20 pages 40 minutes read

Beth Henley

Crimes of the Heart

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1982

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Act II

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Act II Summary

Later that evening, Barnette and Babe are in the kitchen. Barnette is going over stacks of papers and notes. Babe is telling him, for what is obviously not the first time, the story of shooting Zackery. She says that after it happened, she went into the kitchen and made lemonade. When she went to offer Zackery a glass, he asked her to call the hospital. During this conversation, Babe asks Barnette to call her Becky, which is her real name. However, she seems more concerned with keeping Willie Jay’s name out of things than with anything else.  

 

Lucille calls. Babe hands the phone to Barnette, saying that Lucille claims to have damning evidence that will result in Babe’s conviction. Barnette arranges to meet her at the hospital later that night to talk about it. Babe asks what Barnette’s vendetta against Zackery is about. He says that it’s a long story, but that Zackery ruined Barnette’s father. After he leaves, Babe begins putting her hair in curlers. Lenny enters and sits.  

 

Lenny is furious because she has learned that when Meg visits their sick grandfather in the hospital, she lies to him, telling him she’s got a record coming out, and that she’s got a role in a multi-million dollar film. Babe tells her not to be too hard on Meg, since Meg was the one who found their mother.