ADELE I don’t want you to go through al...

ADELE I don’t want you to go through all this trouble, Mrs. Vita. This is far too much.

MARIE It’s no trouble at all. And please, Marie would be fine. “Mrs. Vita” sounds like a drag.

Marie places the tray on the table between the two.

ADELE Marie then.

Marie picks up the tea pot.

MARIE Tea?

ADELE I’m fine, thank you.

MARIE More for me, I suppose.

Marie pours a cup of tea for herself and sits down.

MARIE (CONT’D) Tea is actually my life. I don’t start my day without it, cant go to sleep without it. I’m hooked.

ADELE It’s better to be hooked on tea than many other things.

MARIE As I tell my husband. But I guess I have find myself far more dependent on it than I should.

ADELE Too much of anything can be harmful.

MARIE As I tell my husband. (chuckles) I should stamp that on his forehead so he can get a clue.

ADELE How is your husband?

MARIE Right. The subject of our meeting.

Marie takes her time to add sugar and milk to her tea.

MARIE (CONT’D) Not good. As I stated on the ad, my husband, Joe, suffered an ischemic stroke and now is in a coma for the last three days. The doctors are unsure about the magnitude of the stroke but I can tell it is not good. Anything to send you tumbling down and into a coma is not good. His blood pressure is through the roof and because my husband is a very stubborn man I believe that his headstrong ego may have killed him. So no. Not good at all. Have you dealt with comatose patients before?

Adele pulls out a folder and takes out a single sheet being her resume to hand to Marie.

MARIE (CONT’D) As my resume states, I was a trauma nurse for some time before switching over to home health.

(Marie holds out her hand, rejecting to accept Adele's resume.)

MARIE (CONT’D) To be honest, I never saw your resume. Many things attracted me to your application. You were actually recommended to me by the Garrisons. You had watched over there son Matthew?

ADELE Right. Michelle and Brett Garrison. But there son wasn’t comatose.

MARIE I know. They used refer to him as the bubble boy. Or, at least before he got sick.

ADELE Matthew was always sick to me.

MARIE He was. You were there with them to the very end?

ADELE Yes, ma’am. Matthew’s condition deteriorated over time.

MARIE How is treating someone in that sort of condition?

ADELE Well, it does have it’s limitations but I managed.

MARIE And the Garrisons?

ADELE What do you mean?

MARIE How were they during his treatment?

ADELE They were really positive, very optimistic.

MARIE They weren’t fazed? They never seemed to change through the whole thing?

ADELE When things took a turn for the worst? Yeah. But they were always and motivated in him getting better.

MARIE It must be hard for a marriage during that time.

ADELE From what I observed they seem to be doing fine. Unless things have change.

MARIE You were there with him to the end?

ADELE To the very end.

MARIE Right. I saw you at the funeral.

Adele tilts her head to give off a confused stare.

MARIE (CONT’D) Matthew was a good boy. I delivered myself.

Adele is shocked.

ADELE Right! Dr. Vita. I’m sorry, I’ve heard so much about you.

MARIE Please. A title of the sort should be embraced through the practice of a profession. I haven’t practiced medicine in almost twenty years. My husband even more.

ADELE I heard great things about you. Not just from the Garrisons but also their friends too. I heard you were a great doctor.

MARIE You could of fooled me. I thought I could handle taking care of my husband but it has proved to be too much for little old me. That is why I have looked to employ someone who can... Adele.

ADELE Yes, ma’am.

MARIE That rang out to me.

ADELE If I may ask, what?

MARIE Your name. Adele. Joe’s mother’s name was Adele.

ADELE Was it?

MARIE It was. Joe was primarily raised by his mother so he adores every facet of her.

ADELE Did you ever meet her?

MARIE No. She died before me and Joe’s time but I did hear that she was an amazing woman. There’s not much that I know about Joe’s past of even in general. Which brings me to a thought, do you know what Joe does?

ADELE Ugh, no. I wasn’t sure --

MARIE That’s good. I apologize if this comes of as blunt but the less you know the better. Joseph is a very important man, a very wealthy man, a very influential man but mostly, most importantly, a very private man. It is one of the reasons why I have elected home health care over being in the hospital.

ADELE I don’t understand. To be honest, I know you want me to be in the dark but it would be better if Mr. Vita was in a hospital.

MARIE Is that a recommendation?

