Writing Dialogue & Questions: Interview with Sandra Mantanino

DIALOGUE:

ANGELINA IN THE CONFESSIONAL WITH THE PRIEST:

“My mother and infant brother have died. I pray for my mother’s glory in heaven, but when I ask my father for my brother’s name, he won’t answer. I need his name to pray and light a candle for his soul.”

“It’s unnecessary. The baby died during birth with original sin. He’ll go to limbo.”

“But he never sinned.”

“Everyone is born with the original sin of Adam and Eve, washed away only by baptism. When an infant comes into the world without a sound, dead and with the cord around his neck as Dottore Martino said, the sin remains.”

Angelina leaned closer to the screen separating them. “Maybe the baby couldn’t make a sound because the cord was wrapped around his neck, and maybe he didn’t move because he was unconscious and about to die—but not dead. He could have lived long enough to remove original sin. Why not baptize him now—as a precaution? What would it hurt?”

“The position of the church is clear.” The priest’s voice grew a little louder and less pliable. “No one goes to heaven with original sin. You learned this in Catechism, Angelina. For your penance, say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys. Now, let me hear you recite a heartfelt Act of Contrition.”

ANGELINA and DOMENICO

 Angelina:  “America has nothing to do with Italy.”

Domenico: “Nothing? America has everything to do with Italy. America was discovered by one Italian and named after another.”

 IN THE FACTORY WOMEN DISCUSSING MEN:

To love is to suffer. No one cries louder than cheating husbands. I thought I could make my husband lose his bad habits.” Another woman sighed. “But all he lost was his hair and some teeth. He left and took my money and my parrot.” She paused. “I really miss that parrot.”

The women giggled, and the mood lightened.

“You see that, Angelina? Just because I got married, it doesn’t mean I have a husband. It means he got a wife. The man I married likes to spend our money on gambling and saves his voice for talking to the dog.” Eva reached inside her pocket and showed everyone her coins. “Before I met him, I was an heiress. Now, this is all that’s left.”

“Some men are good. I hit the loteria with mine. He thinks I’m a princess,” came another voice from the back.

“Your husband is wonderful, Alicia,” shouted Carmen with an eyebrow raised at Dolores. “Atención sen͂oritas y sen͂oras, we have the heiress of Havana among us, a princess, and I’m the Queen of Spain,” said Carmen.

 “Pleased to meet you,” said Eva as she jumped out of her seat and curtsied. “Who wants to tell Cuesta he has a princess, an heiress, and the Queen of Spain working in his factory and that they’re all on the third floor, stripping tobacco leaves?”

Waves of laughter flooded the room.

 PASQUALE: 

Signore Costa, he has a cow, so he makes butter, and he puts it on both sides of the bread, then he walks around and eats it so we don’t forget he is a rich man. And he gets fat too. Only the rich can get fat.

Domenico nodded. “I remember that old man. He wore two different shoes so everyone would know he had two pairs.”

“It’s true. Only now, he stomps his feet so we don’t forget to look.”

IN A HEATED SCENE, QUESTIONS CAN RAISE THE TENSION.  DOMENICO DELAYS TELLING HIS DAUGHTER HOW CLAUDIO DIED AS HER FEAR BUILDS UP.

“Did you talk to Claudio? Everything is fine, right?”

“Claudio Garcia is dead.”  Angelina starts screaming.

“Stop screaming. What is wrong with you? Do you hear me?”

“How could you kill Signore Garcia?”

I had a reason to be angry not to murder.

“Then how did he die?   

“Calm yourself and I’ll tell you.”

“Papa, how did he die?” 

“The man lost everything is the fire.”

“Papa, how did Claudio die?

“Some people can’t remember that whatever happens, the sun will rise again tomorrow.”

“What does that mean?”

I USE QUESTIONS A LOT IN DIALOGUE.  WHEN THE FACTORY CATCHES ON FIRE, CARMEN PANICS AND GRABS ANGELINA’S ARM.

Carmen:  “What if we can’t get out before it’s too late?”

Angelina: “What if the fire is already out? Angelina counters.

THERE IS A VERBAL WAR GOING ON WITH DOMENICO AND HIS SISTER-IN-LAW, VIOLETTA. SHE WANTS TO TAKE AWAY HER DEAD SISTER’S CHILDREN FROM THEIR FATHER:

 “The children are entitled to privileges you cannot give them.”

