Why Penny Was Crying in the Kitchen

Thursday evenings the hotel conducted bingo games for the hotel guests. Therefore on Thursday evenings Penny Johnson and Johnny Castle were able to sneak over to the Sheldrake Hotel to earn some extra money by performing there.

On Thursday, August 22, 1963, Penny and Johnny performed at the Sheldrake and confirmed that they would perform again there on the following Thursday, August 29.

During the afternoon of Friday, August 23, however, Billy Kostecki informed Penny and Johnny that she could get an abortion, but the only available date was Thursday, August 29. Billy's information presented two problems for Penny and Johnny:

1) The abortion would cost $250, which Penny and Johnny did not have.

2) The abortion would take place on the day of their next Sheldrake performance.

For Penny there was also a third problem:

3) Penny still hoped that Robbie Gould might marry her because she was pregnant.

Therefore, Penny went to the kitchen to catch him there before he finished his work shift. She wanted to inform him that she might abort his child. She hoped that Robbie would either offer to help her pay for the abortion or else promise to marry her if she gave birth to his child.

Neither Johnny nor Billy knew that Penny went to the kitchen to talk to Robbie. Penny was supposed to be dancing with hotel guests in the gazebo.

Penny did catch Robbie in the kitchen. He told her he would talk with her right after his work shift, so she waited for him. Eventually he finished his shift and did talk with her, but only briefly. When she told him about her pregnancy and abortion plan, he did not want to spend much time discussing the situation with her.

Robbie told Penny that she might have become pregnant from some other man. Robbie said he did not have time to talk with Penny right now, because he was supposed to meet someone else.

Robbie was supposed to meet Lisa Houseman at the golf course. Robbie had broken up with and moved on from Penny weeks ago. Now Robbie was interested in Lisa.

Right now was not a good time for Robbie to talk with Penny, and so he cut their conversation short and left her alone in the kitchen and headed for the golf course.

Left alone in the kitchen, Penny collapsed emotionally. She dreaded the abortion. She suffered a panic attack. She began crying and could not stop.

She hid in a corner under a sink and wept. She could not compose herself enough to go to the gazebo to dance with the guests.