42

                        DOTTIE
       Feel better?  Are you proud of 
       yourself now?
 
                      AUNTIE MAMA
       Get inside!

HAROLD calls up to DOTTIE:

                        HAROLD
                (helplessly)
       I'm so sorry…

DOTTIE looks down to him and gives him a brave smile.  Then she turns back to AUNTIE MAMA and fixes her with a penetrating stare that makes her regret slapping DOTTIE.  A long moment passes.

HAROLD, GERI, and FAYARD gaze up at the landing as DOTTIE crosses to the STAGE DOOR in a great display of dignity and goes inside.

INT. HOWARD THEATRE—BACKSTAGE STAIRWAY. DAY.

DOTTIE pauses briefly at the foot of the stairway leading up to the attic dressing room.  She touches her sore cheek and her eyes fill with tears of rage.

                        DOTTIE
                (bitter determination)
       I'll never let her slap me again.
       I'll die first.

She races up the stairway.