Scene 13
November 2017 Married six and a half years.
CJ(CooperJunior) almost 6
Ella (Charlotte Elizabeth) 4
Carter King Freedman almost 2.
It's a typical Saturday evening. Charlotte's exhausted. She put in a full day of work at St. Ambrose. The house is empty. She showers, puts on her pajama's and mixes herself up a martini. She puts her feet up in the living room to relax. She checks her texts. Cooper texted her while she was in the shower.
"Took the kids to the beach. I'll pick up dinner on the way home. Bringing home another surprise."
Charlotte has another half hour of peace and quiet before Cooper comes in the door.
"I drove twenty minutes out of town to buy you the best fried chicken around." Cooper holds up two large white paper bags with pictures of chicken on them.
"What's the occassion?" Charlotte asks.
"You'll see in a minute." Cooper makes a weird smile.
"Is this the surprise you texted about?" Charlotte takes a bag of chicken from him and opens it.
"Not quite." Cooper makes that weird smile again.
"Where are the kids?" Charlotte asks.
"They're outside. They'll be in in a minute."
"What are they all doing outside?" Charlotte looks out the window. "Cooper what's that fluffy thing in Ella's arms?"
Cooper looks out the window. He opens the door and yells out. "Ella put Scout down! I told you not to pick him up. He's just a baby! You can hurt him!" Cooper turns to Charlotte. "For a little girl she's very rough with Scout."
"You got them a puppy without asking me first?"Charlotte yells at him.
"It just happened. This lady was at the beach with some puppies in a basket. She was giving them away. Scout was the last one left and Ella started to cry. She felt sorry for him. CJ had tears in his eyes when he told me 'We can't leave him. He's lonely.' " I couldn't say no, Char."
"You could have called me."
"I did. I left a voice mail but after half hour you didn't answer and we couldn't wait any longer. The lady was leaving and by then the kids were playing with him I couldn't say no."
The kids come running in the house with Scout, a black/ brown mixed breed puppy.
"Look momma! We got a puppy! Isn't he cute? " Ella shouts.
"Puppy momma! Puppy!" Carter points at Scout.
"Do you like him momma?" CJ picks up the puppy to let Charlotte pet him.
Charlotte can't resist, she pets the puppy's soft fur. "Puppies are a lot of work CJ and momma works. If we keep him you're going to have to help feed him and walk him."
"I will momma. I will. Please can we keep him?" CJ begs.
Charlotte explains "He's going to need food and water bowls and a leash. He'lll need to be crated when we're not home so we'll have to buy that and some toys. He's going to be an expense Cooper. We'll have to take him to the Vet."
"We can afford it Char. It's not a problem. We already went to the pet store and bought him all that stuff on our way home. Help me bring the bags in CJ" Cooper says.
While Cooper and CJ go out to the car Charlotte watches Ella and Carter play with the puppy. "Don't be so rough with him. You can hurt him." Charlotte warns them as they roll around on the floor with the puppy. They can't keep their hands off him. Ella picks him up and the puppy squrims and she drops him. "See Ella, I told you."
Cooper comes in with the supplies. They watch Scout eat some puppy chow.
Charlotte announces, "okay now that Scout's finished eating. We need to feed ourselves. Put him in the crate while we eat Cooper."
Cooper oblidges and the family sits down for a fried chicken dinner while Scout watches from his crate. "Daddy said this is your favorite dinner. He said Nanna Augusta used to make this for you when you were a kid." CJ says while eating his fried chicken.
"That's true." Charlotte answers.
"I like it, momma." Ella says. "It's my favorite dinner too."
"Why don't you ever make fried chicken for us like your momma did for you?" CJ asks.
"Because I'm a working momma. My momma stayed home so she had time to cook dinners like this." Charlotte tells them.
"You were lucky." Ella says as she digs into the side dish container of macaroni and cheese.
Charlotte and Cooper look at each other before Charlotte sighs.
"Was your momma nice?" Ella asks Charlotte.
Cooper can see this conversation is getting to Charlotte so he answers for her. "Nanna Augusta was very nice."
"I remember her a little. She was nice." CJ confirms.
"You remember her?" Charlotte questions CJ with teary eyes. "The last time we saw her was for Uncle Landry's wedding and you were only four."
"I remember she danced with me. It's the first time I ever danced at a wedding." CJ tells.
Cooper chuckles. "It's the first and only wedding you ever went to."
"I know but I remember Nana Augusta dancing with me and she let me eat her piece of wedding cake because I finished mine. She was really nice. I wish she was still alive." CJ says.
Ella shouts, "me too! I wish Nana Augusta was still alive so she could make us fried chicken!" She grabs for another piece of chicken.
Cooper laughs. Charlotte gets up from the table and leaves the room.
"Where's momma going?" CJ asks.
"I don't know. Eat your dinner." Cooper gets up and follows Charlotte to the bedroom.
Charlotte's crying which is still a rare event even though she's softenend over the years. "Talk to me, Char."
Charlotte turns to him with red teary eyes. "I miss my momma."
Cooper hugs her.
"The way the kids were going on about momma made me cry. I tried to stop these damn tears but I couldn't."
"It's okay." Cooper rubs her back. He makes a joke to lighten the mood. "I thought you were crying because I brought home a dog."
She grins and swats his arm. "We can keep him. But I would appreciate if you included me in these decisions. You even went and picked a name without me."
"You were at work. I picked the name Scout because of your favorite book -To Kill A Mocking Bird. I thought you'd like it. We can change it. He doesn't know his name yet."
"I love the name Scout. I would've never thought of it without you." She hugs him.
"That's what I'm here for." He holds her tight until she feels better and they rejoin the kids at the dinner table.
END OF SCENE 13