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Xmastime in the Diary is important and especially sad, but we learn a lot about Laura, and see the ur-"dance with me" spinning scene in the living room. Laura writes alot that week and there are plenty of clues about the killer in this section. This is my Xmas episode, but I can imagine Lucy wearing a lot of Christmasy sweaters, decorating the station, maybe organizing a Secret Santa party. Leland would get Ben and Jerry some kind of gourmet cheese log. Christmas at the Horne's would be tense, with Audrey rolling her eyes and generally being ungrateful at some expensive jewelry she gets from Ben.
In the Diary, Laura is happy about losing weight doing coke and worried about shopping for presents. "I suppose it's bad for me to wish for coke for Christmas. . . . A ton of white, fluffy snow all over me." She had been spending a lot of time playing drug games with Leo & Jacques, and used her tutoring money from the Hornes to buy Bobby boots. She also does some Bedazzling to Donna's jean jacket (lol so 80's). She and Bobby worry about the deal in Low Town gone bad, and are both trying to keep distracted from bad dreams and bad reality. Jacques's present to Laura comes on the 23rd, hidden in her bra: 2 joints, a quarter gram, a page from Fleshword with a fat guy & a pretty blonde with a parrot, and a mini-vibrator. She has to hide it under Donna's jacket and pretend sleep when her mom walks in. She says it's good she didn't have to walk into the woods to score something to help her sleep, because one night she got lost, having refused a ride from Jacques or Leo... because she didn't want her dad to see his little girl driving up with them. TELLING ENTRY ONE
Dear Diary, Christmas Eve Day, 1987 I'm at the gazebo, trying to get the tune of Christmas carols out of my head. Mom has been playing them all morning. I like Christmas, but with my head feeling like it was, I could hardly stand any more of it. Dad caught me when I was leaving and asked for a dance with his favorite little girl. Dad and I hadn't danced in years, I don't think. Memories of parties at the Great Northern, with the blur of streamers and buffets and crystal came into my head, the way I saw them as Dad and I turned round and round. He would spin me fast enough to make my stomach flip in the right way, and we would laugh and laugh. This dance this morning was in the living room. The lights on the tree were already turned on so that Mom could bake in the true spirit of the season, and I watched the red and green and blue and white pass by me. I looked into Dad's eyes so that I wouldn't get too dizzy, and I saw his eyes light up, and a tear form, and then drop slowly down his cheek. The spinning slowed, and he grabbed me tight, held me as if he were afraid of something. Mom came out of the kitchen and said that seeing Dad and me hugging in front of the Christmas tree was the best present she could ask for. So many strange things happen in life. My life, I mean. just hours before the dancing, I was in my room buried deep in a very, very different world. I hope I never have to choose between the two. Each one makes me happy for different reasons. I came out here to write my fantasy out, but it is almost too cold and too pretty for me to think about it now. Here and now, at least. I'm gonna head over to the Double R and get some hot coffee. Maybe I'll find a private booth. Back soon, L
At the RR, she has coffee in a back booth, not her usual counter spot (schoolwork, she tells Norma) and sees a kind faced old woman (Ms. Shaking Hands, maybe?) eating cherry pie and reading Shroud of Innocence. A regular, uses a walker, and it inspires her to start Meals on Wheels. Laura also gets jealous about Shelley, but hears her complain that Leo is always horny, which makes her smug for having been doing him when she won't. This is the day Hank gets put away for vehicular manslaughter. TELLING ENTRY TWO
Dear Diary, January 3, 1988 Christmas was interesting. Dad took three days off and made it incredibly difficult, without realizing it, for me to get high. I had to fake premenstrual cramps so that he would let me leave and go to my room to be alone. As I went up the stairs, I stopped because I heard Dad say, "But it's the new year . . . I'm on holiday . . . Why does she want to be alone?" I could hear my mother explaining, in that kind, so very wise voice, that I was a teenager. "Parents are like the plague to teenagers, Leland . . . We're lucky she's even spent this much time with us. She was only out for three hours on New Year's Eve, and she was back before midnight to celebrate with us." Mom was doing a great job, so I proceeded upstairs to my room for some privacy and a well-deserved line. A line heals all wounds.
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