by Brad Fraser
CAROLYN
Good.
DAVID
You’re not here to pick her up?
CAROLYN
What happened in Montreal?
DAVID
Montreal?
CAROLYN
Kane never mentioned running into you.
DAVID
Nothing important happened.
CAROLYN
I don’t believe you.
DAVID
I don’t care.
CAROLYN
You gave Madison a job so you can stay connected to Kane.
DAVID
I did it to piss you off Carolyn. Because you don’t know anything about what Kane and I had and you have no right to qualify it.
CAROLYN
He didn’t have an identity with you.
DAVID
And he does with you?
CAROLYN
Marriage takes work.
DAVID
So does denial.
CAROLYN
I know you fucked my husband in Montreal.
DAVID
You didn’t think twice about fucking him when he was with me.
CAROLYN
I didn’t know.
DAVID
You knew.
CAROLYN
Not for the first while. He never mentioned you and neither did anyone else. By the time he told me everything it was too late. I loved him. Trust me—I’ve felt guilty about it ever since.
DAVID
Good.
CAROLYN
So I’m sorry. If I took him away from you and broke your heart or ruined your life or whatever I’m sorry.
DAVID
You didn’t take him away from me. It was already over. I knew how uncomfortable Kane was in our relationship. Never—completely there. I tried telling myself we could make it work but it took so much effort. Eventually I wanted out. I wanted to go away. I wanted to be gay. Really gay not pretend straight. I was always secretly grateful that you were there to make it easier for him.
CAROLYN
Oh please.
DAVID
Believe what you want.
Pause.
CAROLYN
When you were with him. Did he ever go away sometimes? In his head. Like he was dreaming about being somewhere else—with someone else?
DAVID
He does that with you too?
CAROLYN
Yes. I always assumed he was thinking about you.
DAVID
I assumed he was thinking about women.
CAROLYN
You didn’t fuck him in Montreal?
DAVID
No.
CAROLYN
Truly?
DAVID
Whatever happened all those years ago—it doesn’t matter now. I have no designs on your husband so why don’t you quit pissing around and deal with whatever the real problem is.
CAROLYN
Excuse me?
DAVID
You started this whole thing.
CAROLYN
I did not. Madison.
DAVID
It was you who invited me to dinner Carolyn. It was you who made those ignorant gay comments that were bound to piss me off. It’s you who keeps digging up the past. You.
CAROLYN
People were talking.
DAVID
If you’d just left well enough alone it would have died down when nothing happened.
CAROLYN
What are you suggesting?
DAVID
That you’re using me to create drama to cover up some other inadequacy in your marriage.
CAROLYN
Oh for God’s sake.
DAVID’s cellphone rings.
DAVID
Maybe you’re trying to use me as an excuse for something you’re afraid to do yourself.
The cellphone rings again.
CAROLYN
Like what?
The cellphone rings again.
DAVID
I’m sorry your hour is up. Please pay the receptionist on your way out.
CAROLYN
Goodbye.
DAVID
Bye.
CAROLYN exits. DAVID answers his phone.
Hi. Of course you’re all right. Still I worry. Is it chaos? No doubt. Has anyone claimed responsibility? Terrorists are the only ones who do anymore.
Lights rise on the kitchen. KANE, ROYCE and MADISON are at the table drinking coffee and looking very tired.
MADISON
It’s two nineteen.
KANE
I’m starting to get really worried.
ROYCE
Where would she go?
KANE
Maybe we should call the cops.
MADISON
She hasn’t been gone long enough to call the cops.
ROYCE
Maybe she’s skipped town.
MADISON
She’s been strange lately.
ROYCE
Lately?
KANE
Your mother deals with a lot of different pressures. You have to give her a break once in a while.
MADISON
You’re right.
CAROLYN enters.
Where the fuck have you been?
CAROLYN
Out. Driving. Thinking about a new car. I went by the old neighbourhood. Did you know the Safeway’s gone?
KANE
You couldn’t call?
CAROLYN
No.
KANE
Was your cell dead?
CAROLYN
No.
KANE
What’s wrong?
CAROLYN
I needed some. Time. Alone.
ROYCE
Alone?
CAROLYN
To think.
Pause.
KANE
Did you go anywhere else?
CAROLYN
Yes.
KANE
Where?
Pause.
