1

LAURA

JOHN SAW THE WHOLE THING!

ARTHUR ...You shut your mouth, Laura. You shut your mouth right now. You have no idea what you’re talking about.

LAURA I still sleep with the lights on because of you. Do you know that?

ARTHUR DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I’VE SACRIFICED SO YOU COULD SLEEP WITH THE FUCKING LIGHTS ON?

LAURA I DON’T CARE!

ARTHUR BECAUSE ALL YOU EVER CARED ABOUT WAS YOURSELF!

LAURA No, that’s not true.

ARTHUR That’s why you left. You don’t give a shit about me or your mother.

LAURA Mike left too, you know.

ARTHUR And I wish to God he was here and you weren’t.

ARTHUR I don’t blame him though.

LAURA Of course not. Why would you? He probably would’ve helped you push, right?

Arthur SLAPS Laura across the face.

2

ARTHUR Let me tell you something about Mike. Mike doesn’t need thirteen different medications to get through his day. Mike doesn’t call us at three in the morning and scare the shit out of us because he took all of them at the same time. Mike has never once asked us to foot the bill to get his stomach pumped, or to refill the medications that we just paid to pump out of him in the first place!

LAURA Don’t make this about me-

ARTHUR Of course it’s about you, it is about you, everything has to be about you! Have you ever bothered to stop and try to calculate how many thousands of dollars she sent your way every year?

LAURA No, be quiet. That’s not-

ARTHUR You grew up here! Do you really think we have that kind of money? How much debt do you think we’re in right now? Go on, guess.

LAURA Shut up, Dad.

ARTHUR Do you even remember calling her that day? She was already pulling out her checkbook before she even made it down the hall. She was snorting these pitiful, snivelling tears.

LAURA I... I needed some...

ARTHUR You took a beautiful, selfless woman and corroded her into a... a sucker. I begged her to stop taking your phone calls. Begged. But she couldn’t help it. If it was me against you, she was going to pick you every time, even if it meant ruining both of our lives. I hated her for that. She hated herself for it!

LAURA Mom loved me!

3

ARTHUR I didn’t push her, Laura. You did.

Laura pulls out ARTHUR’S GUN.

ARTHUR So. That’s how it is.