Abraham's Son, Chapter 26

 INT. ABRAHAM'S BEDROOM - DAY

ABRAHAM, troubled by the long delay in meeting with Robert, hangs up the phone.

INT. ABRAHAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

After putting IKE to bed that same night, ABRAHAM calls his babysitter, LIZ.

ABRAHAM:  Liz, hi, it's ABRAHAM.

LIZ (O.S.):  Hi.

ABRAHAM:  Look, I need to go on a short trip...a very important trip tomorrow morning...very early in the morning and I need you to take care of IKE for most of the day...not sure exactly when I'll be back...Can you cover for me...please?

LIZ (O.S.):  No problem!

ABRAHAM:  Please get here as early as you can.  I'll be walking out the door as soon as you arrive.  Okay?

LIZ (O.S.):  Okay!

ABRAHAM:  You'll get a bonus for this.  Thank you so much.

EXT. IN FRONT OF ABRAHAM'S HOUSE - EARLY MORNING

As LIZ arrives early on foot the next morning at ABRAHAM's house, ABRAHAM leaves the house and enters a taxi that speeds away.

EXT. IN FRONT OF PENN STATION, MANHATTAN - DAY

ABRAHAM's taxi arrives at Penn Station and ABRAHAM gets out and enters Penn Station.

INT. AMTRAK TRAIN - DAY

ABRAHAM enters Amtrak train bound for Washington.  He finds a seat.  ABRAHAM contemplates seriously the day ahead of him as train heads to its destination over the next three hours.  

EXT. UNION STATION, WASHINGTON - DAY

ABRAHAM exits Union Station in Washington, D.C.  He enters a taxi.  Taxi heads towards White House.  

EXT. WHITE HOUSE - DAY

Taxi arrives in front of White House gate.  ABRAHAM gets out of taxi and walks toward security gate.

GUARD:  Can I help you, sir?

ABRAHAM:  Yes.  Here's my ID.  My name is ABRAHAM SHAPIRO and I have an appointment with ROBERT SILVER.

ABRAHAM hands GUARD his photo ID.  GUARD studies ID and then makes a call to PHYLLIS, ROBERT SILVER's secretary.

PHYLLIS (O.S.):  Yes?

GUARD:  This is the security gate.  I have an ABRAHAM SHAPIRO to see ROBERT SILVER.

INT. ROBERT SILVER'S OFFICE - DAY

PHYLLIS looks at her schedule for the day.  ABRAHAM's name is not there. 

She knows his scheduled appointment is not for a couple of weeks.  She checks with ROBERT via intercom.  He is eating sushi at his desk.

ROBERT (O.S.):  Yes, PHILLIS?

PHYLLIS:  Sir, sorry to disturb your lunch, but your friend ABRAHAM SHAPIRO is at the security gate without an appointment.  He wants entrance to see you.  What do you want me to tell them?

ROBERT stops eating and thinks for a moment.

ROBERT:  Okay, let them bring him here.

He puts the phone down.  

ROBERT:  Damn!

EXT. WHITE HOUSE - DAY

GUARD puts phone down and returns ID to ABRAHAM.

GUARD:  Okay, Mr. SHAPIRO.  A guard will escort you to Mr. SILVER's office.

ABRAHAM and a security guard walk towards White House.  ABRAHAM is not thinking about entering such a historic, iconic American site.  He is concentrating on his mission.  They enter door of White House.

ABRAHAM and guard enter White House and proceed toward ROBERT SILVER's office.  They reach office.

INT. ROBERT SILVER'S OFFICE - DAY

ABRAHAM enters outer office where PHYLLIS has her desk.

PHYLLIS:  Hello, Mr. SHAPIRO.  You can go in.

ABRAHAM enters ROBERT's office.

ROBERT:  Have a seat, ABRAHAM.

ABRAHAM sits down.

ROBERT:  What's going on.  Your appointment isn't for another couple of weeks.  I only let you in out of respect for our long standing friendship.

ABRAHAM:  I apologize for the subterfuge, ROBERT. But, I'm here on an extremely important mission.  It's a matter of life and death...especially for my son.

ROBERT:  (surprised)  Your son?  How so?

ABRAHAM:  Well, I'm here to talk about...what's going on in the world...especially the environment.  Humans have been screwing it up for too long and it's had a catastrophic effect of the climate.  And humans have to take action to stop screwing it up.  The United Nations...

ROBERT:  ABRAHAM, stop right there.  I know why you're here.  You're not the first person to approach me...and the president about this issue, climate change or global warming or whatever it's called.  Look, he and I have looked into this thoroughly.  There are good arguments on both sides.  

ABRAHAM:  On both sides?  There are not two sides, only right and wrong.

ROBERT: ABRAHAM, you're being naive and are testing my patience.  You busted in here using our friendship as a pretext, but there's only so much time I can give you.  To continue, there is no scientific consensus on the issue of climate change.  There are scientists who dispute it.

ABRAHAM:  Only a tiny fraction.

ROBERT:  There are those who claim this has happened before, that the earth goes through cyclical climate changes. 

ABRAHAM:  Now is different.  It's humans doing the damage and humans have to reverse it.

ROBERT:  Take temperature, for example.  Records are unreliable.

ABRAHAM:  Really, as measured by satellites? 

ROBERT:  Okay, you seem to know what you're talking about.  But, there's another point, even if we agreed with you. This is a United Nations initiative.  To accept it would be tantamount to giving up America's sovereignty.  

ABRAHAM:  But, to attack this problem requires an international solution.  The U.S. can't do it alone nor be on the outside...separate from the rest of the world.  