To his restaurant?
CAROLYN
Yes.
MADISON
You saw David?
CAROLYN
Yes.
MADISON
Why?
CAROLYN
To talk.
MADISON
About what?
Pause.
KANE
He told you didn’t he?
Pause.
Did he tell you?
Pause.
He fucking told you. That prick.
MADISON
What did he tell you?
Pause.
KANE
Everything. He told you everything didn’t he?
Pause.
Okay we had sex. At his hotel. We did.
MADISON
I knew it.
ROYCE
Duh.
Pause.
KANE
But the other thing. It was—it wasn’t real. I was just—nervous. Scared. I thought I could go back.
MADISON
Back?
KANE
There’s no way I would’ve gone through with it. I was relieved when he said no.
ROYCE
You wanted him to take you back?
KANE
I was get
ting married. Going to be a father. Carolyn I was so fucking scared. I never would have went back to him for real. Never.
Long pause.
CAROLYN
He told me nothing happened. He looked me right in the eye and I bought it.
Longer pause.
KANE
Fuck.
CAROLYN
I think we should—re-evaluate our living situation.
MADISON
What does that mean?
CAROLYN
I’d like to live elsewhere for a while.
ROYCE
You can’t leave. You’re the mom.
CAROLYN
The mom can leave. If the kids are grown up.
ROYCE
I’m not fucking grown up.
ROYCE exits.
MADISON
Wow.
KANE
It’s the past.
CAROLYN
I should’ve just trusted my feelings.
KANE
It doesn’t matter anymore.
CAROLYN
You’re right. Good night.
KANE
Where are you sleeping?
CAROLYN
Guess.
CAROLYN exits.
KANE
I just—I can’t explain it.
Pause.
MADISON
I understand.
MADISON exits. Lights rise on DAVID opening a bag of clean linens and sorting them into piles. He hums to himself as he works. ROYCE enters holding a rifle aimed directly at DAVID’s head.
DAVID
You don’t want to do this.
ROYCE
Wanna bet.
DAVID
It’ll make everything worse.
ROYCE
Won’t matter if I’m dead.
DAVID
It’ll matter to your parents and sister. A lot.
ROYCE
I’m gonna kill you and then I’m going to go to the school to kill a few people there.
DAVID
It’s three a.m.
ROYCE
I mean in the morning. Right after classes start. Then we’ll see who’s fucking laughing.
DAVID
You have a single-shot twenty-two dude. Someone’ll bring you down before you reload.
ROYCE
I’ll have all night to practise on your dead body.
DAVID
Someone’s gonna hear the shot and call the cops.
ROYCE
I can deal with it.
DAVID
Think about your future Royce.
ROYCE
I don’t have a fucking future.
DAVID
Yes you do and it’ll be better.
ROYCE
Like standing up for myself was supposed to be better?
DAVID
Sure.
ROYCE pulls his shirt up with one hand, revealing dark, painful bruises.
ROYCE
This is what standing up for myself got me.
DAVID
Jesus.
ROYCE
There were six of them. They wouldn’t stop kicking me when I was down. This teacher finally broke it up but I could tell from the way he looked at me he didn’t want to. Like I deserved it for being ugly or something.
DAVID
Put the gun down so we can talk properly.
ROYCE
No.
DAVID
Royce.
ROYCE
I’ll shoot you. I mean it.
Pause.
DAVID
I can give you a job.
ROYCE
Too late.
DAVID
Do you want me to fuck you?
ROYCE
Sex is gross.
DAVID
Everyone has sexual feelings.
ROYCE
I don’t. I’ve been looking at porn since I was eight years old and it’s the most repulsive thing I’ve ever seen.
DAVID
Then why are you looking at it?
ROYCE
Hoping something’ll kick in. Everyone’s fucking hooked on it. Guys at school have hardcore porn on their iPods—their cellphones. I know girls in the tenth grade who run fuck sites out of their bedrooms. Sigfreid’s got this sick shit you wouldn’t believe. I had to threaten to tell his parents about it to get the gun.
DAVID
Real sex isn’t like porn.
ROYCE
I know. That weird fucking sound my dad makes. And her. You’d never hear that in a movie.
DAVID
Sex makes people do stupid things.
ROYCE
Y’think?
DAVID
Look at your parents. At me. But you don’t have this stupid weakness. You won’t make those same mistakes. You’re actually lucky.
