22

DOROTHY and VIVIAN smile to CYRIL as if attempting to humor a mad man who has apparently ventured too long in the noonday sun.

                      CYRIL
            (delicately, smiling)
   It's me, girls.  I'm your—!

He is cut off by the jarring SOUND of shattering glass.     

HEADS turn to—

RUBY,  for it was her lemonade glass that shattered to bits on the floor.  She glares across the room at CYRIL with pure animal rage.

                         RUBY
       Cyril!  Girls, get away from that
       man!

GASPS ripple throughout the church cafeteria.  Then a hushed silence falls in the room as people pull suspicious looks at CYRIL.  They are frozen in place, numbed by the unexpected furious outburst coming from RUBY and a sense of impending danger from the strange man before them.

AUNTIE MAMA stiffens.  People stare at RUBY in jaw-dropping bewilderment as she rushes across the room towards DOROTHY and VIVIAN.