The Crimson Dona, Dramatic Form

Parental advisory: Explicit content.  

Synopsis:  The tale of Angela Scarletta as told by ‘Beretta’ herself.  There comes a point in time of Rico Carbone’s family seeking a vendetta on her at the end of her existence that sadly, ends in a draw.  However, Enzo takes up the helm in her stead and Bella Wozniak stands steadfastly by his side as guardian, protector, executer and enforcer.  

~*~CAST ~*~

Don Giuseppe Angelo Scarletta:

Dona Natalie Maria Scarletta:

Feliciano ‘Felix’ Scarletta:

Gabriello ‘Gabe’ Scarletta:

Marco Scarletta:

Angela Elizaveta Scarletta:

Enzo Fabrizzio: 

Bella Anne Wozniak: 

Guiro Montalban: 

Delicacy: (bartender and owner of Velveteen Fox)

Vivian:  (accountant for Velveteen  Fox)

Julian Capella: 

Don Elliot Marzano:

Tito Marzano:

Frank Marzano: 

Victor ‘Vic’ Marzano:

Oliver ‘Olly’ Adriano: 

Louis Adriano:  

Sergio Adriano: 

Damien Adriano: 

Leon ‘Bonepicker’ Juno: 

Clyde ‘Backbreaker’ Juno: 

Pat ‘Toothpick’ Juno: 

Ray ‘Opium’ Juno: 

Sylvester ‘Sly’ Juno: 

Darryl ‘Double Barrel’ Juno: 

Rico Carbone: 

Nico Carbone: 

Elias ‘Eli’ Carbone: 

Kim ‘The Dragon’ Lang:

Ace Lang:   

Komodo ‘Kuro’ Lang: 

‘Revenge is the act of passion; vengeance is an act of justice.’—Grimm

‘I reject your reality and substitute my own.’—Adam Savage, Mythbusters Finale

‘Everyone dies sometime.’—Raymond Reddington, ‘The Blacklist’, May Bay

‘Did you ever kill anyone ?’—Raymond’s wife

‘Only those who deserved it.’—Raymond Reddington, ‘The Blacklist’, May Bay

Scene 1—Molded into Greatness 

Natalie:  Giuseppe, it’s time…(moaning in pain)  

Gui:  Nat, I know.   I know.   Just breathe.  Relax. 

Natalie:  You told me that the last 3 friggin’ times, carino.  One more time, I’m cutting your linguini off when you sleep.  Capice ? 

Nat:  Oh, damn !  I think my water just broke !   Giuseppe Angelo Scarletta, you did this to me ! 

Gui:  You were partially responsible, tesora mio.  

Nat:   Shut your pie hole, Gui.  

Felix:  Hold on, mama.   We’re all here for you. 

Gabe:  Do we know if we’re getting a little bro or sis ? 

Nat:  (groaning in pain)   I don’t fucking care !   Just get me to the hospital !  

(they drive to the hospital and soon, Angela is brought into the world)

Marco:  She’s a perfect little angel.  

Gui:  That’s just the name we’ll give her.   What do you think, Natalie my sweet ?

Nat:   (holding Angela close and kissing her, she coos and laughs)  It fits her perfectly.   Angela Elizaveta Scarletta.  

Felix:  So innocent and oblivious.  

Marco:   All of us will teach her what it is to be a Scarletta, though.  

Gabe:  She may well exceed us in greatness.  

Angela:  (narrating)  My brothers were correct.   I had no idea what lay down the road for me in learning about the ‘Life’ and becoming the leader of the most feared crime family the world has ever known.    (An instrumental of ‘Crimson Dona’ is played in the background as we see her mature and grow over time, being fawned over by her brothers and taught by them as well as her father.  Soon, her mother grows deathly ill.)

Scene 2—A Rose Fades

Angela:  (narrating)  I don’t recall much of my mama, other than I loved and respected her immensely and intimately.   We were close, but not like papa and I.  Not long after my birth and infancy, my mama developed pancreatic cancer.   She was put on a morphine drip, so she felt no pain when she died, but the last thing I remember…

Nat:  Giuseppe, I know I don’t have long. 

Gui:  No, damn it.   You’re staying here with us. 

Felix:  Don’t leave us, mama.  

Gabe:  No one cooks pasta fazool like you. 

Nat:  (chuckling and choking a bit)   Where is little Angela ?

