STONGER THAN THE MALE

A Screenplay by Dakota Balmore

ACT ONE

FADE IN:

EXT. ESSEX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NIGHT

LUCIA (V.O.)

A recent study showed that women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to give birth to a girl, because the female embryo is stronger than the male. My mother didn’t start smoking until after my older brother was born.

INT. ESSEX ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAFETERIA NIGHT

RAE, with three-year-old LUCIA on her hip, is standing with a few other men and women in front of the Essex Elementary PTA facing a much larger audience of seated, clapping parents.

LUCIA (V.O.)

That’s me at age three: Lucia Caltanissetta. This is the first memory I have of my mother, Raphaela, or Rae as she was called…and how fortunate I am that it’s a happy one. The year is 1950, and it’s the annual PTA election of officers at my older brother’s school.

MR. RICKHAUS, the principal, steps in front of the standing parents.

MR. RICKHAUS

And there you have the new officers for this year’s Essex Elementary School PTA.

Another round of applause is heard.

Blowing kisses, Rae steps out and bows to either side.

Baby Lucia blows a kiss and everyone laughs.

MR. RICKHAUS

And we want to especially thank Mrs. Caltanissetta for accepting the very difficult position of treasurer. Though this is her son’s second year at Essex Elementary, this is the first year she has come out for the PTA.

RAE

Mr. Rickhaus, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will look after the PTA’s money as well as…well…Jack Benny.

(everyone laughs)

And when it comes to raising new money for the PTA, just throw a carnival…I’m pretty good at picking pockets.

(everyone laughs again)

I could also increase the money that we have. I have some ideas about that. You see, I’m lucky with the horses.

(everyone laughs and then applauds as Rae takes a bow)

MR. RICKHAUS

We are so fortunate to have Mrs. Caltanissetta. She is going to make a great comic addition to our fundraising efforts this year.

LUCIA (V.O.)

She was certainly some mother. I was really proud of her. She was young, blonde, and beautiful…and more than that…she was funny. She made me laugh back then, and everyone else who came in contact with her. The next year, my father moved us into the first of several houses.

EXT. OUTSIDE LUCIA CALTANISSETTA’S 1988 FLORIDA HOME DAY

Lucia is putting a suitcase in the back of her gray minivan when seventeen-year-old MARLA comes running out the front door carrying an overnight suitcase.

LUCIA (V.O.)

When my mother lay dying in a hospital in Ocala, Florida in 1988, I decided to put an end to my self-imposed banishment from her presence. It had been over two years since I threw my hands up over the hopelessness of being able to help her. One thing my mother believed in was her right to mess up her own life.

MARLA

Mom, I’m coming with you.

LUCIA

No, you’re not. I’ll probably be a few days. It’s May, and I will not have you miss any of your final school days.

MARLA

Screw my last few senior days. Grandma Caltanissetta is dying.

LUCIA

I said no, Marla!

Marla tosses her bag in the back, closes it, and gets in the front side passenger’s seat.

Lucia throws her keys on the ground.

LUCIA

No, goddamn it!

Marla leans across the driver’s seat.

MARLA

You have kept me from any contact with your mother for the past two years. I am going to see her one last time before she dies. I’m going!

Marla pulls herself up in her seat, folds her arms, and looks out her side window ignoring her mother.

Lucia picks up her keys, gets into the gray minivan, and drives away.

EXT. THE FRONT OF THE WOODWARD DRIVE HOUSE IN ESSEX DAY

Men are carrying furniture from a moving truck as four-year-old Lucia rides her tricycle along the sidewalk.

Rae is standing by the walkway to the house and glances at her daughter.

Her son TONY comes out of the small white house.

TONY

Mom, dad wants to know where you want the sewing machine.

Rae puts a hand on Tony’s head, rubs it, and then grabs him in her arms and tickles him.

RAE

(in a scary voice)

Tell him to take it to the dungeon. Then, I can tear you apart, and when I am finished, I will sew you back together again.

Rae tickles her son until he is forced to kick his legs high in an attempt to get out of her grasp.

Lucia peddles up, looks at her mother, and giggles. Rae pushes Tony aside and points at Lucia.

