Play It As It Lays

Helene visits Maria and tells her that she heard about Maria’s “baroque morning after” from Carter (157), who heard about it from Freddy. Maria tells Helene that she is fine, and Helene says: “Of course. You’re really on top of it. I mean for example there’s nothing at all peculiar about hiding under the covers shaking at three o’clock in the afternoon” (158).

Later that day, Maria receives a letter from Benny, who writes that he would like to give her some of her father’s things. He includes a phone number that belongs to his next-door neighbor, where Maria can reach him.

That night, Maria parties with Helene, BZ, and the Goodwins. Afterward, BZ  and Helene take an incoherent Maria back to their hotel room, and as Maria falls asleep, she has a faint “ugly” memory of what BZ and Helene are doing. 

The next morning, Maria asks Helene what happened the previous night, but Helene does not want to talk about it. BZ mocks Helene, asking her if she is regretting what happened and reminding her that this is what she signed up for: “It’s play-or-pay” (163).

Maria calls Benny from the Sands casino in Las Vegas, but the number he gave her is no longer in service. She tries to deliver a letter to his post office box, but the woman who owns the box is suspicious of Maria and claims not to know Benny.

Maria walks around Las Vegas in a fog. After two weeks, she runs into Freddy. He invites Maria to a party, but when Maria asks the hotel desk for the room number, they refuse to show her in, thinking she is trying to crash the party. A bellboy who delivers Maria’s room service offers to take her to a party, and Maria agrees, but after he leaves her room, she drives back to Los Angeles.

Carter comes to see Maria at BZ and Helene’s house. He seems genuinely worried about her, noting that she looks like she weighs around 82 pounds. He tells her to come out to the desert with him where he is filming another project. Meanwhile, BZ and Helene are fighting.

Maria turns down Carter’s invitation to go to the desert. When she gets home, she finds Ivan in her house. Maria tells him to leave, but he insists she sleep with him. When she says no, he rapes her.

Ivan returns the next morning, saying “You don’t have to crack up over this […] You used to tell me you’d do it for me until you died” (181). Maria tells Ivan she doesn’t feel that way anymore, and he leaves.

Later that day, Maria calls Les asking for help, but he does not take her seriously. Feeling like she has no other option, Maria drives out to the desert.

Maria recalls the malicious letters she received after marrying Carter. She says that now she knows “when someone is thinking of me” (183), but she has learned how to deal with it.

In the desert, Maria and Carter try to sleep in the same room, but they are still too angry. Carter becomes violent and yells at Maria: “Go to sleep. Die. Fucking vegetable” (185). When Maria comes to the set the next day, Carter tells her to leave because she is making the lead actress, Susannah Wood, nervous. 

Maria, Carter, Helene, and BZ, along with the film’s cast and crew, go out to a small town in Death Valley to shoot. The town reminds Maria of Silver Wells, and she tries to connect with the coffee shop owner, saying she comes from a small town, but the conversation falls flat.