Angela:  (still a toddler so not really certain what’s going on)  Still resting mama ?  When are you ever going to play with us ? 

Nat:  Angel, darling, that’s what I wanted to tell you.  Mama is going to go away and she won’t be able to play with you and your brothers anymore. 

Angela:  (distressed)  No.  Mama, please.   I love you !  

(They all start bawling as their mother’s soul slowly releases from her body.)  

Angela:  (narrating)  It was the first time I can recall a feral hatred entering into the very core of my being, but it paled in comparison to when my brothers were brutally murdered.  

(We see Natalie being buried and followed by a gaggle of mourners. The red roses on top of her casket have petals blowing by in the wind.  ‘Moonlight Sonata’ plays in the background.  Time passes and Angela starts to become trained by her father.   Here we come to an iconic scene, one in which Angela’s existence changes forever and she begins to learn more about the Life and just how much clout, influence, swagger and pull her family has in the city and surrounding districts.) 

Scene 3—A Deal Gone South

Angela:  (narrating)  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was seven and dad took me to the shooting range for the first time.   It was there I fired a Beretta and became enamored of its sleek design, power and caliber.   I didn’t know this was actually a distraction.  I wouldn’t understand this diversion until I became 21, but in my heart of hearts, I comprehend why papa averted my eyes from the seedier side of ‘the Business’ of the underground as it was.  

(The boys are in a glorious black Caddy, playing ‘The Greatest Invention’ and having the time of their lives.  Two of them are looking forward to making papa proud, but Felix is having second thoughts about the whole ‘trade’ agreement with Don Elliot Marzano.) 

Marco:  Elliot said he would meet us here.  So, where is he ?   He’s never late. 

Gabe:  It should be a done deal.   Signed, sealed, delivered.   We’ve got everything he wants and plenty more where that came from.   Primo supply, too.   All the best H.  Buyers will pay double for the high this stuff gives them. 

Felix:   (a bit nervous)  I don’t know.  It seems too easy.  Elliot’s typically a man of his word, but I have a bad feeling.  Maybe we should just call the whole thing off. 

Marco:  (goading him on, insulting him) Felix, where are your stuggotz ?  

Gabe: (adding to Felix’s emasculation) Yeah, quit actin’ like such a pussy.  

Felix:  (angered)  I ain’t no fuckin’ pussy !  (inhales and exhales evenly) Fine, we’ll wait…

(Just as Felix has foreshadowed, the whole Marzano crime ring has shown up just to take him out in hopes to secure their place as kings of the underground, not knowing that the brothers have one little sister left.  ‘Woke Up This Morning’ plays as the whole lot of them are gunned down in a cowardly drive by.  A POV of the brothers bleeding out with their blood pooling down to the street.)

Guiro:  So you want this design ?

Angela: (holding up an illustration of a rose with a Berretta behind it) Yes, it’s my own design.  I thought it would suit me. 

Guiro:  Ah, perfecto.  Magnifico.   Fantastico.  You really do have a lot of talent there, Angelface.

Angela:  Papa always said so.  I can paint masterpieces with lead, too.

Guiro:  (laughs) I bet ! 

Gui:  You didn’t even cry. 

Angela:  (proudly, with gusto)  It didn’t hurt papa. 

Guiro: (showing off the finished product)  What do you think, Angelface ? (showing off her left shoulder)

Angela:  Gorgeous !   It’s perfect.  Guiro, you’re a genius, thank you.  (kisses him) 

Guiro:  You’re welcome, little lady.  

(They head out of the parlor after paying Guiro.  Giuseppe is informed of his sons’ murders right after the happy moment of her first tattoo with Guiro.   Enraged, he howls in fury.  Immediately, he takes his daughter to the scene.  Instead of averting her eyes, she sees her brothers’ bodies lying in pools of their own blood.)  

Giuseppe:  I don’t know the bastards who did this, but I swear to fucking God, I will find them and have them all executed.  

Angela:  I’ll assist you the entire way.   These God damned psychos need to pay for what they’ve done.  (narrating)   And over the years, that’s exactly what we did. 

Scene 4—Vendetta Enacted 

(We see the two pouring over lacking evidence over the killers.  Suddenly, her father falls ill to pancreatic cancer and is wasting away on his deathbed.) 

Angela:  (watching her father languish)  Papa, I’m so sorry I’m no closer now to discovering the men responsible for my brothers’ deaths.  

