Page 165 of Score
You do realize you’re awho, right?
DESSI (LAUGHING, LEANING INTO HIS SHOULDER)
Boy, hush.
CAL
I’m serious, Dess. You ain’t lived no ordinary life. You lived abiglife. The name Dessi Blue will be in the same history books as all these folks in here. Your voice, your accomplishments, gonna live on forever.
DESSI
That’s sweet of you to say, but who gon’ remember this country girl from Alabama?
There’s a buzz of excitement as an older version of Hazel enters at the other end of the room. Dressed in white from head to toe, flowers in her hair, she stands by a white and gold baby grand piano.
CAL
It’s like déjà vu, ain’t it? Remember that night at Café Society? We saw her debut!
DESSI (WITH A WISTFUL SMILE)
We sho did. That feels like yesterday.
HAZEL
Bonjour, mes amis!
The intimate group cheers and urges her to play. When she sits down on the piano bench and launches into one of her interpretations of swinging the classics, the camera closes in on Dessi’s face, which, as the song goes on, takes on a hint of melancholy. The current shot dissolves into a flashback to younger versions of Dessi and Cal, seated with Tilda that night long ago at Café Society when Hazel debuted. Hazel is playing the same song, and, at the table, Dessi looks from Cal to Tilda, the expression on her face so happy.
Later that night back at their apartment, Dessi, wearing a silk dressing gown, sits on the floor of a guest bedroom surrounded by boxes of old photos and keepsakes. There’s a pile of items, and a few have been set aside, including a red and blue Ubangi Club program and matchbook and a Café Society flyer with a picture of Billie Holiday. There are candid photos of Tilda and Dessi working at the Savoy and posing in front of the Lafayette Theatre, with MACBETH in big block letters on the marquee.
Dessi opens a jewelry box and a ballerina pops up dancing to an old tune called “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It).”
Dessi hums along and then sings a few verses, her version slower and more poignant, her voice catching a few times as tears slip over her cheeks.
You made me love you
I didn’t wanna do it
I didn’t wanna do it
You made me want you
And all the time you knew it
I guess you always knew it
You made me happy sometimes
You made me glad
But there were times
You made me feel so bad
You made me cry for
I didn’t wanna tell you
