[SCENE: Well appointed Media/Conference room with stadium style seating. The chairs are made of expensive looking black leather in several rows with a stairs in the middle that separate them into two sections. At the bottom is a table where several automatic weapons are displayed: An M-16A2, AK-47 and German WWII MP43 submachine gun. Beside each weapon are two large magazines that have taped together for rapid reload. The actions have been pulled back on all the guns and the two men, one white and one black, are looking at the MP43 in a very professional manner, while talking to one another in a low voice. The door opens and two women enter dressed in warm up suits. On Fanny's gray sweatshirt the logo, “U.S. Army” in black letters, while the red one that Doris wears proudly states “U.S. Marine Corps” in gold letters above the anchor and globe.
Bernie: Harold, let me introduce you to my niece Fanny and her best friend Doris Hoffman.
Harold: [Walking over to greet the duo at the bottom of the steps. Harold is a handsome and well built tall black man of 60 something with a big smile] You must be Fanny Kaplan, Bernie's niece (he shakes her hand with the ease of a politician and looks to the the six foot plus Doris]...and tall woman... you must be Doris. [They shake hands]
Doris: [In an excellent Sarah Palin voice] I can see RUSSIA from here!
Fanny: She never said that - It was some stupid commie comedian chick on Saturday Night Live!
Doris: [Still in Palin character] Betca Marie what's her-name said, "Let them eat cake..."
Harold: You really are crazy....
Doris: [In her own high pitched loud voice] Of course, I am! I've been diagnosed by the best doctors that my daddy could hire at the best hospitals in Florida as having "Bi Polar Disorder." But like that guy said, "If you know you're crazy and really are crazy it's okay, because generally speaking crazy people think they are SANE and the rest of the world is insane."
Harold is speechless and looking at Doris in amazement as people who first meet Doris often are...Bernie is looking up at the ceiling with lips moving in silence...]
Fanny: Doris, you got that from "Catch-22" and the author didn't exactly say that you...you...raving MOONBAT! Don't get me started Doris! You know what buttons to push...
Harold: [Putting his hand out to Doris again] Let's start over again: "Hello young lady, my name is Harold Washington..."
Doris: [In a Germanic accent] Brunhilde here, It's a pleasure to meet you! Are with the Giants? My boyfriend Siegfried hates them...
[Bernie walks over to the table and picks up the roll of masking tape and starts pulling off a piece, which goes over Fanny's mouth...The next piece goes over the mouth of Doris.]
Bernie: When Fanny was a kid, and went into overdrive while I wanted to talk to her dad, this always worked.
[Fanny has calmed down and seems content to be silenced; however, Doris is jumping up and down with bug eyes while pointing at her mouth..]
Harold: I think you taped Doris' nose up..[He walks over and pulls off the tape and tears it in half...Doris starts to talk, but Harold puts the tape back over her mouth before she can speak.] So they are both bi-polars...strong emotional mood changes between low and high?
Bernie: As is her uncle and was her father, who died from cancer back in '09. A trait that the poor Kaplan family share with the rich Hoffman family.
Harold: Come to think of it when we were Marines you were a little crazy at times, but then again, we all were all crazy back in the late 1960s, so you fit in with the crowd without being noticed.
[The two women are standing at “parade rest” like two soldiers in boot camp listening to a lecture by their NCOs. Harold takes notices and walks over to them.]
Harold: [loudly] ATTENTION! [The woman do not respond]
Bernie: Commands have to be given at attention, otherwise the Marines will ignore you.
Harold: [Coming to “attention”] ATTENTION! [The women come to the position of “attention” with bodies frozen, hands at the side and eyes focused straight ahead]
Bernie: They know the drill. Fanny's boyfriend is a former soldier in the 101st Airborne Division. He put the two of them through a modified boot camp last summer.
Harold: We'll see. [He removes the tape from their mouths and notices Doris following him with her eyes. He gets up right in her face and yells Marine Corps Drill Sergeant style] ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH ME, MARINE?
Doris: SIR, NO SIR!
Harold: THEN WHY WERE YOU EYE BALLING ME?
Doris: SIR, SORRY SIR!
Harold: DO YOU LIKE BOSTON?
Doris: SIR, NO SIR!
