Daily Updates

Subject:
Sent:        5/26/96 8:30 PM
From:        Jan Yarnot, jyarnot@netcom.com

Well, someone else got excited and posted an update.  This wasn't as
flammable as it would have been, as I was on the road and the help was
appreciated, but here is the *Official* May 9 Update.

BRENDA IS FACED WITH ANOTHER DECISION
	BrainDead, never daunted by having been thrown out of his apartment
the last two days, goes to see Jax to try to make it three in a row.  The
pinball machine (The Jack-Bot) is gone, and she looks around, calling
"Jax?"  [How'd she get in?]  He comes out of the bedroom, bearing a
suitcase.  He is off to Alaska, for good.  "You were just going to leave
without saying goodbye?"  "Goodbye.  There, you happy?"
	She wants to know how he could "just disappear with no warning?  No
nothing?"  "Oh, I gave you plenty, Brenda.  You just weren't paying
attention.  You're too busy playing the lead in a tragedy that you
created.  Or is it a farce?  I was never quite sure.  Ah, well, doesn't
mattah. [spelling reflecting accent.]  It's been fun.  You should drop me
a line sometime--- let me know how things turned out."
	"I don't even know what you're talking about." [No surprise here!]
 	"Oh, sure you do!  Your single-minded quest for the Mad Mobster!
That is why you're here, isn't it?  He didn't call and you're here
looking for what, more advice?  A kind word?  Another plan to make him
jealous?  Don't you think he sees through you, just as I do?"  [Updater
comment: Ingo's acting is great.  I guess he took some time to warm up to
the cast and crew, but nowadays I love it.]
	Brenda starts to chant the Mantra: "He loves me..." [he's always
loved me, he came to me at Kelly's and told me he loved me... she IS
walking around in the frame...]
	"Right.  Which is where I came in."
	"I thought you were my friend."
	"Oh, don't worry.  You've got plenty to take up the slack.  You
have Ned, Lois, Robin ... Mike.  You've got friends lining up for blocks,
Brenda!  You've even got a lover waiting in the wings if you can ever pry
him away from his wife!"
	"Why are you doing this?" [But Sonny loves me, I know he loves
me, he came to me....]
	"As I said, I hate wasted effort."
	"Oh, is that what I am to you, wasted effort?"
	[Cue music] "No, you're everything I ever wanted.  You're
beautiful.  You're reckless [If not "wreckless!"]  And you're sad.  It's
the sadness that got me right from the start.  I wanted to make it go
away, and for a time I thought I had.  Pretty stupid, huh?  And you
*like* the sadness, Brenda.  You cling to it.  You go looking for it and
then, in the end it'll be all you have."
	"Why are you trying to make me feel like I did something wrong
when I never did anything wrong?  [Besides, we talked about it and I
apologized, so it should all be OK now.  And Sonny loves me, he's always
loved me, he came to me...]  I told you from the very beginning that I am
in love with Sonny.  You told me that you were going to help me get him
back."  [He loves me, I know he loves me, he's always loved me...]
	"My feelings changed.  You knew that.  You chose to play me for a
fool.  You took whatever I had to give."
	"I paid you back."
	"Don't pretend we're discussing money.  The check that you gave
me?  That was pocket change.  I tore it up.  Which is a perfect analogy
because you tore up whatever we could have had and trashed it for a
career criminal.  I've seen his kind before, Brenda.  He's hooked on the
power.  He'll never give it up...."
	"I --- I don't care anything about that." [Sonny loves me, I know
he loves me...]
	"You should.  Because his lifestyle requires discretion, and no
one could ever accuse you of being discreet.  You're a luxury to Sonny."
	BrainDead doesn't want to hear this.  Forgetting that SHE came to
see JAX, she gets mad: "Oh, I'm a luxury!  Oh, right, of course, I get it
now, you think that I'm some sort of expensive toy that you can buy, Jax,
and fit me in somewhere in between your jets and your Malibu house?
Well, you're wrong.  You're a little rich boy who didn't get his way so
now you're seething."  [Pot.  Kettle.  Black.]
	"Well, that's what you do when the stakes get too high."
	"What stakes?  What is so damn important about me?"
	"What's so important about you? I don't know... Maybe it's your
laugh.  Or your smile.  Or the way you act --- like a hungry little girl
that wants everything that she sees.  Maybe it's your mouth.  Or your
skin.  Or your soul.  The part of you that's real, underneath all the
tricks and lies.  You're brave, Brenda.  You ignore the advice of well-
meaning people who want you to compromise.  I like that.  'Cause that's
how I am, too."
	"I know.  That's why I don't understand why you'd ask me to give
up, to settle for --"
	"Me?  I'm no one's consolation prize, Brenda.  I come first, or
not at all.  The trouble with keeping your eye on the goal is that you
miss what's right in front of your face.  For example, you've missed the
only man who ever made you happy."
	"You?" [Note the nice Me?You? complimentary questions here.]
	"Yeah."
	***He kisses her.  WOW.***
	Jax mutters something it was hard to make sense of, but then, the
last few speeches were poetry, so I guess he's allowed: "He's not in love
with you, Brenda.  You never did....
        "Marry me, Brenda."
	"What did you say?"
	"I asked you to marry me."
	"Are you serious?"
	"You tell me."
	"Wait.  You just got through saying that I'd ruined anything we
could have had."
	"You need another chance.  Do you have any idea how good we can
be together?"
	"Yeah, I think I do. [But Sonny loves me, he's always loved me...]
No, that's no reason for us to get married."
	"Why not?  The way I feel about you--- you know, there was
someone in my life a long time ago.  I should have held on then but I
didn't.  I let go.  I won't let that happen again.  Think of what it
would be like to be together, all the time.  [Pretty awful, I think, with
Brenda chanting her mantra day and night!]  Two of a kind, Brenda.  We
like the same game, we play for the same stakes.  All or nothing.  I just
raised.  Now it's your call.  Marry me."
	"Jax, don't do this."
	"Don't ask you to marry me?"
	"No, don't make me hurt you.  [I'm a lab mouse bent on world
domination... no, Jan! wrong show!... mantra time, Sonny loves me, he's
always loved me, he came to me...] If that's what I'm even doing.  I'm
very confused. [No duh!] One second you're leaving and the next second
you want to be with me for the rest of your life.  How am I supposed to
know what's real?"
	"This is real."
	"Well, what about Lois?  Four months ago you were proposing to her."
	"Four months ago I didn't know you were alive.  [This is life?]
OK, I was bored and lonely and a beautiful woman buys into my life.  The
minute Lois walked through the door I knew she was going to change
everything and she did.  She led me to you."
	"Do you love me?"  [SONNY loves me, I know he loves me...]
	"If I didn't, would it matter?  What's important here are YOUR
feelings.  How do you feel when you're with me, Brenda?"
	"Happy."
	"And?"
	"Free."
	"Have I ever made you feel desperate or stupid or wrong?"
	For a short time, Real Brenda struggles to escape from the Pod,
but BrainDead starts the mantra and Real Brenda disappears again: "You
don't understand!" [Sonny loves me, he's always loved me...]
	"Yes, I do understand!  You've got love confused with obsession
and passion mixed up with pain.  Now you better learn how to tell the
difference, Brenda, otherwise you're setting yourself up for a miserable
future.  All alone."  He picks up the suitcase again.
	"You're leaving again?"
	Dropping the suitcase, he turns and says: "I'll give you two
weeks to make up your mind.  I'll be back to hear your decision."  They
kiss,  and Brenda does kiss him back.  *WOW* again.  "Fourteen days.  The
clock is ticking."  He leaves, without the suitcase.