Giuseppe:   Angel, you’ve done an exemplary job.   Above and beyond anything I ever expected.   (pats her hand in a rather frail way)  

Angela:   I just wish I could’ve nabbed those mooks !  

Giuseppe:   (coughs a bit harshly) Angela, you’re about to step into my shoes.  It is not always a beautiful business.  You will have to get your hands dirty.  Don’t forget what I’ve taught you on our hunting trips and in the shooting range.   You may be a woman, but I think you are more capable of this title than anyone else I know.  After all, my boys were all murdered before my very own eyes and I’d love to slaughter the pricks responsible for it  !

Angela:  (seeing him slip away and breathe his last)   Those were papa’s last words to me.   No sooner after the funeral did I begin in earnest to hunt those motherfuckers down.  I had everything set in place.   I got another tat in honor of my papa.  It was a marlin, our family’s crest.  Like papa always said, ‘permanent ink is an everlasting reminder of who you are and will remain with you forever.’   I would never forget who I was for so long as I lived.

(As Giuseppe is lowered into the ground and Angela says her last goodbyes to her father, ‘Adagio in G Minor’ by Albinoni plays as the ground is covered with earth.  A quick transition to Angela getting her marlin tattoo, and her breasts are artfully shown in the shot.) 

(‘Payback/Revenge’ plays as Angela surveys the scene at The Velveteen Fox.) 

Angela:  (narrating)  Papa owned the Velveteen, but it was now in the crafty hands of Delicacy, one of my finest associates.   She was also the bartender of the joint.   She had set forward the perfect honey trap.   Now that I knew that it was the fuckin’ Marzanos the whole time, I realized that my brothers had been part of a trade gone shit’s dale.   All I knew now was prepping my trap, setting the bait, and watching those filthy rats get what was fuckin’ coming to them. 

(‘I’ll Be There For You, Prince Version’ plays in the background.) 

Delicacy:  Ah, if it isn’t Beretta herself.  How goes the front, Boss ?

Angela:  No complaints, Del.   How about prospects.  Did Vivica speak to all the vixens about what’s to be expected of them tonight ?

Delicacy:  Death by chocolate.  Your mind, I flipping love how dark and twisted it can be. Sometimes, I wanna be you. 

Angela:  (pats her hand and kisses her cheeks)  Careful, toots.  Don’t wanna brown nose me too much.   (narrating)  From the catwalk, I could see them.   Their conceit hung around them like a dank musk.   I wouldn’t have to wait long, though.   (‘Hey Pachooko’ plays in the background while the men meet their doom and Angela saunters away with a bit of bounce in her step.  Scene fade.) 

Scene 5—An Offer He Can’t Refuse

Angela:  (narrating)   Inasmuch as I didn’t want to complicate my life by falling in love, I ended doing so anyway.   I suppose such a thing is inevitable.   I just never thought it would occur in the place I felt so tied to, the shooting gallery.  

(‘Cowboy Bebop theme’ plays in the background while Enzo obliterates targets, one after another.  He’s a deadeye sniper, just like our ‘Thorn’.)  

Angela: (whispering in Julian’s ear)  Hey, Capella. 

Julian:  Yes, Boss ?  What’s up ? 

Angela:  Who is that fine looking specimen with the deadly accuracy ?

Julian:  That is none other than Enzo Fabrizzio.   He owns his own bar, Breese’s, as well as a nightclub, Maraschino.   His man cave is called ‘Escape’.  

Angela:  Quite the entrepreneur.  

Julian:  That he is.  He’s a quality gentleman and a shrewd businessman. 

Angela:  Would there be any benefit in him joining my cause ? 

Julian:  It would make you the most powerful woman in the underworld.  Even after the ingenious execution of the Marzano’s, you would cement your place as Queenpin of crime.

Angela:  (a little swagger and braggadocio)  Good to know, Julian.   I’ll see if I can persuade him in his bar later.   I’ll make him an offer he can’t possibly refuse. 

Julian:  Knowing you, Boss, it would be ill advised for him to do such a moronic thing. 

(Scene shift to ‘Breese’s’ where Enzo is putting on a show mixing drinks and entertaining his customers with his antics, charm and charisma.  He’s easy-going and a salt-of-the-earth type with a hearty, zesty laugh.  He’s gregarious, talented and magnanimous.   Not only that but he has an eye for detail and beauty.  Immediately, he is stricken by how gorgeous Angela is and knows about her via rumors and truths.) 

