Mother of Blue Stars

Episode 6

ELEANOR: I finished my homework early!

MARY: Now you’re free to do something else.  Listen to the radio.

ELEANOR: There’s nothing good on the radio on Friday nights.  I might as well sit in my room and read. [Beat]  OH!  Someone’s knocking at the door!  Maybe it’s the Sergeant after all!  [Beat, then disappointedly]  No, it looks like Father Penik.  I’ll let him in.  [Beat]  Hello, Father.

MARY: Father Penik!  What brings you here?

FATHER PENIK: Hello, Mrs. Banas, Eleanor.  May I come in?

MARY: Please do.

FATHER PENIK: Is your husband home?  I have a favor to ask.

MARY: He’s washing for supper.  Is everything okay?

FATHER PENIK: I need to replace an usher at tomorrow’s funeral mass.  It’s a double.  As you probably know, Vincent Stefanek passed away, followed by his mother the next day.

MARY: Yes, yes, I know.  What a shame.  The boy was so young.

FATHER PENIK: Only nineteen.  And that left his younger brother, Tomas, an orphan.  The Church took him in.

MARY: How sad!  I remember when the father passed away, a few years ago.  And now this.  So how does a boy of nineteen just drop dead?

FATHER PENIK: They said it was a congenital heart condition.  The doctors missed it.  The rigors of Basic Training were too much and his heart just gave out, poor boy.  His mother, I think, died from heartbreak.  At any rate, one of my ushers, George Hopko, is sick with the flu.  I was hoping Andy could fill in.

MARY: I don’t know his plans, but you can ask him yourself.  He’ll be down in a few minutes.  Say, Father, why don’t you stay for supper?  I’ve made a big batch of potato pirogues, your favorite!

FATHER PENIK: They smell delicious!

MARY: Then stay!  Eleanor, set a place for Father.

FATHER PENIK: Are you sure?  I don’t want to impose.  I only stopped in to speak with Andy.

MARY: Of course I’m sure, don’t be silly!  You’re timing was perfect!

[ANDY and RAYMOND enter]

FATHER PENIK: Okay, then. Perhaps it was meant-to-be.

ANDY: Father Penik!

MARY: Papa, Father is staying for dinner.

RAYMOND: Hello, Father.

MARY: Raymond, take Father’s coat.

Continued tomorrow.