“I can give them their father.”

“Step aside, Domenico, the children need a proper home, not a house with a grocery store stuck to it like a tumor.”

“You cut your throat with your tongue, Violetta.”

“You are nobody, Domenico and you have nothing.”

“Then you should fear me. A man who has nothing is capable of anything because he has nothing to lose.”

SIGNORA BERTELLI AND ANGELINA DISCUSS FALLING IN LOVE:

“My parents had a good marriage too,” said Angelina.

“Two is right. Two turtle doves, two peas in a pod, two lovebirds in a tree.” Signora Bertelli lifted her chin. “If only Adam and Eve had been that happy or smart. I mean, whoever heard of a talking snake?”

“One day, it will be your turn to fall in love, Angelina. I have no doubt you’ll have the most romantic experience. Love makes life magical.” She sighed. “It will happen all at once, and you won’t be able to get him out of your head. You’ll get butterflies in your stomach, and you won’t be able to eat or sleep. Your heart will beat so fast when you see him, it’s like having a heart attack. Nothing will make sense, and your brain won’t work anymore.” Signora Bertelli looked starry-eyed and released another deep sigh. “It’s wonderful.”

Angelina saw nothing wonderful about it. “Falling in love sounds unhealthy, painful, and dangerous.”

THE CIGAR FACTORY WOMEN DISCUSSING MEN:

To love is to suffer. No one cries louder than cheating husbands. I thought I could make my husband lose his bad habits.” Another woman sighed. “But all he lost was his hair and some teeth. He left and took my money and my parrot.” She paused. “I really miss that parrot.”

The women giggled, and the mood lightened.

“You see that, Angelina? Just because I got married, it doesn’t mean I have a husband. It means he got a wife. The man I married likes to spend our money on gambling and saves his voice for talking to the dog.” Eva reached inside her pocket and showed everyone her coins. “Before I met him, I was an heiress. Now, this is all that’s left.”

“Some men are good. I hit the loteria with mine. He thinks I’m a princess,” came another voice from the back.

“Your husband is wonderful, Alicia,” shouted Carmen with an eyebrow raised at Dolores. “Atención sen͂oritas y sen͂oras, we have the heiress of Havana among us, a princess, and I’m the Queen of Spain,” said Carmen.

 “Pleased to meet you,” said Eva as she jumped out of her seat and curtsied. “Who wants to tell Cuesta he has a princess, an heiress, and the Queen of Spain working in his factory and that they’re all on the third floor, stripping tobacco leaves?”

Waves of laughter flooded the room.

PASQUALE DISCUSSING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RICH AND POOR IN SICILY:

Pasquale: “Signore Costa, he have a cow, so he make the butter, and he put it on both sides of the bread. Then he walk around the piazza and eats the bread so we no forget he is a rich man. And he get fat, too. Only the rich can get fat in Santo Stefano.

Domenico nodded. “I remember that old man. He wore two different shoes so everyone would know he had two pairs.”

Pasquale: “Is true. Only, now he stomp his feet so we don’t forget to look.”

SIGNORA BERTELLI a midwife, arguing with Domenico about his wife’s labor:

Who do you think is more useful, a doctor who is nowhere to be found or a midwife who is standing right in front of you?  This is why God, with His divine wisdom, never trusted a man to have a child.”

* * * * *

I love great beginnings:

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN by Betty Smith:

“Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912.  Somber—as a word—was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prairie was lovely and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn’t fit those words into Brooklyn.  Serene was the only word for it.”

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT    by  Norman Maclean  

“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.  Our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman told us Christ’s disciples were fishermen, so we were left to assume as my brother and I did that all first-class fishermen of the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen.

Angela’s Ashes  by FRANK McCOURT 

I love the lines at the beginning.  

“It was, of course, a miserable childhood, the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

The House of Spirits   by Isabel Allende

“Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and over come terrors of my own.”

I love the beginning of Water for Elephants   by Sara Gruen

           I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.

When you’re five, you know your age down to the month.

Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I’m twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven.

But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It’s a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I’m—you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you’re not. You’re thirty-five. And then you’re bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it’s decades before you admit it.

You start to forget words: they’re on the tip of your tongue, but instead of eventually dislodging, they stay there.

This goes on about the old age and at the end Sara Gruen returns to her first line. “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.”