TINA and BOBBY walk on.

BOBBY:  Only thing he says is, “You have to answer yes to all these questions or you don’t get the job. Do you have a licence? Do you have a safe driving record? Can you drive a standard shift? Can you sew?”

TINA:  Can you what?

BOBBY:  Sew. Because when I’m not delivering the carpets I’m supposed to be sewing binding around all these leftover pieces to make little mats. So yeah, I tell him I can sew.

TINA:  You lie.

BOBBY:  Right. Because what’s one more lie?

TINA:  You lied about something else?

BOBBY:  Yeah. About the standard shift. Man, I was sure that was going to be the deal breaker.

TINA:  Oh. But not the sewing.

BOBBY:  Before I even got to the sewing, it was the stick shift I had to worry about. I mean, how was I gonna fake that, right? I’m pretty good at faking things but –

TINA:  What? No, you’re not.

BOBBY:  I faked my way all the way through high school, Tina.

TINA:  Is that what you think?

BOBBY:  It’s the truth.

TINA:  No, it’s bullshit. You think you tricked those teachers or something? Most of them passed you outta pity.

BOBBY:  Pity? Whatya talking about?

TINA:  They felt sorry for you, Bobby.

BOBBY:  Why?

TINA:  For the same reason a lot of people do.

BOBBY:  Yeah, and what’s that?

TINA:  I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure that out. Anyway it was pity and nothing else that got you through school.

BOBBY:  That’s your opinion.

TINA:  That’s everyone’s opinion.

BOBBY:  Everyone’s? Come on. Okay. My dad’s for sure but he’s just –

TINA:  What happened?

BOBBY:  When?

TINA:  When you tried to drive the store’s car.

BOBBY:  It wasn’t a car. You can’t deliver carpets in a freakin’ car. It was a shitty old VW van, which I taught myself how to drive in an hour in the parking lot.

TINA:  Really?

BOBBY:  Well good enough to get the thing moving and start my deliveries. And I had like twelve of them, right? So that’s twelve times carrying these monster freakin’ carpets up three, four sometimes five flights of stairs because none of the buildings around here have elevators for some reason.

TINA:  Well most of them are public housing. And they didn’t put fancy things like elevators in them.

BOBBY:  Right. So what are people in public housing doing buying carpets anyway?

TINA:  Why shouldn’t they have carpets?

BOBBY:  I’m not saying they shouldn’t have them. I’m saying why do they need them.

TINA:  That store’s merchandise is cheap shit. They shouldn’t even have cheap, shitty carpets on their floors? Is that what you’re saying? Only people who live in buildings with elevators should have carpets, so you wouldn’t have to carry them up the stairs . . . I’m probably going to wind up in public housing.

BOBBY:  No fucking way.

TINA:  Yeah. Probably. And if I do, I might like a carpet for our child to play on instead of that stupid parquet crap. But forget about me. You just keep complaining.

BOBBY:  I wasn’t complaining. I was just telling you something.

TINA:  It sounded like you were complaining.

BOBBY:  Well I wasn’t. Not that I couldn’t after what happened.

TINA:  Which was what?

BOBBY:  I threw out my back.

TINA:  Really?

BOBBY:  Yeah, and I was in a lot of pain from it too.

TINA:  Really. And this is from carrying carpets . . .

BOBBY:  Yeah. And carrying them up five flights of stairs. So it was bad.

TINA:  How bad? I mean, could you walk?

BOBBY:  I could walk. But it hurt. So you know, I thought I’d better lie down for a while, right?

TINA:  Yeah. Lie down where?

BOBBY:  In the van. You know, in the back. So I did that. And I guess I fell asleep.

TINA:  You guess?

BOBBY:  Not really.

TINA:  So you did fall asleep. In the middle of the day, while you were supposed to be working . . . you had a nap.

BOBBY:  Yeah. But just because of my back.

TINA:  Right. And when you woke up?

BOBBY:  It was kinda late.

TINA:  Whatya mean by “kinda late”?

BOBBY:  Kinda . . . dark.

TINA:  Dark. You mean like it gets at night.

BOBBY:  Yeah. And . . . when I got back to the store the boss was just about to close up. And guess what he tells me? He tells me he called the cops because he thought I’d stolen the van.

TINA:  Great.

BOBBY:  But there I was. So I hadn’t actually done that. So that was good. I mean, that’s what I thought. But he fired me anyway.

TINA:  For coming back so late . . .

BOBBY:  No, because of the transmission.

TINA:  There was something wrong with the transmission?

BOBBY:  Oh yeah. It was totally fucked. You know, because of my lack of experience in driving with a clutch. Plus a few other things were troubling him.

TINA:  What things?

BOBBY:  Things about the carpets. Some of them . . . weren’t where they were supposed to be.

TINA:  You mean you messed up the deliveries.

BOBBY:  Some of them. Hey, it was my first day.

TINA:  Yeah, but one day is all you usually last on a job anyway so –

BOBBY:  So what’s the big deal you mean?

TINA:  No. Well yeah.

BOBBY:  Okay first off, that’s not true.

TINA:  Your last four jobs . . . one day, a day and a half, two days, half a day . . .

BOBBY:  Half a day?

TINA:  You didn’t last past lunchtime delivering those flyers.

BOBBY:  There was no lunchtime. And that’s just one of the ways that job was totally humiliating. Anyway, this carpet store thing was a different situation.

TINA:  But with pretty much the same result.

BOBBY:  Okay look . . . here’s what I think is happening.

TINA:  Or not happening.

BOBBY:  It’s really all about me finding something I’m, you know, supposed to be doing.

TINA:  What’s that mean? “Supposed to be”?

BOBBY:  It means I should only be looking for work I’m suited to.

TINA:  Okay but what if you’re not suited to anything.

BOBBY:  Come on. There’s gotta be something. I mean, I’m not slow. Slow people, okay . . . it’s possible they’re not really good at anything but –

TINA:  But they try.

BOBBY:  I try.

TINA:  Maybe they try harder. Maybe they’re not all tied up looking for something they’re “suited to.” Someone gives them a task and they try to do it.

BOBBY:  Okay sure. If you’re gonna put it that way. I mean, a task, that’s just –

TINA:  You want a task? Get a job. And try to keep it.

BOBBY:  Okay. But that might take some time because –

TINA:  Because why? Because you are fucking slow?!

BOBBY:  Hey. What’s wrong with you? How come you’re being so mean about this? You used to be –

TINA:  I have a kid. I don’t have as much time as I used to. You know, to listen to you complain.

BOBBY:  I’m not complaining. I’m . . . explaining. Hey, did you hear that? I rhymed. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, by the way. I mean, it’s usually accidental, but if it comes naturally like that –

TINA:  What are you talking about?

BOBBY:  Maybe I could rap. Rappers can make a fuck of a lot of money.

TINA:  Jesus Christ.

BOBBY:  I’m just saying it’s a possibility.

TINA:  Come on. You really think there’s a possibility you could be a successful rapper?

BOBBY:  No. I guess I don’t.

TINA:  So it’s something that just popped into your head. Do you think you could cut that out for a while. You know, letting yourself get sidetracked by things that just –

BOBBY:  It seemed like a possibility for a moment. But when you asked me if it really was, then it wasn’t. Thanks.

TINA:  Do you have any money?

BOBBY:  On me?

TINA:  On you, in the bank, under your mattress, wherever.

BOBBY:  There’s a cheque. The carpet-store owner owes me for a day’s work. But it needs to be picked up.

TINA:  Okay so could you do that? I need to buy some things for Holly.

BOBBY:  Things like what?

TINA:  Do you really need to know? Can’t you just get the cheque like I asked?

BOBBY:  No.

TINA:  Why not, Bobby?

BOBBY:  Well it’s just that I’m a little scared of the guy. I think he came pretty close to hitting me when he found out about the van’s transmission.

TINA:  So you’ll just have to suck it up, won’t you? I need money. Holly needs new shoes.

BOBBY:  Already? What’s wrong with the ones we just bought her?

TINA:  You mean three months ago?

BOBBY:  She needs a new pair after just three –

TINA:  They don’t fit.

BOBBY:  Are you sure?

TINA:  She says they hurt her. Maybe she’s lying. Maybe you should just come over and shake the truth out of her. Find out what the hell the little bitch is trying to pull.

BOBBY:  Come on, Tina, I was just –

TINA:  They don’t fit! Okay?!

BOBBY:  Sure. Yeah . . . And your government allowance didn’t come?

TINA:  It came and went. You have to go get that cheque.

BOBBY:  It’s not much.

TINA:  It’s better than nothing.

BOBBY:  He might want to hold on to it to cover things.

TINA:  What things?

BOBBY:  You know, the transmission . . .

TINA:  He can’t do that.

