Your Coca-Cola Bottler presents Claudia, based on the famous play and novels by Rose Franken. Brought to you transcribed Monday through Friday by your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. Relax, and while you're listening, refresh yourself. Have a Coke. And now, Claudia. Eastbrook Center, four, seven, two. Center Hospital, will you please give me Mr. David Norton, please, room 14. Norton's residence. Norton's residence, I would like to speak to Mr. David Norton, please. One moment, please. I'll see if he's here. He'd better be, or I'll tell the doctor on him. He is not under the bed, ma'am. Well, look in the bed. Oh, yes, there he is. Oh, good. In the bed on his back. Who should I say is calling, ma'am? Just tell him it's his wife, please. His wife. Not again. Yes, again. One moment, please. I'll see if he wishes to speak to you again. Dolly well better wish to speak to me. Well, Claudia, old thing, poof, poof, it's at you. David, now stop the nonsense. Talk to me like a decent human being. What's so decent about being a human being? Oh, you dope. I think your concussion is more serious than Dr. Barry thinks. I think it's affected your brain. Where do you think my concussion was? Then you're feeling better? Who says I'm feeling better? Your butler says. Oh, him. What does he know about me? Darling, please, are you or are you not feeling better? What's it to you? Everything. Then, yes, I suppose I am feeling better. You didn't even have to tell me. I knew. Then why did you ask? Because I like to hear you say it. Is that so terrible? It's weak-minded. Everything about me is weak-minded about you. Do you miss me? A little. Do you love me? A little. Would you like me to come over and see you tonight? A little. Well, a little is all you miss and love and want me. I think I'll just spend a cozy evening at home with Mama. You sorry? A little. I think you're perfectly healthy or getting to be your plain old nasty self again. Darling, you do not call a man with a broken collarbone named. I shouldn't have bothered to call you at all. What are you doing? Nothing, just lying here, waiting for Dr. Barry to come. What are you doing? Nothing, not waiting for anybody to come. How's Bobby? He's fine. He's asleep. Pouring rain out, it's all wet. What has that got to do with Bobby? What do you think? Oh. The rain, he wished I were asleep too. Why don't you go to bed and take a nap? I'm not sleepy. Sometimes I think you had a concussion when you were a small baby. From what? Your nurse must have dropped you on your head. Oh, we couldn't afford a nurse. My mother did it. Oh. Well, what are you going to do now? I don't know. Wait for dinner. Later I'll drive over and see you when the rain stops. Well, drive carefully, you hear? I have to use the pick-up. The car's not back from the garage yet. Maybe I'll let Fritz drive me in the truck. Even better. Then I won't have to lie here and worry about you. Uh-oh. Here's Dr. Barry now. I have to hang up. David, don't hang up yet. What is it, Doc? Nothing. Except I love you. I love you, too. Very, very much. Tell Fritz to drive carefully. Goodbye. Goodbye. Who are you talking to, Claudia? Aren't you nosy? I learned it from you. Talking to David. Again? Why not again? Oh, poor phone bill. Sounds a lot better. Dr. Barry just walked in to see him. Did you give him my love? Who, Dr. Barry? Mama, he's a married man. Yes, Dr. Barry. Of course that's who I meant. Nope, I didn't give him your love. Oh, home rain, rain, rain, rain. Rain was nice when David was home. Made us feel more together. It's the same rain. No, it isn't. It was raining the morning of the accident. David and I were complimenting ourselves on how cozy it made us feel, how secure. Now I feel as if you and I were sitting in an island, in the middle of the big ocean of rain, all alone. Well, clear tonight. What are you doing? Well, I think I might as well start going through the bills or starting to come in. I think it's almost the first of the month. Would you like me to do it? You can just sign the checks. I do not want you to do it. I keep the budget in this family. Poor David has to spend three hours trying to balance the checkbook. This time I'm going to do it right. There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to add as well as the next man. No, no reason, but do you? But I'm not a man, am I? Now let me see. Find a pen and a pile of bills. Heavens, Mama. Every month this pile gets bigger. Wait till you see next month's with David's hospital expenses. Oh, don't mention it. Oh, well, I'm certainly not going to worry about that now. We still have David's bonus we haven't touched anyway. I'm not going to worry about money, Mama. I have plenty of other things to worry about. Well, for once you're right. Hush up and pay your bills. I want to count the number of stitches I've purled onto the needle. No, I thought it was the country I like about living on a farm. Isn't it? No, I don't think so. I think it's David I like about living on a farm. Without him it just isn't the same. Nothing would be. Nothing should be. Not even people look the same to me. Everybody's nice and everybody's been awfully thoughtful, maybe they only like me because of David. What are you trying to talk yourself into? I don't know. I guess I'm just being silly. I guess I just miss David, that's all. Not having him here makes me feel the rest of the world just doesn't care. Get back to your bills. Stop thinking so much. After dinner I'll drive over to the hospital. That's what I'll do. You've already seen him twice today. Do you begrudge me a little visit with my husband? He's supposed to rest. That's what I keep telling him. I give up. Mrs. Naughton, where are you hiding? We're right here in the living room, Mr. Tucker. Come on in. I'm in. The door was open so I'm in. I just came over to make a social call. Good. Hey ho, Mrs. Brown. Good to see you, Mr. Tucker. Always good to see you, ma'am. Yeah, give me a coat, Mr. Tucker. You're all wet. Well, a little wet never hurt a man. Good for him. Keep him watered like a better lilies and he'll grow fine. Still, give me a coat. I'll hang it up. Don't you want me to, Mama? Stay where you are, Claudia. I was going upstairs anyway. Almost time to give Bobby his bed. Yep. She sure is a fine cut of a woman, your mother. Mr. Tucker, how would you like to see my son? Frankly, Mrs. Naughton, I ain't got no use for mule and babies, even though it be yours. Well, at least you're honest about