"Helen." "You got a cold?" "Oh, no, I'm just coughing." "You're sick, Amy." "No, I just got something in my throat." "Well, dot cough all over the food." "I'm just too tired to live." "If I didn't have the Gestapo all over me, I'd phone in sick." "My God, Amy." "You look awful!" "What?" "Are you going to go to work like that?" "Like what?" "Well, I'm, I'm gonna put my shoes on!" "What, my dress?" "What?" "Okay, you are sick." "No, Mom." "I'm just tired, okay?" "You didn't sleep?" "No." "Actually, I was up till three." "Maybe you should take a sleeping pill, I guess." "That's what I do sometimes." "I wanted to be up, okay?" "I had an e-mail to write, and it was a difficult e-mail." "I had to get it right." "Oh, honey." "Don't write e-mails at night." "You get your imagination going, and you get ideas." "You said yourself that people at work think you're hyper." "It wasn't for work, okay?" "It was to Levi." "Okay, okay." "I don't want to know." "Well, you'd be happy, actually." "Why?" "What do you mean by that?" "Okay, why would it make me happy?" "I went over there the last time, and I saw a bunch of our photo albums sticking under a pile of his crap." "So I sent him an e-mail, and I said, you know, I'd like my photo albums back." "They're just sitting under a pile of his old records." "Why would that make me happy?" "That doesn't make me happy." "Because I also said that I basically don't ever want to see him again." "What exactly does that mean?" "Amy, don't make me chase you!" "I just said that I basically can't handle it, all right?" "It's not healthy for me to see him." "He's still using, it's, it's too much, all right?" "He's a tempter." "It's too tempting." "He's tempting you with drugs?" "No, just the whole thing." "It's just too much, okay?" "Did he write you back?" "At this point, what is there to say?" "I gotta go." "I love you." "Ginger, you stay here and behave yourself." "Mommy'll be right back." "Helen?" "Yes?" "Carol Matthews." "Carol, hi!" "How are you?" "Well..." "Oh my God!" "My God!" "It's been, I don't..." "I don't know, years?" "Yep, years." "Yeah." "Well, you look just the same." "Oh, well you were always so great-looking." "Oh, thank you." "Well, you look just the same." "That's very kind of you." "I don't feel the same." "I feel as if I could sleep for a year." "We just got back in from Grand Rapids last night." "Oh, is that where you're from?" "I forget." "Grand Rapids is where Lisa lives." "Ah." "Lisa went to Michigan, and she met a guy in school there who is from Grand Rapids." "Michael." "He's a lawyer." "So, that's where they live." "And, I have two grand babies..." "Ohhh." "Cooper and Connor." "Oh, great!" "Twin grandsons." "Oh..." "They just turned seven, and I got pictures..." "Oh!" "I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to see the pictures." "Oh, great!" "Um, here they are..." "These are they boys when they were babies, of course." "Oh, precious." "So cute." "And here is Lisa now..." "Where is she?" "There." "She's beautiful." "Thank you." "She is beautiful, isn't she?" "She's pregnant again, and she's hoping for a girl," "But she doesn't want to know until they have it." "She wants to be surprised." "How do you feel about that?" "I don't know." "I mean..." "Well, I think it's annoying." "I mean, as the grandmother, I want to know!" "I want to know what to buy." "Pink or blue, you know?" "But, but it's fun." "And here is Jason and his wife." "Oh, handsome couple." "Thank you." "Nice family." "Thank you, they are." "They live in San Diego." "I just hope they have a baby soon, because Lisa's kids are so far away, and it's cold up there in Michigan." " Yeah, it's cold in Michigan." " I don't like it." "Well..." "So I keep urging them to do family vacations in Hawaii, you know?" "Oh, nice." "So what about you, Helen?" "How are you?" "I'm, I'm fine." "Really fine." "Well, good, good." "And what are you up to?" "Just um, buying some groceries." "Well, yes." "Yes, right." "But what else?" "How, how's Amy?" "Oh, Amy's great!" "She, um, she's living with me now, and I just love it." "Oh." "Yeah." "Oh!" "I didn't know that." "What happened?" "She was married to that athlete, I thought?" "Yeah, Levi." "Oh, yes, he was so handsome," "I remember that." "Yeah." "Mmm." "Well, she was always a beautiful girl." "Thank you." "You know, Lisa was always jealous of Amy," "No... because Amy was so tall, and all the boys liked her." "Lisa was always the shortest girl in school." "Except for the Asians." "But, what, what happened?" "Well, they, they divorced." "That was a while ago." "Oh." "Was it, uh, was it messy?" "I mean, they didn't have kids, did they?" "No, no." "He, uh, he had a problem with alcohol." "Oh, oh my God, I'm so sorry." "That is so tough." "Yeah." "But Amy has a great job!" "Yes?" "Yeah, she works at Abaddonn." "Uh-huh." "She's been there fifteen years, and they just moved her to a new department." "So she loves her job?" "Oh, yeah." "Well, that's great." "She, she took off for a couple of months, and she lost her place, so that's why she's staying with me, it's just temporary." "Oh." "So, no grand kids?" "No." "Well, I, uh, well, I have..." "Bethany." "She has a daughter." "Three!" "How is Bethany?" "She's, uh, busy." "Busy?" "Oh, these kids get so busy." "Yeah." "Oh, were we that busy?" "I mean, we were busy, but it wasn't the same." "No." "With their blackberries, and their e-mails, and these, these i-chat phones..." "Ho, ho, ho, ho." "Ho, ho, ho, ho." "I do remember, though, Jim was always busy." "Yeah, he was busy." "He always had things going on!" "I know