Sharkey's Place Season 1, Episode 2 By Rick Regan 10/5/2021 Sharkey’s Place is a fictional tavern in a small, coastal town in Maine. All action takes place in the main room. The recurring characters are the three women who work there and some of the customers. This is an episode where we get some of the origin story of the place. INT. SHARKEY’S PLACE - AROUND NOON The tavern has the shades up and the blue glare from the light outside makes the inside seem grim and kind of sad. It is cold and raining outside and people variously come in, dripping wet, to get lunch. The table in the back corner has Glenn working through a stack of paper and clicking on a laptop. He is engrossed in his work and does not notice much of what is going on. It is a typical weekday lunch at Sharkey’s Place. Myra is in the back working on meals. Kirini is taking orders at the bar and going to tables. Sandra is a Sharkey’s lifer and works behind the bar for Kirini. She is filling glasses along the bar. Aiden and Caiden, two local fry cooks, come and go to a table. KIRINI Hi, boys! Here for lunch? AIDEN Stahven! CAIDEN The Hungah Monsta! KIRINI Know what you want? The soup’s good today. CAIDEN Alright. A bowl for me and a Harpoon Light. AIDEN You got those good crackers I like with that? KIRINI Sure. Boston Crackers. AIDEN Yeah. Great. A bowl, and a cup of coffee. KIRINI Got it. She swings around and gets the order back to Myra. SANDRA (to Kirini) Say, Kiri, day like today, you ever think about selling out? I mean the cold, the rain. Does it make you want to get away from this place? KIRINI Oh yeah, all the time. Starbucks just called me last week and offered a cool million. Where do you think I should go? Bermuda? SANDRA (astonished) Starbucks? You’re going to sell out, to Starbucks? Sell Sharkey’s?! KIRINI Oh yeah, gonna fly my personal helicopter over to Nantucket, land at my mansion there, that I bought with all the money I piled up from owning this place. Spend my time by the pool, I think. SANDRA Aw, you’re pulling my leg! You wouldn’t sell Sharkey’s. KIRINI Hey, now. Don’t get me wrong. If some fella with a fat wallet wants to peel off a check to buy this place, I wouldn’t sneeze at it. I mean, we do alright but how many times can we make scallops with garlic in butter? SANDRA People love those scallops. KIRINI I know, I know. And I guess it’s better than flipping burgers but, you know what I mean, like, what are we doing it for? What does it all add up to? SANDRA We feed the hungry. She points at Aiden and Caiden. KIRINI And slop the drunks. She points at Glenn. SANDRA Oh, yeah. I see what you mean. Anyway... She grabs a water pitcher and tends to the customers. Myra comes from out of the kitchen with the bowls of soup. She puts them down in front of Aiden and Caiden. She is hoping for their approval. MYRA Here you go. Soup of the day. CAIDEN Oh, that’s beauty. AIDEN Genius. Sheer genius! Thank you, Myra. CAIDEN (tasting) Mmm! Say, where did you get these clams? MYRA Sam the Butcher came by last night, when the boats came back in. He thought I might like them. I bought the whole box. Cod too. That’s cod in there. CAIDEN This is the stuff. I love it. And the garlic! AIDEN And, is that just black pepper? MYRA Fresh ground, but a lot of it. I have to use an electric grinder to get enough, but the fresh, you know... AIDEN Genius, Myra. Mmmm- good! CAIDEN MYRA So what are you guys making this week? CAIDEN Same old. AIDEN Same old. CAIDEN Fried oysters. Fried Clams. Fried squid. French Fries. AIDEN That’s it. That’s all we make. CAIDEN But they keep coming back. AIDEN A line out the door by six o’clock. CAIDEN We couldn’t make this. AIDEN Too much time. CAIDEN Too much effort. AIDEN You should charge more. CAIDEN Make more profit. MYRA Talk to Kiri, not me. She sets the prices. CAIDEN (to Kirini) Hey, Kiri, hey. Can I ask you something? KIRINI Sure, Caiden, how can I help you? CAIDEN If you raised the price of the soup, you think you’d sell less of it? Because it seems to me that you could charge double, and people would still buy it. This is good! AIDEN I mean, we sell French fries for twice what you charge. You’re leaving money on the table, Kir. KIRINI Oh, is that right? And you two know how to run a restaurant now, not just dipping fish in the fryer. I will take the idea under advisement. And thank you for your concern. And, hey!, that soup is good, right? Myra’s the best. AIDEN The best! The beast! CAIDEN MYRA (beaming) C’mon guys. It’s just soup. CAIDEN A beast of a soup. KIRINI (laughs) Good to see you fellas. Thanks for coming by. Kirini and Myra go back to behind the bar. MYRA Maybe they’re right, Kir. Maybe people would pay more for the soup and the sandwiches. KIRINI Let me think about it. Sandra overhears and comes over. SANDRA What’s to think? You erase the number on the chalkboard and write a new number. That’s all it is. KIRINI You remember what Georgios used to say? SANDRA