A newly heartbroken, recently traumatized woman (39+) poses as a psychic medium to meet eligible widowers and to earn some fast cash, then discovers that she can actually see the dead wives from the grief group of men she counsels, which opens a Pandora’s Box of problems, theirs and hers.  After she falls for one of the men, his dead wife appears in her kitchen one night and claims that he killed her. An unlikely friendship develops, but is haunted by the question: Is she her best friend and truly trying to help navigate this relationship, or is she lying, jealous, and vindictive, hellbent on derailing her new romance?

Also a novel and short story.

SYNOPSIS:

The main character, MADDIE STONE has recently lost just about everything from her ‘previous’ life in Northern CA (her job to budget cuts, her live-in boyfriend to another man, her home, and all of her money). With no other options, so she moves back to Chicago to live with her Femme Fatale mother, GYPSY STONE (60) to create the next chapter of her life and to resolve some issues from her past. The deceased wives from the grief group have literally lost everything and need to create the next chapter in their spiritual evolution, which will be enhanced if they can resolve some issues from their pasts so they all reach out to Maddie. Everyone strives to reinvent and/or reincarnate themselves and they all discover that, it’s not all the way over when it’s over.

PILOT EPISODE: Medium Well

TEASER: After Maddie catches her boyfriend of ten years (STEVIE) in bed with another man, she signs up for a week at a spa to escape/relax, but discovers that it’s a silent meditation retreat. Once alone with her thoughts, her life’s most traumatic moments flash like fireworks into her consciousness, culminating in a Big Inner Scream, which serves as a catalyst for a ‘door’ being open to another realm. She screams aloud, then gestures that she was sleeping or going crazy. She hears a door creaking open, which corresponds to a quick shot of the OTHER SIDE OF LIFE where several women are near a big oak tree with a door in it. The creaking sounds calls their attention. Unaware that this release of rage shifted something in her psyche, Maddie is shocked when a deranged looking female apparition (MAMUSHKA) shows up and instructs her to tell another participant (SOBBING SOFIA) these three locations: in the freezer/wrapped in bacon, behind the velvet Elvis, and in the green vibrator. Maddie freaks out, convinced that her inner Schizophrenic has just emerged. At the end of the week, she makes a deal with the apparition, she’ll share the locations in exchange for no more visits. Before she drives off, the meditation leader at Quiet Camp tells her that since she has been ‘unplugged’ for the week, wildfires have ravaged her neighborhood. Maddie is now homeless and losing her mind.

ACT ONE: With no where else to go, Maddie flies back to Chicago to live with her Femme Fatale mother, GYPSY who is between husbands (she’s had five) and is determined to get Maddie married before she’s forty. Gypsy doesn’t want Maddie to miss out on the best part of her life, having a daughter. Maddie wants children, but isn’t sure about a husband after living through so many of Gypsy’s divorces and her recent discovery of Stevie’s infidelity. Gypsy has inventive ideas about how to find eligible men (meet all the Rabbis in town and get first dibs on any fresh widowers). Maddie sees another apparition of an elegant woman in the elevator. She’s not sure if it’s an apparition because the elevator doors close so quickly. Maddie reconnects with her best, childhood friend, CRISPY a formerly gay male who has newly transitioned to a female. Maddie meets her at her New Age cafe and bookstore called, The Expanding Heart. A longtime friend and mentor, Maddie shares her challenges with Crispy, especially her money woes. She gets a call from Sobbing Sofia, thanking her for the information and insisting on giving her a reward. She Venmos Maddie twenty-five thousand dollars, which is a huge gift and could change Maddie’s life. However, the money is frozen and so are her bank accounts. The answer to her financial problem is (almost) within reach. What the hell is happening to her? Is her life in Mercury Retrograde?

