Maturing Female, The

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Oh, hi Mr. Park. Isn't Kathy home? After all that noise, I expected to see the riot squad. I'm sorry. Nobody answered the first time I got through. How'd you get down here so fast? Didn't you hear the door, Cathy? I'm sorry. I was in the kitchen on the telephone. What a crouch. Well, my ring the doorbell must have scared him. Was he sleeping? Oh, probably. He always falls asleep watching television. You buy some new records? Yeah. Will you listen to him? Are you kidding? In the middle of the ball game? Oh, yum. Well, you can hear me. Yeah. Come on. What's up? I'm about to go out of my mind. That's for Why? Oh, the way my parents treat me. You know, this morning, my mommy told me I couldn't What did you do that for? I didn't do it any more than you did. I'll do it myself. It was an accident. Come on, Kathy. What's the matter with you? Oh, it's been one of those days all day long. Don't know why I'm jumping all over you. It's not your fault. It's a big mess. What did your mother tell you you couldn't do? Huh? Your mother. You start to say something about this morning and then this happened. Oh, yeah. You know, I'm sure my parents stood up all night long thinking of ways to bug me. this morning. Soon as I got out of bed, my mother started to yell at me. Morning, Mom. Good morning, dear. Where are you off to so early? I'm going to meet you at the bus and then we're going downtown. Did you clean your room? I'll do it when I get back. That's what you said last Saturday. And your room's still waiting. Kathy, look. How many times do we have to go through this? I'll do it when I get home. I promise you'll do it before you go. I haven't got time. We'll have wheelchair to make time, won't we? Look, I told you I have to meet Jan. Now, what's all this about? It's about me being in two places at once. Look, all you have to do is call Jan and tell her you'll meet her later. But for why can't I do my room later? Because later never seems to come. That's why. How am I supposed to phone Jan and say, "My mommy won't let me come out and play until I finish cleaning my room. She'll think I'm some kind of a nut. You should have thought of that before." All right, Kathy, that's enough. Do as your mother says. Boy, this place gets more like a reformatory every day. Well, it's clean enough now. What time did you finally meet Jan? I never did get to meet her. That was Jan on the phone when you first arrived. You mean it took till just now to clean your room? That was just the beginning. After I'd left to phone Jan back, Mom and Dad must have sat there for an hour making a list of all the things I've been doing wrong. I'd finished cleaning my room and started to get ready to go out again before I phoned Jan back. The next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a hassle with my father. I was combing my hair when he came in and I thought he was going to inspect my cleaning job and it made me mad. Got a moment before you go now? What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. I just want to talk to you for a minute. Not clean enough for you. Room looks fine now. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you kept it this way as you go along? I don't see why I always have to clean it up. It's Linda's room, too. Linda does her share. Yeah, hers is making the mess. Mine's cleaning it up. Linda's a lot younger than you are, Kathy. Perhaps if she saw you hanging up your clothes and putting things away after you use them, she'd do the same. She's not a baby. She's 11 years old, for Pete's sake. It's almost noon. Can I go now? You can go if you like, but I still like to talk to you for a minute. You just did. It wasn't your room that I wanted to talk to you about, but if you're in a hurry to see Jan can wait. I'll see you when you get back. Dad, are you on your way? Wait a minute. What did you want to talk to me about last night? What about last night? Don't get too close to the car. You get yourself all dirty. I wasn't that late getting home last night. You weren't very early either. Well, that's only part of it. I don't get it. Jan waiting for you at the bus stop? No, I haven't called yet. You see, I wasn't very early getting home myself last night. When I pulled into the driveway here, I I noticed that there was a car parked back of the building. Didn't pay much attention to it. If it hadn't been one of those little sports cars, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. And if it hadn't been for something your mother said this morning, I I would have forgotten all about it. What did she say? She said she was afraid you'd end up in an accident. The way you tear around with that boy in his sports car. He doesn't tear around. He's a very good driver. His father told him he takes a car away from him if he ever had an accident. Who is this boy, Kathy? Do I know him? I don't think so. This is the boy I know. What do you mean who is he? Well, where does he come from? I usually meet most of