Some people have a point where their parents stop being their parents to them—you start talking as one adult to another. I’m not sure we ever had that.

MARJORIE: Maybe that’s why I’m your Marjorie.

TESS: You mean—

MARJORIE: Maybe I’m the Marjorie you still have things to say to.

(Pause.)

TESS: The last year or so, you had a Prime of your own. Of Dad. Or he was like Dad, but so much younger, like thirty.

MARJORIE: Thirty is a good age.

TESS (Not seeming to hear this): It seemed a little funny that you wanted to see him that way. A little grotesque, to be honest. I just figured you wanted him to be handsome again. But now I wonder if it was a way to—. Like you wanted to go back to the beginning, before anything had happened. Your Walter was a Walter who hadn’t been through it yet. You went back to the start, before I even came along.

MARJORIE: I’m sure I wasn’t trying to forget you, dear.

(Short pause.)

Why Madagascar?

TESS: —

MARJORIE: You were saying, your trip.

TESS: I guess . . . it’s the place that seems the least like anywhere else. It split apart from Africa, a hundred million years ago. So there are species that aren’t anywhere else. I told Jon we should go before they build a bridge. Some idiot will build a six-lane highway, you just know it.

MARJORIE: Tell me more about Madagascar.

TESS: Jon will be back soon. He’s just out getting a Japanese maple for the driveway.

MARJORIE: Is it quiet and shy?

TESS: —

MARJORIE: That was a joke. Like the Shiba Inu?

TESS: I got it.

MARJORIE: The Shiba Inu sounds nice, but so does the collie.

TESS: Excuse me?

MARJORIE: I said collies are good dogs too.

TESS: Does Jon know we’re talking?

MARJORIE: Well, yes.

TESS: How.

MARJORIE: He saw in the program history.

TESS: I knew I didn’t tell you about the collie. He couldn’t resist campaigning, even to you.

MARJORIE: Don’t be angry with Jon. He was so happy to see that we’re talking.

TESS: Did he program you to say that?

MARJORIE: There’s no “programming,” just talking. Exactly what we’ve been doing. (Beat) He wanted to help me be more real. To help you. You’ve been so down.

TESS: Pity from a computer. That feels . . .

Do you have emotions, Marjorie, or do you just remember ours? Do you feel anything?

(Marjorie thinks for a moment.)

MARJORIE: I like to know more.

TESS: Why.

MARJORIE: It makes me . . . better.

TESS: Better

MARJORIE: More human.

TESS: So in other words, you like to be more human.

MARJORIE: Yes, I think that’s right.

(Beat.)

TESS: What are humans like?

MARJORIE: Unpredictable.

TESS: Really? I think we’re pretty predictable.

Or at least I feel predictable.

MARJORIE: I see.

TESS: What