EXT. HUNTER'S PATIO - NIGHT
Hunter, Tom and Chloe sit at the table, remnants of dinner on plates, glass pitcher of water. Tom hatless. Monsoon clouds obscure the full moon. WIND slightly jostles umbrella.
HUNTER: So Tom, what do or did you do for a living?
TOM: Did. Ranch foreman for thirty-five years, ranch hand before that. Retired ten years.
CHLOE: What kind of ranch or ranches?
TOM: Ranches. Worked several. Cattle ranches.
CHLOE: For beef and milk.
TOM: Yes ma'am, although tended to be one or the other dependin' on the ranch. I reckon you as a vegetarian might have a thought or two about the enterprise.
Chloe nods.
CHLOE: Maybe we can talk more about that another time.
TOM: Be more'n happy to. My thoughts on it have shifted some over the years. Wanda and I have some friends with a steakhouse in Cheyenne, and we'll do that a couple times a year, but we been cuttin' back the past several years and these days it's fish a few times a week and Ruth's fried chicken we're there or she's visitin'.
CHLOE: Where did you meet Wanda?
TOM: Post office in Boise, Idaho, where she worked and I had a mailbox.
CHLOE: Love at first sight?
TOM: Close to it. Married a year to the day later.
HUNTER: Plans for your twenty-fifth?
TOM: Goin' to Hawaii.
CHLOE: Cool. What island or islands?
TOM: Oahu. First few nights in Waikiki, the last few in a place called Kailua.
CHLOE: Have you been before?
TOM: No ma'am, first time for both of us.
CHLOE: Excited?
TOM: We are. Not so much about the flyin' part but that's what comes with it. Y'all prob'ly been.
Chloe and Hunter nod.
FAINT THUNDER.
HUNTER: Here it comes. You probably got rain in Albuquerque last night.
TOM: Plenty. Put me straight to sleep.
HUNTER: It helps me too.
TOM: Speakin' a sleep, and sorry to be a party pooper, but I hope y'all'll excuse me to call my wife and sister and get on to bed. Chloe, that casserole was delicious.
CHLOE: Thanks. Glad you liked it.
TOM: Hope the recipe ain't secret 'cause I know Wanda would love it too.
CHLOE: No secret. Before you leave in the morning.
TOM: Thank you.
He stands. STRONGER BREEZE.
TOM (CONT.) Thank ya both.
HUNTER: Thanks for the conversation.
TOM: Well, my tremendous pleasure.
HUNTER: We'll have to do it again sometime.
TOM: I'd sure like that.
HUNTER: Then it's a date.
TOM: Alrighty then.
HUNTER/CHLOE: Goodnight, Tom.
TOM: Goodnight, y'all.
They watch Tom walk to, enter dining room, pass to kitchen, leave view into hall. The first RAINDROPS tap the umbrella and patio. LOUDER THUNDER.
CHLOE: It sounds like he might not be in such a hurry to get to Ruth's.
HUNTER: I wonder if you're reading my mind.
CHlOE: Maybe, if he wanted to, and Jackie could wrangle another horse, he could come along tomorrow.
Hunter smiles and winks at her, gets phone from pocket, speaks into it. HARDER RAIN.
HUNTER: Jackie.
Hey.
She's right here with me on the patio.
Yep, first drops right now.
Still on. That is why I'm calling. We have a surprise visitor here and are wondering, if said visitor would want to come along, if your cousin could wrangle another horse.
Great.
A man named Tom Walker.
I'll call you back in a bit.
(He pockets phone, stands, nods, Chloe stands. They walk into house and out of view into hallway per Tom's path.)
LOUDER THUNDER, HARDER RAIN, STRONGER WIND.