Resolutions
If we go looking for offense we're gonna find it
If we go looking for real love we're gonna find it
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through
Hold onto me, and I'll hold onto you
Wichita and Little Rock
"Yeah, we had some privacy issues before we got here," Wichita said.
"Yeah, like when I saw you sitting on your boyfriend's face!" Little Rock snapped.
"What about the time we walked in on Tal in the shower?" Wichita said. She smirked, and her sister almost reluctantly giggled. "That had to be way worse than anything you've seen me do! Oh, and what was it he said, in that stupid lisp?"
"`You can always depend on the kindness of strangers!'" They both burst out laughing, but when they quieted, they both looked thoughtful.
Tallahassee and Wichita
"I guess we both care about Columbus, and we both care about Little Rock," Wichita said. "It's enough for us to get along all right."
"Yeah, we always got along fine," Tal said. But there was a dark look on his face.
Stanford leaned in. "Anything you have to tell me will be kept in the strictest confidence. And I believe it would be helpful if you did."
"Nothing happened," Wichita said, as much to Tal as to him.
"Yeah, same way nothing happened when the Ruskies sent missiles to Cuba," Tal said.
"It was before I got interested in Columbus," Wichita said. "It would never have gone anywhere. We both knew that. I guess we've never really talked about it before."
"I don't know if you could say we've really talked since then," Tal said. Stanford leaned back and nodded.
Tallahassee and Little Rock
"I believe it's time to talk about something you may both be- sensitive about," said Stanford. "Little Rock, you have said you are very comfortable sleeping in the same bed with Tal. Am I to understand you both feel no attraction to each other?" They both looked at him in disbelief and disgust, then looked at each other, then awkwardly looked away from each other.
He was the one to finally speak. "Don't be sick, doc! She could be my kid!"
"So, you would say the way you feel about her is paternal? And that she likewise thinks of you only as a paternal figure?"
"* yes!"
"Then has it occurred to you that it is normal for there to be a certain level of sexual attraction between a girl and her father?" Tal all but choked. "You see, what has been called the `Oedipal complex' is really nothing more or less than an extreme form of what is now called the `love map'. In the `mapping' process, a child develops his or her standards for a future mate, based on the example of the parent. When the child begins to seek a mate, she will inevitably go through a period of attraction toher father, or those she perceives as a father figure. In healthy development, this will serve to show her what qualities she will desire most. Without the benefit of this perspective, it can lead either to inappropriate behavior or to the repression of sexual feeling."
Tal and Little Rock looked at each other, then scooted ever so slightly away from each other. "Let's try this for perspective. Little Rock, if you were grown up, and Tal was your own age, would you consider making him your boyfriend?"
She nodded and smiled. "Sure!"
"And Tallahassee, if you were 13 again, would you want Little Rock to be your girlfriend?"
He nodded and slowly smiled. "Yeah, I suppose I would... But knowin' what I was like at 13, I'd need to go back to- well, as old as I am now so I could kick my own butt!"
Tallahassee and Columbus
"Ow! What was that for?" Columbus cried out, clutching his bruised ear.
"That is to show you how hard I can punch," Tal said, getting to his feet. "Now get up, b*, an' show me how hard you can punch!"
Wichita heard a dull metallic clang from a living room.
"I'm going to get a bad write-up, aren't I?" Columbus said as he set down the fire extinguisher.
"All things considered," Stanford said as he helped Tal get back to his feet, "it could be worse."