Harold: THEN GET DOWN AND PUSH IT AWAY!
[Doris starts doing perfect male Marine push ups and yells in cadence: “1..2...3, etc.]
Harold: [Standing now nose to nose with Fanny] WIPE THAT GRIN OFF YOUR FACE, DOG SOLDIER! DOES MY MARINE CORPS MAKE YOU SMILE?
Fanny: SIR, YES SIR!
Harold: THEN DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 20 PUSH UPS FOR THE U.S. MARINE CORPS – STILL THE FINEST ASSAULT TROOPS ON THE PLANET!
Fanny: SIR, YES SIR! [Drops down and starts doing push ups beside Doris and starts her own count]
Harold: [To Bernie while the woman are doing push ups] I'm very impressed...What else military can they do?
Bernie: Just about everything we could do after 16 weeks of Parris Island boot camp in 1967.
Harold: Weapons training too?
Bernie: The D.I. Who trained them was himself a Drill Sergeant at Army BCT for about a year at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina...This was after several tours in Iraq as a sniper who had over one hundred confirmed kills...
[The women are well over 20 push ups each and are beginning to show sweat on the exercise suits.]
Harold: Okay...the point is made...stop it [The women ignore him and keep on doing push ups and counting cadence] Will you two stop? I don't remember how to halt push ups. [They both stop and laugh]
Bernie: Want to hit the showers, ladies?
Fanny: We haven't done our mile run yet! How many laps around the property for a mile?
Bernie: Sixteen.
[Doris and Fanny are doing a jog in place]
Fanny: Okay...We'll be showered, dressed and back here in an hour.
[The women jog to the door and exit stage right]
Harold: This is going to work!
[SCENE: An hour later in the same room as before. Fanny and Doris have changed into shorts, tank tops and flip flops – Florida style. Bernie is seated next to them on the front row in Butler dress except for the coat. Harold is dressed as before in a grey business suit and facing his small audience. At his back is a large movie house size screen with a large skyscraper centered in the downtown of a large American city.]
Harold: First of all let me introduce himself: I'm Harold T. Washington – the owner and CEO of Blackwing Security, Inc. You may have heard of us in relation to the Iraq War. Do you remember the 2003 famous picture of the contractors lynched by the Republican Guard in Baghdad? Those six men were my employees and highly trained special operators who were looking for Saddam and his evil sons....
Fanny: This is all very interesting, but cut to the chase...Can you get security in the Prudential Building to stand down while we do what has to be done?
Harold: Of course, young lady, they are my employees! And I will be alone in the control room tomorrow night as acting shift supervisor.
Doris: What about police?
Harold: There will be no police unless I call them and I won't...
Bernie: The mayor will have the Boston PD with him?
Harold: Maybe a few security guards that come and go with him. The mayor's reception will be restricted to the ballroom and my guards will prevent unauthorized building tours.
Fanny: Okay... after the mayor's party breaks up around 9 p.m. and the building secured at 10 p.m., there will be no one upstairs except for us and the bad guys?
Harold: Yes, all civilians above the basement level will be gone by ten p.m. and the front entrance secured. The lower level garages will be secured as well from entry but open to exit by vehicles all night. When the building is locked down and secured, the guards will be sent home, and I will be the only security guard on duty.
Doris: What about the clean up crews?
Harold: The evening and night shift have been cancelled. The clean up will not start until Sunday morning. This will give a good long head start to those interested in seeing other parts the world...
Bernie: So you think no one besides us will be aware what happened Friday until Sunday morning?
Harold: It would stand to reason that someone would want to know why their “partner” didn't return home and call the cops on Saturday morning...and the police may roll over to the Prud and take a look at the 48th floor conference room...
Fanny: Even at worse case outcome, we get at least several hours head start...
Bernie: I would estimate anywhere from three hours to 24...So we plan to be on the road within the three hour worse case outcome.
Doris: Harold, you do plan to get out of town? It won't take the cops long to realize that you're involved...
Harold: Bernie and I will team up and go west....far, far, FAR west.
Doris: What about your family?
Harold: Wife dead for over ten years...Kids raised and middle aged.
Bernie: ...we both decided to relive our youth as Marine Corps war brothers in the Wild Far East.
