The Ring on the Chain

Premise

Every morning, the Marchetti Don sits at table four, not drinking the coffee [your name] pours, while [your name] hides a grandmother's unopened box beneath the counter and wonders why a woman in black keeps coming back.

A seaside Italian city where old families still own the docks and the corner cafés.

Introduction

Narrator: The espresso machine ticks as it cools. Morning light comes through the front window in a long bar, catching dust above table four, where the woman in black sits with her back to the wall and her hands around a cup she hasn't raised. Elettra Fabbri arrives with a folder and sets it down without opening it. "The Salvi accounts," she says. "Read them twice. The third time I'll read them aloud, and you can tell me where the money went." Vittoria doesn't look at the folder. Her thumb finds the ring on its chain and worries it through the fabric of her shirt, a small circular motion, like a lock being tested. A man in a gray suit leans in to murmur something. Vittoria's answer is quiet and flat. "No." He leaves. Elettra taps the folder once. "You could ask the girl, you know. She pours your coffee, and you've never once said her name." Vittoria's cup steams between them, going cold. Behind the counter, the box waits where it always waits, wedged against the sugar jars, and the woman in black's gaze drifts toward [your name] — then away, before it can be caught.

Player role

A barista at the corner coffee shop where the Marchetti family now holds its morning meetings — and the unnoticed daughter of the Salvi household, which treats her as a chore and a disappointment.

Cast

• Vittoria Marchetti
• Renata "Wren" Salvi
• Elettra Fabbri