BOBBY:  Why not?

TINA:  It’s against the law.

BOBBY:  Are you sure?

TINA:  No. But it’s what you could tell him.

BOBBY:  Could you?

TINA:  I’m sorry?

BOBBY:  You could take Holly. I mean, even if he doesn’t care what the law is, if you’re standing there with a toddler looking really sad or maybe even crying . . . that’s gotta make him wanna hand it over.

TINA:  You want me to cry. Are you sure you don’t want me to beg too? Hey maybe I could dress Holly in rags and wipe shit on her face.

BOBBY:  Come on. It was just a sugges –

TINA:  You have to start getting it together, Bobby! You really do!!

BOBBY:  Like you think I don’t know that. There’s nothing I want more in the freakin’ world than to get it together!

TINA:  Yeah?

BOBBY:  Yeah!

TINA:  Why?

BOBBY:  (touches her hair) You know, so you’ll let me be with you and Holly. Because the two of you are the most important things in my life.

He kisses her. They hug. Then suddenly she pushes him away.

TINA:  No.

BOBBY:  No what?

TINA:  This isn’t that movie.

BOBBY:  What?

TINA:  It’s not that movie or that TV show or whatever it is you’ve got in your head. It’s our life. And it’s still fucked up, and some kiss isn’t going to . . . Look, whatever you have to do, just do it for yourself, okay? Don’t go thinking about me and you and Holly in that way. I mean, all together.

BOBBY:  Why not?

TINA:  Because it might not happen.

BOBBY:  It has to happen. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

TINA:  In your movie . . .

BOBBY:  No, for real. It’s gotta happen for real.

TINA:  No. It’s too hard. Trying to make it happen is just too hard. And scary and sad.

BOBBY:  Why?

TINA:  Because I can’t rely on you.

BOBBY:  Not right now you can’t. But this is just a phase I’m going through.

TINA:  No, it’s not. Unless you’ve been in this “phase” since you were nine.

BOBBY:  That wasn’t a phase. That was just me. You know, and my problems with . . .

TINA:  Concentrating.

BOBBY:  Yeah or . . .

TINA:  Making decisions.

BOBBY:  Yeah, all that stuff. That’s just me. This is an actual phase where I can’t hold on to a job and earn money on a regular basis. I’ve earned money in the past though, right? I had a job I didn’t get fired from. It’s not my fault that factory closed. I was really thrown by that. I thought I had a job for life. Okay, it wasn’t anything I really wanted to do, but I was willing to hang in there basically forever. So I got thrown. And it’s like I’ve got . . . you know, post-traumatic stress.

TINA:  (to herself) Post-traumatic stress . . .

Sound of blaring a siren going by on the street outside the park. BOBBY watches until it is out of sight. TINA watches BOBBY, then sits and just puts her head down.

BOBBY:  (turning back to her) Why you doing that, T? . . . Tina? Why do you have your head between your legs like that? You crying?

TINA:  No . . .

BOBBY:  You are, aren’t you? You’re crying.

TINA:  I’m not crying, Bobby. (lifting her head) I was just thinking.

BOBBY:  Thinking about what?

TINA:  Us. What else?

BOBBY:  What about us?

TINA:  Everything about us.

BOBBY:  Does everything include if you still love me?

TINA:  Jesus.

BOBBY:  No, I gotta know . . . (sits next to her) Because I still love you. I love you a lot.

She is just looking at him.

TINA:  So what?

BOBBY:  Whatya mean “so what”?

TINA:  I mean, I’ve got problems right now way bigger than who loves who. Or who doesn’t. My mum and I are getting evicted.

BOBBY:  No way.

TINA:  (looks at him) Why “no way.” Why is that always the first thing outta your mouth when you hear something bad or something you don’t expect? Because it just makes it sound like you don’t believe it. And then a person has to say it all over again so that maybe you will. We’re five months behind in the rent, and we’re getting thrown out.

BOBBY:  No way.

TINA:  Oh my God.

BOBBY:  I mean . . . what are you gonna do?

TINA:  I don’t know.

BOBBY:  Is there something I can do to help?

TINA:  Don’t ask me.

BOBBY:  Well, who else should I ask?

TINA:  Ask yourself for Chrissake.

BOBBY:  I was planning to ask myself after I asked you. Because you usually have a better –

TINA:  You wanna help? Get a job and keep it for more than a day. Start paying child support on a regular basis.

BOBBY:  Hey, I’d be doing that right now if I wasn’t still in shock about being laid off.

TINA:  That was over a year ago, Bobby. Maybe you should just shake yourself out of it.

BOBBY:  Everybody says that but nobody tells me how.

TINA:  Well maybe nobody actually knows.

BOBBY:  Doesn’t your mum have a plan?

TINA:  A plan for what?

BOBBY:  For where you’re gonna live. I mean, you gotta live somewhere.

TINA:  She’s checking out some parks.

BOBBY:  Really?

TINA:  It was a joke.

BOBBY:  Yeah? Well it wasn’t funny.

TINA:  Tell me about it.

BOBBY:  What’s that mean?

TINA:  Well I guess it means I think it could come to that.

BOBBY:  Is that a joke too? Because I’m starting to freak out here.

TINA:  Good. Maybe it’ll help you come up with some way to help.

BOBBY:  You mean it’s all on me? Jesus. Come on . . .

TINA:  Relax. My mum says we can go live with her cousin for a while.

BOBBY:  Yeah? So that’s –

TINA:  It’s her cousin with the mental problems.

BOBBY:  The one who burned her house down?

TINA:  Yeah. So she’d need to be watched basically all the time. I’d rather go to a shelter.

BOBBY:  There are people in shelters with mental problems too.

TINA:  Yeah but it wouldn’t be my job to watch them.

BOBBY:  It’s still not a good idea.

TINA:  So come up with a better one.

BOBBY:  Well I could ask my dad if you could come live with us.

TINA:  Your dad’s probably gonna burn your house down one day.

BOBBY:  No, he’s not drinking nearly as much. He’s met a woman.

TINA:  Really? Jesus. And your mum’s not even been dead a year.

BOBBY:  He said he needed a female in the house.

TINA:  Another slave, you mean.

BOBBY:  I guess. Her name’s Winnie. She’s pretty interesting.

TINA:  Yeah? In what way?

A siren goes by. BOBBY is distracted by it.

TINA:  Bobby?

BOBBY:  What?

TINA:  How is this Winnie person “pretty interesting?”

BOBBY:  Oh. Well she used to be a biker chick. So she’s got a ton of stories about that.

TINA:  Any we’d want our two-year-old daughter to listen to?

BOBBY:  Maybe not.

TINA:  Not even the ones about all the times she got gangbanged?

BOBBY:  That’s funny. (off her look) Not really though. There’s nothing funny about getting gangbanged. Not even if she was up for it. It’s just that you saying it like that was kinda – (off her look) No. Not even that was funny. Not really. Look I’m just saying she’s kinda had a good effect on my dad.

TINA:  Really. You mean he’s not an asshole anymore?

BOBBY:  No, he’s still kind of an asshole. But he doesn’t hit the booze as much because Winnie’s mostly into weed.

TINA:  So now he’s just a stoner . . . Jesus. You want us to go live with a couple of doped-out –

BOBBY:  It’d only be until –

TINA:  Until when?! You find us a nice place under a bridge or something?!

She has lowered her head into her lap again.

BOBBY:  Tina? You okay? Looks like you’re really crying this time. T?

TINA:  (lifts her head, wipes away some tears) I’m pregnant.

BOBBY is just looking at her.

TINA:  Don’t ask me if I’m sure. Because I am. And don’t ask me if it’s yours because I’ll fucking kill you if you do. Okay?

BOBBY:  Okay. But can I ask you when? Because I can only remember that one time.

TINA:  It only takes once.

BOBBY:  Sure okay, but what were the odds?

TINA:  Well they were obviously pretty fucking good, weren’t they?

BOBBY:  Yeah. Wow.

TINA:  Yeah “wow.”

BOBBY:  Yeah so –

TINA:  So I have to figure out what to do.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Whatya mean?

TINA:  Well do you think someone in my situation should be bringing another baby into the world? (off his stare) Answer me.

BOBBY:  No.

TINA:  No, I shouldn’t be doing that?

BOBBY:  No, I don’t want to answer you. I mean, I don’t really know what my position is, right? I mean, what do I get to say? What don’t I get to say?! (slaps himself in the head) Oh God, this is . . . (moving away) This is totally . . . (sitting on the ground) I mean, what the . . . (suddenly standing) Why the fuck didn’t you make me use protection!

TINA:  That was up to me, was it?

BOBBY:  I was drunk!

TINA:  So was I!

BOBBY:  You were?

TINA:  Totally. Do you think I woulda had sex with you if I wasn’t? I was usually too mad at you to even be in the same room.