it. Mule and babies remind me too much of my sister, Delilah. No teeth and short disposition. Well, now, young lady, how's your husband? I just talked to him on the phone. He seems a lot better. I guess the times are coming for me to be gone to see him. It'll cheer him up, it will, it will. I'm sure it will. No, I don't believe in hospitals. Never been in one myself. Don't have to have my teeth pulled. I just let them fall out when they're good and ready. I don't even go to have my tonsils taken out. I still have them. Just where they grow. I suppose when a man gets into an automobile accident, the hospital's the only place for him. Dr. Barry said he really should stay there a while. There ain't never been an automobile accident in my whole family. Ain't never been an automobile. Until just recently. Yep, it's a terrible thing when an accident happens in a family. Terrible thing. Here today and gone tomorrow. Well, we're still here today, thank goodness. It's liable to make quite a dent. Oh, you should see our car. It's still being fixed. Oh, I don't mean, I don't mean in the fender. But the dollars don't come a-rollin' in like they should when a man's flat onto his back. Still, it ain't easy. That's trouble with marriage. What is? Yep, I near made the same mistake myself ten or twelve times. Near got myself tied up with a woman and a bunch of offsprings. But just when I was standing there teetering onto the brink, I says to myself, Jared Tucker, what if you got hit with one of them there newfangled automobiles? Who's gonna take care of the wife and the little ones? You certainly were farsighted. That was the one thing that never crossed my mind. David's either, I'm sure. Well, as I say, you never think a tragedy until it shakes your hand. Except Jared Tucker. He thought of it. To such a point that it never shook your hand. Well, I might have missed a bit of something for not marrying, but I missed a bit of something else too. I think I'd rather take my chances with life. Well, at any rate, since you never did tie myself up with no one woman, I got quite a big fat sock stashed away for a rainy day. Oh, not this kind of rain. I hope you never get caught in any other kind, Mr. Tucker. Oh, don't matter so much about me. I'm still plenty strong and young. I can fight my way through any rain, but it's the poor helpless females that need help. Women and children like you. Like me? Yes, Mrs. Naughton. I don't quite know how to say it or put it. I ain't used to playing this role, but it seems to me like you're caught in the rain. So I've run you over part of what's cumulated in my sock. Mr. Tucker, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I don't like to be blunt, Mrs. Naughton. But this ain't charity I'm offering, because I ain't a charitable man by nature. I just thought you might need a few, well, a few dollars to help you along until Mr. Naughton's back on to his feet again. You mean you're offering to lend me money? No, you ain't hurt, are you? I know young folks are proud and hate to accept or borrow money, but I ain't lending it to you to make you feel bad. I'm giving it to you to make you feel good. Someday I might even let you do the same to me, if that'll make you feel better. Mr. Tucker, that's one of the sweetest things that anybody's ever offered me. I just wished I needed your money. I'd love to accept it, but unfortunately I don't need any. You sure of that now? Yeah, I'm sure. Believe me, I'm sorry. Maybe I can manage things, so in a few weeks I will need some help from you, but right now I don't. So all I can do is thank you a million times for your offer. You ain't being embarrassed? No, I'm not. I'm being flattered. Well, just call me in case you ever need it. It's here for you. And I hope, Mrs. Naughton, I hope you'll take it. I'll take it. I promise. And Mr. Tucker, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Oh, heck, Mrs. Naughton, you ain't got nothing to thank me about. You ain't took the money I offered. No, I didn't take the money, but it's the offer, I think. You're doing a heck of a lot of thanking for nothing, you know. Well, this time it's not for me and it's not for the offer. It's for something a lot greater. Well, speak up, speak up. It's for being a real neighbor, for giving David and me a place where we'll be proud to live and proud to be your neighbors. Oh, that's probably David now. Hello? David, just a minute, darling. Let me talk to that young rascal. I got a thing or two I want to tell him about his wife. If you don't get out of that hospital quick, it better not say I didn't warn him. Yep, you're the kind of girl I could spot, you know, Mrs. Naughton. You should never forget how lucky he is. You got a right smart head on your shoulders. Even if you have help around the house, there are probably a good many duties that fall to you unless your life is unlike that of most American housewives today. Whatever your duties, cooking, cleaning, laundering, dishes, you'll find that a pause for ice-cold Coca-Cola enables you to work refreshed. The six-bottle carton of Coke is still only 25 cents. Better pick up a carton next time you're out. Say, wait a minute there, young feller. Oh, Mr. Tucker. Always glad to have a chat with you, Mr. Tucker. Have you been over to the hospital to see Mr. Naughton yet? No, no, I haven't, not yet. Well, I ain't either. Been kind of busy around here, you know. Well, actually, I don't think David should have too many visitors yet, do you? Well, I guess not. I guess his wife needs him instead of him. I think you're right. I'll be around tomorrow. And if you hadn't heard before, you know now, so will Paradiso. What about? The barn. Oh, I'll take care of that. So I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. King. Yes, and that means fireworks. Okay, Mr. Tucker, see you then. As I was about to say, every day, Monday through Friday, Claudia comes to you transcribed with the best wishes of your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola. So listen again tomorrow at the same time. And now this is Joe King saying, Au revoir. And remember, whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment, think of Coca-Cola. For Coca-Cola makes any pause the pause that refreshes. And ice-cold Coca-Cola is everywhere. These broadcasts are adapted for radio by Manya Starr. And the entire production is supervised and directed by William Brown Maloney. And now here's a word from your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.