Harold: I think we can leave the details for later, but the men will head west and the women go south after the deed is done.
[Harold pushes a button on the remote and a detailed diagram of the 48th floor appears. He pushes another function and a camera mounted on a person takes a walk from the freight elevator to the conference room.]
Harold: This is what you'll see walking from the freight elevator to the conference room. You will note that it is an interior room, so people could get very loud up there and it would be impossible for anyone inside or outside the building to know what's going on.
Fanny: Telephones...computers?
Harold: The land line telephones will be switched off before the kill team goes up the freight elevator and the cellphone signal jammed. The Wi-Fi signal to the computer will be turned off as well. The conference room communication with the outside world will not be possible. Those people will be isolated and killed in the middle of a large American city.
Bernie: So you can see, young ladies, that our plan is the best one to date.
Fanny: Yes, I agree. We get all the bad guys at one fell swoop instead just the leader of the gang.
Doris: Of course, we didn't know beforehand about a friend on the inside.
Fanny: Speaking of that friend...
Harold: I'm right here and you can speak directly to me.
Doris: I don't need to know more about Harold – If Bernie says he's good people – he's good people.
Fanny: Bernie, I thought I knew everything about you! Why didn't you tell me about Harold?
Harold: [waving his hand] Do you want the short version of the Harold-Bernie relationship?
Doris: I would like the long version with details of the drunken orgies in the Far East with willing Asian love girls...
Fanny: SHUT UP, DORIS!
Harold: The short version is that we both joined the USMC in early January, 1967 and went to the same boot camp at Parris Island. As a specialization when we trained with the replacement battalion in Hawaii, and were assigned to be M-60 machine gunners...In early February 1968 our battalion was sent in to replace a bloodied unit in the Battle of Hue. Bernie and I saw mucho hot combat in Hue. When that battle was concluded we went all over Eye Corps as part of an assault battalion that was sent into difficult actions against superior enemy forces. About one week before our 13 month tour was ended in 1969 we were both wounded and ended up at Clark, AFB in the Philippines for several months. When we were stable enough for rehab, we were put on a hospital plane for Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. In a matter of months, the experts had us Marines 100% recovered and fit for duty at the Marine Corps barracks in Washington, D.C. where we both – believe it or not! - received Honorable Discharges in early 1971 with full veteran benefits...
Fanny: So what? Lots of men served together in the Armed Forces in difficult conditions...But then comes jobs...marriage … families and ...years.
Bernie: You see we were USMC WAR BROTHERS! Time and situations change, but once you are a war brothers, you're always and forever, war brothers. It's sacred bond and only death do us part.
Doris: Sounds like marriage to me.
Bernie: It is...just without the sex...with one another...that is. There was that time in Honolulu and...
Harold: The crazy tourist girl from Kansas who thought we both looked liked “studs”...?
Bernie: The short version without sex continues....I saved Harold in combat.
Harold: And I wouldn't have believed a little guy like Bernie could run under heavy fire, throw me like a rag doll over his shoulder and get me to safety after being shot in the butt himself. As if that's not enough, he passes out from loss of blood because he makes the Navy Corpsman patch me up first, And as if THAT wasn't enough, when MEDVAC chopper finally gets us back to an Army MASH unit, Bernie pulls his .45 automatic pistol on a doggie doctor who says I'm a goner and won't treat me...
Bernie:A man gotta do what a man gotta do...But the bottom line is that Harold was saved to fight another day, and I got off because the wounded Army grunts told the doc they definitely would shoot him if he ratted out a combat Bro..
Fanny: I see...Harold owed you.
Bernie: The marker can be out there for decades...but if it is called, the payment is due immediately on the basis of a life for a life.
Doris: [Tears in her eyes] That's so beautiful! It's kind of a male macho version of “Love Story” which took place in Boston during the winter...
Fanny: Not quite...
Bernie: I didn't like that movie, the beautiful girl died at the end.
Harold:...now you know about my motivation and my relationship with Bernie.
Bernie: [Looks at his watch] Okay, let's break for the afternoon. I'm going to prepare us a steak supper with wine for this evening. The dress will be casual. We'll discuss the nuts and bolts of the plan after we eat. Then we break for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
Doris: ...which will end with the execution of the Strelski...
