stay together so…”

ANGELICA- “So what?” (She grasps her mother’s hand and returns a mature and pointed gaze at the matriarch…) “You’ve never really doubted it was there…despite the size and of the ‘green zone’…this odd distance…you’ve never, despite it, really ever doubted the love that was…that IS there, have you mother?”

TINA- (She smiles and shakes her head…) “But that never solved anything. That’s how life is Angelica. The trite saying…love isn’t enough…it’s clearly true.”

ANGELICA- “And so clearly not.” (Tina gives Angelica an inquisitive look but she fires back…smiling…) “Tonight, ok mom?”

TINA- (Tina smiles.) “God you remind me of someone…”

ANGELICA- “That’s the idea mom…”

TINA- “You’re so stubborn.”

ANGELICA- “Well, if I know I’m right…”

TINA- (Smiling …) “Hey…”

ANGELICA- “Mom, listen, I’m sorry about earlier, when I left at lunch with Alice. I just…I don’t understand. It’s frustrating. I know you both moved on a long time ago, as far as being life partners goes, but being so…well, almost like strangers, it’s wrong. You both used to try and give me a family…two parents…and you always both were, but after a while you just drifted into this odd phase. It’s been…I just don’t want things to be this way. Maybe I’m being selfish, but I’ve found it so difficult for some reason to have the two most important people in my life not be in each other’s orbits at least…you’re both so far apart. And lately…I don’t understand…I have to walk on eggshells around the both of you. You haven’t been so sensitive since that time you came back from that business trip you took to Italy.”

TINA- “Sweetie…”

ANGELICA- “What? Yeah, I know…tonight…” (She pats her mother’s hand and stands.) “I gotta go. I promised a friend I’d go to coffee with them.”

TINA- “Where?”

ANGELICA- “Portia’s place.”

TINA- “Nice.”

ANGELICA- “Yep.”

TINA- “But you just got home.”

ANGELICA- “Gotta change.” (She kisses Tina on the cheek and goes off to change.)

(Tina looks at her cup and thinks of Angelica’s words… ‘that business trip you took to Italy’, that’s what she had told Angelica she was doing in Italy. She remembers it all too well, as she recalls the moments after seeing Bette’s note to her, that warm Tuscany evening after she woke from her nap, her post coital restful sleep… and there were those words, shot back to her ‘I can’t do this anymore either…’

Tina held the note and was dumbfounded…the familiar script jumped off the page and knocked the living wind out of her. She was surprised by her own reaction…it was merciless…she couldn’t breathe…she couldn’t believe it…Bette made love to her and left, parting with the same words Tina had thrown at her the hours before and now how she regrets it…regrets those words she chose to say to her life’s love. But this, this was incredible…how could she have left her? All they had now were these meetings…now, what did they have left? ‘Why?’ she whispered… ‘why Bette?’ But ‘why’, she thought to herself, ‘why did I say those words to her?’ As she shook her head and thought both of Bette’s painful gesture and her own regretful words, her tears slowly flowed, her heart sank further and her body lowered with it until she hit the floor. She cried like a baby, both astounded at Bette’s actions and her own words…who was to blame? Was it her or had Bette delivered an uncharacteristically cruel blow? Was it deserved? ‘Why? Why Bette? How could you?’ she asked her absent lover. She felt like all she could do was wither and die there, on that floor, in that house, that warm and delicious Tuscan night.)

ANGELICA- (Touching Tina on the shoulder…) “Mom? Are you ok?”
TINA- (Her remembrance interrupted by the present day…) “Hmm? Yes…yes…fine. You leaving?” (Angelica nodded.) “Have a good time and be back for 6 o’clock, ok?”

ANGELICA- “Ok.” (She hugs Tina and then looks at her…) “You sure you’re ok?”

TINA- “I’m fine. Go.” (Angelica kisses her and leaves. Tina watches her depart and then sits back down…her mind has more to process from yesterday’s remnants…the ones that still haunt it.

That night in Tuscany, she wanted to run after Bette, but it felt like she was exhausted to the point of immobility…though this was not a physical state of being, it was a spiritual calamity. And the effort felt hopeless…she couldn’t respond to Bette’s act…she didn’t know how. She was the one who told Bette she ‘couldn’t do this anymore’…so what did she want from Bette? From herself? She wasn’t sure if she deserved Bette’s departure or if Bette was just trying to make it easier for both of them. But nothing in this was easy, it never was. She lay there confounded. The hours passed and she had spent them in a numb post-traumatic phase. Eventually she fell asleep…eventually she had to let go.

The next morning in Tuscany Tina’s eyes opened to the harsh morning light. It took but a second to realize it wasn’t just a dream…she was in this foreign land, in this little house, in this romantic and yet now painful place alone. She dragged herself up and her legs fell over the side as she grabbed her head and rested in her hands. She lifted her head after a few moments and looked around. She pulled herself up and walked into the bathroom. It was time to wash herself and wash yesterday off. She stood under the shower as the water poured over her and her hands stayed up against the shower wall, holding her body up and under the hot spraying showerhead. When she had had enough she emerged from the steamy bathroom and walked into the other room. She dried herself off and put her slacks on and a shirt. She felt like she needed to escape…she needed some air. She walked out and started walking…just kept walking…and then came to a tree. She stopped and sat down, with her back up against the old tree, and then her head rested up against it as well.

