VINNIE: What would you call it?

CARTER: She—eloped.

VINNIE: Oh! “Eloped”! That’s what you call it. That’s right. “Eloped”!

CARTER: Well, she didn’t “run off”. That makes her sound sneaky and deceitful. That just wasn’t the case.

VINNIE: “Eloped”. (Offers CARTER a drink.) Drink?

CARTER refuses drink.

VINNIE: Takes two to elope, I guess. That must be the difference. If it’s only just one person eloping then you might call it “running off”.

CARTER: You might.

Pause.

VINNIE: Where—did you elope to when you both “eloped”?

CARTER: You’re bound and determined to get it around to Rosie, aren’t you. You can’t help yourself.

VINNIE: Well, it’s the main thing we share in common these days, isn’t it, Carter?

CARTER: I didn’t come here to talk about Rosie.

VINNIE: I’m just curious. Again. In a state of wonder. I used to wonder about it all the time. It was my constant obsession. I’d wake up with it heavy on my mind. The two of you alone in the Buick. Highway 40 East. Driving through the night with her neck on your shoulder. Tucumcari. Amarillo. The smell of cattle in the feedlots. Oil on the wind. The lights of Memphis twinkling across the placid Mississippi.

CARTER: It wasn’t that poetic. Believe me.

VINNIE: No?

CARTER: No! It wasn’t. I mean—it may have started off that way—

VINNIE: That was my Buick too. You realize that, don’t you? My Buick and my wife.

CARTER: It was her choice, Vinnie. I never—(Stops himself.)

Pause.

VINNIE: What? You never what?

CARTER: One thing—just led to another. It was her idea to run away together, not mine.

VINNIE: “Elope”.

Pause.

CARTER: Yes.

VINNIE: You were a victim of circumstance?

CARTER: Well—

VINNIE: And it all just happened to coincide with our little scam on Simms, I guess. That was convenient.

CARTER: It had nothing to do with that!

VINNIE: My forced exile!

CARTER: She had made it up in her mind a long time before that!

Pause.

VINNIE: Oh. Is that right?

CARTER: Yes. That’s right.

VINNIE: How long before?

CARTER: Look—

VINNIE: How long!

CARTER: I don’t know how long! Months maybe.

VINNIE: Months? For months you were both sneaking around! Boffing each other in the back seat of my Buick while I was out steadfastly hustling your dirty work! Preparing the ground for your Big Success!

CARTER: No! It was nothing like that. It came out of nowhere.

VINNIE: One day she just woke up and realized she was with the wrong man? That must’ve been it, huh? A sudden revelation. That happens sometimes. That happened to me once. A sudden revelation.

Pause, CARTER goes to VINNIE, takes bottle from him and takes a belt straight from the bottle.

VINNIE: Would you like a glass?

CARTER: No.

CARTER hands bottle back to VINNIE.