He and Vera hold a second wedding ceremony, this time a civil one. He charters a boat for the honeymoon. He plans to take Vera to Catalina Island. He fails to tell her until the last minute that Lois, his (first) ex-wife, will be joining them.
The honeymoon to Catalina Island is canceled.
Babe and Ben Shipman are in court. Babe is seeking to have his alimony payments to Myrtle reduced, but Babe and Ben Shipman spend most of the morning avoiding reporters and speaking of other matters.
I’m starting to lose count of the number of times he’s been married, says Ben Shipman. I think he’s probably lost count too.
He’s talking about touring with this Illeana, says Babe.
—I take it you won’t be joining them to form a trio?
—It’s not funny.
—No, I guess it isn’t. So how do you feel about it?
—How do you think I feel?
Babe’s voice cracks. Ben Shipman wonders if Babe can ever be truly angry with his partner.
Disappointed? Yes.
Frustrated? Yes.
But angry? No, it would appear not.
This, Ben Shipman divines, is in the nature of love, because Ben Shipman also loves both of these men, in all their strangeness and their gentleness, in all their sorrows and their joys.
He’s drinking on set, says Babe.
—Does Hal know?
—I think Hal suspects.
—What about his son?
Hal Roach, Jr., is an assistant on the latest picture.
—Hal, Jr. doesn’t run to his old man with stories.
—That’s something, at least.
But Babe does not hear him. Babe is elsewhere, in some future place, mourning the absence of a shadow, listening for an echo that does not come.
What will I do? Babe asks.
—When?
—When he leaves me.
—You’ll wait.
—For what?
—For him to return.
—And will he?
He will always return to you, says Ben Shipman. I’d say that it’s like a marriage, but in his case it would be a bad analogy.