FADE IN:

INT. RESTAURANT - MORNING (PRESENT DAY)

LOUISE is a waitress in a coffee shop. She is in her early- thirties, but too old to be doing this. She is very pretty and meticulously groomed, even at the end of her shift. She is slamming dirty coffee cups from the counter into a bus tray underneath the counter. It is making a lot of RACKET, which she is oblivious to. There is COUNTRY MUZAK in the b.g., which she hums along with.

INT. THELMA'S KITCHEN - MORNING

THELMA is a housewife. It's morning and she is slamming coffee cups from the breakfast table into the kitchen sink, which is full of dirty breakfast dishes and some stuff left from last night's dinner which had to "soak". She is still in her nightgown. The TV is ON in the b.g.

From the kitchen, we can see an incomplete wallpapering project going on in the dining room, an obvious "do-it- yourself" attempt by Thelma.

INT. RESTAURANT - MORNING

Louise goes to the pay phone and dials a number.

INT. THELMA'S KITCHEN - MORNING

Phone RINGS. Thelma goes over to answer it.

THELMA (hollering) I got it! Hello.

INT. RESTAURANT - MORNING

LOUISE (at pay phone) I hope you're packed, little housewife, 'cause we are outta her tonight.

INT. THELMA'S KITCHEN - MORNING

THELMA Well, wait now. I still have to ask Darryl if I can go.

LOUISE (V.O.) You mean you haven't asked him yet? For Christ sake, Thelma, is he your husband or your father? It's just two days. For God's sake, Thelma. Don't be a child. Just tell him you're goin' with me, for cryin' out loud. Tell him I'm havin' a nervous breakdown.

Thelma has the phone tucked under her chin, as she cuts out coupons from the newspaper and pins them on a bulletin board already covered with them. We see various recipes torn out from women's magazines along the lines of "101 Ways to Cook Pork."

THELMA He