The stained glass windows of the church are brightly lit when I enter to the sound of distant organ music. The church is empty, not even a priest presiding over the dark, wooden pews. Rows of candles lie in front, some lit, some not.
Glancing around for anyone nearby, I walk down the aisle, my low heels clacking against the hollow, echoing floors.
"Trixie...do you believe in God?"
I turn around to find Liza, hidden under a yellow silk shawl and dark sunglasses. Her dyed blond hair just barely sticks out as she holds a small leather purse in both hands.
"Oh gosh...Liza, you scared me," I breath a sigh of relief, catching myself on one of the pews.
Without response, she starts walking into the back row of pews, and I follow her as she repeats her question, "Do you believe in God?"
"I-...I've never really thought about it. My parents weren't Christian, they followed some form of Native American polytheism," I tell her.
She takes off her sunglasses, "Oh, I see. I was going to ask that you pra for me. I never really thought much about God either, but lately...with everything that's happened, I've come to think about it more and more."
I twist my lips, "Why so?"
Liza tilts her head down, "That's why I asked you to meet me here tonight...I...I don't know how much more time I have."
"You think Don Falcone's gonna bump you off?" I assume.
"Fish too! After I got her that file on the location of Carmine's money, she has no use for me. She's even talking about making her final move to usurp him. And then there's Carmine...I...I think I'm actually...really starting to fall for him."
Liza straightens herself out, already becoming accustomed to the more restrained movements of a upperclass woman, "Before Fish hired me to seduce Carmine...I worked as a street walker downtown. Cheaply priced, because, you know...competition's tough. And so were most of the Johns. But with Carmine...it's different from any man I've ever met. He makes me feel...safe, secure, almost...normal. Normal in the Norman Rockwell, picket fence, and two-point-five kids sense."
She smiles, "Recently, he's been talking about...the two of us. Together in a more...permanent sense."
I raise an eyebrow, "Like marriage?"
"I don't know," she confesses, "I would say our relationship is romantic, but...not a lot of touching happens, if you catch my drift. Carmine talks about the two of us running away together to some farm out on the countryside."
"That's sweet," I admit.
There's a pause, as Liza adjusts her shawl, "Trixie...what do you see in Oswald?"
I laugh, but only because I have no real response, "Oswald? Sometimes I feel like I'm doing everything to get away from him."
"But you must have seen something in him, at least at first."
I place my hands in my lap, "Well...at first he seemed...helpless. Sort of childlike, with a clumsy demeanor even before he got his limp. He stuttered a lot more, but he was very polite. Sweet even. But his dangerous side became apparent to me very quickly. But even as the facade fell away, I stayed with him because...I had faith in him."
"Faith about what?" she asks.
I tilt my head to the side, staring up at the stained glass windows, "Faith that...that not only would he become a powerful man, but that behind the powerful man was a good man. Someone who had chosen this path not because of his character...but because of the world he was raised in. Living here...being raised in Gotham...it's just not normal. Even the upper crust isn't safe from crime and corruption. You feel like you can't escape it, and the only option is to...take what you can. I like Oswald's vision for Gotham. He doesn't want to leech off of the system, he wants to change it."
"But...do you love him?"
I turn to Liza as she asks the question. Her smile has disappeared, and despite the sentimentality of the question, she's quite serious.
"There are times when I tell him that I love him...and don't really mean it," I confess, "especially now that he's become so much more violent. But there are times when...in my heart, I do love him, I just don't tell him. Because...because it would be more dangerous if I did."
She nods, "Yeah...I guess it's not as complicated for me. Carmine doesn't abuse me in anyway, it's just...the things he does to others. I love him, I just don't love what he does. But on the other hand, for someone who's not even really my boyfriend, he's the best boyfriend I've ever had."
"I understand. Before Oswald, I'd never been in a relationship before," I chuckle to myself, "I know that sounds ridiculous. It's not like I was antisocial, I guess it'd just never...happened."
Liza leans back in her seat, "Don't worry about it. Sometimes I wish I could forget some of my ex-boyfriends. Comparing them to Carmine...I don't know, maybe I should take a chance on him."
Liza stands up, and in the empty church, her voice reverberates off of the hollow wooden walls, "At Wanamaker's and Saks and Klein's, a lesson I've been taught: you can't get alterations on a dress you haven't bought."
I stand with my own solo, "At any vegetable market from Borneo to Nome, you mustn't squeeze the melon, till you get the melon hime."
Liza and I exchange lines, "You've simply got to gamble."
"You get no guarantee."
"Now doesn't that apply to you and I?" she asks.
"You and me?" I correct.
She stops, twitching her nose at me, "...whatever."
Liza hops on her heels, "Why not?"
I jump in her direction, "Why not what?"
Invisible string instruments lead us in as Liza starts, "Marry the man today? Trouble though he may be. Much as he likes to play...crazy and wild and free-"
I join her, "Marry the man today, rather than sigh and sorrow. Marry the man today and change his ways...tomorrow."
I start another exchange, with Liza echoing me, "Marry the man today."
"Marry the man today."
The two of us start moving out of the pews, "Maybe he's leaving town."
"Maybe he's leaving town."
"Don't let him get away."
"Don't let him get away."
Now in the middle aisle of the church, Liza and I link arms for the final echo into the chorus, "Hurry and track him down-"
"Counterattack him and-"
With linked arms, Liza and I start skipping down the aisle, "Marry the man today! Give him the girlish laughter. Give him your hand today and save the fist...for after."
Liza stops, turning to tell me, "Slowly introduce him to the better things. Respectable, conservative, and clean..."
I respond, as Liza and I start another exchange, "Reader's Digest..."
"Guy Lombardo..."
"Roger's Peet..."
I gasp, "Golf!"
"Galoshes!"
"Ovaltine!" I finish.
The two of us place our hands like we're holding flowers, and slowly start walking down the aisle, "But marry the man today! Handle it meek and gently. Marry the man today and train him...subsequently!"
I reach the church altar, and light one of the unlit candles sitting on the wooden countertop, "Carefully expose him to domestic life...and if he ever tries to stray from you..."
Liza suggests, "Have a pot roast!"
"Have a headache..."
I can't help but laugh, "Have a baby!"
"Have two!"
"Six!"
"Nine!"
I throw up my arms, "Stop!"
"But marry the man today, rather than sigh and sorrow. Marry the man today and change his ways..."
Liza repeats the last line, but higher, "And change his ways..."
"Change his ways..."
"His ways..."
"Tomorrow!"