Harold: The what?
Fanny: The Strelski were the palace guards of Peter The Great. They were executed by him because they wanted to overthrow his regime.
END SCENE
Bernie: Harold, let me introduce you to my niece Fanny and her best friend Doris Hoffman.
Harold: [Walking over to greet the duo at the bottom of the steps. Harold is a handsome and well built tall black man of 60 something with a big smile] You must be Fanny Kaplan, Bernie's niece (he shakes her hand with the ease of a politician and looks to the the six foot plus Doris]...and tall woman... you must be Doris. [They shake hands]
Doris: [In an excellent Sarah Palin voice] I can see RUSSIA from here!
Fanny: She never said that - It was some stupid commie comedian chick on Saturday Night Live!
Doris: [Still in Palin character] Betca Marie what's her-name said, "Let them eat cake..."
Harold: You really are crazy....
Doris: [In her own high pitched loud voice] Of course, I am! I've been diagnosed by the best doctors that my daddy could hire at the best hospitals in Florida as having "Bi Polar Disorder." But like that guy said, "If you know you're crazy and really are crazy it's okay, because generally speaking crazy people think they are SANE and the rest of the world is insane."
Harold is speechless and looking at Doris in amazement as people who first meet Doris often are...Bernie is looking up at the ceiling with lips moving in silence...]
Fanny: Doris, you got that from "Catch-22" and the author didn't exactly say that you...you...raving MOONBAT! Don't get me started Doris! You know what buttons to push...
Harold: [Putting his hand out to Doris again] Let's start over again: "Hello young lady, my name is Harold Washington..."
Doris: [In a Germanic accent] Brunhilde here, It's a pleasure to meet you! Are with the Giants? My boyfriend Siegfried hates them...
[Bernie walks over to the table and picks up the roll of masking tape and starts pulling off a piece, which goes over Fanny's mouth...The next piece goes over the mouth of Doris.]
Bernie: When Fanny was a kid, and went into overdrive while I wanted to talk to her dad, this always worked.
[Fanny has calmed down and seems content to be silenced; however, Doris is jumping up and down with bug eyes while pointing at her mouth..]
Harold: I think you taped Doris' nose up..[He walks over and pulls off the tape and tears it in half...Doris starts to talk, but Harold puts the tape back over her mouth before she can speak.] So they are both bi-polars...strong emotional mood changes between low and high?
Bernie: As is her uncle and was her father, who died from cancer back in '09. A trait that the poor Kaplan family share with the rich Hoffman family.
Harold: Come to think of it when we were Marines you were a little crazy at times, but then again, we all were all crazy back in the late 1960s, so you fit in with the crowd without being noticed.
[The two women are standing at “parade rest” like two soldiers in boot camp listening to a lecture by their NCOs. Harold takes notices and walks over to them.]
Harold: [loudly] ATTENTION! [The woman do not respond]
Bernie: Commands have to be given at attention, otherwise the Marines will ignore you.
Harold: [Coming to “attention”] ATTENTION! [The women come to the position of “attention” with bodies frozen, hands at the side and eyes focused straight ahead]
Bernie: They know the drill. Fanny's boyfriend is a former soldier in the 101st Airborne Division. He put the two of them through a modified boot camp last summer.
Harold: We'll see. [He removes the tape from their mouths and notices Doris following him with her eyes. He gets up right in her face and yells Marine Corps Drill Sergeant style] ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH ME, MARINE?
Doris: SIR, NO SIR!
Harold: THEN WHY WERE YOU EYE BALLING ME?
Doris: SIR, SORRY SIR!
Harold: DO YOU LIKE BOSTON?
Doris: SIR, NO SIR!
Harold: THEN GET DOWN AND PUSH IT AWAY!
[Doris starts doing perfect male Marine push ups and yells in cadence: “1..2...3, etc.]
Harold: [Standing now nose to nose with Fanny] WIPE THAT GRIN OFF YOUR FACE, DOG SOLDIER! DOES MY MARINE CORPS MAKE YOU SMILE?
Fanny: SIR, YES SIR!
