(significantly, to ALBERT)
It’s just that I’m afraid we’re going to be late.
ALBERT
(not getting it)
Late for what?
FRANCINE
The place we gotta be?
ALBERT
The place?
FRANCINE
Remember?
ALBERT
(to FRANCINE)
The – What’re you – ?
FRANCINE
(to BEV)
I’m sorry.
ALBERT
(to FRANCINE)
Said two minutes is all.
FRANCINE
(quiet, pointedly)
Well, I’ve got my hands full.
ALBERT
I just said I can put them in the –
FRANCINE
(testily, as they start to go)
I can put them in the car. I can do that.
BEV
Did you get the chafing dish?
FRANCINE
No ma’am, thank you, though.
ALBERT
(to BEV and JIM)
Be right back.
(ALBERT opens the door to reveal KARL LINDNEK, about to ring the bell. He is an oddly formal and uncomfortable-seeming man.)
KARL
Ah. Unexpected. Uhhh …?
BEV
Hello, Karl.
KARL
(relieved)
Ah, Bev Voila.
ALBERT
(to KARL, squeezing past)
Excuse us, if you don’t mind?
KARL
(to ALBERT, formally)
Not at all. After you, sir.
(KARL makes my for ALBERT and FRANCINE to pass.)
ALBERT
(to FRANCINE, as they exit, barely audible)
What is the matter with you?
KARL
(from the door, seeing him)
Ah. Jim, too. Hello, lad.
JIM
Karl.
BEV
(unenthusiastically)
Come on in, Karl.
ARL
(as if working out a puzzle)
Uhhh … Yes. Could do that. However, You’ll recall, Bev, that Betsy currently happens to be, uh, how shall we say – ?
BEV
Ohhh, is it almost that time?
KARL
Uh, point being, that she did accompany me.
BEV
What do you - you mean she’s in the car?
KARL
She is.
BEV
Well, for heaven’s sake, Karl! Don’t leave her out in a hot car.
KARL
Well, that was my thinking.
BEV
Bring her in with you.
KARL
Will do.
BEV
Of all things.
KARL
(as he goes)
Back in a flash.
(As KARL exits again, RUSS descends the stairs in a clean shirt and shoes. BEV and JIM allow him to silently pass by them. He walks to the chair and collects the ice cream carton.)
BEV
You changed your shirt.
(RUSS continues into the kitchen without responding. As soon as he is gone:)
JIM
(quietly)
BEV
(whispering)
I know I’m being silly. I know I am, but – (cont’d.)
JIM
(overlapping)
Not at all. Not in the least.
BEV
(continuous whisper)
– it’s just that after two and a half years you’d think that with time, because that’s supposed to be the thing that helps, isn’t it? A little bit of time – (cont’d.)
JIM
(overlapping)
A great healer.
BEV
(continuous whisper)
– and I thought with the new job and the move I thought somehow he would start to let go of –
(RUSS returns from the kitchen. BEV goes silent. He goes to a door beneath the stairs, opens it, pulls a string to turn on a light, and exits.)
BEV
(calling after him)
Where are you going, the basement?
RUSS
(from off)
Yup.
BEV
Are you looking for something?
RUSS
(farther)
Yup.
(The front door opens. KARL escorts his wife BETSY, who is eight months pregnant, and who also happens to be totally deaf.)
KARL
Here we are, then.
BEV
Oh, there she is!
BETSY
Hehhyoooh, Behhhh. (tr. Hello, Bev.)
BEV
(over-enunciating for BETSY’s benefit)
Well just look at you! My goodness. You are just the biggest thing.
BETSY
Ah nohhh! Eee toooor. Ah so beee!!! (I know! It’s true. I’m so big!!!)
KARL
Took the liberty of not ringing the bell.
BEV
Betsy, you know Jim.
JIM
Indeed she does.
BETSY
Hah Jeee. (Hi Jim.)
(JIM shows off his sign language skills to BETSY, finger-spelling the last word.)
BEV
Oh, well, now look at that. Look at them go. What is that about? Somebody translate!
BETSY
(laughing, to KARL)
Huhuhuuh!! Kaaaaa!!
JIM
(chuckling along)
Uh-oh! What did I do? Did I mis-spell?
(BETSY signs to KARL.)
KARL
(chuckles)
Uh, it seems, Jim, that you, uh, told Betsy that she was expecting a storm!!
BEV
No! He meant stork! You meant stork, didn’t you?
BETSY
(pantomimes umbrella)
Ahneemah-umbrayah! (I need my umbrella!)
(All laugh.)
BEV
Her umbrella! I understood that!
KARL
Have to check the weather report!
BEV
A storm, I’m going to tell that to Russ.
JIM
(conceding his mistake)
Must have rusty fingers!!
(All chuckle.)
BETSY
(to KARL, asking for translation)
Kaaaah?
KARL
(speaks as he signs)
Uh, Jim says his fingers are rusty.
(BETSY laughs and covers her mouth.)
BEV
See? She understands.
BETSY
(to JIM, pantomimes washing hands)
Jeee, mehbbe yew neeee sooohh!! (Jim, maybe you need soap!!)
(More polite laughing.)
BEV
(explaining to JIM)
Soap. For the rust on your –
JIM
(to BEV)
No, I understood
(RUSS emerges from the basement, carrying a large shovel.)
And there’s the man himself! Thought he’d absconded!
BEV
(to RUSS)
The Lindners are here.
BETSY
Hehhyoooo, Ruuuuhhh. (Hello, Russ.)
