TODD Alright then …

ERIC But … I mean … what is it? (Beat.) That feeling?

TODD Fuck if I know! Something.

ERIC “Something.”

TODD Yup.

ERIC Well, that’s helpful. (Laughs.) I mean … fuck …

TODD Exactly!

ERIC I feel like … I’m not sure … if Faye and I, if we’d had kids earlier—earlier in our life together, I’m saying, or more than just one … a boy, maybe—then it’d be different. Somehow.

TODD Yeah?

ERIC I mean … probably … sure. Why not?

TODD No, you’re probably right …

ERIC They just … you know? They focus you in a certain way …

TODD That they do!

ERIC You turn your attention to ’em and you just … you chug along, because of them. No matter what.

TODD That’s kinda true.

ERIC Right? And you … whatever … doesn’t mean you can’t still fuck up, that you don’t make mistakes or … you know … fall out of love with their mother or cheat on a person … kids don’t make you perfect …

TODD Absolutely not! Not my two …

ERIC Exactly … but … I have kinda always believed that they do make you at least “better” … in a way. (Beat.) I believe that. (Beat.) They make you “better.”

TODD Yeah … probably …

ERIC You see that at all? With TJ or … you know … Shayleen even?

TODD Maybe … yeah. Maybe so.

ERIC Huh.

TODD Like … sometimes I look at ’em … my kids, I’m saying … and I see a kind of … finer version of me. In them.

ERIC “Finer?”

TODD I dunno! Probably just because they look … they’re younger and they’ve got … whatever … a newer insight on shit—technology and politics and … just … emotions, even. They can accept people for who they are and … I mean, my kid sees some ugly chick with these, like, little bits of metal stuck in her face … and he is okay with that. Thinks that it’s “cool.” And I mean, this is a dog, a very homely girl we’re speaking about … with jewels, in her face … and it’s all about “live and let live.” (Beat.) And that’s good. I personally still think she’s a fucking mutt—I’d never touch her, if I was his age—but the fact that he likes her, accepts her for who she wants to be or is searching to be … that’s better, right? He is becoming a more refined person than I am or will probably ever be …

ERIC Yeah. Maybe so. (Beat.) My Tracy is pretty perfect …

TODD Yeah. And look at ’em … my kids … they can be whatever they wanna be now. These days? It’s wide open. Even the fucking President if they’re interested in that … now it’s a possibility at least.

ERIC That’s true.

TODD Yep. (Smiles.) My kid could be the first black president … right?

ERIC Ha! Yeah, that’s true …