RAE

(with mock menace)

Turn that thing around now. I am going to chase you down the street, and when I catch you. I’m going to eat you up!

While Rae is talking, Lucia turns her bike around, laughs, and peddles away.

After giving her daughter a decent head start, Rae runs after her like the Hunchback of Notre Dame complete with the limp and hunch.

Catching up to her, she sweeps Lucia off the bike and over her head.

Rae brings her quickly down to her mouth and pretends to eat her neck.

Lucia is laughing and screaming the whole time enjoying every second of the attention.

Rae grabs her daughter and encloses her completely in the midsection of her body surrounding her with her arms.

RAE

Now you are in my dungeon, and I will only let you out when I am ready to eat you.

Letting go of Lucia, Rae throws her arms up.

RAE

Oh, my, the little wretch has escaped. Guards!

Giggling, Lucia jumps on her bike and speeds away.

Rae makes a half-hearted attempt to chase her, but quickly gives up and waves her “hunchy” fists in the air.

RAE

I’ll get you, my little pretty. I’ll get you.

LUCIA (V.O.)

I loved my mother. I wish there was a way we could cut a perfect moment like that out of time and keep it near so we can rerun it anytime the world bites us. Funny…at four years old, I did not want the world to change one bit…but the world had other plans.

EXT. THE FRONT OF THE WOODWARD DRIVE HOUSE DAY

LUCIA (V.O.)

My mother kept my older brother Tony and I in stitches for the next four years. We had a good life…a happy life…the kind of life that was going to be playing itself out in the home of the Cleavers in the next few years on TV. Then, for some unknown reason, my mother brought into everyone’s life a little rain.

EXT. THE SIDE OF THE WOODWARD DRIVE HOUSE DAY

Rae is on a ladder around the side of the house about six feet off the ground.

Eight-year-old Lucia comes around from the back of the house, stands at the foot of the ladder, and watches her mother painting the window trimmings.

LUCIA

Mom, I can’t find the clothespins.

RAE

Are they on the shelf above the washer?

LUCIA

Mom, I’m only eight. I can’t reach the shelf above the washer.

Rae stops painting and points her brush at Lucia.

RAE

You didn’t climb up there I hope?

LUCIA

That’s why I can’t reach the clothespins.

RAE

Did you run the clothes through the wringer?

LUCIA

Uh, huh. If I can get the pins, I can use the little stepladder and hang the clothes on the line.

RAE

All right, honey. I’ll come down and get the clothespins for you.

Rae takes a false step and tumbles off the ladder. She lays on the ground holding her mid-section crying a little.

LUCIA

Mommy! Are you all right?

RAE

Damn it. Why do we have to paint? The house is only four years old? Damn, I hate this house!

Rae pulls herself up to a sitting position with Lucia trying to help her.

LUCIA

Are you okay, Mommy?

RAE

I am. But maybe your sister or brother isn’t.

LUCIA

What sister or brother? You mean Tony?

RAE

No, damn it. Here, help me up.

Lucia helps her mother to her feet.

Rae takes her daughter’s hands and puts them to her abdomen.

RAE

I’m pregnant again. After eight years, I’m pregnant again. We already have our boy and girl. We don’t need another baby.

LUCIA

I’m going to get a baby brother?

RAE

Or sister.

LUCIA

Gee…I don’t know.

RAE

I see you don’t want it either. Well, maybe we got lucky and that fall will take care of it. Then I can devote all my time to you. Come on. Help me get into the house. I am going to talk to your father tonight when he comes home from work and tell him about this miserable place.

Lucia helps her mother around the back of the house and they go out of sight.

EXT. A BIG WHITE HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY NEAR BEL AIR, MARYLAND DAY

LUCIA (V.O.)

In the summer of 1956, My mother got her way, as she usually did, and we moved twenty-six miles from the aircraft manufacturer my father worked for since the beginning of World War II. Our new house lay five miles north of Bel Air, Maryland, and turned out to be mine and Tony’s good fortune, for we took to country life like an addict took to heroin. Baby brother Karl was born early the year before, and was too young to know better.

THIS IS THE END OF THE SAMPLE.

HIT THE BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE MAIN LITERARY PAGE.