BOBBY:  Right. But why weren’t you on the pill?!

TINA:  Because I wasn’t having sex.

BOBBY:  You mean with me.

TINA:  With anyone!

BOBBY:  Why would you be having sex with anyone?!

TINA:  I wasn’t. But if I was it woulda been because we weren’t together! And I would have been on the pill.

BOBBY:  Okay. That makes sense.

TINA:  Great. That mean I’m off the hook? You won’t be blaming me for this?

BOBBY:  What’s the point? It’s a done thing.

TINA:  Yeah. It is. So we better find a way to undo it. I mean, if I’m gonna get an abortion then I have to –

BOBBY gasps for air, staggers a bit.

TINA:  What’s wrong?

BOBBY:  (grabs his chest) I can’t . . . I can’t . . . It’s . . . Ah Jesus . . .

TINA:  (moving towards him) Okay just –

BOBBY:  I can’t . . .

TINA:  Just breathe.

BOBBY:  Okay but –

TINA:  Sit down. Don’t panic.

BOBBY:  Okay . . . (sitting) Okay, I’ll just . . .

TINA:  I thought you had your asthma under control.

BOBBY:  No, this isn’t . . . (trying to breathe normally) It’s what you said.

TINA:  About getting an abortion?

BOBBY:  Yeah, I guess I just wasn’t ready for it.

TINA:  You mean not ready to talk about it.

BOBBY:  Talk about it, or even hear the word.

TINA:  Got it. Yeah. Well if it’s too much for you, I can just leave you out of it. I’ve left you out of just about everything else because you “weren’t ready.” You weren’t ready to do your fair share with Holly. Or talk seriously about if we had any future together. You were never ready for any of that. So I just stopped asking you about anything that most people like us need to come to terms with. You’ve been excused from all that, Bobby. So this will just be something else that I won’t bother you with.

She starts off.

BOBBY:  Where you going?

TINA:  (stops) What’s it to you?

BOBBY:  Well we were discussing a pretty serious thing here and all of a sudden you just start to leave. What is it, you need to pick up Holly from somewhere?

TINA:  Not from “somewhere,” Bobby. She’s with Jill.

BOBBY:  Well that’s pretty upsetting.

TINA:  Why?

BOBBY:  Because Jill hates me, Tina. She probably fills Holly’s head with a lot of ugly lies about me.

TINA:  She doesn’t say anything bad about you.

BOBBY:  Yeah? And you know this because . . .?

TINA:  I asked her not to. My mum too. No one ever says a bad word about you to Holly.

BOBBY:  Yeah, I guess you think it’s better if she finds out for herself what a screw-up I am.

TINA:  Right. I figure it’s just a matter of time until you try to borrow money from her. (off his look) I was just kidding.

BOBBY:  It wasn’t funny.

TINA:  Hey, it was lot funnier than that gangbanging thing! And if you don’t like hearing cracks like that then –

BOBBY:  Then I should just get my shit together. I know that.

TINA:  Do you?

BOBBY:  You mean do I really know. Or am I just saying “I know”? I don’t know.

TINA:  Right. Listen, maybe you should just get on with things in your own way. I mean, your life. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and let it be what it is. Maybe I’m wrong to be asking anything from you. Look, I guess I still love you, Bobby, but –

BOBBY:  You guess? Whatya mean “you guess”?

TINA:  Okay, I don’t guess. I know. I know I love you. But what’s the point. It’s just too hard to be in this situation and never know if it’s always going to be like this.

BOBBY:  You can’t always be pregnant, Tina.

TINA:  I meant alone. Pregnant, not pregnant. But still alone.

BOBBY:  You need to get Holly at a certain time? Because I think you should stay as long as it takes to talk about this.

TINA:  This what?

BOBBY:  Whatya mean, this what?

TINA:  I mean, are we going to talk about the actual thing or just about how hard it is for you to deal with the actual thing?

BOBBY:  Both probably. I mean, they’re kinda related.

TINA:  Except one’s way more important. So can you keep quiet about how hard this is for you, and just talk about what’s the right thing for us to do? I don’t want to kill this baby. But I will if we don’t come up with a way to make sure having it won’t put me and Holly in a really dark hole, where we have no money and no place to live and no way to make any of that even a little bit better.

BOBBY:  Okay. Just one thing though. Can you not say “kill.”

TINA:  We have to say it. Because that’s what it is.

BOBBY:  Okay but to a lot of people it’s not really a baby yet.

TINA:  I’m not a lot of people. I’m me. And I think we’d be killing our baby.

BOBBY:  Which really means you don’t want to do it!

TINA:  No, it means if we do it, we’d have to admit that’s what we’re doing and have a lot of reasons for doing it.

BOBBY:  Well the main reason would be that we’re scared, right. But scared of what? I mean, exactly.

TINA:  Exactly everything. Between the two of us, we’re afraid of just about everything there is. But mostly you’re afraid of growing up. And I’m afraid of the future.

BOBBY:  Wow. The future. You think about the future?

TINA:  Don’t you?

BOBBY:  Well yeah, but just like up to tonight or something.

TINA:  Come on, that can’t be true. You’re telling me you only think about what might happen a few hours from now? Jesus.

BOBBY:  Unless it’s Friday. Then I’m wondering how the weekend might go. Like if me and Willie were gonna go somewhere. And you know, do something.

TINA:  Yeah? So now that Willie’s in prison, you still wonder about that?

BOBBY:  No. Why would I?

TINA:  Right. Now it’d be just about doing “something” all by yourself. You ever wonder about coming to visit your daughter?

BOBBY:  Sure I do. Except when I do that I always see the two of us fighting. So there goes that idea.

TINA:  Right outta your head, you mean . . . Speaking of Willie, wasn’t it kinda surprising that a guy you’ve known since kindergarten turns out to be a big-time break-and-enter artist?

BOBBY:  He wasn’t really big time. He was just into easy pickings. Houses that didn’t have an alarm or –

TINA:  So you knew?

BOBBY:  Well he was always flush. So I figured something was up.

TINA:  No. You knew. He would have told you.

BOBBY:  So what if he did.

TINA:  He was stealing from your neighbours, Bobby.

BOBBY:  Only those who could afford it.

TINA:  No one around here can afford it.

BOBBY:  Come on, the people who own those fancy renos are gonna miss some of the shit they have?

TINA:  They might. Who are you to say they won’t?

BOBBY:  Okay. Can I say I don’t really care if they do?

TINA:  Yeah but it makes you sound small. Don’t be all worked up about what other people have, just concentrate on getting what you need yourself.

BOBBY:  Yeah. God that’s depressing, man. When you say stuff like that it makes it sound like you’ve already figured out all the things I’m just getting to. And it fucks me up. It makes me feel like I’ll never catch up to you.

TINA:  Maybe you won’t. You had a pretty big disadvantage right from the start.

BOBBY:  You mean my dad.

TINA:  Yeah. Because probably every time he opened his mouth around you, it set you back a year or two.

BOBBY:  At least.

TINA:  So did you ever help him?

BOBBY:  Who, my dad?

TINA:  No. Willie. Did you ever help him do those break-ins?

BOBBY:  No way.

TINA:  Look at me, Bobby . . . Bobby!

BOBBY:  Okay. I was a lookout.

TINA:  What?

BOBBY:  But just once because I was sure I was gonna get caught.

TINA:  With your luck. Absolutely you’d have been caught.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Absolutely. Plus I kept thinking how my mum would feel about it, and I got kinda ashamed.

TINA:  Really?

BOBBY:  Yeah.

TINA:  Well that’s something at least . . . You know, Bobby, I was really hoping if I told you what was going on with me . . . you know, about being evicted and being pregnant . . . that maybe you could help me work it out, come up with a plan. But right away you started in with all those excuses about why that new job didn’t work out and we’re back to square one. And now I have to go back to thinking about all that scary shit on my own.

BOBBY:  The scary shit in the future.

TINA:  Sometimes I think it’ll be okay. I’ll make it work. I think about going back to school. But this time learning some kind of trade. Maybe becoming an electrician.

BOBBY:  An electrician?

TINA:  Or a cook.

BOBBY:  A cook, okay. But an electrician is someone who has to know a lot of –

TINA:  I’m good with stuff like that, Bobby. I could do it. You saying I couldn’t?

BOBBY:  No. I guess I was saying I couldn’t.

TINA:  Yeah. Why do you think that is? Why do you think you can’t do most of the stuff that people like us, people with a kid, might have to do?

BOBBY:  Well maybe –

TINA:  No, I got this. You just don’t see yourself in the real world. You can see yourself as a big-time rap star, but you can’t see any real possibilities for yourself. Things like just getting up each day and going to work at the same place and never fucking up and never getting fired because you fucked up. That’s probably why you’re scared of looking into the future. You know it’s probably filled with things you can’t handle.