that Lyle always felt lazy after he had been with Jim." "Jim had so many things in the fire." "Lyle always looked up to Jim." "Well, Carol..." "Yes?" "Then why did he pull out of their deal?" "What deal?" "The Trellis project." "It was a corporate park." "They were in development already with Carl Hewitt." "Well, that was twenty years ago, Helen!" "I don't, I don't even remember that!" "Ah." "So, I mean..." "Carol, it was so good running into you, really." "And uh, you, will you, you tell your family I said hi." "Okay, and you say hi to Amy and Bethany." "I'll do it." "And next time Lisa comes into town, we can all get together." "I'm sure Lisa would love to see Amy." "Take care of yourself, Helen." "You too, Carol." "Thank you, bye." "There we go." "Oh, thank you." "Here, let me hold this basket." "Why are you taking this one so hard, Jim?" "You've had other deals fall through." "And Carl has your back, everyone likes working with you..." "Things don't always come together." "But no one's gonna blame you." "They know you have tried everything." "What is the worst thing that could happen?" "What is the absolute worst?" "You stay in here, Ginger." "Mommy?" "Something's wrong with Daddy." "You're it!" "Here I come!" "I'm gonna get you!" "Levi?" "I just dropped a couple of photo albums at the front door that" "Amy suddenly really needed to have for some reason, so those are out there." "Yeah, I saw that." "Yeah, well..." "So... how are you?" "Great." "I love waking up to e-mails from your daughter, telling me how she wants me out of her life." "I like that, it's a good way to wake up." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I've gotten hundreds of those over the years." "Kind of takes the sting out a little bit." "Well, you know, she's gotta do what's right for her..." "So, uh..." "Stop calling me." "Stop coming by." "Stop writing me, telling me you can't deal with it." "Just don't deal with me anymore." "You're right." "I know I'm right." "But she does it just to lay it all out on the line again, all the reasons why I'm a fuck-up, all the ways I've failed her," "I mean, I could wallpaper my fucking apartment with these e-mails!" "Don't get upset, Levi." "I'm not upset, I'm just fucking tired of it." "So tell her, stop bugging me." "Stop calling, stop writing, just give up on me!" "'Cause I'm fine with it." "Just move on!" "Quit telling me why you need to do it, why you have to do it, okay?" "Just leave me the fuck alone." "That's all I ask, and I'll do the same." "Well, you know, Levi, it's kind of difficult for me to be sympathetic." "I'm sure it is, 'cause you're getting what you've always wanted, Helen." "You've wanted this for fifteen years." "That is so not true, Levi." "I'm sorry, but I liked you!" "And you know that I liked you." "What I didn't like was that you never got it together!" "You kept getting worse!" "Hey, she was no angel, believe me!" "And I'm not gonna get into specifics!" "Well, you were never gonna change!" "How many years were gonna go by?" "I spent years, okay, listening to her cry about you!" "All right?" "Believe it!" "No, it's true!" "And you wanna know something?" "You wanna know what I never did?" "I never said, "Hey, just give up on your mom." ""Just walk away, just cut her out of your life."" "Can you say the same?" "Can you say the same about me?" "She never got the love that she needed from you." "She never did." "Hey, listen." "You mean you, okay?" "You mean you." "She never got the love she needed from you." "And that's the killer, isn't it?" "And I might be fucked up..." "I am fucked up." "And no one's more disappointed in me than me." "But you wanna know what?" "I tried." "But I could never give her what she really wanted, which was your love." "You and your dead fucking husband." "Just too big a hole to fill." "I could never do enough." "So I just said, "Fuck it, just fuck it."" "So you had to go and sleep with all her friends?" "And you had to go and get drunk and fall down in the middle of the day?" "And I suppose, Levi, that that is my fault, too?" "Well, it's always good to be over here." "See ya, Mother." "Why do you hate him, Mom?" "He's not like Dad, okay?" "He's different." "You'll see." "What is the worst thing that could happen?" "What is the absolute worst?" "I mean, they're not just using the information to fire people who aren't performing, it's like they're, they're taking the data, and they're, they're using it to screw the little guys!" "So somebody works so hard, and does all this overtime, and then they'll just, like, change their shifts so they don't have to pay them." "Or they'll, like, take them from an hourly rate to a salaried position, so they can pay less, and just screw everybody over!" "That's what Cogentiva is!" "It's just there to screw people over." "Ugh." "Why am I even talking, you're not even listening to me." "Your photo albums are on the entry table." "What?" "They're over there." "Wait a minute, what?" "That was fast." "Are you serious?" "Good girl." "Come on, here's another one." "Mmm-hmm." "Did you see him?" "Mmm-hmm." "Did he say anything?" "No." "Well, how did he seem?" "I don't know, Amy." "Uh huh, you're sick." "No, it's just a dry cough." "I don't know." "Well, take something." "I don't want to take anything." "Look." "You forget about things, and you look at one picture and it all comes flooding back, you know?" "Mmm." "Don't stay up too late." "Okay." "Put that away." "Mom, good night." "Good night." "Sweet dreams." "You want it?" "Okay, get it, get it." "Whoa!" "You like it?" "Come on, rip it open, rip it open!"