Empathy (7 page)

 

IRV
is driving
. RUTH
is sitting next to him. The three children are in the backseat.

 

RUTH

He was a real Republican. He voted for Goldwater. I remember I told him I voted for Henry Wallace and he said, “Who?” Whenever a black person came into his travel agency he would follow them around to make sure they didn't steal anything.

 

BARB

What can you steal in a travel agency?

 

STEVE

Mom, you should see what it's like living in the South. If you pull
over at one of those rest stops on the highway, they sell little salt and pepper shakers of black mammies eating watermelon.

 

ANNA

What do your students say about it?

 

STEVE

They don't notice. The university is all white so the students' lives are all white. Black people are something they see on television or public transportation.

 

IRV

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

 

BARB

What don't you get, Pop?

 

IRV

He was sitting in a chair and then he slumped over, dead. Was it cardiovascular arrest or an aneurism? I don't know.

 

INT. THE CAR DRIVES UP TO THE FUNERAL CHAPEL IN SUBURBAN LONG ISLAND.

 

RUTH

Here we are.

 

STEVE

Where do we park?

 

BARB

Pop, pull into the shopping mall across the street.

 

RUTH

Irv, park in the mall.

 

IRV

Where should I park?

 

RUTH

In the mall.

 

ANNA

There's Sylvia.

 

RUTH

There's Morris's sister.

 

IRV

She's the oldest and she had to watch her younger brother die.

 

BARB

I hope I die first.

 

RUTH

Her husband died. Her daughter's in the Peace Corps.

 

EXT. IN FRONT OF THE FUNERAL HOME.

 

SYLVIA,
very distraught, is standing in front of the funeral home
. ANNA
is the first to reach her as the others walk over, one by one, from the parking lot
.

 

ANNA

Sylvia.

 

SYLVIA

I don't know how I feel. I don't know how I feel. I'm not feeling anything. I can't cry. I just can't cry.

 

STEVE

Sylvia, how are you doing?

 

SYLVIA

I don't know. I don't know. I can't cry. I'm not able to cry. I don't know how I feel. I don't know.

 

BARB

Hi, Sylvia.

 

SYLVIA

I was just telling your sister and your brother how I don't know what I feel. I'm not feeling a thing. I was just telling them. Not a thing.

 

RUTH

Sylvia.

 

SYLVIA

Ruthie. I was just telling the kids that I haven't been able to cry. Not a tear. Where's Irv?

 

RUTH

He's parking the car.

 

SYLVIA

Look at you, you're all so broken up. Me? I don't know what I feel.

 

INT. THE LOBBY OF THE FUNERAL HOME.

 

The three siblings are standing together awkwardly, surrounded by short relatives
.

 

HILDA FRIEDMAN

You don't remember me but I'm your daddy's second cousin, Hilda Friedman. This is my husband, Izzy, and that's my sister Frieda Shluvsky. You're such a big girl now, how old are you?

 

ANNA

Thirty.

 

SOPHIE PEARLMAN

Remember me? I'm your cousin Sophie Pearlman from Glendale. I remember Stevie when you were just a little boy. You came to my store in the Bronx and you wet your pants, wee-wee all over the floor. What are you doing now?

 

STEVE

I teach semiotics.

 

SOPHIE

And you, you're still the baby.

 

BARB

Yeah.

 

IRV
enters the room
.

 

HILDA

There's your father. Irv, can you believe it?

 

IRV

Hilda, how are you?

 

HILDA

Eh, the diabetes. You shouldn't know.

 

IRV

Are you taking medication?

 

HILDA

Yeah, but the real problem is Izzy.

(
Loud voice
.)

Izzy, wake up, it's Irv, the doctor. Irv, Izzy had a psychotic break.

 

IRV

No kidding?

 

IZZY

Could you believe it?

 

IRV

How are you feeling?

 

IZZY

Not too good.

 

SYLVIA
enters
.

 

SYLVIA

Irv, I've been looking all over for you. I'm all alone here.

 

IRV

How are you doing, Sylvia?

 

SYLVIA

I can't cry. I just can't cry.

 

INT. THE WAITING ROOM OF THE FUNERAL HOME. PEOPLE ARE LOOKING AT THEIR WATCHES.

 

IRV
is talking to two old men in polyester suits and yarmulkes.

 

JOEY WARSHOFSKY

So, Irv, then she had the radium implants.

 

IRV

That must have been difficult for you.

 

STEVE

How are you doing, Pop?

 

IRV

Steve, you know the Warshofsky boys, Yankel and Joey.

 

STEVE

How are you?

 

YANKEL

Not so good.

 

STEVE
is obviously embarrassed by the whole scene. He doesn't want to have anything to do with these people and can't understand why his father is so connected to them
.

 

IRV

Stevie, Yankel was just telling me about some illness in his family.

 

YANKEL

Yeah, Irv, it's the circulation. Look, my leg, it only goes this far.

 

STEVE

Dad, we've got to go into the chapel now.

 

IRV

One minute.