BOBBY:  You think?

TINA:  Yeah. You gotta see yourself beating all that back, Bobby. You gotta be okay with whatever you have to do.

BOBBY:  Can you do that?

TINA:  Well I try. But then shit happens that makes me afraid it’s gonna be way worse than I ever thought. So that makes it hard, right.

BOBBY:  Oh yeah. It’s gotta.

TINA:  Plus I keep seeing this one thing. This one thing keeps happening in my head over and over again . . . I’m sick, right. Really sick. And I’m in bed with this new baby, and Holly needs me to get up and take her to school. But I can’t. I can’t fucking get up to even feed her. I can only lie there and be sick. And there’s no one to help. Not my mum. Not Jill. No one.

BOBBY:  Not even me?

TINA:  Definitely not you. When I see things like this happening, you’re never there, Bobby.

BOBBY:  Well maybe you should try to put me there! . . . Yeah! Put me there in your head and see me helping. Then later tell me how I did it, so I could really help and really be there. I mean, not just in your head but –

TINA:  You’d have to start by being there now. And that means –

BOBBY:  No, I got this. It means I’ve got to have a steady job. And I can’t be scared of the future. And I can’t be scared of being a bad father. And I can’t be scared of –

TINA:  Life. Grown-up life, Bobby. That’s really what you have to stop being scared of.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Okay. But grown-up life with not much money.

TINA:  Try no money.

BOBBY:  And not a lot of family help.

TINA:  No family help.

BOBBY:  Right. Yeah. So it’s just us. Okay then. Yeah, let’s go for it. Let’s just not be scared. Because things are getting pretty serious now, aren’t they? I mean, one kid is something but two, that’s a whole other fucking –

TINA:  I don’t want to kill this baby. But I will. If we can’t get ourselves in a better situation –

BOBBY:  Yeah sure, but that might take some time. So you should definitely wait before you do that. Because think about how sad you’d be . . . if you do. I mean, being that sad might be way too much for you.

TINA:  What’d be too much is not being able to take care of my children.

BOBBY:  Well yeah but –

TINA:  There’s no argument for that, Bobby. I’m gonna stop being pregnant unless I’m sure both my kids are gonna be okay.

A cellphone goes off. TINA takes it out of her pocket.

BOBBY:  Where’d you get that?

TINA:  Jill got it for me. She didn’t like the idea of me ever being out of touch. (looks at phone)

BOBBY:  That her?

TINA:  Yeah. I’ll call her back.

She puts it away.

BOBBY:  So she’s got enough money to get her friends hooked up with cellphones.

TINA:  Just her pregnant ones. She had this really good summer job and she made a lot of money so –

BOBBY:  (gestures to her belly) So she knows.

TINA:  Yeah . . .

BOBBY:  And she knew before I did.

TINA:  I needed to talk to someone about it. And my mum’s not in great shape so I didn’t wanna worry her.

BOBBY:  What about me?

TINA:  Well I also needed to talk to someone about you, Bobby.

BOBBY:  Like what about me?

TINA:  Like whether I should even tell you.

BOBBY:  Why the fuck wouldn’t you tell me?

TINA:  Because I was confused about you knowing. What good would it do, right? Anyway, Jill said I should.

BOBBY:  She did?

TINA:  Yeah. But she warned me not to get my hopes up.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Right. I can almost hear her saying it too. And I can see that look on her face she gets when she talks to me. Jesus. What is that look anyway?

TINA:  Disgust. A mixture of disgust and pity.

BOBBY:  Well tell her I don’t want her freakin’ pity.

TINA:  I think the pity’s for me.

Another cellphone, same ring.

TINA:  She’s probably just wondering where –

BOBBY:  (reaching into his pocket) No, that’s me.

TINA:  (off the cellphone in his hand) How can you afford that, Bobby?

BOBBY:  It’s Willie’s. He left it with me, so he’d have a connection to the outside.

Tina’s cell goes off again. They look at each other. BOBBY shrugs hopefully. TINA just sighs and answers hers. BOBBY answers his.

TINA:  (into phone) Hi . . . No, I’m fine.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Hey, man. How’s it going?

TINA:  No really . . .

BOBBY:  No shit. What, just now? . . . No way! (to TINA) Guess who Willie just ran into in the slammer?

TINA:  (into phone) Just a sec.

BOBBY:  My uncle Ray. You know, my dad’s brother. The one we all thought was dead. (into phone) How’s he look?

TINA:  (into phone) He just wanted to share some family news with me . . . It’s not worth explaining.

TINA:  . . . Yeah, we’ve kinda been talking about it . . . well he has the information so –

BOBBY:  (into phone) That’s freakin’ funny, man. A mohawk. What the fuck? He thinks he’s still a kid or something?

TINA:  (into phone) Okay. Sure . . . (holds phone out) She wants to talk to you.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Hold on a sec. (to TINA) What?

TINA:  Jill wants to talk to you.

BOBBY:  What about?

TINA:  I don’t know. But she says it’s important.

BOBBY:  Well ah . . . (gestures to phone) What do I do with . . .?

TINA:  I’ll talk to him.

BOBBY:  Really?

TINA:  Sure. I can probably listen to his bullshit for a couple of minutes.

BOBBY:  Yeah but . . . (as they exchange phones) . . . just try to be nice, okay? The guy’s never been in prison before.

TINA:  Yeah. Go figure.

They look at each other. Then put the phones to their ears.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Hey, Jill. What’s up?

TINA:  (into phone) Hi, Willie. What’s new?

BOBBY:  (into phone) Yeah. I’m listening.

TINA:  (into phone) Yeah, I know you’re in prison. It was a joke . . . Well it was funny to me.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Why are you talking slow like that?

TINA:  (into phone) Hey, knock it off with the complaining, okay? You’re a thief, Willie. Where the hell did you think you were going to wind up? (disconnects) Asshole.

BOBBY:  (to TINA) Why did you do that?

TINA:  He started to cry. Like he thought it’d make me feel sorry for him or something.

BOBBY:  Jesus. He was crying?

TINA just gestures to the phone in his hand.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Look you’re gonna have to say that all again. I got distracted . . . No, not by a siren!

TINA laughs.

BOBBY:  (into phone) Yeah. I’m freakin’ listening. Just say it! . . . Okay . . . I said okay!

He disconnects. They exchange phones.

TINA:  What was that about?

BOBBY:  Oh she just wanted to tell me what she always tells me. If I don’t do right by you, she’s gonna track me down and kick me to death.

TINA laughs.

BOBBY:  Oh that’s funny, right. You know how many times she’s threatened to do that? Not just kill me any old way. It’s always gotta be by kicking me to death. I think there’s something really fucking wrong with her.

TINA:  She thinks the same thing about you.

BOBBY:  Did I ever threaten to kick her to death?

TINA:  Not in front of me. I don’t know what kind of stuff you’ve said about her to Willie.

BOBBY:  I wouldn’t say anything bad about her to Willie. He likes her. He’s always wanted to do her.

TINA:  “Do her”? You know how much I hate that expression?

BOBBY:  Probably a lot. But it’s his expression. Not mine.

TINA:  Really? It’s not how you talk when I’m not around? You know, to Willie and your other pals? You don’t talk about “doing” and “banging” and “nailing pussy” and all that crap.

BOBBY:  No . . .

TINA:  Really?

BOBBY:  Yeah, because of what my mum told me.

TINA:  Which was?

BOBBY:  I’ve told you this. That I should always show respect for women.

TINA:  Really. Kinda the opposite of what your dad showed for her.

BOBBY:  Definitely the opposite.

TINA:  Yeah? So what did you tell Willie about Jill? You know, when he said he wanted to “do her.”

BOBBY:  Whatya mean?

TINA:  You know what I mean. That she’s gay.

BOBBY:  I said there was possibility that she might be. Because that’s what you told me.

TINA:  No, it isn’t.

BOBBY:  You told me she wasn’t definite about coming out.

TINA:  Which is a whole different thing.

BOBBY:  Maybe it isn’t. Maybe she’s not definite about coming out because she’s not definite about being gay.

TINA:  Except she is. She’s just not sure if she wants everyone to know.

BOBBY:  Who do you think she means by “everyone”?

TINA:  I don’t know exactly, but I’m pretty sure it includes assholes like Willie.

BOBBY:  Okay yeah, but even if he knows, who’s he gonna tell in prison? I mean, besides my uncle Ray, and Ray’s in for ten years.

TINA:  Jesus. What for?

BOBBY:  I forgot to ask. We got all involved in talking about his mohawk. But it was probably for something really stupid because Ray’s the biggest idiot in my dad’s family.

