Family Business

Envy

Tuesday 21st May 2019; 9:30AM North Vermouth Avenue, Atlantic City

Thirty eight year old Gretchen McClure is Livid. She normally watches trash tv and doesn't watch the morning breakfast business show on tv, but this morning she is. She circles over and back by the living room window, every sinue of her well toned five foot six body burning with rage, she hates every sinew of Prudence Sternwood. She points at her on the forty inch Sharpe TV screen and shouts "look at her, like a fat fucking conductor waving her fucking hands around every time she opens her fucking big fucking mouth!".

Her forty two year old husband Richie; a well built construction worker sits on an old floral armchair watching the tv while he tucks into a donut "tell ya what in that white suit, she reminds me of a Turkey fattened for Thanksgiving flappin her wings". He puts down the donut on the Ikea coffee table stands up and starts pacing like a turkey, while flapping his arms like they are wings making a gobble gobble sound trying to impersonate a turkey.

This gets a laugh from their thirty four year old cousin Florence and Henry, Gretchen's thirty two year old brother.

Gretchen lights up another Marlboro cigarette, her second in a row "Fucking Roly-Poly Prudence has me fucking chain smoking, gaspy fucking bitch!" She kicks an empty donut box on the ground in rage "I want her fucking money and I want it NOW, AM SICK OF THIS WAITING AROUND!"

"Gretch" Henry rises from the worn leather armchair "Relax! sit here! soon, we'll have her! bet that big belly of hers is full of fifty dollar bills, bet ya could stick a pin in it and she'd burst with those beautiful green notes fluttering around"

Gretchen briefly smiles "You sit back down!! I'll be sticking more than fucking pins into her, more like a fucking backhoe, get through all the layers of fat." Her eyes narrow as she watches Prudence make a huge circular motion with her right hand "I'm going to torment and terrorise you Roly-Poly Prudence like you've never imagined in your worst nightmare"

"NO WAY!!" yells Florence in horror placing her coffee mug on the table wiping a spill from her faded jeans. "Y'all promised me y'all would not hurt her!!"

Gretchen blows cigarette smoke in her direction "I didn't promise anything!!"

Florence is filled with fury, in many ways she felt sorry for Prudence. She had doubts about what she got herself into but the money, the money on offer was too tempting to refuse "THATS IT!!! I'M OUT!!I'VE USED UP ALL MY SAVINGS ON THIS PLAN AND I WANT IT ALL BACK. ITS CLEAR THIS IS PERSONAL WITH YOU GRETCHEN AND WILL BE AT THE PRICE OF THE REST OF US".

Florence grabs her handbag and keys off the coffee table. "C'mon" pleads Richie. Florence stamps her right foot on the ground in rage "Don't c'mon me!!" She points at Gretchen "She's a loose canon, she will kill her before we collect any ransom and put everything at risk. The shitty savings I have are almost gone and I want them back, y'all promised not to hurt her"

Richie extends out his hands "Look Florence, we're not going to hurt her, Gretchen is just in a bad mood, we're gettin her medicine, clothes, be like the Ritz, we promise we won't hurt her, don't we Gretchen?"

Gretchen ignores him "Don't you GRETCHEN?" he repeats louder "FINE!! snaps Gretchen


Florence takes a second to contemplate "WE WON'T HURT HER,YOU HAVE OUR WORD! PLEASE SIT BACK DOWN, FINISH YOUR COFFEE!" Pleads Richie as he picks up a tray of Dunkin Donuts from the coffee table and offers them to her "Dicey Dick, is gonna be able to get her meds, everything she needs, we need to keep her alive!!

"Why don't we go after Rosamound she's fitter, healthier, doesn't need all those meds like Prudence and she is less a liability" suggests Florence not for the first time.

"We're not changing!!" growls Gretchen, "someone else can kidnap that intolerable bitch, we're taking Roly-Poly".

"No one's changing' sighs Richie "Look Florence, she's single no kids, Rosamunds got two, her parents are elderly, it makes perfect sense."

Florence thinks of all the money, starting a new life for herself faraway, no more working in dead end jobs. "If Dicey Dick doesn't get the meds, I'M OUT AND I'll WANT MY MONEY BACK AND YOU "staring across at Gretchen "Take an anger management course!"

Gretchen growls and commences impersonating Prudence making step hand gestures illustrating growth "I can't wait to spook this fat bitch!"