ROBERT:  Look, ABRAHAM, you've had your say.  But, the leadership of the federal government has looked into all this before and we've made our decision.  It's over...and unfortunately, I have to ask you to leave now.

ABRAHAM:  There's one more thing, ROBERT.  God.

ROBERT:  God?  What are you talking about?

ABRAHAM:  God has told me...this international agreement...the president must sign it.

ROBERT:  Well, I must say this is a novel approach.  But, it's just conjecture.

ABRAHAM:  No, not conjecture.  Fact.  God has spoken to me...or at least through an intermediary, a messenger from God.

ROBERT:  Intermediary?  Messenger?  Are you serious, ABRAHAM?

ABRAHAM:  Deadly.  You're a religious man, ROBERT.  You read the Torah.  God has spoken to people before.  Well, he has spoken to me.  

ROBERT:  Nice try.  But, I can't go to the president and tell him God has spoken to my friend.

ABRAHAM:  He's a religious man...or at least he claims he is.  Maybe he would believe.

ROBERT:  ABRAHAM, my lunch break is over.  I have a busy schedule this afternoon.  You can come back for your scheduled appointment in two weeks and we can talk more.

ABRAHAM:  But, if you don't do what God wants, then...then he's going to want my son sacrificed.

ROBERT:  Oh, this is too much.  Leave now, ABRAHAM.  Leave now or I'll have to call security.

ABRAHAM:  I told you it was a matter of life and death...my son's, Ike's, death.  Please, I'm begging for my son's life.  Help me!  Help him!

ROBERT:  (talking to Phyllis)  Phyllis, call security.  

Two Words

 In May of last year, my son Bret got married to his wife Pam in St. Augustine, Florida.  I very much wanted to deliver a toast at the wedding as the father of the groom.  

It brought back memories of the toast I gave at my daughter Rachel's wedding to Mike back in April 2004.  Then I mentioned Rachel's birth at Long Island Jewish Hospital on December 7th many years before.  

At one point a nurse from the delivery room wrapped newborn Rachel in a towel and carried her down a corridor to another room where she cleaned her body with water from a faucet.  I followed at a discreet distance as I wanted to make sure Rachel did not disappear from my view.

In preparing for Bret & Pam's toast, I was trying to remember some special anecdote from his youth.  There was an obvious choice.

When Bret was about eight years-old, the two of us would often go to nearby Alley Pond Park after I came home from work to watch men's slow pitch softball games.  He enjoyed being up close at a sporting event, even if it was amateurs.

One day, the shortstop on one team was being super critical of the umpire.  Eventually, the umpire had quite enough of this abuse and stopped the game.

He shouted at the shortstop, "One more word out of you and you're out of here."

The shortstop responded, "One more word...I'll give you two.  Fuck you."

I immediately turned to Bret and told him that if he repeated such language at home, we couldn't continue coming to the park to watch the softball games.  And he didn't.  So, we came back again...and again...and again.

I was very pleased that when I repeated this story as part of my toast at Bret & Pam's wedding, it got a lot of laughs.  It was what I had hoped for.  

Lee J. Cobb

The actor Lee J. Cobb was born Leo Jacoby in New York City on December 8, 1911.  His parents were Jewish of Russian and Romanian origin.

Interested in acting, Cobb ran away from home to Hollywood at 16 years of age.  Eventually, he returned to New York and studied accounting at NYU.

Later, Cobb moved again to California this time to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.   He made his film debut at 23.  

Cobb was featured in the 1939 film Golden Boy as William Holden's father.  He was 28 while Holden was 21.  Cobb often played much older characters.

I also remember Lee J. Cobb in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Call Northside 777 (1948), On The Waterfront (1954), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Exodus (1960), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973).

Cobb was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (for On The Waterfront and for The Brothers Karamazov in 1958).  He won the Oscar neither time.

Cobb died of a heart attack on February 11, 1976 (48 years ago) at the age of sixty-four.  He was memorable.        

 

The Cowboys

The Cowboys is a 1972 American Western film starring John Wayne and Bruce Dern.  Wayne was quoted as saying "no actor in his right mind would try to match the antics of eleven kids on screen."  But, for him, it became "the greatest experience of my life."  

When his ranch hands abandon him to join a gold rush, aging rancher Wil Andersen (Wayne) must find replacement drovers for his 400-mile (640 km) cattle drive.  A group of mysterious men led by Asa Watts (Dern) shows up asking for work, but Andersen catches Watts in a lie and refuses to hire them.

Instead, Anderson hires eleven schoolboys to go with him on the cattle drive.  He teaches them roping, branding and herding both cattle and horses.  Slowly, the boys become good cowhands, impressing Andersen.

While on the trail, Watts and his gang follow the cattle drive.  One night, the gang openly approach Anderson and the boys.  Anderson tells the boys to act like boys and not men.

Watts forces Andersen to surrender his gun. But a fistfight ensues between Andersen and Watts, with Andersen coming out on top. He starts to walk away, but Watts shoots him in both arms and a leg before shooting him twice in the torso, killing him. The boys remain passive as instructed, and the rustlers steal the herd.

After burying Anderson, the boys start acting like men and proceed to retake the herd, while punishing the cattle rustlers.

Bruce Dern was born in Chicago in 1936.  Like me, he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, but he did not graduate.  After leaving Penn, wanting to be an actor, Dern studied at the Actor's Studio in New York City.  

Dern has continually appeared in films since the 1960s.  I remember him in Marnie (1964), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The War Wagon (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968), They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969), Coming Home (1978) and Nebraska (2013).  

Bruce Dern was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Nebraska, but lost to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.  At eighty-seven years-old, he is still appearing in movies.