 

JOEY

I tell ya, Irv, it was a big shock to have Morris go so quickly.

 

IRV

I am shocked.

 

JOEY

That guy was built like a horse. He took his pressure five times a day. He never touched a piece of meat. A real vegetarian.

 

YANKEL

I could have sworn you'd go first, Irv. What with your lousy history and all. To tell you the truth, this is quite a shock.

 

IRV

I am shocked.

 

INT. IN THE CHAPEL.

 

All the mourners are seated in pews
. RUTH, IRV,
and
SYLVIA
are on one side of the first row
. ANNA, STEVE,
and
BARB
are sitting together in the back.

 

BARB

Who are all these people? I can't believe I'm related to them. Who's that?

 

ANNA

That's Shirley Weintraub. She married a Christian and her father never spoke to her again.

 

BARB

Which one is her father?

 

ANNA

Walter, the dissipated one in the third row.

 

BARB

What a jerk. What is he, religious?

 

ANNA

No, he's a shmuck.

 

STEVE

Now Morris is dead and Shirley and Walter are in the same room for the first time in ten years.

 

RABBI

Morris Levine had a life. He was born in the Bronx in 1923. He worked hard for his parents in their small shoe repair shop. He was a perfect son. When his country called him to duty he fought bravely at D Day. And true to his sense of responsibility Morris returned to the shop. Twenty-five years later when his father died, Morris took over the shop and turned it into a thriving travel agency. Years from now when we think of Morris we'll say, “Morris, thanks for the memories.” Morris Levine will be laid to his eternal rest at Beth Sefer Torah, on exit fourteen.

 

EXT. OUTSIDE THE CHAPEL AS THE MOURNERS ARE FILING OUT. LATE AFTERNOON

 

RUTH

Look at Walter. He looks awful. He should, the way he treated his own daughter.

 

IRV

What can you do?

 

RUTH

Who, Walter?

 

IRV

No, Morris. He just fell over and he was dead. He didn't even know it was happening.

 

WALTER
comes running over
.

 

WALTER

Irv, Irv, come quick. It's Sophie Pearlman. She passed out.

 

RUTH

Don't tell me.

 

IRV

I'm coming.

 

ANNA

Dad, you're running around taking care of everybody and no one is taking care of you.

 

IRV

That's what happens when you're a doctor - you get used to it.

 

INT. MORRIS'S SMALL BRONX APARTMENT.

 

 

JOEY WARSHOFSKY

Good tongue. The best.

 

AUNT MOLLY

Anna, do you remember me? I'm your Aunt Molly from Chicago.

 

ANNA

How are you, Molly? How are your children?

 

MOLLY

Good. My daughter, Sheila, she married a rabbi. They've got two healthy girls. But my oldest son, Leon, isn't doing too good.

 

ANNA

What's the matter?

 

MOLLY

Well, he's forty years old. He's still single and he lives all alone in Key West.

 

INT. ONE CORNER OF THE LIVING ROOM AT MORRIS'S APARTMENT.

 

IRV
is sitting alone looking through a stack of books
.

 

BARB

What are you looking at, Pop?

 

IRV

These books Morris was reading. He must have five hundred dollars worth of books here.

 

BARB

What kind of books?

 

IRV

How to Avoid Stress, Eat Right to Live Long, Living without Stress, Better Diet for a Stress-Free Life
. What was he so anxious about? I feel like I didn't even know him.

 

INT. ANOTHER CORNER OF THE LIVING ROOM IN MORRIS'S APARTMENT.

 

ANNA
is sitting on a couch talking to an eighty-five-year-old Orthodox Jew with a beard and hat
.

 

ANNA

So, Uncle Fischl, what's new?

 

FISCHL

Listen. When my father died, I went every day to the cemetery. And every night he would come to haunt me in my dreams. The next day I would go to the cemetery and plead with him to leave me alone, leave me alone. But every night he would come back again to haunt me. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I went to the rabbi. I said, “Rabbi, every night my father comes to me in my dreams and every day I go to the cemetery and beg him to stay away. But he won't listen. What should I do?” Do you know what the rabbi said?

 

ANNA

What?

 

FISCHL

He said, “Stop going to the cemetery.”

 

INT. THE KITCHEN.

 

STEVE
goes over to
SYLVIA
sitting alone in a chair
.

 

STEVE

Sylvia, do you want me to make you a sandwich?

 

SYLVIA

I'm sick to my stomach. I couldn't eat a thing.

 

STEVE

Do you want me to bring you some ginger ale?

 

SYLVIA

I'm telling you, I'm so mad at that guy.

 

STEVE

At who?

 

SYLVIA

At that stinking brother of mine.

 

STEVE

Because he died?

 

SYLVIA

Because he died.

 

EXT. IN FRONT OF MORRIS'S BUILDING.

 

IRV
and
WALTER
are standing together outside the house
. ANNA
stands next to her father holding his coat
.

 

IRV

I'm going back to Manhattan now, Walter, but I just want to know how you're feeling.

WALTER

I'm angry, Irv.