Sure, he said that the money is in the beer. KIRINI And the food is just a way to get people in the door. Don’t worry about the price of the food. We could give it away for free if we wanted to and still not make much difference. MYRA Give it away for free? KIRINI Nah, I don’t mean literally give it away for free. I mean that the cost of the food that we make is a small amount of the total operating cost. You know what really costs money? SANDRA What? The rent? KIRINI No, I own the building. The real cost, is you. SANDRA Me? And you. Me? KIRINI (to Myra) MYRA KIRINI And me. The people are the real cost. SANDRA (upset) So you’re saying you want to fire me, to save a few bucks? KIRINI No! No, You’re too valuable. And you too Myra. You are too valuable. You guys are the reason customers show up. Your soup is the best, Myra. Everybody knows that. They talk about it on the radio and people come in. And Sandra, you’re the closest thing to a real priest in this town. You hear everyone’s sins, and you forgive them. They love you. They come to see you. You know, I could empty this place out and just put in vending machines with beer. That would be efficient and profitable. But what would be the fun in that? Right? SANDRA (relieved) So glad to know that I could be replaced with a Bud Light machine. KIRINI I read that they have those in Japan, for Japanese beer. MYRA The Japanese are so weird. SANDRA I know, right? So, guys... Kir? KIRINI SANDRA KIRINI Let’s get back to delivering on our Key Performance Indicators. SANDRA Our KPI’s? What’s that? MYRA Soup and beer. Let’s go. KIRINI Thank you. Everybody goes back to work. INT. SHARKEY'S PLACE - EARLY EVENING Lunch is over and the evening drinks crowd hasn’t come in yet. Glenn is gone and Kirini has gone out for some errands. Myra and Sandra sit on stools, waiting for some customers. SANDRA Is the ‘open’ light on? Seems like we should have more people. MYRA It’s the rain, you know. SANDRA Yeah. I guess. Say, you got any coffee? I’d take some. MYRA Sure. It’s fresh. She gets up and fills two cups with fresh, hot coffee. SANDRA Nice, on a day like this. Warming. MYRA I wouldn’t want to be on the water in this soup. I don’t know how they do it. SANDRA I don’t know why the do it. Can’t make much money fishing anymore. MYRA It’s the life, I think, they want. Any day on the water fishing is a better day than inside a factory. SANDRA Like the cannery? Ooofff, that place smells. MYRA I know, right? SANDRA But I saw you with Sam last night. You an item now? MYRA Who, me? SANDRA No, maybe it was the ghost of Mother Theresa. Yeah, you. What’s going on? MYRA He was just making a delivery, is all. SANDRA Yeah, special delivery, I bet. MYRA He had some nice clams and cod. You see how they went with the soup today? SANDRA I can hear you now, “All deliveries in the REAR, Sam!” MYRA Come on! It’s not like that. SANDRA Hey, you want to get a little, you know, side thing, good for you. People should be happy. MYRA You should know. SANDRA Listen, I’ve heard every sad-sack who ever came up the highway, or off the water. The story is always the same. You know what it is? MYRA You gonna tell me, or what? SANDRA Every man who comes in here is looking for the girl of his dreams. Can’t find her. Then he cries about his luck and washes his dreams away with beer. But you know what? MYRA What now? SANDRA The girl of his dreams is not hanging around a place like this, with a bunch of smelly sailors. You know who is always the girl of his dreams? MYRA The mother? SANDRA The mother. That’s right. And she doesn’t come here on Tuesday nights and stay until eleven thirty. I mean, look at your Glenn. What’s he doing here all the time? MYRA He likes to work here. And I can keep an eye on him. SANDRA Is he keeping an eye on you too, because it looked like Slick Sam the Butcher might have been rounding the bases. MYRA He never laid a finger on me. I just buy the fish and we talk some. SANDRA Oh, yeah. You have a lot to say at nine thirty, while I’m slinging beers? MYRA You know how it is. A guy wants to talk, and yeah, he’s kind of cute. And maybe I like the way he handles his business. SANDRA Is that what you want him to handle, his business? MYRA Ah, leave me alone. I don’t put my nose in your business. SANDRA Good. Because the smell would kill ya’. MYRA Ha! Say you’ve been with other guys, I mean since Georgios, right? SANDRA Well, maybe a firefighter here and a detective there but after Georgios, not really. Nobody real. I mean, we had eight good years, me and Georgios. After he got the bar, we had a good time. MYRA Is it really true that Georgios won the bar from Sharkey in a poker game? I mean, we tell the story all the time, but it just sounds, I don’t know, so fishy. SANDRA I was there. MYRA I know. You said. SANDRA Right but it’s true. I was working for Sharkey, slinging beers. And his poker buddies come in on Wednesday, regular and Georgios had just come to