- DeeDee: [offscreen] ... two whole days!
- Maylene: [hands her a drink she poured] Here, drink up, DeeDee; it's good for the nerves.
- DeeDee: [shaking head] Probably hooked up with some trucker and is off gone on down the interstate.
- Maylene: Oh, honey...
- DeeDee: Aren't you going to have one?
- Maylene: Oh, no.
- [raises hand in refusal]
- Maylene: Never before 5:00.
- [DeeDee speaks indistinctly while Ruth is shown in the background, with a voiceover]
- Ruth: My mother's friend DeeDee thought Maylene had a TV show life.
- Maylene: [gasps in the middle of the voiceover] There you are, Honey.
- Ruth: Being blessed with a son who was a recognized genius.
- Maylene: Look at you, Honey. I pressed your suit, Mark. Oh, and I snipped off all those little stray threads; there's always stray threads on new suits.
- DeeDee: Mm, mm.
- Maylene: Can I just get this one last...
- Mark: Mom, Mom!
- Maylene: I'm sorry; sorry!
- Ruth: When Mark looked at me, I could see him searching me for signs of lief.
- Mark: [looking at Ruth] Is that what you're wearing?
- Maylene: Yeah; it-it's from the Goodwill. She looks as good as she ever... will. Goodwill.
- [bursts into laughter with DeeDee]
- Ruth: [voiceover] When is it that her heart turned to stone? Or was she just born with unhappiness inside her?
- Policeman: [siren wails in the background and men speak as the camera is trained on a beaten, traumatized Ruth] Who called it in?
- Policeman 2: A man across the way heard screams; said it wasn't the first time.
- Policeman: I need to see him. So, what do we got?
- Policeman 2: A dead body and a mute.
- [walks over to Ruth]
- Policeman 2: Talk to me, Ruth. Those bruises are pretty bad. How'd you get those bruises, Ruth? What happened, Ruth?
- Ruth: [voiceover] I'm the only one that can tell the story from beginning to end. What it begins with is Maylene, my mother, and the lessons she taught me.