the boys, you know, coming in or out of here one time or another. Don't remember meeting one who drives his own sports car. Oh, you sound just like mother. You'd think it was some sort of a crime to own your own car before you're 40. It's not a crime. But it does make him a little different from most of the boys, you know, doesn't it? Is it his fault that his father can afford to buy him a car? Oh, now you're just being silly, I'm not being silly. The way you and moms talk. Now, just a minute, Kathy. The only reason I'm interested in that car is because I saw you in it. I'm sure your mother feels the same way. The only difference is she's worrying about you being in that car when it's moving. I'm more worried about when it's not moving. Well, you're both wasting your time because there's nothing to worry about. Well, if that was you out in the back here last night, I'd say I have a lot to worry about. Was it you? Sure it was. But we didn't do anything wrong. Nobody said you were, Kathy. Where do you think you're going to phone Jan? If we don't get downtown, the stores are all going to close. Jan can wait a few more minutes. This is more important right now. You still haven't told me anything about this boy. How long have you known him? Should have quit while I was ahead. This rate, we'll never get downtown. His name is Doug. Dog Turner. Okay. Okay. He's 18 years old. I know that because he got the car for his birthday. He lives with his father and mother and young sister in the apartment building. The ones behind us. They moved in about a month ago. And I've known him for about maybe two weeks. Is there anything else you'd like to know? Well, for one thing, I'd like to know what you were doing in a car for hours with a boy that you've known only for two weeks. I wasn't sitting for hours. You were there when I pulled into the driveway and you must have been there until long after I was in bed asleep. I didn't hear you come in. So, we were there for half an hour. Big deal. That's just about a half an hour too long doing what you were doing. We were sitting there talking. Not when I saw you. You weren't. You were so busy you didn't even see me go by. So, I let him give me a good night kiss. What's wrong with that? Kathy, you know as well as I do that there's a lot of difference between a a good night kiss and sitting in a parked car for any length of time now. You've been going out here and there with different fellas for quite some time now. As far as I know, you've always been part of a bunch of kids who go out all together. This is the first time you've ever singled out one boy. Well, sure. We usually all go out together and that's what happened last night. The only difference is Doug asked me if I'd like a drive home. You can only fit two in his car. I don't know what you're making such a big production out of it for. Cuz you've no business being all alone in a parked car necking with a boy that you don't know anything about. What do you think you're going to make of your name? Oh, Dad. Come on. This is the 20th century. You don't get a bad name for necking anymore. Everybody does it. Everybody, huh? Says who? Your new boyfriend? Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Kathy. Boys have been using that line since I was your age, and probably a lot longer. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But one thing is for sure, every time it does work, the word gets passed around in no time. And pretty soon, you get to be known as the girl that'll neck with anybody. And in the meantime, if you don't neck, nobody ever asks you out either. Well, maybe that's the way it looks to you right now, Kathy. But in the long run, the kind of popularity that comes from necking with just about anybody is as phony as a $3 bill. Believe it or not, most boys have a lot more respect for a girl who isn't so free and easy. Come on, Dad. That went out ages ago. Well, maybe you think it did, but it didn't, Kathy. And until such time as you know that it did, I think that you should stay away from this uh what's his name? in his sports car. You've got to be kidding. I'm not kidding, Kathy. I've never been more serious. So, what am I supposed to do? Tell him I can't go out with him because my father's a square. Well, do you have to tell him anything? Can't you just Listen, it would be all right if we were all going to the movie tonight together like we usually do, but we're not. I told Doug I'd go someplace else with him. Go where? I don't know. He just asked me if I'd go someplace just with him instead of having everybody else hanging around all the time. Well, thanks a lot. And what were the rest of us supposed to do? Just hang around for three or four hours waiting for you to show up? I'm sorry. I guess I didn't think about that part of it. It's just when Duck said he didn't see why we couldn't do something different for a change, it seemed to me like he was making a lot of sense. Could be your dad knows you better than you think. I can take care of myself. [Music] [Music]