Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Not affiliated in any way with anyone. Nothing to sue here people, move along.
Author Note: I am new at this and still experimenting. Please let me know if this style works for you.
Introductions
Act 2, Scene 1
Logan is at his desk, working away. The phone rings. He reaches over and picks up the phone without ever looking away from the computer screen. "Hello?"
"Hey, me hitting you back."
"Hey Max. What are you doing tonight?"
"Oh, I dunno. B&E, dodging bullets, plant a few voice-activated parabolic mic's with high gain noise filters?" Max guesses playfully. "What's up?"
"My cousin Bennett and his wife are having a dinner party."
"Uh-oh"
"Bennett couldn't get anyone else from our side of the family to show up. I was hoping that you could come along and defend me. Marianne's uncle is supposed to be quite the chess player."
"No Uncle Jonas, No Aunt Margo, chess, hmm." Max pretends to think it over. "Sounds like fun."
"If you can sneak out at lunch for a bit, I'll buy you a new outfit for tonight." Logan smiles, hoping she will take that the right way.
"Sure," Max laughs. "See you about one?"
Act 2, Scene 2.
(Sound of a doorbell)
Bennett, dressed in blue polo and black khaki pants, answers the door. Max is wearing a little black dress that shows off her curves nicely. Logan is wearing a green turtleneck sweater and dark brown pants. He has brought the wine.
"Welcome to our home," said Bennett. "Logan, Max, I am glad you could come after all. I hope it wasn't too much trouble rescheduling your other plans?" Bennett grins and looks at Max for confirmation.
Max has had too much undercover training to fall for that one. "Not at all," She replies with a smile.
Logan feigns hurt at the mere suspicion. "Of course not."
Marianne enters from behind Bennett, "You made it."
"As soon as we could. I definitely needed to change after work", said Max.
A large, older man in a green sweater follows behind Marianne. "Another Cale with a woman that actually works. What is the world coming to?"
"Father!" Marianne says sternly.
Max laughs very, very quietly.
Logan lets out a deep sigh as if in resignation.
"What?" the older man replies. "You're upset I let slip the fact that you actually contribute to society?"
"How about I am upset that you are making assumptions about someone you don't even know?" replies Marianne.
"He's a Cale, right?" replies Marianne's father.
"Hey!" comes from Logan and Bennett simultaneously. Max puts her hand over her mouth to stifle the laugh.
"And for that matter, so am I!" Marianne says, rather loudly.
An older woman rushes in. She looks like Marianne, but older with silver hair pulled up in a conservative bun. She is wearing a floral print dress, slightly too much lipstick and glasses. "Robert Emit Music! You threw a fit about them making assumptions about us and now you are turning around and doing the same thing! What do you think you are doing?"
Max just could not contain herself any longer. "I suppose this is one form of entertainment." She turns to Logan, who cringes in anticipation of her wise-crack. "Not what my peeps usually do, but I suppose if no one here can spike an endo, it will have to do."
The older couple are shocked speechless for a moment.
Bennett laughs. "OK, everyone come on in to the front room and have a seat." He leads them all into the front room where they almost collide with a handsome young man.
"Spike an endo? You ride?" the young man asks, in awe.
"Oh yeah," replies Max.
"I'm Mark!" replies the young man. "Marianne's brother." He extends his hand.
"I'm Max." Max offers her hand politely.
Mark takes her hand, but just holds it. "Max. You will fit right in with all the rest of us M's. MMMmmm." And he kisses her hand.
"And this is my date, Logan." Replies Max as she sends Logan her best 'back-me-up-on-this-or-die' look.
Mark looks around, over the top of Logan's head, then finally notices him. "Oh, … hi." He turns back to Max with a questioning look. Max hits him, hard and fast. "Owww!"
Max laughs softly, as if he must be kidding. "I'm sorry. I didn't know your arm was sore." Max cringes, just a tad, and offers a weak smile to Logan. Logan does not look happy.
"It wasn't before you hit it!" Mark cries.
"My baby brother." Marianne says, amused by the antics of the 'kids'.
"Introductions …" begins Bennett when the doorbell rings again. "Perfect timing!" he says as he walks to the front door. "Uncle John, just in time. Come in."
John is in his early 50's. Thinner than his brother, he is wearing a white dress shirt under a red button up sweater and carrying a chess set.
"We have a chess set, Uncle John." Marianne says.
"Really?" replies John.
"Three actually," adds Bennett.
"Been practicing?" asks John.
"Yes, but I was about to make introductions. Everyone, this is John Music. He is a Professor of Mathematics at Evergreen State University"
"Ahem," says John.
" … and a bunch of other stuff he will tell you about over the course of the night," adds Bennett with obvious exasperation and a wave of his hand. "This my favorite cousin Logan Cale and his girlfriend Max."
"Hello." Logan reaches out his hand. John shakes it.
"So you play chess?" John asks.
"Yes," replies Logan confidently, "and if you can beat Max, I'll play you a game."
Johns face lights up. "Is that a challenge?"
"Only one way to find out" replies Max.
Marianne lets out an exasperated sigh. "There's a chess board set up over there," and she points to the corner of the room by the front window.
"Perfect," replies Max. Max walks over to the chess set. "Black or white?"
"Lady's choice" replies John as he follows her over and takes a seat.
Max decides to make no comment about being called a lady but takes the seat opposite John, in front of the white side. "I guess I'll be white." Max smiles and advances her pawn.
"OK." Bennett sighs then continues. "This is Robert and Julie Music, Marianne's parents. And Mark has already introduced himself." Bennett looks around. "I think I got everyone. Whew!" Bennett sits down next to Logan.
