Crimes of the Heart

It is the following morning. Babe comes in through the back door and lies down on a cot in the kitchen. Lenny, obviously weary, enters as well. Chick comes in through the front door in a burst of energy. Lenny tells her that their grandfather is in a coma. She recommends that they call all of the people on a list she’s made, and tell them about the details of their grandfather’s situation. They tear the list in half and agree to split the work. Chick leaves.  

Lenny tells Babe that she feels bad. The day before, she made a wish over her birthday cookie that Granddaddy would no longer feel any pain. Then he had the stroke and went into the coma. Babe assures her that it’s not her fault. Then Lenny tells her that she heard Zackery is in stable condition, and also tells her about Billy Boy being struck by lightning. They begin crying together.  

Meg enters, singing a happy song. Her hair is messed up and one of her heels is broken. She says that she didn’t do anything with Doc. He didn’t ask her to run away with him, and she realized that she has grown emotionally: she didn’t need him to. Instead, she spent the night singing. Not to please Granddaddy, and not anyone else, but just because she loved it. They tell her that Granddaddy is in a coma and they discuss how different things will be in the house if he dies. Babe and Meg encourage Lenny to call Charlie, because she owes herself a chance to see where the relationship might have gone. With her confidence up, Lenny agrees, but then the phone rings. Meg answers and pretends that it’s a Weed Shop; it turns out to be the bakery, calling to tell her that Lenny’s cake is ready.  

Babe shows Meg the pictures of her and Willie Jay and says she doesn’t know what to do. There is a knock on the door. It’s Barnette. He says that he has acquired a set of papers indicating that Zackery has been involved in various frauds and forgeries. He believes that it is damning enough evidence to offset the photos of Babe and Willie Jay. However, this will mean that Zackery will want to settle out of court. Neither party’s misdeeds will come to light in public. Willie Jay will be leaving that night on a bus. Meg asks Barnette for a ride, secretly intending to have him take her to the bakery.  

After they’re gone, Lenny comes downstairs and says she is ashamed. She wasn’t able to call Charlie and feels like a coward and a failure. Chick enters. She begins mocking the absent Meg, telling Lenny and Babe that she’s garbage because she saw her getting out of Doc Porter’s truck fifteen minutes prior. Babe and Lenny defend Meg and tell Chick to stop disparaging her and insulting their family. Lenny picks up a broom and begins beating Chick with it, then chases her out of the house.  

The phone rings. Babe answers it and Zackery is on the other end. She says that yes, she saw the photos, and protests that Zackery can’t have her committed to Whitfield, a psychiatric hospital. She hangs up after shouting, “Don’t you call my mother crazy!” (58). She opens a kitchen drawer and pulls out a rope, then looks at it and laughs. She quickly becomes terrified and puts the rope back in the drawer just as Lenny comes back in, laughing. Lenny says she’s going to call Charlie after all. As she goes to do it, Babe opens the drawer again and takes out a red cord of rope. She asks Lenny if it’s the strongest rope they have.  

But Lenny is already on the phone. She makes a date with Charlie for that night. When she hangs up, she notices that Meg is gone and goes outside to look for her. There is a loud crash upstairs. The phone begins ringing again. Babe hurries down the stairs with a broken piece of rope around her neck. She throws the rope all around the kitchen and the phone stops ringing. She goes to the oven and turns on the gas. She puts her head in the oven and waits. Suddenly she says, “Mama. Mama. So that’s why you done it” (60). Meg enters with a birthday cake and sees what Babe is doing. She puts the cake down and runs to pull Babe’s head out of the oven. Babe tells Meg that Mama hung the cat with her because she was scared of dying alone. They take the cake out of the box and prepare to light the candles. They shout for Lenny, who comes back into the kitchen. She’s incredibly moved and delighted by the cake. She closes her eyes, makes a wish, and blows out the candles after they sing “Happy Birthday To You” to her.  

Babe and Meg convince Lenny to tell them what she wished for. She says that it wasn’t really a wish, but something more like a vision. She saw the three of them, laughing and smiling like they had never been happier. “How I do love having birthday cake for breakfast,” she says (63). This makes them all laugh uproariously, and then they freeze as the play ends, caught in the very moment that Lenny wished for.