CECILIA: It’s the dampness I think. The moisture in the air. Something haunting about it. All that history.

CARTER: Right.

CECILIA: Hounds.

CARTER: What?

CECILIA: Hunting to hounds.

CARTER: Oh, right. Look—Vinnie was wondering—

CECILIA: But you and Vinnie are from around here originally?

CARTER: Yes. Yes, we are as a matter of fact. Only about ten miles away. Cucamonga. Pretty boring. “Home of Grapes”.

CECILIA: Grapes?

CARTER: Yeah. Used to be nothing but vineyards as far as the eye could see. Cheap grapes—you know. “Ripple”. “Thunderbird”. Nothing fancy. Headache wine.

CECILIA: Hard to think of anybody being actually from this area.

CARTER: It is, isn’t it. But it’s true. Born and raised.

CECILIA: You went to school together?

CARTER: Yes, we did. From the sixth grade on.

CECILIA: Sixth grade? So you must have been through a lot then, huh? Lots of ups and downs.

CARTER: We have.

CECILIA: There’s something nice about that—Having an ongoing friendship. Must give you a real sense of continuity.

CARTER: Well—

CECILIA: I miss that myself.

CARTER: What.

CECILIA: Continuity. Everything seems so busted up to me. Like I’ve lived a dozen different lives. But a long-lasting friendship—That must be a very nice thing to have.

CARTER: Well—yes and no.

CECILIA: Oh, I suppose there’s times when you’d just as soon throw in the towel. Go your separate ways.

CARTER: There are. Yes.

CECILIA: But then you must just see yourself through those rough spots because you realize the value of continuity. “Perseverance Furthers”. Remember that?

CARTER: What?

CECILIA: The I-Ching. “Perseverance Furthers”. I don’t know how many times I used to roll the coins and it came up “Perseverance Furthers”. Must’ve been trying to tell me something, I guess.

CARTER: I don’t know uh—anything about that.

CECILIA: Oh, it was just a fad for a while. Everybody used to do it so I did it. I don’t do it anymore.

CARTER: What’s that?

CECILIA: Roll the coins. It was just a fad. You know—but then there’s lots of things that just kind of fall by the wayside as you get older. Don’t you think?

CARTER: I guess—I was—

CECILIA: Like cheating on your partner. I gave that up too.

Pause. She sips tea.

CARTER: Uh—I wanted to talk to you about Vinnie—

CECILIA: Never used to bother me at all. That’s what’s so amazing. No guilt. No remorse. No nothing. Then one day it just stopped. Why do you suppose that is?

CARTER: I have no idea.

CECILIA: It had nothing to do with conscience or will-power or anything like that. It just suddenly came to an end. I knew it was over.

CARTER: What.

CECILIA: Cheating.

CARTER (trying to make a joke out of tension): Yeah. Remember the days when sex was safe and racing was dangerous?

CARTER laughs nervously. CECILIA doesn’t. Pause.