Mark is still rubbing his shoulder. There is awkward silence for a few moments.
"I better check on the turkey," says Marianne as she stands up.
"I'll help you," replies Julie. Both women head toward the kitchen.
"Logan, Bennett tells me you graduated from Yale?" asks Robert Music.
"Yes," says Logan.
"So, what do you actually do?" Robert asks pointedly.
"Would anyone like some wine?" asks Bennett anxiously.
"Well, as Uncle Jonas is so fond of pointing out, not much ... at this time. Ever since they shut down the Pacific Free Press, and every other non-state controlled media. I still do research and I write some. But, with the current state of freedom of speech, not much is actually getting published. … What do you do?" Logan decides shifting the conversation away from him would be an excellent idea.
"I'll get us some glasses for the wine." Bennett walks over to a cabinet, takes out three wineglasses and returns to sit by Logan.
"I'm a detective with the Seattle Police Department. My wife, Julie, teaches Social Studies at the public high school." replies Robert.
Bennett opens the wine Logan brought.
"Really, what department?" asks Logan, expressing as much interest as he can.
"Homicide." replies Robert.
Bennett passes out the wineglasses and pours a glass for each of the men, except Mark who is apparently underage. He takes a large drink of his.
"You must be busy. That's hard work, especially these days," Logan coaxes.
"That's an understatement." Robert finally looks more comfortable, as if maybe this Logan Cale might not be so bad after all.
Act 2, Scene 3.
"Am I a coward for running off into the kitchen, Mom?"
"Not at all, dear. New hostesses are expected to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Making sure everything is perfect."
"I didn't make anything that hard. I just … don't know what to say."
"And why is that?"
"Because I don't know either of them?"
"Um, hmm", Julie prods her daughter to continue.
"Because I haven't given either of them a chance yet."
"We'll give them a chance. Right after we set the table. Besides, Max has kept your Uncle John quiet for fifteen minutes now. That's got to be a record." Julie picks up a serving dish and prepares to carry it to the table.
"Do you think we should have told them John's a Grandmaster?" ask Marianne as she carries the turkey to the table.
"And ruin his boasting? You wouldn't want to put up with him if you did that."
Act 2, Scene 4.
" …so then the perp has the nerve to say that his dad is with the sector police and if we knew what was good for us we would pretend we didn't see anything." John is obviously proud of his story.
"What did you do?" Logan giving every appearance of being utterly fascinated. These days it paid to know about every honest cop you could find.
"Well, I told him if I knew what was good for me, I would've retired years ago!" Robert is proud of his story. Logan is happy to have found another honest cop in the city. Bennett is glad they are getting along. Mark is sitting quietly holding his sore shoulder.
"Dinner is served," announces Marianne.
The four men go to the dinning room table. Marianne walks over to where Max and John are playing. "Dinner is ready."
"Thank you," Max says, but does not move.
"Okay, be there in a minute," mumbles John. Neither of them looks up from the board.
Marianne rolls her eyes and walks away. "Well, when it is cold enough for you, come and get some."
Silence.
"You going to go get food," asks John.
"Nah," replies Max.
"Why not?"
"Risk analysis. If I go get food here then I will have whatever Marianne has prepared, which given that she is new to this, probably won't be that great. If I stay here and play chess, Logan will feel obliged to cook me something later, which will be excellent."
"Are you saying a Cale is a better cook than a Music?"
"Why aren't you going to get dinner?"
"Hmmm. Logan can cook, huh?"
"Logan is awesome!" Max replies earnestly, with perhaps a tad too much emotion. "An awesome cook," Max stammers, catching herself.
"Hmm," John nods sagely as if considering, for the first time, that there may be far more to this pair than meets the eye.
Act 2, Scene 5.
" … proud when my little girl was accepted into the police academy." says Robert.
"Took the pressure off me to follow in Dad's footsteps." Mark adds
"No pressure getting into medical school?" asks his mother. Julie is obviously proud of her son's accomplishments.
"You know what I mean. Pressure you put on yourself to excel at something you want to do is entirely different than pressure someone else is putting on you to do things you don't want to do," says Mark.
Logan nods. "I know exactly how that goes. Dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps."
"You graduated with dual majors in Business and Computer Science and, apparently, you wanted to write." says Bennett.
"I didn't really start doing what I wanted to do with my life until after my parents died." Logan says sadly. He turns to Mark and tells him, "I am glad you got to be yourself while your parents are still alive to get to know that person."
Robert and Julie Music smile at each other. Perhaps this young Cale is a good man, despite being born into a prejudicial, self-indulgent, decadent situation.
"Y'know when you put it that way, I guess it's not so bad. Still, Marianne has always been Dad's favorite, because she followed in his footsteps." pouts Mark.
"Made detective last year," Robert adds proudly.
"Are you in Homicide too?" asks Logan.
"Nope, she is on the Special Investigations Squad," Robert proudly informs Logan.
"Yeah, my sis is on SIS!" Mark tries to make a joke.
Logan ignores him. "Really, what are you working on?"
"Actually I was just assigned a team assembled to track down Eyes Only." Marianne states casually.
In the ensuing silence Max's "Check!" followed immediately by John's "DAMN!" echo clearly throughout the house. All Logan could think was 'Yeah.'
-TBC-
A/N: OK I will finish this story. What I would like to know is should I write future stories in the same play-ish style, go back to the very detailed style of PURRRR, or try something new. I am open to suggestions. Did I mention I am new at this?