Harold: THEN DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 20 PUSH UPS FOR THE U.S. MARINE CORPS – STILL THE FINEST ASSAULT TROOPS ON THE PLANET!
Fanny: SIR, YES SIR! [Drops down and starts doing push ups beside Doris and starts her own count]
Harold: [To Bernie while the woman are doing push ups] I'm very impressed...What else military can they do?
Bernie: Just about everything we could do after 16 weeks of Parris Island boot camp in 1967.
Harold: Weapons training too?
Bernie: The D.I. Who trained them was himself a Drill Sergeant at Army BCT for about a year at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina...This was after several tours in Iraq as a sniper who had over one hundred confirmed kills...
[The women are well over 20 push ups each and are beginning to show sweat on the exercise suits.]
Harold: Okay...the point is made...stop it [The women ignore him and keep on doing push ups and counting cadence] Will you two stop? I don't remember how to halt push ups. [They both stop and laugh]
Bernie: Want to hit the showers, ladies?
Fanny: We haven't done our mile run yet! How many laps around the property for a mile?
Bernie: Sixteen.
[Doris and Fanny are doing a jog in place]
Fanny: Okay...We'll be showered, dressed and back here in an hour.
[The women jog to the door and exit stage right]
Harold: This is going to work!
[SCENE: An hour later in the same room as before. Fanny and Doris have changed into shorts, tank tops and flip flops – Florida style. Bernie is seated next to them on the front row in Butler dress except for the coat. Harold is dressed as before in a grey business suit and facing his small audience. At his back is a large movie house size screen with a large skyscraper centered in the downtown of a large American city.]
Harold: First of all let me introduce himself: I'm Harold T. Washington – the owner and CEO of Blackwing Security, Inc. You may have heard of us in relation to the Iraq War. Do you remember the 2003 famous picture of the contractors lynched by the Republican Guard in Baghdad? Those six men were my employees and highly trained special operators who were looking for Saddam and his evil sons....
Fanny: This is all very interesting, but cut to the chase...Can you get security in the Prudential Building to stand down while we do what has to be done?
Harold: Of course, young lady, they are my employees! And I will be alone in the control room tomorrow night as acting shift supervisor.
Doris: What about police?
Harold: There will be no police unless I call them and I won't...
Bernie: The mayor will have the Boston PD with him?
Harold: Maybe a few security guards that come and go with him. The mayor's reception will be restricted to the ballroom and my guards will prevent unauthorized building tours.
Fanny: Okay... after the mayor's party breaks up around 9 p.m. and the building secured at 10 p.m., there will be no one upstairs except for us and the bad guys?
Harold: Yes, all civilians above the basement level will be gone by ten p.m. and the front entrance secured. The lower level garages will be secured as well from entry but open to exit by vehicles all night. When the building is locked down and secured, the guards will be sent home, and I will be the only security guard on duty.
Doris: What about the clean up crews?
Harold: The evening and night shift have been cancelled. The clean up will not start until Sunday morning. This will give a good long head start to those interested in seeing other parts the world...
Bernie: So you think no one besides us will be aware what happened Friday until Sunday morning?
Harold: It would stand to reason that someone would want to know why their “partner” didn't return home and call the cops on Saturday morning...and the police may roll over to the Prud and take a look at the 48th floor conference room...
Fanny: Even at worse case outcome, we get at least several hours head start...
Bernie: I would estimate anywhere from three hours to 24...So we plan to be on the road within the three hour worse case outcome.
Doris: Harold, you do plan to get out of town? It won't take the cops long to realize that you're involved...
Harold: Bernie and I will team up and go west....far, far, FAR west.
Doris: What about your family?
Harold: Wife dead for over ten years...Kids raised and middle aged.
Bernie: ...we both decided to relive our youth as Marine Corps war brothers in the Wild Far East.
Harold: I think we can leave the details for later, but the men will head west and the women go south after the deed is done.
[Harold pushes a button on the remote and a detailed diagram of the 48th floor appears. He pushes another function and a camera mounted on a person takes a walk from the freight elevator to the conference room.]
Harold: This is what you'll see walking from the freight elevator to the conference room. You will note that it is an interior room, so people could get very loud up there and it would be impossible for anyone inside or outside the building to know what's going on.
Fanny: Telephones...computers?
