Daddy and Ma's Friend

RUTH BECKMAN: Widowed lady about 67 years old.

JOLENE HERLOCHER: Married daughter of Ruth. JOLENE is 35.

PETE RUSSO: Eccentric man about 67 years old.

Setting: A rustic kitchen in Upstate New York. The house is located in the Catskill Mountains.

Time: October 1998

AT RISE: RUTH BECKMAN sits alone at her kitchen table. She is dressed in black mourning clothes sipping a cup of tea. The sound of soul music plays softly in the background. The sound of a tea kettle whistling starts the movement of RUTH toward the stove.

RUTH
(To the kettle)
Okay, hold on.
She starts for the kettle when the door opens.

JOLENE
MA?

RUTH
Here sweet stuff! Wipe your feet and . . .

JOLENE
(Finishing her sentence)
. . . and wash! Ma, why do ya always have to say stuff like I'm still a kid?

RUTH
Sorry baby!

JOLENE
Ma, look at this place. JEEZ it's a damn mausoleum. It's fricken cold out there.

RUTH
(To the picture of her dead husband, TONY)
Tony, do ya here how she talks to me.
(To JOLENE)
You wouldn't have talked to me like that if your dad were alive.

JOLENE
SO!!! You admit he's dead? Two years Ma! TWO fricken YEARS he's dead, muerte!!

RUTH
Two lonely years! And God knows if I had to exist on your company . . .

JOLENE
Don't start MA! Ma?

RUTH
WHAT baby?

JOLENE
Isn't time you put away the widow's weeds and . . .

RUTH
What and what? Your father wouldn't like that.

JOLENE
You could go to a movie with friends or maybe . . .

RUTH
Now who's treating who like a kid. Leave me alone!

The doorbell rings

JOLENE
I'll get it!

JOLENE goes to the door and finds a good looking elderly man standing there.

RUTH
Now what? Tony , you see what a mess I'm in here. Nobody nobody . . .
(Pounding her chest)
cares, mia culpa!

JOLENE
Knock it off Ma and get the door.

Ruth
You get the door.

JOLENE
For Crize sakes Ma, all right. Geez!

JOLENE opens the door to find an elderly good looking man holding his bicycle by his side.

PETE
My name isa Petey, Petey Russo. And you musta be Jolene?

JOLENE
Yes, but do I know you?

PETE
Your mother and father know me. I Pete Russo froma the Bronx.

JOLENE
Please come in, and wipe your feet.

PETE
Pete!

JOLENE
(Calling to RUTH)
He says his name is PETE!

RUTH
I know lots of PETE's. Pete who?

PETE
(Calling back to her)
PETE RUSSO from the Bronx!

RUTH
(Turns from her cooking she recognizes PETE)
Petey Russon, my God it's been . . .

PETE
Forty-one years, little one.

JOLENE
Forty-one years? Why?

PETE
That's a long story and I'd like to sit down and rest awhile.

RUTH
Sure, sure. Sit; , rest (beat) awhile.

PETE sits down in the kitchen and RUTH goes to get some coffee.

RUTH (con't)
So, how long you gonna be staying.

JOLENE
MA!

PETE
No, it's all right. I'll be leaving.

RUTH
Good!

Sound of thunder and wind

RUTH (con't)
You'd better hurry, sounds like a bad storm.

JOLENE
A storm this time of year? That's odd.

RUTH
Things could really get rough. How did you get here, Pete?

PETE
Bike.

RUTH
From the Bronx.

Windows rattle from the wind.

PETE
Yeah, it took me two days.

RUTH
Well you better get ridin'

JOLENE
Don't be ridiculous. You can at least stay the night.

RUTH
Daddy won't have it!

PETE
I thought Tony was dead. That is why I came.

RUTH
I know why you came, and so does Tony.

Suddenly the lights flicker and Tony's picture falls.

RUTH
(To Tony's picture)
He's leaving don't have a fit.

JOLENE
This is too weird. PETE, you're not going anywhere tonight in this storm. Ma, you don't honestly believe Daddy is responsible for the storm?

Windows burst open with a gust of wind, silence and darkness.

The End!