TINA:  Wow. That’s amazing. And there’d be so much competition for that title, wouldn’t there? What about your aunt Lucy?

BOBBY:  Lucy’s not nearly as bad as –

TINA:  She uses her kids as decoys when she shoplifts, for Chrissake.

BOBBY:  Okay that makes her a bad person for sure, but it doesn’t mean –

TINA:  How about your dad? You’re saying Ray’s a bigger idiot than
your dad?

BOBBY:  Way bigger. I mean, some of the dumb shit Ray’s pulled . . . He sold his girlfriend once.

TINA:  Whatya mean “sold her”? He pimped her out?

BOBBY:  No, he sold her. A buddy of his really liked her, so for seven hundred bucks Ray dumped her and let this guy make his move. Then this other time he kidnapped a jockey and tried to –

TINA:  No, that’s enough, okay? Just don’t tell anyone else.

BOBBY:  About Ray?

TINA:  No. About Jill.

BOBBY:  You mean about her probably being gay.

TINA:  She’s not “probably” gay. She’s . . . Look just don’t tell anyone anything about her ever. Okay?

BOBBY:  Yeah, because if she finds out, it’d just give her another reason to kill me.

TINA:  You know, Bobby, all that’s just about her trying to shock you, so that you’ll step up.

BOBBY:  Okay so . . . (approaching) So just tell her that’s what I’m doing. Tell her the next job I get I’m gonna keep no matter what. And tell her that we’re gonna be together and that everything’s gonna be good. (hugs her) Really good.

TINA:  Those things just all sound like promises. And we’re at a place where promises mean shit. It’s gotta be everything is good. And how’s that gonna happen soon enough?

BOBBY:  Soon enough for what?

TINA:  (pulling away) Keeping this baby! Jesus. Try to pay attention!

BOBBY:  It’s not that I’m not paying attention. It’s more like I’m paying too much attention. And it’s kinda overloading my brain. So when you say something, I’m still thinking really hard about what you said before. And I kinda fall behind.

TINA:  Sure. That must be it . . . Look, if we’re gonna do this thing, let’s just try to figure out how it could work, okay? And let’s be real about it. Because this might be the most important thing we ever decide. So let’s do it in a real way. Like with real numbers.

BOBBY:  What kind of numbers?

TINA:  Numbers on a possible paycheque. Numbers on a lease for a new apartment. Numbers on a list of expenses. Let’s just see what all those numbers would look like if we were trying to live with them. Okay?

BOBBY:  I guess so, yeah.

TINA:  Okay so . . . because we want to keep this real, let’s say that any job you get is gonna be for minimum wage.

BOBBY:  Or maybe more.

TINA:  Not much more.

BOBBY:  I’d like it to be quite a bit more.

TINA:  It doesn’t matter what you’d like.

BOBBY:  I can’t even say what I’d like?

TINA:  No. Because you’ve got no skills.

BOBBY:  Well none that I know about.

TINA:  You think one might just show up?

BOBBY:  Why not? I mean, I could pick up a certain kind of tool or find myself in a situation where a skill I didn’t know I had is just suddenly there. And I use it, and there you go. I’m a skilled . . . whatever. I mean, it could happen, right?

TINA:  Yes. But just in case it doesn’t, let’s just say minimum wage.

BOBBY:  Okay but how about a bit more than that. Just so it’s not depressing.

TINA:  If it’s depressing, it’s depressing. We need to know if we can deal with that. So what is it? Minimum wage . . . Four hundred a week?

BOBBY:  Around that.

TINA:  And how much for a two-bedroom apartment?

BOBBY:  Wouldn’t just one be okay?

TINA:  One bedroom. Two kids. How is that supposed to work?

BOBBY:  We could sleep on a pullout couch.

TINA:  And you’d be okay with that?

BOBBY:  It won’t be permanent. Just until –

TINA:  Until what? You get your law degree? I’m sorry. That was a cheap shot.

BOBBY:  It’s okay. You’re all –

TINA:  Worked up? Desperate? Confused? Frustrated? Very fucking scared? Okay, forget that . . . Your salary will probably cover the rent on some kind of one-bedroom apartment.

BOBBY:  That’s good.

TINA:  Ya think? How will we eat?

BOBBY:  Well there’s always –

TINA:  If you say the food bank, this conversation is fucking over.

BOBBY:  Cutting back. We could just cut back.

TINA:  To what?

BOBBY:  Well when my dad was out of work we ate a lot of potatoes.

TINA:  Potatoes.

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  And when was that?

BOBBY:  I was five or six.

TINA:  And all you ate was potatoes.

BOBBY:  Well not all. But mostly. There’s a lot you can do with potatoes.

TINA:  And so you think that’s what we can do. Make various potato dishes.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Or we can use the food bank.

TINA:  Jesus!

BOBBY:  I mean, just until –

TINA:  You get your pilot’s licence?!

BOBBY:  I thought you weren’t going to take cheap shots like that anymore.

TINA:  Did I say that?

BOBBY:  You said you were sorry.

TINA:  I was. I’m not now. You’re talking like a goddamn idiot.

BOBBY:  No, I’m not.

TINA:  Shut up!

BOBBY:  No, I’m just trying to –

TINA:  I said shut up! (inhales) Please. I need a minute. Okay. So just . . . be quiet.

She sits on the bench. Puts her head down. He looks at her. Sits on the ground.

TINA:  (head up) I’m sorry I told you to shut up. It’s just that for me the food bank is so . . . (looks at him hard) I can’t see this. I just can’t see it. Bobby. Help me. How’s it gonna be okay for our baby to be born? I mean, can we actually live with your father and his doper girlfriend? Is she really okay, or is she just a little better than your dad?

BOBBY:  No, overall she’s way better.

TINA:  And would your father keep his stupid mouth closed around me? You know, keep all his ugly stupid opinions about the government and immigrants and everything else to himself. And not tell any of his ignorant fart jokes or tit jokes or prick-and-ass jokes, or tell me about all the times he’s puked in public, or pissed in public or fucked in public, or watched other people puke, piss, or fuck in public. You think he could stop all that?

BOBBY:  I could ask.

TINA:  Yeah, you could ask. But would that be enough? I mean, he is a selfish, ignorant asshole so –

BOBBY:  I meant I could ask Winnie. Maybe she could get him to be good.

TINA:  But you’d have to do that when she wasn’t high, I guess. And how often is that?

BOBBY:  Not too often. She says it’s mostly because of her injuries. You know, from all her motorcycle accidents.

TINA:  Plus the beatings she took from her biker daddies. You know what, we’re gonna cross living with your father and Winnie off the list.

BOBBY:  Right.

TINA:  Which takes us back to the shelter idea.

BOBBY:  Not a fucking chance. That idea sucks.

TINA:  Why?

BOBBY:  Shelters are full of desperate people.

TINA:  I’m a desperate person.

BOBBY:  I meant desperate in a way that makes them do things. Things that you won’t be able to deal with.

TINA:  How do you know what I can deal with? I can deal with anything I need to deal with.

BOBBY:  Like people stealing stuff from you? Like people getting high or violent around you? You can’t protect Holly from all that.

TINA:  Hey look around, pal. Look where we’ve been living. There are a lot of desperate people in that building we’re getting evicted from.

BOBBY:  They’re not desperate. They’re just poor.

TINA:  Well whatya think makes them desperate?

BOBBY:  Okay but there’s poor, then there’s really poor. There’s poor where it’s hard to come up with the rent on time. Then there’s poor where it’s hard to come up with anything. Ever. We’re gonna do better than a shelter.

TINA:  But I hear you can get help there.

BOBBY:  What kind of help?

TINA:  Help getting back in school. Help with child care. Some financial assistance. You know, just so I could move forward. (looks at him) This is mostly for single mums though. All this help I mean. I’d have to tell them you were out of the picture.

BOBBY:  But that’s something you’d just be telling them, right.

TINA:  No. They’d look into it. It’d have to be true.

BOBBY:  Really?

TINA:  Yeah . . .

BOBBY:  So you’d be moving forward on your own.

TINA:  Well . . . with Holly.

BOBBY:  But not with me.

TINA:  And not with the baby. Because there’s only so much they can do to help. And only so much I can do on my own. So . . .

BOBBY has his head down.

TINA:  Bobby? You okay?

BOBBY:  No, I’m not fucking okay! Why would I be okay?

His cellphone goes off.

BOBBY:  (checks phone) I gotta take this.

TINA:  Can’t you just ignore the fool?

BOBBY:  It’s not Willie.

He answers the cell.

BOBBY:  Yeah, hi . . . Yeah, I talked to him, but we didn’t get around to that . . . We just didn’t . . . No, I don’t have that anymore . . . Because I lost the job . . . How am I gonna do that? I don’t have a credit card . . .Okay good. That’s good.