ADELE I’m sorry --

MARIE No, you don’t have to be sorry. It would be insane for someone to be clueless about their employer. However, to be as secretive as possible... Joe is the head of a huge company that is about to get even bigger. Now, there are other important people who are involve in his endeavors and if they were to find out that Joe is incapacitated... well, they might just lose faith in him and everything he worked for can go crashing down. So as much as it might sound crazy, we must keep this under wraps. I want you to understand that discretion is golden. It is the one thing that keeps my husband going. So I do beg of you, if you are to accept this position I want you to know that you need to keep unfocused eyes on things that you see and closed ears on what you hear, in and outside these walls except anything pertaining to my husband’s health. Do you understand?

ADELE I do. All I want to do is my job and help your husband in his time of need.

MARIE I’m happy to hear that, Adele.

On a table to the side of her chair, Marie picks a piece of paper and hands it to Adele.

ADELE What is this?

MARIE You have shown that you are more than capable of doing this job. I respect the word of the Garrisons and to be honest, all you had to do was fit the build of what I already thought of and the job was yours. I know you need to do some paperwork at the agency but I can have them fax everything here so you can start as soon as possible. (re. the paper) This, however, is different. This is an NDA.

ADELE An NDA?

Marie nods her head with a smile.

ADELE (CONT’D) Dr. Vita -- Marie, I would never disclose my patients private information. I took an oath.

MARIE Of course you wouldn’t. I would never challenge the integrity of a practicing professional in the medical field. But on the contrary, that only pertains to HIPPA and their regulations. This... (re. The NDA) This is anything and everything that crosses your presence during your stay here, Ms. Mason. I understand if you wouldn’t feel comfortable signing it but I aim to assure that it has nothing to do with your performance as Mr. Vita’s caretaker. Within the context of your duties, this NDA cannot touch that.

ADELE I don’t understand.

MARIE Well, let’s say that you wanted to report a grievance. My husband or I... let’s just say my husband were to offend, insult, violate or hurt you, impending you to fulfill your obligations as Mr. Vita’s caretaker, well, that can still be reported to the agency.

ADELE And outside of the scope of my job it couldn’t? If I’m walking around the house I can be harassed?

MARIE No. Not in any way. You are considered a guest in this home before you are a worker and because so, you will be treated with respect. It’s all in there, in the NDA.

ADELE I see.

MARIE If you are uncomfortable with the nature of this arrangement, I would not feel offended if you wanted to show this to your lawyer. Though, time is of the essence. That could take a while and I’m really looking to hire someone immediately.

(Adele thinks about it for a beat. Marie just keeps a half smile.)

ADELE No, that would be okay.

MARIE Are you going to accept the position? Or do you need more time?

ADELE No -- I mean yes -- I mean... I would like to accept the position.

Marie pulls out a ballpoint pen...

MARIE Let’s make it official. Shall we? (And hands it to Adele. Adele takes a brief second before greatly accepting the pen. Adele finds the dotted line at the very bottom of the NDA and signs her name. )

MARIE (CONT’D) I’m very happy that you’ve accepted the position. I’ve been pretty overwhelmed but I’m glad to have found you. I want to apologize about earlier.

ADELE Earlier?

MARIE (CONT’D) Me. Rambling about me and my husband. I don’t mean to bombard you with my personal problems. I guess it feels good to get some things off of your chest for a while.

ADELE Don’t worry. It’s what I’m here for. I’m not just a caretaker for my patients. I am also there for his or her families. I understand how this can be a difficult time for you.

(Marie starts to tremble as her voice croaks.)

MARIE The worst. Thank you. I’ll try to keep it at a minimum. Speaking of him, would you like to meet Joe?

ADELE Right now?

MARIE Unless you have something to do.

ADELE No that would be fine.

MARIE I was hoping that you could start today if that wouldn’t be too much. As long as you handle your affairs.

ADELE My affairs? No, I’m okay.

MARIE You’re okay? You don’t have any children? A husband? Boyfriend? A spouse?

ADELE No. So I am able to give all to my patients. I’m perfect for the job.

MARIE For now. You’ll soon learn to realize that having people to fend for will be the greatest motivation of your life.

ADELE I have family.

MARIE I mean having people in your life, that they are so dependent on you being able to have a job like this would be close to impossible.

ADELE I guess.

MARIE With all due respect, you’ll understand. During your time here you’ll understand what that means. You’ll understand that life is far more fulfilling when you have a reason to get out of bed than just your own self-interest. If not, you’ll become just like Mr. Vita. But enough with all that now. Why don’t we go and check up on Joe.

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