“Weird how my name is Nancy, and I’m playing a girl named Nancy in the play.”
“Not at all odd,” responds the purple haired Bettie sitting in the opposite seat of their posh Lapara Hotel room — the 145 dollars a week one, not the 100. “Fate, we must call it. Like ‘The Shining’ (movie). Jack Nicholson played Jack from (Stephen King’s) book. Daniel played little Danny. Just like your own Danny. We must think of these things.”
“But why would Nancy shoot Gideon if he’s already caught and jailed? What’s my motivation for playing this obviously psychotic woman?”
“I understand it completely,” Bettie says. “Passion rules over all. Nancy’s love of her life had been robbed. So she robbed the robber of his life in turn.”
“But then her *own* life was robbed by the robber after he became… a vampire? Is that really believable?”
“The story has it that this is true,” replies Bettie. “Why don’t you study the script more and take notes.”
Nancy doesn’t even give a glance at the “Bible Truth” script leaning against the chair arm beside her. “Oh I’ve looked at that again and again. I’ve memorized everything by now. Might as well throw it out of this high window for all it’s worth.”
“Well,” joked Bettie. “As your *understudy*, haha, you could just abdicate the role. Let me take over. I could have poisoned your drink there, let’s say. You know how bad I wanted the part.” She smiled.
“Not a bad idea, Bettie,” Nancy said, absorbing the inside joke. “But I’m Nancy let’s face it. Nancy plays Nancy. And you, as Bettie, will play Bettie, who is the understudy to Nancy in the play as well.”
“In the play within the play.”
“The vampires,” complained Nancy further. “Why are they called vam*pures* in ‘Bible Truth’?”
But Bettie was distracted by the noise outside the window. “Oh Lordy, here we go.” She pointed down. “Evangelicals. Looks like you’re not the only one who doesn’t cater to the idea of mortals rising from the dead.”
Sunklands 