Marty Page #11

CATHERINE'S VOICE

(off-screen)

Who's there?! Who's there?!

Mrs. Pilletti heads up the foyer to the living room, followed

by Virginia and Thomas.

MRS. PILLETTI

(calling back)

It's me, Catherine! How you feel?

CATHERINE comes in at the end of the foyer. She is a gaunt

woman with a face carved out of granite. She is tough,

embittered, with a history of pain and mirthless hard work

ingrained into her features.

CATHERINE:

Hey! What are you doing here?

MRS. PILLETTI

I came to see you. How you feel?

The two sisters quickly embrace and release each other.

CATHERINE:

I gotta pain in my left side, and my

leg throbs like a drum.

MRS. PILLETTI

I been getting a pain in my shoulder.

CATHERINE:

I gotta pains in my shoulder too. I

have a pain in my hip, and my right

arm aches so much I can't sleep.

It's a curse to be old. How you feel?

MRS. PILLETTI

I feel fine.

CATHERINE:

That's nice.

Now that the standard greetings are over, Aunt Catherine

abruptly turns and goes back into the living room. Mrs.

Pilletti follows. Virginia and Thomas remain in the doorway.

LIVING ROOM.

Catherine and Mrs. Pilletti enter and Catherine heads straight

to a chair -- obviously her chair. It is an old heavy oaken

chair with thick armrests. The rest of the apartment is

furnished in what is known as "modern." A piece from House

Beautiful here, a piece from American Homes and Gardens there.

Aunt Catherine sits erect and forbidding in her chair. Mrs.

Pilletti seats herself with a sigh in a neighboring chair.

Thomas and Virginia remain off-screen in the hallway for a

moment to hang up Mrs. Pilletti's coat. The two old sisters

sit for a moment.

MRS. PILLETTI

Well, how's everything with you?

Aunt Catherine grimaces to describe how everything is with

her.

MRS. PILLETTI

My son Marty's fine. Everybody's

fine...

Thomas comes in from the hallway, stands in the back of the

room, somewhat apprehensively.

MRS. PILLETTI

We gotta postcard from my son Nickie

and his bride. They're inna big hotel

in Florida on their honeymoon.

Everything is very nice.

CATHERINE:

That's nice. I gotta letter from my

husband's cousin in Abruzzi. His

mother died.

MRS. PILLETTI

Oh.

CATHERINE:

Do you remember Emilio DiGiorgio,

owned the tavern in Abruzzi?

MRS. PILLETTI

I don't think I remember him.

CATHERINE:

Well, he died. You know who else

died?

MRS. PILLETTI

Who?

CATHERINE:

You know the old man upstairs in

this house. Old Irishman, always

drunk. He got pleurisy. He was inna

hospital two weeks. He died yesterday.

MRS. PILLETTI

Well, I always like to visit you,

Catherine, because you always got

such cheerful news.

Virginia comes into the living room with Thomas. They remain

in the background.

THOMAS:

(suddenly)

Ma, you want something to eat, some

tuna fish?

MRS. PILLETTI

Hey, why don't you go to the movie?

Your mother and me, we're gonna be

baby-sitter.

Thomas looks indecisively at his wife.

VIRGINIA:

Listen, let's go downa Kaplans'

apartment. They told us to come down.

MRS. PILLETTI

Sure, sure.

Thomas ponders a moment.

THOMAS:

All right, Ma, we're going downstairs

to the Kaplans, if you want us for

anything.

They exit. The two old sisters sit rigidly until they hear

the SOUND of the door closing. Catherine c*cks an eyebrow

and promptly launches into her statement.

CATHERINE:

I wake up this morning, I hear the

baby crying. So I wake up. I come in

their room. That girl is shaking her

hand atta baby. I said, "You brute!

Don't you strike that baby! That's

my son's baby!"

MRS. PILLETTI

It's her baby too, you know.

CATHERINE:

That's my son Thomas's baby.

MRS. PILLETTI

Well, it ain't your baby.

CATHERINE:

Did I tell you she threw the bottle-

a milk at me?

MRS. PILLETTI

You told me.

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