47

INT. ROOMING HOUSE HALLWAY—FOLLOWING. NIGHT.

DOROTHY as she nervously pads along the dark hallway toward the rear of the rooming house.  The opening soulful strains of the BESSIE SMITH SONG “Young Woman’s Blues” wafts up the hallway to meet her.

INT. REAR BEDROOM—CLOSE SHOTS OF. NIGHT.

A COLUMBIA 78 RPM RECORD, featuring “Young Woman’s Blues,” spinning on the RCA VICTOR MODEL K portable record player. 

Six candles flicker on the bureau top and window sill.  A ribbon of gray fume rises from an incense cone in a porcelain ashtray. 

DOROTHY quietly opens the bedroom door—and freezes in the doorway.  She is stunned at what she beholds.

RUBY and AUNTIE MAMA, each wearing sheer chiffon peignoirs, are dancing cheek to cheek, with closed eyes, to the saucy blues ballad.  They are rapturously lost in the music and each other.  They kiss long and deep.

DOROTHY, bewildered by the strangeness of their intimate kiss, quietly closes the bedroom door.