FOREPLAY AT THE OUTBACK
	Mighod, from a distance that Brian looks like Stone!
	Tom and Felicia come in and order dinner.  Tom says she's bossy,
and she denies it and asks Mac.  Mac, sitting with KatySmug, claims she's
not bossy: "You give excellent advice and you make sure people listen to
it whether they want to or not."  Tom: "I rest my case."  She's a bit
sulky, but Tom says bossiness is sexy.
	KatyBlah wants to go to the mayor's re-election party, as the
People Who ARE Anyone will be there.  Mac isn't interested.  He's
beeped.  He has to leave, to K's disgust.  KatyBelle hits the three-olive
martinis again.
	Meanwhile, things are heating up at the Brownstone table.  T&F
can hardly wait to leave, but Felicia, who doesn't have an employee
discount or any other perks for being a partner, and the bookkeeper, has
her credit card refused.  They leave, in heat.
	It's a good thing Betty has kidnapped the kids, is all I have to
say about the PG-51 rated scenes which follow their homecoming.  Tom
comments, having panted all over Felicia, "This is where it starts
raining or you get an allergic reaction..." "Or," F. adds, "you run out
of the room."  None of that happens, and is there going to be yet another
baby in nine months?
	Mac comes home to a sleeping, drunken, Katherine.

LIFE BEYOND SIDAR
	Robin calls Sonny to nag for a check for the Wellness Center
(something Carly hasn't taken over yet...) and Lily answers.  She invites
Robin and Jason to dinner.  When Sonny comes in, he's glad to know that
Mike isn't the invitee.  Lily says she has a soft spot for people who
throw furniture.  Sonny says he hasn't seen Brenda since he got back, and
he doesn't intend to see her again.
	At dinner, Jason wonders why Sonny had the check be anonymous.
Robin would like everyone to know how wonderful Sonny is.  Robin and Lily
repair to the kitchen to toss salad and the dirt, and leave the menfolk
alone.  Sonny hires Jason, assuring him that he, Sonny, is not afraid of
the Quartermaines.  [COOK, now....]  Jason will start as a runner "Like
the guy who got shot?" asks Jason.  Sonny tells Jason the main rule:
"When you work for me, you're invisible."
	The wimmenfolk return, and Jason says Robin is cute when she
worries (about his manners, in this case.)  He doesn't see what's so
special about spaghetti, as he opens the cans all the time.  So when
Sonny's gourmet pasta comes, "it's 66, you're all watching me!" (66
Harborview, the Q's address.)  Lily is a bit bothered that she can't
cook.  (Let's see, she was living on her own for 5 years, and she only
opened cans?)  Sonny tells Jason "When a lady gets you out of jail, you
dance with her!"  So Lily sets out to teach him, to Brenda's "Nobody
Knows it but me (and all of Port Charles)" song.  Sonny and Robin dance
for 5 seconds, and Sonny reclaims his wife.  When Jason and Robin leave,
Sonny and Lily discuss them.  Then she goes up to bed, and he ruins the
SIDARless evening by brooding.