Norma Jean Moffitt Timeline and Summary

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• Norma Jean works at a Rexall drugstore during the day, and does body-building exercises, plays songs on an organ, and does the cooking and other household chores when she's home.
• Her mother, Mabel, gives her an off-white dust ruffle that she made for her and her husband Leroy's bed.
• Norma Jean tells Leroy that he needs to get a job and makes suggestions from a list she's made.
• She repeatedly tells Leroy that she isn't interested in living in a log house—and we don't blame her. Those are so 1850.
• Norma Jean gets upset when her mother catches her smoking. We guess Mabel's not a "cool mom."
• The next day she's even more upset after her mother tells a story implying that Norma Jean's son, Randy, died as a result of her neglect.
• She stays up late writing compositions for a class she's taking at a local community college, and she starts cooking exotic foods.
• Norma Jean is upset when she hears about the plan to go to Shiloh from her mother and husband.
• She and Leroy go to Shiloh, where they drive around and have a picnic.
• After they finish eating, Norma Jean tells Leroy she wants to leave him; he tries to get her to change her mind but she's determined.
• Norma Jean says everything was fine until Mabel caught her smoking, and she says the way both Leroy and her mother treat her makes her feel like she's 18 again, which is something she can't stand. Remember, she was 18 when she married Leroy and lost her baby—definitely not a good year for her.
• She walks away and moves her arms as she faces Leroy in the distance, but it's unclear whether she's beckoning to him or doing an exercise for her pectoral muscles. Way to keep us guessing, Norma Jean.