Episode 6
MUSIC UNDER
When we last saw DP he was trudging down the dusty road from his trailer out to the highway on his Red Man / Slim Jim replenishment mission. Before getting out to the half-pavement he must pass Shvoo’s doublewide. Actually there is a more direct route but, perhaps, he chooses to pass this way.
DP knows about Mona and Radish but believes that no one knows that he finds himself thinking more and more about dropping in on Shvoo to “discuss dreams”. He has not yet made this move and although she has expressed interest in their spending some quality time together, he is not sure whether or not she is serious. Neither DP nor Radish know that Radish’s father Sonny sends dreams to her "Dream Weaver" column under a false name. As DP rounds the curve that brings him within sight of the doublewide he is stunned.
There, parked on the oil-stained gravel parking pad, stands Radish’s truck.
DP finds Radish's truck at Shvoo's doublewide
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As DP backs away from the sight of his best friend’s truck parked at the home of the woman he hardly knows – but thinks he wants to – his mind reels with conflict. For the first time since Jolene left for work he is not thinking of the Slim Jim he had been craving. DP stumbles out to the highway and when he finally gets a lift he asks the trucker to drop him at Maf’s.
Maf’s Happy Hour Tavern & Liquors is the favorite hangout for DP, Jolene, Radish, Mona as well as Radish’s father Sonny. DP’s father Red goes to Nonna’s bowling alley to drink to avoid having to share the bar with Sonny. Maf’s is run by a colorful local character whose CB handle is “Mafiosa”, because of the endless loop of Sopranos TV show reruns she has running on the big screen in the tap room. When she bought the bar the sign-painter was going to charge her by the letter to alter the marquee and it was quickly changed to simply “Maf’s”.
Maf's sign
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At the bar DP struggles with how and when to discuss with Radish what might have been happening at Shvoo’s. He decides to wait until tomorrow and orders another shot and beer.
Meanwhile, a new complication may be on the horizon. DP and Jolene depend on her second job at the school bus fumigation yard for her health insurance and their necessary extra income. They have learned that the senile owner – not senile, exactly, just too many years of pesticide spray – may be forced to sell the business. Her son, a Shiatsu massage instructor from Toledo, is in town to decide the fate of the business. Jolene wants DP to find someone to pay her a visit to persuade her not to sell.
Jolene's second job at the bus fumigation yard
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As we join the action Jolene’s phone is ringing. On the other end is her aunt Nonna, owner of the bowling alley. Nonna has a shocking revelation for Jolene regarding the family she has always known as her blood kin.
FADE IN MUSIC UP