town, trying to get into exporting fish. Well, they play and play, and all the regular stiffs drop out, but most stayed to watch. Georgios wanted to win a big pot, to stake his export business. MYRA I didn’t know that. SANDRA Then when the pot got too big to cover, and Sharkey was really in a hole, Georgios said it was all or nothing in the pot. If Sharkey won, he got everything, but if Georgios won he got the bar. MYRA And the cards? SANDRA They flipped the cards and Sharkey lost. That was it. And with all of his buddies watching. His life’s work was this place. He practically lived here. MYRA It must have devastated him to lose it. SANDRA You know, I think it was kind of a relief. He was getting older. He didn’t want to sell it, or even go through the hoops of trying to find a buyer. Who would buy this place? So he got to hand it over, lock, stock and barrel. MYRA Was he in debt? SANDRA Of course! He was up to his eyeballs! When Georgios comes in the next day and tallies it all up, he couldn’t believe what a mess the situation was. Sharkey owed everybody in town, and now he did too. MYRA What happened? How did he make it go? SANDRA He went to all of the people Sharkey owed money to and said, hey, I’m Georgios! I’m going to make this right. Work with me, and I’ll work with you. And it worked. MYRA What about Sharkey? A fishing accident? SANDRA About six weeks later, Sharkey went out fishing on this big boat owned by Acostas Drakos. MYRA The marina guy, Drakos? Nico’s dad? SANDRA That’s him. Sharkey owed him a lot of money. And there were a bunch of guys on the boat, mostly Greek and Portuguese. Sharkey owed them all money. So they get out into the deep water and there was a tragic accident. Somehow Sharkey got pulled in and eaten by a shark. Very sad day. MYRA Did they recover the body? SANDRA No, They said the shark swallowed him. MYRA That’s terrible. SANDRA But I don’t know how the shark is supposed to swallow a guy who’s hands are tied and his feet are in buckets of cement. Seems unlikely, is all. MYRA Oh, jeez... SANDRA Not that Georgios was there. No way. Just a favor by some friends. I liked Sharkey but, in reality, he had it coming. I wasn’t getting paid either, just tips. MYRA Was Georgios better? SANDRA Better? He was the best. He was great with the customers. He threw out the handsy drunks. Cleaned the place up. Got a new sign. Like I said, we had eight great years. MYRA But what about Kirini’s mother? What happened to her? SANDRA You’ll have to ask her about it. All I heard was she stayed down on Long Island with her family. MYRA Oh. SANDRA When Kirini showed up, I was as surprised as anybody. I didn’t know he had a daughter. MYRA Did he? SANDRA Sure, of course. He just didn’t say anything to me. MYRA Did you move in with him, I mean, live there? SANDRA No, I always had my own place. Lessons learned, you know. With a man like Georgios, everything is great, until it isn’t. Then his buddies come around and say, ‘get in the car’. And you know it’s over. I never had that but... MYRA But what? SANDRA A saw a few things. A few guys, get in the car. Glenn comes in and waves at them. He goes back to his booth, staring at his phone. SANDRA Like him. Georgie would have thrown him out. Told him, don’t come back. MYRA Glenn? Why? He’s not a bad guy. SANDRA He’s always hanging around. He drinks himself stupid. He keeps to himself but he’s not the type that Georgie would have wanted. But Georgios is gone. MYRA What do you think of Kirini? When she took over? SANDRA She was in a tough spot, you know. Georgios died and left it to her. But after eight years, the renovations didn’t look so fresh anymore so she’s been trying to clean house. I’m just afraid I’m next. MYRA You heard what she said, you’re too valuable. SANDRA Too valuable to her or too valuable to the customers. I think, push comes to shove and she kicks me to the curb with the litter bins. MYRA No, it’s not like that. Just keep slinging the beer and the customers will come back. They always come back. They have to come back. There isn’t anyplace else to buy beer for miles. SANDRA But she said she could replace us with Coke machines. That was not a nice thing to say. MYRA She’s got a sharp eye on the dollars and cents, is all she meant. I think that’s a good thing. But I do think we should charge more for the soup. SANDRA Me too. Glenn waves at them and makes a gesture about getting a drink. SANDRA The plant needs watering. She goes back to the bar and makes a drink for him. She puts the clear glass of gin and ice on the table and walks away. INT. SHARKEY'S PLACE - LATE NIGHT, SAME DAY Sandra is working the bar. There are a few old-timers and Glenn has moved to the bar. Myra has gone home. Kirini pops her head around the corner of her office. KIRINI Sandy, you doing OK? SANDRA Sure, boss. What’s up? KIRINI I have to go over to Machias in the morning for some business at the courthouse. Tax filings and such. SANDRA