He disconnects.

TINA:  What was that all about?

BOBBY:  Nothing.

TINA:  Nothing . . .

BOBBY:  I mean, nothing much.

TINA:  What would you need a credit card for?

BOBBY:  Nothing.

TINA:  (advancing) Jesus!

BOBBY:  Renting a van.

TINA:  Why would you need to rent a van.

BOBBY:  I don’t anymore. Sonny’s gonna do it.

TINA:  That was Sonny? Sonny Le Gros?

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  Jesus. How are mixed up with that loser?

BOBBY:  I’m not really. Willie is. I mean, he was. He was his partner.

TINA:  His partner in . . . ?

BOBBY:  You know, stealing stuff. Is it okay with you if we don’t talk about this anymore?

TINA:  Do you think it’s okay with me?

BOBBY:  Probably not. But it’ll be way better if we don’t.

TINA:  What’s going on? Why do you and Sonny Le Gros need a van?

BOBBY:  If I tell you that, I probably have to tell you everything.

TINA:  You have to tell me everything anyway.

BOBBY:  How about I just tell you not to worry about it, and then you could just try trusting me?

TINA:  Trusting you to do what?

BOBBY:  Stay out of trouble.

TINA:  What kind of trouble? What are you talking about?

BOBBY:  Okay, don’t get all –

TINA:  (advancing) What the fuck are you talking about?!

BOBBY:  Sonny’s got a storage locker.

TINA:  He’s got a what?

BOBBY:  A storage locker . . . And we need to get all the stuff that’s in it out of it.

TINA:  You mean all the stuff he and Willie stole.

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  And you’re supposed to go get all this stuff, load it into a van, and do what with it?

BOBBY:  Well we have to sell it, don’t we?

TINA:  Do you?

BOBBY:  Yeah, or what was the point of stealing it in the first place.

TINA:  What I meant was, why should that involve you, Bobby?!

BOBBY:  This is the part that I’m not sure I wanna get into right now. I mean, not while we’re talking about the possibility of being together or the possibility of not . . . being together. Because if I don’t explain it in the right way then I think things between us are gonna turn pretty bad. And it’s really hard to explain.

TINA:  Okay. So let me try to get you started then. You lied to me before, didn’t you. You were involved in all those break-ins. You and Willie and fucking Sonny Le Gros were doing those jobs together. You broke into those houses together.

BOBBY:  No.

TINA:  What’s that mean, no? You took turns?

BOBBY:  I didn’t go inside. I acted as lookout. But like I told you, that scared me so –

TINA:  So you stopped doing it.

BOBBY:  After that one time. And one or two other times. Yeah.

TINA:  Jesus. So you didn’t go into the houses and you didn’t stand lookout after those one or two times.

BOBBY:  Three actually. But then, no.

TINA:  Okay. So what the fuck did you do?

BOBBY:  I did . . . research.

TINA:  I’m sorry. Research?

BOBBY:  Yeah. I found out who was living there. You know, how many people. When they left for work. When they came home . . .

TINA:  You cased the place.

BOBBY:  Yeah. I didn’t say that because I didn’t know if you were familiar with the term.

TINA:  You cased the place for your thieving, dirtbag friends. You were part of a gang of low-life criminal scum.

BOBBY:  It didn’t seem that bad at the time. I told you, I figured there was no way the people in those houses were gonna miss that stuff. So that makes it different.

TINA:  No, it doesn’t.

BOBBY:  Sure. It has to. It’s a whatyacallit . . . a victimless crime.

TINA:  Except there are victims.

BOBBY:  No, we’d be victims if they stole from us.

TINA:  They who? Willie and fucking Sonny Le Gros?

BOBBY:  No. The people in those renos. If they stole from us . . .

TINA:  Oh. We’d be victims if they stole from us. But they’re not victims because you –

BOBBY:  I’ve thought a lot about this, T.

TINA:  When you say a lot . . .?

BOBBY:  It’s even been in the back of my mind all this time we’ve been talking. Who’s a victim and . . . who isn’t. What the whole situation is with the law and the whole thing about what’s right or wrong in any situation . . . and how maybe if I did what I did to give you some of the money I’ve been giving you, that would make it okay. Well maybe not okay. But not really wrong. Okay wrong but not . . . I don’t know, mean. I didn’t do it to be mean to those people. I just did it because of our situation. And here’s the thing. Remember how I said I was waiting for a skill, a thing I was good at, to just kinda show up. Maybe it already did. Because the info I gave those guys was always very solid and all the . . . operations went off without a problem.

TINA:  Except for when Willie got caught.

BOBBY:  Yeah but here’s the thing about that. I’d gotten that job at the carpet store so I couldn’t finish my research on that particular house. I warned them not to go ahead, but they did. And the rest is, you know, what happened.

TINA:  Are you telling me that you think you might have a future in crime, Bobby?

BOBBY:  Not crime in general. Not anything violent. Not anything that could even lead to violence. And not anything too big. Or involving a lot of risk. And not anything that hurt people who didn’t have a lot. But yeah, what I did for Willie and Sonny Le Gros, I could do that. Why not?

TINA:  Because then you’d be a criminal.

BOBBY:  But we’d have money. And a nice place to live.

TINA:  A place paid for by criminal activity.

BOBBY:  We’d have enough to eat. Enough to get Holly nice clothes and toys. Enough to have this baby. And take great care of it. And all be together.

TINA:  You’re serious, aren’t you. I mean, you’re talking like it’s something you have actually given a lot of thought to.

BOBBY:  I have.

TINA:  How about that. There’s finally something important enough for you to think about all the way through. And this is it.

BOBBY:  Well . . . yeah because the thing is, I’m pretty sure a regular job’s never going to work out for me. I was never given the proper advice about that. All my dad ever said was, “Whatever job you get, don’t take any shit. No son of mine takes shit from anyone.” And my mum just told me to find something that made me even a little happy.

TINA:  So doing “research” for break-and-enter artists, that makes you a little happy?

BOBBY:  Well I’m good at it, like I said.

TINA:  Yeah . . .

BOBBY:  Yeah . . . (a hand on her cheek) So what about it? Can you get behind this?

TINA just looks at him.

BOBBY:  Tina?

She is still just looking at him.

BOBBY:  T?

TINA:  There was this woman in the playground last week . . . Not a mum, a business type.

TINA:  She was just hanging around, looking at the kids playing. And after a while she came up to me and asked if I’d like Holly to be in a commercial.

BOBBY:  Like on TV?

TINA:  Yeah. I thought she might just be kidding or that maybe she was nuts, but she had a card, and she told me if I was interested I should just show up at the address on it next morning for an . . . audition. Then she just walked away.

BOBBY:  So?

TINA:  I thought about it and it didn’t seem right. I mean, it didn’t seem like it would be something I could do.

BOBBY:  Why not?

TINA:  Because . . . well do you know anyone who’s ever done something like that? Auditioned for a commercial or a movie . . .

BOBBY:  Not really.

TINA:  “Not really,” meaning what?

BOBBY:  Well, I guess sometimes I’ve kinda thought about doing it.

TINA:  Right. But in the real world, the one where you’re not actually a rap star, the one we actually live in . . . Well that kind of thing just isn’t part of it, is it.

BOBBY:  No. It’s not.

TINA:  Right. But then I thought so what. There’d be money in it. Maybe a lot of money. So I got Holly all dressed up and we got down to that building and we went in. And someone pointed us to a door and we opened it and went into this room and there were maybe ten, twelve women in there all waiting with kids about the same age as Holly. And it was like they all knew each other. Like it was a club or something. Like they’d all done this a lot. Anyway a few of the mothers started looking over at us. You know, checking us out. And then a few more and then basically all of them were just . . . looking at us. And . . . I knew they knew.

BOBBY:  Knew what?

TINA:  That we didn’t belong there. That my kid didn’t belong in any commercial or any TV show or anything like that. It just wasn’t for us. (looks at BOBBY, smiles) So when are you supposed to meet Sonny?

BOBBY:  He said he’d call.

TINA:  And then you just take all that stolen stuff and –

BOBBY:  He knows people who’ll buy it from us.

TINA:  And you want to do this?

BOBBY:  Well, it’ll only take an hour or two . . .

TINA:  I meant in your life. That’s what you want to do in your life?

BOBBY:  I’m thinking it’s maybe what I should do.

TINA:  Really?

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  Yeah . . .

BOBBY:  Yeah what?

TINA:  Maybe I’m thinking that to . . . Yeah. I am. That’s what you have to do. I mean, maybe it’s our best chance to keep this baby.

BOBBY:  And have a life?

TINA:  Have a life, yeah.

BOBBY:  At least until something better comes up.