Harold: The land line telephones will be switched off before the kill team goes up the freight elevator and the cellphone signal jammed. The Wi-Fi signal to the computer will be turned off as well. The conference room communication with the outside world will not be possible. Those people will be isolated and killed in the middle of a large American city.
Bernie: So you can see, young ladies, that our plan is the best one to date.
Fanny: Yes, I agree. We get all the bad guys at one fell swoop instead just the leader of the gang.
Doris: Of course, we didn't know beforehand about a friend on the inside.
Fanny: Speaking of that friend...
Harold: I'm right here and you can speak directly to me.
Doris: I don't need to know more about Harold – If Bernie says he's good people – he's good people.
Fanny: Bernie, I thought I knew everything about you! Why didn't you tell me about Harold?
Harold: [waving his hand] Do you want the short version of the Harold-Bernie relationship?
Doris: I would like the long version with details of the drunken orgies in the Far East with willing Asian love girls...
Fanny: SHUT UP, DORIS!
Harold: The short version is that we both joined the USMC in early January, 1967 and went to the same boot camp at Parris Island. As a specialization when we trained with the replacement battalion in Hawaii, and were assigned to be M-60 machine gunners...In early February 1968 our battalion was sent in to replace a bloodied unit in the Battle of Hue. Bernie and I saw mucho hot combat in Hue. When that battle was concluded we went all over Eye Corps as part of an assault battalion that was sent into difficult actions against superior enemy forces. About one week before our 13 month tour was ended in 1969 we were both wounded and ended up at Clark, AFB in the Philippines for several months. When we were stable enough for rehab, we were put on a hospital plane for Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. In a matter of months, the experts had us Marines 100% recovered and fit for duty at the Marine Corps barracks in Washington, D.C. where we both – believe it or not! - received Honorable Discharges in early 1971 with full veteran benefits...
Fanny: So what? Lots of men served together in the Armed Forces in difficult conditions...But then comes jobs...marriage … families and ...years.
Bernie: You see we were USMC WAR BROTHERS! Time and situations change, but once you are a war brothers, you're always and forever, war brothers. It's sacred bond and only death do us part.
Doris: Sounds like marriage to me.
Bernie: It is...just without the sex...with one another...that is. There was that time in Honolulu and...
Harold: The crazy tourist girl from Kansas who thought we both looked liked “studs”...?
Bernie: The short version without sex continues....I saved Harold in combat.
Harold: And I wouldn't have believed a little guy like Bernie could run under heavy fire, throw me like a rag doll over his shoulder and get me to safety after being shot in the butt himself. As if that's not enough, he passes out from loss of blood because he makes the Navy Corpsman patch me up first, And as if THAT wasn't enough, when MEDVAC chopper finally gets us back to an Army MASH unit, Bernie pulls his .45 automatic pistol on a doggie doctor who says I'm a goner and won't treat me...
Bernie:A man gotta do what a man gotta do...But the bottom line is that Harold was saved to fight another day, and I got off because the wounded Army grunts told the doc they definitely would shoot him if he ratted out a combat Bro..
Fanny: I see...Harold owed you.
Bernie: The marker can be out there for decades...but if it is called, the payment is due immediately on the basis of a life for a life.
Doris: [Tears in her eyes] That's so beautiful! It's kind of a male macho version of “Love Story” which took place in Boston during the winter...
Fanny: Not quite...
Bernie: I didn't like that movie, the beautiful girl died at the end.
Harold:...now you know about my motivation and my relationship with Bernie.
Bernie: [Looks at his watch] Okay, let's break for the afternoon. I'm going to prepare us a steak supper with wine for this evening. The dress will be casual. We'll discuss the nuts and bolts of the plan after we eat. Then we break for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
Doris: ...which will end with the execution of the Strelski...
Harold: The what?
Fanny: The Strelski were the palace guards of Peter The Great. They were executed by him because they wanted to overthrow his regime.
END SCENE
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS OF "CHECKMATE" HERE
2 comments:
just put up your FREE ad-for your novel---( - :
Love it-BTW-
Carol-CS
Thanks Carol!
No word yet from Big Sister at Homeland Security, but if the Feds bust me, you can have my laptop:-)
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