Play It As It Lays

Les meets Maria in a motel in Oxnard, and they plan a romantic weekend on the coast. Les excuses himself to call his wife, and Maria leaves the room. When Maria returns, she sees him dressed and knows they will not be able to fulfill their plans. Both of them are ashamed; Les for lying to his wife and Maria for believing in a fantasy.

As they drive back to Los Angeles, they try to convince each other that “it would be all right another time, idyllic later” (134). The one thing they did not talk about was the abortion. 

Maria thinks about things she would never do. Most of those things involve putting herself in dangerous situations, such as walking “through the Sands or Caesar’s alone after midnight” (136). 

Carter visits Maria to tell her that he is going to Cannes. After he leaves, Maria imagines the family that she, Carter, and Kate might have been: “The images would flash at Maria like slides in a dark room. On film they might have seemed a family” (137).