ALICEYou like it?

GARYNo, yeah! I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time! How did you know?

ALICEWell, you’re a nineteen year old college kid who’s been caught with weed twice in his first semester. Figured it was a safe bet.

GARYI’ve already had to pretend to know who Hunter S. Thompson is like four times in front of my friends.

ALICEWell, not anymore.

GARYWow... Thanks, Mom.

ALICEI’m just ecstatic that it’s gotten more than a blank stare out of you.

GARYThis is great. Really.

He hugs her.

ALICEWell... I guess we have a long way to go, and it’s already getting dark.

GARYYeah.

Alice starts to go, but Gary lingers.

ALICEWhat?

GARYHe’s not mad at you because something happened to me.

ALICEOh, honey... me and your Father are... complicated. It wasn’t your fault.

79.

GARYNo, I know. I just wanted you to know... I think it was because you didn’t let him call the police.

ALICEHuh?

GARYWhen I got shot. You begged him not to. I mean... they shot me, Mom. You didn’t... Didn’t you care?

ALICE(Deer in the headlights)

I cared. I was terrified, I was furious, I wanted to kill them-

GARYSo why didn’t you-

ALICEI just... I owed your Grandpa.

GARYYou owed him?

ALICEI felt sorry for him, I mean.

GARYBecause he lost Grandma?

ALICEI mean, he did all that for me! He’s never done anything for me in his whole life and then he turns around and-

An awkward pause.

GARYGrandpa shot me for you?

ALICENo! Oh my God, no! I wasn’t thinking about- never mind.

80.

GARYI mean, when you said you were going to kill me if I didn’t turn off my games, I didn’t think you meant it.

They laugh a little.

GARY (CONT)What did he do for you?

ALICEIt’s... kind of a secret. Maybe one day I’ll tell you. Maybe. Probably not. Sorry.

GARY(Shrugs)

Sure.

Alice looks up at the stars and chuckles to herself.

ALICEThere’s the Star of Bethlehem.

GARYThe what?

ALICEI never told you about the Star of Bethlehem?

GARYI’m not an idiot. I’ve heard the story about-

ALICENo, no. It was your Grandma. She used to swear up and down that it was still up there, two thousand years later, watching over our family. We’d say “Nuh uh!” And she’d be like “No, it’s right there!” Even though she’d point at a different star every time. Then we’d ask Dad if she was telling the truth, and he’d start shouting “Are you bastards calling your Mother a liar?!” Kinda scary, I know... but he was trying to be funny.

GARYI never heard that.

ALICEYou don’t really know me very well, do you?

GARYI guess not.

81.