RUSS
Betsy.
(to BEV)
Ya seen my gloves anywhere?
KARL
(re: the shovel)
Tunneling to China, are we?
RUSS
(to BEV)
Pair of work gloves?
BEV
(to KARL)
Do you know I just got through saying how Russ and I never entertain and here it is a regular neighborhood social!
KARL
Well, we shan’t be long.
BEV
Karl, do you suppose Betsy would like a glass of iced tea?
KARL
(she doe
s not see him)
Bets- ?
(to BEV)
Point to me.
BEV
(to BETSY, over-enunciated)
Betsy, look at Karl.
(BETSY looks at KARL.)
KARL
(to BETSY, signing simultaneously)
Bev wants to know if you want some iced tea to drink?
BETSY
Ohhh, yehhhpeee. Dahhnyoo, Behhh. (Yes please. Thank you, Bev.)
RUSS
(to BEV)
Know the gloves I’m talking about?
BEV
Well, Karl’s here. I thought you were going to talk to Karl.
(FRANCINE and ALBERT have entered and started up the stairs.)
RUSS
(seeing ALBERT and FRANCINE)
’The heck’s going on?
BEV
Nothing. Now, we two girls are going to the refreshment stand, so you boys’ll have to manage on your own.
KARL
Have no fear.
BEV
(while exiting, as before)
So how are you feeling, Betsy? Are you tired?
BETSY
Noooo, ahhhh fiiieee, Behhhh, reeeee. (No, I’m fine, Bev, really.)
(BETSY and BEV exit to the kitchen.)
KARL
Now, Russ, Bev tells me you’re indisposed, and normally I’d – (realizes) Ah. Not contagious, is it?
RUSS
Is what?
KARL
Hate for Betsy to, uh, come into contact with any –
RUSS
Not contagious.
KARL
Can’t be too careful. Or possibly one can. Anyway, hate to commandeer your Saturday afternoon here, a man’s home, as they say, but, as we haven’t seen your face at Rotary of late I thought I might – (cont’d.)
RUSS
(overlapping)
What’s on your mind, Karl?
KARL
(continuous)
– intrude upon the sanctity of - what’d you say?
RUSS
What’s on your mind?
KARL
Ah. Well. Firstly – May I sit?
RUSS
Yeah, yeah.
JIM
Karl, I will be taking my leave.
KARL
Not on my account?
JIM
Parish business.
KARL
Uh, well, truth to tell, Jim, we might actually benefit from your insight, here?
JIM
(looks at watch)
Uhhhhh –
KARL
If it’s not pressing?
JIM
KARL
Not to usurp your authority, Russ. Your castle. You are the king.
RUSS
What’s on your mind?
KARL
(as he sits on a box)
Is this safe?
RUSS
Anywhere.
KARL
No breakables? And Jim?
JIM
(sits, looking at RUSS)
Uhh … minute or two.
KARL
Good. Good good good. So.
(BEV opens the kitchen door.)
BEV
Iced tea for you, Karl?
KARL
Ah. Problem being that I do have some sensitivity to the cold beverages, so my question would be is the tea chilled, by which I mean has it been in the Frigidaire?
BEV
(enduring him)
No, Karl.
KARL
Then, if I might have a serving minus the ice? That would suit me fine.
BEV
All right, Karl.
(BEV closes the door.)
KARL
Anyway Russ, if you don’t mind, I will proceed directly to, dare I say, the crux. So. First and foremost, as far as matters of community are concerned, I’ve always maintained –
(BEV and BETSY enter from the kitchen with glasses of iced tea.)
BEV
All right, you boys.
KARL
(panicky about BETSY)
What’s – ? Is something – ?
BEV
(handing KARL his tea)
She’s fine, Karl.
KARL
Is that tea, she’s drinking?
BEV
Yes, Karl.
KARL
Slow sips. Small sips.
BEV
All right, Karl.
(BETSY and BEV V sit at the dining table, amay from the men. They begin to communicate via pad and pencil.)
RUSS
You were saying?
KARL
(glasses off, mops brow)
Tad overwrought, I suppose. (lowers voice) What with Betsy’s condition, but … well, given our history of two years ago, I don’t know, Russ, if you knew the details of that.
RUSS
Some, yup.
KARL
And Jim: Source of great comfort for us during all of that.
(beat, then to RUSS)
It was the umbilical cord. Nature of the problem.
RUSS
I knew that.
KARL
Wrapped around the … (indicates his neck) Exactly. So, no one at fault. No one to blame. But these tragedies do come along. As you and Bev well know.
JIM
What’re you hoping? Boy or girl?
KARL
Ah, no. Touch wood. No tempting fate.
JIM
There you go.
KARL
(back to RUSS)
Not to compare our little … setback … to what the two of you endured, but –
RUSS
Something about a crux?
KARL
Right you are. Well: To backtrack. I take it, Russ, you’re aware that the Community Association meets the first Tuesday of each month? And as I’m sure you know, Don Skinner is part of the steering committee. And somehow it came to Don’s attention at this late juncture that Ted Driscoll had found a buyer for this house and I have to say it did come as something of a shock when Don told us what sort of people they were.
RUSS
What sort of people are they?
(Beat. KARL stares at RUSS.)
KARL
Well. (chuckles) Uhh … Huh. I suppose I’m forced to consider the possibility that you actually don’t know.
RUSS
Don’t know what?
KARL
Well, I mean. That they’re colored.
RUSS
Who are?
KARL
The family. It’s a colored family.