JON: “When I think of you, I am aware of who you now are, your age, and your physical problems, but those perceptions are overridden by my knowledge of who you were fifty years ago. I know if you allow me to visit, I will see you with my memory as well as with my eyes.” Laying it on a little thick, isn’t he? “Age will be no obstacle”—whoa—“age will be no obstacle to our love.”

TESS: Don’t make fun. He wanted to see her.

JON (Looking at it again): “Fifty years.”

He wrote this after Walter died?

TESS: Mm-hmm.

JON: Did she write back?

TESS: Not that I know of.

JON: Why wouldn’t she let him visit?

TESS: I think she didn’t want him to see she was old.

JON: That’s so sad.

TESS: I guess I’m not really—rooting for her to have had an affair, you know?

JON: It wouldn’t be an affair after Walter died. If I died, I’d want you to meet someone.

TESS: Even if it was one of your rivals?

JON: I had rivals?

TESS: I mean hypothetically.

JON: Well hypothetically I’m taking the high road.

I wouldn’t want you to be alone.

TESS: What if I died first?

JON: Not a chance. Not with these arteries.

(She smiles slightly. Pause.)

Well anyway she wasn’t alone. We made sure of that.

(Beat.)

TESS: You were so good with her, Jon. You were better than me.

JON: I had a little more room. She wasn’t my mom.

TESS: I judged her.

JON: You didn’t—

TESS: I did. For talking to Walter Prime. For not going outside enough. For not reading more. Why couldn’t I just let her be? She was so tired.

JON: She was glad to have you on her side. Doing battle with Dr. Ross.

TESS: Was I on her side?

JON: Come on.

TESS: I was so mad at you for telling her Jean-Paul was world number eight—

JON: I exaggerated—

TESS: He played in college! He had a drywall business!

JON: It made her feel special.

TESS: Exactly! Every time her face would light up about Jean-Paul, I felt like the evil shrew who would deny her dying mother a harmless little lie.

JON: But you didn’t deny her. (Beat)

It was easy for me to be human morphine for a couple years—you had the tough job.

TESS: Maybe.

JON: She loved you so much.

TESS: She never even—

(He touches her shoulder while she cries.)

JON: No. But she did.

(He takes her in his arms.)

It was obvious, from a little farther away.

(Beat. He is still holding her, and she says this into his shoulder:)

TESS: I hated him, Jon.

JON: —

TESS: I hated Damian, for changing her. When he died—I didn’t know how to make her love me as much as him—