She could feel the breeze and the warmth of the air that morning. She breathed deeply with her eyes closed. Tina tried to relax. It was next to impossible but it’s all she could do now. In the darkness of her mind’s eye she searched for something…anything…but all she could find were images of the night before, the words she said to Bette before she left, the words said and written back… ‘what a mess’ this was she thought…but she wasn’t surprised in a way…what did she expect? They had parted ways as spouses and now they tried to keep up appearances of distance between while uniting every once and a blue moon to feed their irrepressible need for one another…they couldn’t extinguish what was between them, no matter how hard they tried…she couldn’t live with her and couldn’t live without her…but for Angelica and for their own sanity they couldn’t do anything more it seemed. She was suffocating…it was like she was getting a teaspoon of water in the dessert and then the sustenance of Bette’s love was gone again. She had voluntarily agreed to do things this way, so being surprised at Bette’s sudden departure was almost pointless…it was a painful reality of their lives, and her own words to Bette prior to their last lovemaking were cruel in a way…Bette, in a sense, was just agreeing with her…they couldn’t live like this…it was too easy and yet too hard…

Suddenly, as her thoughts pervaded her inner mind, Tina felt somehow distracted from it…disturbed by some external event…she stopped thinking and opened her eyes…and there, about fifty feet away in a buttoned down shirt and jeans with her hair flowing in the breeze and her eyes as piercing as the impressions they left on Tina’s heart, was Bette. Tina was startled and stood as quickly as she could, and with her rose the rage that was borne of a night’s worth of pain and hurt. Her gaze landed on Bette’s sensitivities almost as crushingly as Bette’s unannounced departure had impacted Tina’s heart.

Bette slowly came closer, her eyes already trying to make their way through tears. Tina shook her head slowly and moved away from the tree…she took a step back. Bette slowly came forward as Tina’s emotions were rising and Bette’s were intensifying. As she came within a few feet, Tina’s eyes were wide and a window to a very fresh wound that Bette almost couldn’t stand to view, especially since she had inflicted it. Tina shook her head slowly gain as Bette tried to speak.

BETTE- “I’m sorry…”

TINA- “No…”

BETTE- “I couldn’t do it…I couldn’t leave…”

TINA- (She’s sensing her emotions intensifying with every word…) “No…don’t…” (Bette came within a few feet…) “How dare you…”

BETTE- “I couldn’t…” (Her emotions take hold…) “I couldn’t leave…I…I love you…please…”

TINA- “NO…”

BETTE- “Let me explain T, please…”

TINA- “How could you?!”

BETTE- “I couldn’t take it anymore…you said it yourself…I wanted to spare you the pain…I thought it was what you wanted…”

TINA- (She was incredulous…) “What?!”

BETTE- “I…I…” (She tried to take her by the arms…)

TINA- (She pulled back a little and as Bette pressed forward Tina raised her right had and struck Bette’s face, causing her face to swing its right. And then Tina started walking towards the house, angrily. Bette tried to grasp Tina’s arm but Tina kept moving. Bette was now trying to catch up to her.) “Leave me…I said leave me alone…”

BETTE- “Tina no…”

TINA- “Leave me alone…”

BETTE- “No…” (She grasped her from behind as she caught up with Tina…) “Please….”

TINA- “Let go…leave me alone…” (She pulled away from Bette and their arms fought as Tina tried to keep moving towards the house.)

BETTE- “PLEASE…Tina…” (But Tina continued undaunted…all the way to the house. She tried to shut the door to keep Bette out but she was too close behind. She entered the bedroom and stood to look around, as though she didn’t know where to look in all her frustration. Bette tried to get her to talk as Tina moved around grabbing her things.) “Tina I’m sorry…I didn’t know what else to do…” (Tina swung around to face her…)

TINA- “You what?!”

BETTE- (She walked up to her…) “I didn’t know what else…I didn’t know what you wanted to…what you wanted me to…”

TINA- “Fuck off…

BETTE- “WHAT?!”

TINA- “You heard me…”

BETTE- “Tina…” (She grasps her by the arms and holds her face to face…) “Listen to me…”

TINA- “I can’t believe you did that to me…” (She tries to pull away…) “Let go…”

BETTE- “No…”

TINA- “You left Bette…you left me alone here…you just left…”

BETTE- “I didn’t want you to be hurt anymore…for either of us…you said you can’t do this anymore, well neither can I…neither can I Tina…I love you and all I do is think about you…I can’t get on with my life, I can’t move on with another woman, I can’t live my life…”

TINA- “You seem to be doing just fine. And if it was that easy for you to up and leave, then fuck…what do I care anymore…leave…I’m better off without you, you’re right…it’s time to get on with it…get on with life. I don’t need you anymore and since I’m such a burden on your momentum in life, then off you go Bette. No one’s holding you down…”

BETTE- “That’s not what I said…that’s not fair…”

TINA- “Fair? FAIR?!!!”

BETTE- “Tina listen to me…Tina…”

(At her kitchen table, in present day Los Angeles, Tina lifts her head from its resting spot on her arms. She had nodded off in thoughts of yesterday. She hears the doorbell and then knocking. Tina turns and looks at her watch. It was already 5:30. She walks to the door and opens it, finding Bette standing there, looking back at her. Tina is still with one foot in her remembrance as she tries to fully separate herself from her daydreaming…Bette, while always captivated by those eyes, looks at Tina with some concern.)

BETTE- “Hi. I hope I’m not too early.”