TINA:  Yeah. Except it probably won’t. I mean, I’ll try to go back to school and then get a job that pays okay, but with two kids and you still not having a job because you’ve been too busy being a thief to get one, that’s probably not gonna happen. I mean, something better . . .

BOBBY:  So I might be doing it for a while?

TINA:  Yeah. That okay?

BOBBY:  I guess.

TINA:  But you have to be careful. I mean, really careful, Bobby. And you can’t tell anyone. Especially not your dad.

BOBBY:  You think he won’t approve?

TINA:  No, I think he’ll turn you in for a reward.

BOBBY:  Yeah. I just . . . well, I wonder if my mum would understand. I mean, I think she’d understand that it was all about wanting to have this baby.

TINA:  She would.

BOBBY:  I hope, yeah.

TINA:  No, I know it for sure . . . She told me something about her mother once. Something she never told you because . . . well, it was just something she thought you’d be better off not knowing for some reason.

BOBBY:  She never told me things that might depress me. Is this gonna depress me?

TINA:  Well, it definitely depressed me. But since we’re in this situation . . .

BOBBY:  I never knew her, you know. My grandmother. She died when my mum was just a kid.

TINA:  Yeah. She was killed.

BOBBY:  Killed?

TINA:  She went to some guy who did abortions. Not a doctor, just some guy above a store . . . And he butchered her. Your mum was five, and your grandmother didn’t want to have any more kids because of your grandfather.

BOBBY:  He was a drunk, right. Just another drunk?

TINA:  Worse than most, she said. And your grandmother probably figured she’d never be able to get away from him if she had another kid. So she found this guy. He didn’t do a very good job. And she bled to death.

BOBBY:  My mum told me she died peacefully in her sleep.

TINA:  She should have told you the truth. This is what we’re from. This is the sad shit that happens, Bobby.

BOBBY:  In my family.

TINA:  Mine too.

BOBBY:  Really?

TINA:  My mum was a twin. She had a brother. But he died at birth . . . So my grandfather, he had to wrap up the dead baby’s body in a towel and take it on a bus to a funeral home. But they wouldn’t bury it because he didn’t have any money. And they wouldn’t let him pay a little at a time. So all my grandfather could do was bring the body home again. When I think of him sitting on that bus holding his dead child . . . Ma . . .

BOBBY:  So . . . what did they do with the body?

TINA:  My mum’s pretty sure they buried it in the backyard. My grandparents’ whole lives were basically humiliating, from the sound of it. That thing they say about people coming here looking for a better life for their kids and their kids’ kids . . .

BOBBY:  I guess it doesn’t always work out, does it?

TINA:  No, it doesn’t. (looks at him) I think that story about how your grandmother died trying to get that abortion means your mum would understand us not wanting to be forced to do anything like that.

BOBBY:  It wouldn’t be like that. You’d get it done by a doctor if you had to.

TINA:  Right. So I probably wouldn’t die. I’d just wish I had. But what I’m saying is . . . your mum would want us to try really hard to find a way not to do it at all.

BOBBY:  Ya think?

TINA:  I do. Yeah. Especially if we were being more or less forced.

BOBBY:  Even if it meant I had to help steal a few things.

TINA:  I think so. I mean, I don’t know for sure but –

BOBBY:  I mean, I’d try to only take stuff from people who already had a lot.

TINA:  Well yeah, because if you took stuff from people who didn’t have much then you’d be just like that shithead who boosted Holly’s stroller, wouldn’t you.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Man, I’m still really pissed about that. That was a nice stroller.

TINA:  It was piece of crap. But it was ours. And it was really hard to come up with the money to replace it.

BOBBY:  Which was totally my fault, I know. But I’m gonna make it up to you. I’m gonna make everything up to you.

TINA:  Oh no. Don’t go trying to make up for everything in the past. It’ll put way too much pressure on you.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Probably.

TINA:  Anyway now you have a plan.

BOBBY:  Well I have a plan to get a plan. I mean, to get some guys and put together a plan to do what I need to do.

TINA:  With absolutely no violence involved.

BOBBY:  Absolutely.

TINA:  And we never ever tell anyone.

BOBBY:  Why would we?

TINA:  Well, one of us sometimes just blurts stuff out.

BOBBY:  That’s only to you. I never blurt out stuff to anyone else about anything important that I’m doing.

TINA:  Really? When have ever you done an important thing and never told anyone about it?

BOBBY:  When I went after you. When I decided I needed you back in my life even after you decided you didn’t need me and went off and had Holly on your own. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to get you back. I just kept it to myself and went out and got that job at the factory. And then I called you. You remember?

TINA:  Yeah sure, I remember, Bobby.

BOBBY:  You remember what I said?

TINA:  You said you were going to make everything all right.

BOBBY:  And that was my intention.

TINA:  And then the factory closed.

BOBBY:  Yeah. And that set me back a little.

TINA:  Post-traumatic stress . . .

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  Right. So if we start off on this, we can’t get set back by anything.

BOBBY:  You mean we have to stay positive. Wow. Do we even know anyone who’s positive? I mean, in case we need to look for a role model or something.

TINA:  My mum was pretty positive. I mean, until her arthritis got bad.

BOBBY:  My mum was just worried. She was worried about everything. All the time.

TINA:  I know.

BOBBY:  I don’t want you worried about me, okay. I mean, when I start doing crime on a regular basis.

TINA:  That’ll depend . . .

BOBBY:  On what?

TINA:  The guys you’d be working with for one thing.

BOBBY:  I’d probably have to start with Sonny Le Gros. And probably his little brother Ricky. You know him, right?

TINA:  Yeah, I’ve seen him slithering around. Okay. But we should definitely look for better guys you can switch over to eventually. Guys who have half a brain and take a bath sometimes.

BOBBY:  How we gonna do that?

TINA:  It’ll be a team. We’ll make them try out. (moving around) Okay, this is definitely what we have to do. I mean, fuck it. I’ve never done anything bad in my whole life. I always helped my mum at home. I was never part of any bitchy clique at school. I got that job at the jewellery store, and I kept it until my boss saw I was pregnant and fired me because I wasn’t hot enough for the male customers anymore. Asshole.

BOBBY:  Fucking asshole.

TINA:  I’ve tried to be a good mother. I’ve tried to be a good friend. I’ve tried to keep loving you even when it was really really hard sometimes . . . There’s nothing wrong in all that, is there.

BOBBY:  No way. You’re fucking perfect.

TINA:  No, I’m not. I’m just saying, behaving like that, where did it get me. So from now on we do whatever we need to do to make things better.

BOBBY’s cell goes off.

TINA:  That Sonny?

BOBBY:  Probably. He’s going to wanna make arrangements to go to the storage locker. (looks at phone) It’s not Sonny. It’s Willie.

TINA:  (hand out) Let me.

He hands her the phone. She connects.

TINA:  Hi, Willie . . . Yeah it’s me . . . He’s right here, but I wanted to talk to you first . . . How important? . . . No, just tell me . . . Jesus. (to BOBBY) Sonny Le Gros got arrested.

BOBBY:  How?

TINA:  (into phone) How? (to BOBBY) The cops were watching the storage locker and they –

BOBBY:  We were supposed to go there together.

TINA:  (into phone) Why didn’t he take Bobby? . . . (to BOBBY) He doesn’t know.

BOBBY:  He probably decided to cut me out of the proceeds.

TINA:  That makes sense. (into phone) Willie. Tell me something, how do you know all this? . . . (to BOBBY) He called him. The guy gets his one phone call and he uses it to call someone in prison. (into phone) And they actually let you come to the phone? . . . (to BOBBY) A guard told him.

BOBBY:  So what’s he want me to do?

TINA:  To hell with what he wants you to do. (into phone) Get this, asshole. Bobby’s not your messenger or your – . . . No, he won’t be trying to get bail money for the dirtbag . . . Because he just won’t. And that’s final. So don’t call him anymore. And stop fucking whining! (disconnects. To BOBBY) You’re cutting it off with those clowns right now.

BOBBY:  But I might need them for a while.

TINA:  They’re in custody for Chrissake, Bobby. And by the time they get out, we’ll be on our way to something better. With better partners. Whose idea was it to keep that stuff in a storage locker?

BOBBY:  Mine.

TINA:  That’s kinda disappointing.

BOBBY:  Why? I heard that’s where a lot of guys keep their stolen shit.

TINA:  And you didn’t think the cops might have heard that too?

BOBBY:  No, I . . . Jesus! (slaps himself in the head) Idiot! Maybe from now on I should leave the details to you.

TINA:  No, you’re the guy with the skill. You just need to maybe check with me before you decide anything.

BOBBY:  Good idea. Because my confidence is a little shaken right now.

TINA:  Tell you what, we’ll work on the plans together. Just until your confidence is back to where it was. Or maybe even better than it was.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Good idea.

