The Right Choice

This is much less funny than I had in mind. Based on a story The Fork told me. I think it's funny if you picture it being acted out in a funny kind of way.

An elderly woman, Shelia, and a man in his mid-twenties with long, greasy, curly hair wearing baggy clothes that make him look like a teenager, Adam, walk down a brick walkway up to the front door of a large house in a lightly wooded neighborhood. Shelia walks uncomfortably and looks around her. Adam sulks a few steps behind. Shelia takes a breath, walks up the steps at the front of the house and adjusting her light jacket, rings the doorbell. Adam remains at the bottom of the stairs. A young woman in her late twenties or early thirties, Meredith answers the door.

MEREDITH: Hello. Can I help you?
SHELIA: Yes. Is Aaron home?

Before Shelia has finished her question, Aaron, in his early thirties, wearing a doctor’s coat with a stethoscope around his neck, makes his way to the front door, pushes back Adam, walks past Shelia, pushes Meredith out of the way of the door, turns around, and slams the front door quickly, staring coldly at Shelia.

SHELIA: Oh.

MEREDITH: What was that?
AARON: (walking quickly away from the door into the kitchen) Nothing. Don’t worry about it.

Shelia knocks timidly on the door with the door knocker. It rings loud and hollow in the large open room just inside the house.

MEREDITH: She’s knocking again. I’m answering the door.
AARON: (shouting) Don’t answer that door!
MEREDITH: Would you just calm down? Why can’t I answer the door?
AARON: (shouting) Don’t answer it!

Shelia knocks again, this time quicker and with more force.

MEREDITH: If you don’t tell me why I can’t answer the door, then I’m going to answer the door.
AARON: Just don’t answer it!
MEREDITH: I’m answering it!
AARON: (rushing back into the front hall from the kitchen) It’s my mother. Please don’t answer the door.
MEREDITH: Your mother?
AARON: Yes. Now please. Please don’t answer that door. Please. Don’t answer the door.

Meredith stares back at him with her hand on the knob.

AARON: Don’t answer the door.

Later, the two men and the elderly woman are sitting around Aaron’s kitchen table. Aaron looks down at the table tapping his fingers. Shelia shifts uncomfortably in her chair.

ADAM: So I’ve been showing it around anyway. The guy at Central Comics says he likes it and says he’ll show it in the local artists section. I mean, he doesn’t have one yet, but he’ll make one.

Meredith walks over to the table with three cups of coffee, handing one to Shelia, Adam, and keeping one for herself.

MEREDITH: So Shelia, how are you?
SHELIA: I’m doing OK. I just retired.
MEREDITH: Oh, that’s nice.
SHELIA: Yes.

(pause)

SHELIA: May I ask you a question, dear?
MEREDITH: Sure.
SHELIA: Excuse me if this seems forward…but who are you?

Meredith chuckles.

MEREDITH: That’s a perfectly fair question. My name is Meredith. I’m your son’s fiancée.

Shelia’s eyes widen.

SHELIA: Oh my.
MEREDITH: I’m sorry you didn’t know that. I guess—I’m sure Aaron meant to tell you—
AARON: (short and angrily to Meredith, not looking at his mother or Adam) We’ve been engaged for almost a year, I think I would have found the time to tell her if I wanted to.
MEREDITH: Don’t take that tone with me.

Aaron sighs.

SHELIA: So where did you two meet?
MEREDITH: Well I was a receptionist at the office where Aaron works. He’s a pediatrician you know.
SHELIA: Yes. I’ve seen his name on the sign at his office when I drive by it.
AARON: And you never dropped by even once.
SHELIA: If I dropped by, you would have turned me away.
AARON: Don’t you think I know that?
MEREDITH: Please, Aaron, can’t you be civil?
AARON: No, honey, I can’t be civil. This woman wasn’t exactly civil to me.
MEREDITH: Well I don’t even know what you mean by that because you’ve refused to talk about her all the time I’ve known you. Why don’t you just come out with it! She seems like a perfectly nice woman, let’s get these issues on the table so we can work them out—
AARON: (bitterly, obviously trying to hurt her) Do you think you made the right choice, Mom?
SHELIA: (voice shaking) Aaron, please—
AARON: No, Mom. I want to know if you think you made the right choice. (his voice gradually changing to a whisper) I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me what you think about the decision you made. Did you do the right thing? You’ve had almost twenty five years to think about it. Did you make the right choice.

Shelia looks up proudly, her eyes welling up with tears and her lip quivering. Aaron nods and gets up from the table, walks upstairs, and slams a door. Shelia pulls a handkerchief from her purse, blowing her noise and dabbing her eyes.

SHELIA: We were in Thailand for a family vacation on the day the tsunami hit. We were all swept up by the waves. My husband and our eleven year old daughter were carried away by the waves and I never saw them again. At one point, I was holding on to the banister and my five month old cradled in my right arm and I was holding on to Aaron’s collar with the other. He was seven. I couldn’t hang on and I couldn’t climb. I was going to slide into the water so—I had to let one of them go.
MEREDITH: Oh my God. The baby.
SHELIA: The baby was Adam. I let go of Aaron.

Meredith gasps.

SHELIA: Well he survived, somehow. And he never forgave me.
MEREDITH: Oh, God. Shelia.

Meredith rushes to her side.

SHELIA: A mother never wants to see a child die. I thought I lost two that day, plus my husband. I would have lost all three and died myself if I hadn’t chosen.
AARON: (in the doorway) You let go of me.
SHELIA: Aaron. Oh God, when will you forgive me?
AARON: If it were up to you I would have been dead!
SHELIA: You know that’s not true! If it was up to me your father and your sister would be alive!
AARON: So how do you like my house? I put myself through med school, set up a practice, and bought this little thing. You like it? And you let go of me that day. You chose the fat comic book “artist” who you are supporting with your social security checks. Do you think you made the right choice?
SHELIA: (quietly) He had his whole life ahead of him. It wasn’t fair—
AARON: Fair? I had friends! I had a best friend, his name was Darryl. I had a girlfriend, her name was Jessica. I had a dog, his name was Rufus. I had a teacher, her name was Mrs. Kennilworth. He had nothing! He was nothing! And you just dropped me in the water. Watched the water lap over my little baseball cap and I just drifted away. Holding your little bundle of promise. And look at what he’s become! What pride you must feel when you wake up every morning to see this thing sleeping in the same place he’s been sleeping for years! So did you make the right choice?