ROYCE
Don’t try getting all confidential with me like you understand Mr. Perfect Teeth Mr. Wonderful Hair.
DAVID
It’s a weave.
ROYCE
What?
DAVID
Everything above my ears is a careful fake attached to my own thinning hair by invisible microfibres.
ROYCE
Get out.
DAVID
Check for yourself.
ROYCE
You’ll just try to grab the gun.
DAVID
No look. I’ll put my hands behind my back. Just feel.
ROYCE touches the top of DAVID’s head.
See.
ROYCE
Weird. Like Astroturf.
DAVID
My smile?
ROYCE
Yeah.
DAVID
Forty thousand dollars.
ROYCE
Shut up.
DAVID
Not a single filling. Who do you know that doesn’t have a single filling? And this waistline.
ROYCE
Yeah?
DAVID
Three inches removed with liposuction. Five grand.
ROYCE
No way.
DAVID
If you look just at the bottom of my eyebrows you can see very faint scars from the eye lift. Seven large. I also spend four days a week at the gym working out for at least two hours. I eat plain chicken breast raw vegetables and rice cakes for most of the week and I just fucking hate it.
ROYCE
Then why do you do it?
DAVID
Because I don’t want to be discarded. I don’t want to be not sexy. Not viable. Not yet. See. It makes us all do crazy things and you’re blessed if you seriously aren’t interested.
ROYCE
Quit talking.
DAVID
Am I making too much sense?
ROYCE
You’re pissing me off.
DAVID
Royce if you were going to shoot me you would have done it by now.
Pause.
Put the gun down. We can talk.
Pause.
ROYCE
Are you going to call the cops?
DAVID
Not if you give me the rifle.
ROYCE
You can’t tell my parents.
DAVID
We’ll work something out.
ROYCE
Work something out?
<
br /> DAVID
Give me the gun.
ROYCE hands DAVID the rifle.
ROYCE
Mom’s leaving.
DAVID
Why?
ROYCE
Because of Montreal. I don’t.
DAVID suddenly hits ROYCE with the butt of the gun, very hard on the bruised area. ROYCE screams in pain.
Ow! Fuck! What did you do that for?
DAVID
That’s the first bullet hitting a Mormon girl you don’t even know.
ROYCE
What?! Shit.
DAVID hits ROYCE again in the bruised area. ROYCE screams.
DAVID
That’s the second bullet hitting a Chinese kid from your English class.
ROYCE
Okay! I get it!
DAVID
This isn’t a fucking game. People get hurt. Really hurt. And it’s never the bullies who get it.
DAVID hits ROYCE.
ROYCE
Don’t hurt me anymore!
DAVID
Get up.
ROYCE
Don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me anymore. Please don’t. Please.
DAVID sets the rifle on the table and kneels down to help ROYCE up. ROYCE throws his arms around DAVID and sobs. DAVID holds ROYCE and soothes him. Lights rise on CAROLYN passing through the kitchen with extra linen. KANE is opening a beer.
KANE
Marriages go through phases.
CAROLYN
This isn’t a phase.
KANE
It is. It’s part of marriage. Right now we don’t like each other very much.
CAROLYN
You don’t like me?
KANE
Of course I do. I love you. But when you’re acting like this. Look we knew when we decided to commit that there were going to be bad times. But we swore we weren’t going to be like other parents and throw in the towel or establish a bloodless partnership for the sake of appearances. Sure there have been occasional times when I’ve hated you or was repulsed by the thought of touching you—and I know you’ve felt the same way about me. But we’re a team Carolyn. We built this house as a team we run our business as a team we raised our kids as a team.
CAROLYN
I know.
KANE
That’s a pretty big accomplishment to toss away.
CAROLYN
I’m not tossing it away. I’m just—thinking about moving on to some other accomplishment.
KANE
Please don’t say that.
CAROLYN
What if David had said yes? Taken you back.
KANE
He didn’t.
CAROLYN
You’d be living with him and I’d be raising Madison on my own.
KANE moves to CAROLYN and puts his arms around her.
KANE
I get drunk on the way you smell. My dick gets chubby at the sound of your voice. I can’t imagine sleeping without your body next to mine. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.
CAROLYN has gotten turned on. She tries to get away from him.