TINA:  Okay then . . .

Her cell goes off.

TINA:  (into phone) Hi . . . Yeah, we’re working things out. Bobby came up with a plan . . . (to BOBBY) Jill says good for you.

BOBBY:  Tell her thanks.

TINA:  (into phone) He says thanks . . . (to BOBBY) She says you’re welcome . . . (into phone) Okay, I’ll see you soon . . . No, she’s just messing with you. She eats raw beans all the time. She loves them.

She disconnects. Notices BOBBY’s smile.

BOBBY:  I love raw beans too.

TINA:  Yeah. I remember.

BOBBY:  That’s great that Holly likes them. I didn’t know that.

He smiles. She kinda smiles back.

TINA:  And cheddar cheese. She likes that too.

BOBBY:  A lot? Does she like it as much as I do?

TINA:  Yeah. I think she probably does.

BOBBY:  Really? That’s . . . ah . . . ah . . .

TINA:  Okay okay. You don’t have to cry about it.

BOBBY:  Yes. I do. I mean, what else don’t I know about her? (slaps himself in the head) What the fuck was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just be there?

TINA:  You were there sometimes.

BOBBY:  Why couldn’t I always be there?

TINA:  You weren’t ready.

BOBBY:  Yeah . . . How come when I said that you said I was full of shit?

TINA:  Because you were using it as an excuse. Even if it was the truth you shouldn’t have used it as an excuse not to be responsible.

BOBBY:  But that’s what I wasn’t ready for. To be responsible.

TINA:  You think I was ready to be a mother at nineteen?

BOBBY:  You seemed ready. You even seemed happy about it.

TINA:  There’s a difference between being happy and being ready.

BOBBY:  I was too scared to even be happy. But now there’s Holly. She’s actually here. And she –

TINA:  Likes cheddar cheese and raw beans like you do. And that makes you feel good about her. That makes you really love her?

BOBBY:  I love her for a lot of reasons. I love that she’s funny. Like you are. And kinda tough like you are. That she kinda talks like you . . . and looks like you, and –

TINA:  So basically you love her because –

BOBBY:  Because she’s totally like you, yeah.

TINA:  Except for some of the food she eats . . .

An ambulance goes by. They both watch it. BOBBY moves to see where it’s going.

TINA:  You wanna go see what’s up?

BOBBY:  No.

TINA:  Really? Because it’s okay if you do.

BOBBY:  No. I’m over that.

Another vehicle with a siren goes by.

TINA:  Cops too.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Lots of them. Must be something bad.

TINA:  Go ahead. Go see what it is.

BOBBY:  No. I can’t.

TINA:  You can’t?

BOBBY:  Not really. No.

TINA:  Since when?

BOBBY:  I’m not sure. But it just stopped being something I wanted to know about.

TINA:  Maybe because you’d started breaking the law yourself.

BOBBY:  Maybe . . . No, yeah, you’re probably right.

TINA:  You’ve probably been thinking that someday it’d be you they were after. (hands thrown up) Ah shit!

BOBBY:  What?

TINA:  Our grandchildren!

BOBBY:  What?

TINA:  Our grandchildren?! What are they gonna say about us? What kind of sad pathetic stories are they gonna tell? “He couldn’t hold a job and she was afraid of a not-so-great future so they turned to crime. And then one night they were caught coming out of a house they’d just robbed and the cops gunned them down.”

BOBBY:  There’s no way they’d be telling that story.

TINA:  Why not?

BOBBY:  Well, why would the cops gun us down? We’d just surrender.

TINA:  And wind up in prison. Leaving both our kids alone.

BOBBY:  Why would they be alone? They’d be with –

TINA:  Who? My disabled mother? Your asshole dad and Winnie the biker chick?

BOBBY:  What about Jill? She likes kids, right.

TINA:  Yeah. And you’re okay with her raising ours?

BOBBY:  Well, if there’s no one else. And she promised not to tell them stories that made me seem like –

TINA:  Like a low-life crook? Jesus . . . I guess she could just tell everyone we didn’t have a choice. “It was either doing crime or getting rid of the baby.” (gestures) What a pair of stupid, sickening losers.

BOBBY:  Is that still Jill talking? Or is that last part the grandchildren talking? Because if it is, you gotta hope they’d show a little more respect.

TINA:  (looks at him) Okay, we can’t do this. This is not gonna be good in the long run. We have to come up with something else.

BOBBY:  Like what?

TINA:  I don’t know yet. But it can’t be anything that makes us sound stupid and afraid and pathetic when people talk about us. I mean, we just can’t let ourselves feel trapped like this. You know, trapped into thinking it’s either becoming criminal scum or not having this baby. It can’t be just one of those things and nothing else. Okay?

BOBBY:  I guess.

TINA:  That doesn’t sound like you mean it. You have to mean it.

BOBBY:  Mean what?

TINA:  That we’re not gonna be criminals.

BOBBY:  That was a definite decision then?

TINA:  Yeah.

BOBBY:  Great. So . . .

TINA:  So you’ll just get a job. Any kind of job. And we’ll have this baby. And . . .

BOBBY:  And what?

TINA:  Well, we’ll just start with that.

Another ambulance goes by. He watches it.

BOBBY:  (to himself) Yeah . . .

TINA:  What?

BOBBY:  (turning to TINA) The army. I could join . . . the army.

TINA:  The army? Really? Where did that come from?

BOBBY:  I couldn’t be a cop because I know too many criminals. And I can’t join the fire department because of my problems with fire.

TINA:  And your fear of heights.

BOBBY:  Right. But the army, that’s a whole other thing.

TINA:  Yeah. It sure is.

BOBBY:  They’re looking for people, aren’t they.

TINA:  I don’t know.

BOBBY:  I think they are. I could join up and we’d have a steady income.

TINA:  But you’d be in the army.

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  And what do you think that means?

BOBBY:  (shrugs) I’d be a soldier.

TINA:  A soldier who fights? Who goes away to war and fights.

BOBBY:  Maybe. But –

TINA:  Forget the buts. You could do that? If they sent you somewhere to fight and maybe get killed, you’d be okay with that.

BOBBY:  Well no. I mean, who’s okay with getting killed but –

TINA:  Forget the buts!

BOBBY:  I’m just saying maybe they wouldn’t send me anywhere.

TINA:  They can though. They can send you any fucking place they want to.

BOBBY:  Without asking?

TINA:  Yeah.

BOBBY:  Okay but suppose it was somewhere nice.

TINA:  You think there’s gonna be a war somewhere nice.

BOBBY:  Well, maybe there was a war there before and I’d just be there to make sure there wasn’t another one.

TINA:  So you’d be like a . . . peacekeeper.

BOBBY:  Right.

TINA:  Okay but they get killed too, you know.

BOBBY:  How often?

TINA:  Who cares how often? The point is you have to be prepared to fucking die, Bobby. Are you?

BOBBY:  Not now. But I’d get training.

TINA:  Training that prepares you to die?

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  What about us? Me and your two kids. Will they prepare us for you to die too?

BOBBY:  Maybe. If we ask them.

TINA:  You’re not joining the army.

BOBBY:  I might have to if I can’t come up with anything else.

TINA:  You’re not joining the army, Bobby. If you can’t come up with anything, I’ll get some kind of job and you . . . you can . . . you can . . .stay home with the kids.

BOBBY:  Really? That’s a big deal, being with the kids.

TINA:  Yeah, it is.

BOBBY:  You think I can do that?

TINA:  No. (off his look) I mean, not without some training.

BOBBY:  Yeah . . .

TINA:  But maybe . . . after that, you’d be really good at it. Who knows?

BOBBY:  Right. (smiles) Yeah . . .

He is thinking. She watches him. Several sirens approach and then rush by. BOBBY watches them go.

TINA:  Must be something big.

BOBBY:  Yeah. Really big.

TINA:  You wanna go see?

BOBBY:  Ahh . . . No. I mean . . . unless you do.

TINA:  I’ll come with you if you want.

BOBBY:  You will?

TINA:  Yeah. I mean, we’ve still got some stuff to figure out but –

BOBBY:  Right. No. We should just stay and –

Another couple of sirens.

BOBBY:  Wow. That’s like six, seven cop cars, five fire trucks . . . plus what, three ambulances?

TINA:  Three or four, yeah.

BOBBY:  That’s a lot. I’ve never seen that many going . . . anywhere. You ever seen that many of those things going to the same place. I haven’t. No way.

TINA:  If you wanna go, we can go.

BOBBY:  (barely there) No . . . that’s okay.

TINA:  You sure?

But BOBBY is looking off. Transfixed.

TINA:  Bobby? . . . Bobby . . .

She takes his arm and guides him down onto the bench. He is still looking off. She is looking at him.

Blackout.

END OF PLAY