Between Riverside And Crazy

Scene 1 opens two weeks after the dinner party. Pops’s apartment is a mess, with moving boxes strewn about. Lulu serves refreshments to an attractive Brazilian woman wearing religious-themed jewelry as Pops looks on and drinks bourbon. Lulu mentions Junior, who has been “gone thirteen days now” (44). Pops tells their guest that Lulu is “having a baby—you know—a ‘bambino’” (44). Lulu leaves to go meet Junior, after asking Pops if he “would like to give [her] money or something so I can give it to Junior” (44). Pops refuses to take her hint, and she leaves empty-handed.  

As soon as Lulu leaves, the lady visitor, who is from the church, asserts that Lulu is not pregnant after all. Pops tells the church lady about the robbery that left him injured: “Bandito left here in handcuffs, with several of his front teeth scattered over there by the houseplant. Bandito was lucky the police came” (45). Pops and the church lady discuss Glenda, who used to come to see Pops and his wife, Delores, and bring them communion, but is now ill; they banter back and forth, and after the church lady explains that her husband is deceased, Pops says to her, “I like you” (46), and she responds in kind.