ACT TWO: Maddie works with Crispy at the cafe and agrees to lead the Grief Group that meets on Wednesday nights. She’s an art therapist, but can stand in for their therapist who died recently of a heart attack. Here, she meets the five widowers HARVEY HAMMERSTEIN, a handsome ER doctor who’s still grieving the loss of his young wife and is ripe for a new romance. He’s instantly attracted to Maddie. Crispy has a crush on one of the other guys (BOBBY). The three other men, Gary, Frank, and Joe each tell their stories. At the end of the grief group, Crispy announces that Maddie is available for private counseling sessions and as a psychic medium. Maddie looks stunned, but plays along. After they’re gone, she insists that this is a bad idea because she’s a horrible liar and has a conscience, but she could use the money and does kind of like that handsome Harvey. When she returns back to Gypsy’s condo, she finds her mother attempting to cook dinner for a man (BARRY) who is a lawyer and offers to help Maddie chase an inheritance from her biological father who dies years ago. Maddie wonders if this is one of Gypsy’s schemes since her biological father never left his wife and kids for Gypsy and Maddie. She googles Harvey’s dead wife and finds a video of her skiing, laughing and shrieking on some challenging slopes. Later that night as she’s falling asleep, she thinks she hears the same sounds in the kitchen.

ACT THREE: Back at the Expanding Heart Cafe, Maddie confides in Crispy that she knew in her soul that Stevie was cheating on her and wonders why she put up with it. Crispy suggests that he was ‘safe’ as a romantic partner because Gypsy would never want to sleep with him. As she’s pondering this, two FBI agents enter and question her about Sobbing and Sofia and Mamushka who are international jewelry thieves. They froze the assets in Maddie’s Venmo account, which lead them to her. She’s now a suspect. There was no way to know if the apparition was a ‘good witch or bad witch’ as they say. Crispy insists that Maddie is psychic, then Harvey arrives for a session to corroborate her alibi. Maddie is catapulted into her first session as a fake psychic. At first she’s freaked out because she’s a terrible liar, then she loves the power and position it gives her with this new romantic interest. The session goes well, and Harvey is reduced to tears. He’s so moved that he asks her out. Later, Maddie confesses to Crispy that she made it all up, but that she could tell what he needed to hear. She feels like a fraud, but also loves the feeling of power and connectedness. She goes to Barry’s office to ask about her biological father whom she never met. He thinks there’s a chance for an inheritance, which would give her some freedom. She meets Harvey and his friend, JOE (a Chicago cop, also from the grief group) at a restaurant and is confronted with an impromptu psychic session. She fails miserably! She makes stuff up about his wife’s illness, and is called out for her bullshit. She admits that she’s full of it and excuses herself to go throw up. She’s really a mess. At the end of the dinner, she blurts out the word, ‘banana,’ which was their secret, code word for sex. Joe gets very emotional and now believes she’s psychic.

ACT FOUR: Maddie recounts the roller coaster of the Joe session as AGENT ROSENBERG (one of the FBI guys) returns off-duty and asks Maddie for a session. Crispy refuses, afraid that Maddie will incriminate herself. Rosenberg seems smitten with Maddie and tells her that he really wants to contact his mother who he believes may have been murdered. Maddie still won’t give him a session, but they form a kind of unspoken connection. While he’s there, a flower delivery arrives (from Joe, thanking her for the session) and another package arrives from Harvey with expensive perfume and a gift card to an upscale department store where Maddie and Crispy shop for her date. Maddie has a bit of a meltdown because she doesn’t know her own style. She’s done with hippie chic, but can’t see herself in skimpy slut wear. She asks Crispy to just decide for her, tell her what to wear, but Crispy loves her too much and would rather help her find her own style. The big date arrives. Maddie looks stunning, classy and sensual. Harvey is even more smitten with her. They eat, dance, kiss, and kiss some more. It’s a very hot date.

ACT FIVE: After their first, steamy date, Maddie speaks to Harvey from her bathtub. It’s very seductive, then he asks her if she can predict the future, specifically if she knows who’s going to win the Bears/Packers game on Sunday. She doesn’t. She realizes that she might be getting in over her head, metaphorically. After she goes to sleep, she hears noises in the kitchen and discovers that she actually is psychic as she meets Harvey’s deceased wife, JESSIE HAMMERSTEIN with her sidekick, PAT BURTON (Joe’s deceased wife.) The two wives are up to their usual antics. They devour her food and are extremely entertaining, until Jessie claims that she didn’t die from suicide, but insists that Harvey killed her. They disappear. Maddie is left stunned and confused in the kitchen, crestfallen and furious. The wives burst back through the door in the tree on the ‘energetic’ side of life. END.

WIVES WITHOUT BORDERS: ONE-HOUR PILOT