OK. KIRINI So I’m’ going to go home. Can you handle the close tonight? SANDRA Of course. We’ll see you when you get back tomorrow. KIRINI Great. Thanks. See you tomorrow. You’re a trouper. SANDRA You know it. Kirini takes a tote bag full of papers and receipts and heads out. At last the two old-timers leave and it is just Sandra and Glenn. GLENN Maybe a beer this time, thanks. SANDRA You ought to go home. Get some sleep. GLENN What? It’s only a quarter to ten. SANDRA Yeah, on a Tuesday. I’m going to close tonight. I’m going to close you out. You can finish your beer but that’s it. GLENN Deal. She goes to the door, turns the lock and switches off the “Open” sign in the window. Some customers come to the door but she waves them off. She comes back to the bar and pours herself a glass of vodka and soda with some ice. She sits next to Glenn at the bar. SANDRA So what happened to you, Glenn? Why are you here all the time? I told Myra today that if Georgios were here he’d throw you out. Too gloomy. Gloomy Glenn. What happened to you? GLENN Ah, you know how it is, Sandy. You get to a place and there is, I don’t know, a job, a home, a family, and you dig in. Right? SANDRA Is that what happened? Because it doesn’t look like that’s what happened. It looks like you live by yourself in a cheap apartment, send your reports off to the newspaper, then spend the rest of your time soaking your head in gin. That’s what it looks like. GLENN Well, when you put it like that... SANDRA Like what, the truth? GLENN Can’t argue with the truth. But, what happened to you? You’ve been here longer than I have. SANDRA I grew up here. Started working for Sharkey right out of high school. Beats working in the cannery. GLENN You could have been a nurse, or a teacher. SANDRA Oh, right. Women’s jobs. GLENN That’s not what I mean... SANDRA I know what you mean. Listen, I got in good with Sharkey. Then Georgios comes along. Things got even better. Now Georgios is gone and things are just OK. But I’m still here. GLENN Are you going to retire? SANDRA Retire? You’ll be carrying me out of here in a pine box. GLENN A life well lived, I guess. SANDRA That’s right. But I might take a vacation this year. GLENN Oh, yeah, where to? SANDRA Maybe I’ll go over to Prince Edward and stay in Halifax for a week. Get the feel for the life in the city. GLENN There’s Bangor. SANDRA Bangor is a hick-town, compared to Halifax. GLENN If you say so. SANDRA I would like to spend some time shopping, maybe go to the movies. GLENN You might find a handsome Canadian stranger. SANDRA I’m not looking for love, but... If it was to come looking for me, well, a girl has to keep her options open. GLENN What do you think Kirini is going to do with the place, now that she’s really into it. SANDRA Depends what she wants. Sharkey wanted his own place to play cards and drink whisky, someplace that couldn’t throw him out. Georgios wanted to make some money and be a big man in town. He did that. He had a lot of love, that man. Now Kiri, I don’t know what she wants. GLENN I got a job offer this week. SANDRA Wait, what? You? Who would hire you? GLENN I’m keeping wraps on it because I don’t know if I will take it. SANDRA What kind of gig is it? Writing? GLENN Yeah, the want profiles of locals. It’s a Maine magazine. The kind of things they put on the coffee table at an inn, for the tourists. SANDRA You get to keep the shipping job? GLENN I think so. I’m just not sure I’m the right guy for the job. It takes a lot of going and interviewing people. SANDRA You are probably right. You’d be lousy at that. GLENN Hey, now! SANDRA No, I mean it. I don’t know how your writing is but your personality leaves a lot to be desired. GLENN I did a degree in journalism. I have interviewed people. I can interview people. I can write about people. I’m a good writer. SANDRA Sure, sure. That’s why you send your shipping newspaper something that looks like a Sudoku puzzle, because they value your sparkling prose. They hang on every line. GLENN Look, it’s the nature of the job. I don’t dictate that stuff. I’m just thinking it will be a side-hustle, you know? SANDRA You? Hustle? I’ll believe it when I see it. GLENN Thanks a lot for your support. SANDRA I’m just being honest with you. Glenn gets up, finishes the last of his beer and puts his raincoat on. GLENN Always a pleasure with you, Sandy. SANDRA Good night, Glenn. See you tomorrow. GLENN You know what’s for lunch tomorrow? Myra get anything? SANDRA She might be getting some hot sausage, but you didn’t hear it from me. GLENN I’ll act surprised. SANDRA You will be. Good night. GLENN Night. Glenn goes out the door. She follows him and locks the door. She turns off most of the lights, with just the Harpoon Beer sign to light up the bar. She sits alone in the quiet bar. SANDRA Good night, Sharkey. Good night, Georgie. We had a lotta laughs. She finishes and goes around to rinse out the glass. She leaves for the night. END