Enzo:  (nearly drops a drink he has been making for one of his customers but slides it his way, mouth agape but shuts it) 

Angela:  (an animatic scene of ‘Trust in Me’, done with more tango and Italian flair until he makes his response known in a deeply romantic way.)  

Enzo:  Allow this to be my response, if you will, fair Angel.  

Angela:  (bemused)  I’m waiting, Enzo. 

Enzo:  (sings ‘Angela’s Song’ and takes her hand, romantically)  Is that convincing enough for you ? 

Angela:   (blushing in spite of herself)  Definitely.   (narrating)  From the moment Enzo crooned that gorgeous melody to me, I was by his side forever.   We began our rise to the top of the food chain and surrounded ourselves with what we thought was an impenetrable wall.   This was another reason I hired another sniper, Bella Wozniak, to stand in as my bodyguard when Enzo was occupied with other duties and unable to back me up in dangerous situations. 

(scene shift)  

Scene 6—Uncovering a Turncoat

(As Angela, Enzo and the rest of the family shoot to the top of the crime ring, we see their success, excess and revelry to Mozart’s Symphony 25 in G Minor.  After one evening of dining expediently, Enzo and Angela make love.  This is artfully depicted as the two collapse into each other’s arms.   Bella knocks on the door, politely asking if she can come in.) 

Bella:  Pardon me, Black Widow but I have news of the utmost importance. 

Enzo:   We’re just about ready to turn in, Bella.   (yawns and stretches, and isn’t perturbed in the least) 
Angela:  Come in then, Bella.   You know Enzo and I don’t mind your company.  You’re like a daughter to us. 

Bella:  (clearing through)  The news is grave, I’m afraid.  Do you remember Rico ?

Enzo:  One of our best bodyguards and snipers ?

Angela:  Rico’s one of my most trusted foot soldiers.   Every last business deal we’ve done was expertly executed…

Bella:  He’s been trying to plot ways for you both to die.  

Enzo:  (A bit embittered)  Such traitorous activity must be dealt with, and quickly. 

Angela:   Bella, you know what we should do. 

Bella:  As you wish, Crimson Dona.  

(Scene shift to the shooting range, where they have dragged Rico to face quick justice.) 

Rico:  You fucking cunt !   I would’ve gotten away with it had it not been for your smart little whore mouth !

Bella:  (smacks him in the back of the head with the butt of her AK-47)  Shut up, Rico.  You will respect Scorpion’s Tail.  

Rico:  (spits and flips her off with both hands, full of odium) 

Angela:  Are you quite done, Carbone ?   You’re embarrassing yourself.   You’ve had your last request.   I’m being merciful by giving you a head start.  

Enzo:  I’d get to runnin’ if I were you, cocksucker. 

Rico:  (running)  Rot in hell, you fuckers !  (as he starts to flee the beginning theme from ‘Clockwork Orange’ plays) 

Angela:  (Takes a perfect shot with her AK)  

Enzo:  Direct hit.  

Bella:   I’ll clean up the mess.  

(Scene fade, fast forward

Angela:  (narrating)  I figured that would tie up all the rest of the loose ends.   Now that I look back, I should’ve seen my foolishness, but I let pride blind me.   Although I never went anywhere without my trusty Beretta or AK-47, it wasn’t enough to protect me from Rico’s family.  They were everywhere, and I was fuckin’ outnumbered.   I had lived a long life up to 100.  Now it was time for me to punch my ticket, cash my check, ring for the butler and shuffle off this mortal coil. 

(At first, she’s tending to her garden as she normally does.   The Carbanos have come and killed Enzo before he ever had time to react.   Angela comes upon his body, grits her teeth and fists and cries hot, bitter, irate tears.   As she faces off against the Carbanos, Rachmaninov’s Concerto plays and she soon joins her husband.   The cavalry arrives a few seconds too late but the Carbanos are dealt with rapidly all falling in neat little lines.) 

Bella:   That was when Crimson took her bow as the Queenpin of the dark realm and I took her place.  Heavy lies the crown, but honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.  

(She props her feet up on Angela’s desk and uses her AK as a bit of a crutch.  Her smirk is self-satisfied, lofty and holier-than-thou, full of conceit and power. Dystopian Overture plays.) 

(‘Blood is Thicker than Water’ plays as the credits roll.)