ROSIE: You know, for a long time I kept dreading this confrontation. I had little nightmares about it. But now that it’s here, it seems dull actually. Stupid.

VINNIE: You could’ve left me a note or something.

ROSIE: A note!

VINNIE: Something.

ROSIE: Oh you mean like: “Gone to the 7-11 to get a six-pack. Be right back”?

VINNIE: Something. Not just—disappeared.

ROSIE: We were all checking out of there, Vinnie! All of us. That was the plan. Remember?

VINNIE: Yeah. I remember.

ROSIE: No contact. No trace of any connection between us.

VINNIE: That was the plan.

ROSIE: It’s a little late for regrets.

VINNIE: I just thought maybe you’d—

ROSIE: What?

Pause.

VINNIE: Come back.

ROSIE: To what? Life on the backstretch? Fifteen-hundred-dollar claimers? I could’ve set up house in the back of a horse trailer, maybe?

VINNIE: We had fun. We had some fun.

ROSIE: Fun!

VINNIE: Read the Form ’til two in the morning sometimes. Picking long-shots. Clocking works.

ROSIE: Fun.

VINNIE: Slept in the truck bed. Listened to the tin roof flap on the shedrow.

ROSIE: Fun, fun, fun!

VINNIE: You could’ve called me or something.

ROSIE: What about you? Where have you been all this time?

VINNIE: I had no idea where you went.

ROSIE: Come on. You knew where the checks were coming from. You knew the phone number well enough.

VINNIE: I didn’t want to—interrupt your life.

ROSIE: Get outa here.

VINNIE: I thought you and Carter were—

ROSIE: What.

VINNIE: Getting along. I mean—

ROSIE: You’re the one who disappeared, Vinnie. You’re the one who vanished.

VINNIE: I’m here, now.

ROSIE: Well, isn’t that great! Isn’t that dandy! Fifteen years later you sneak through my back door with a dumb box and a hang-dog look on your face.

VINNIE: I wasn’t sneaking.

ROSIE: What’d you come here for?

Pause.

VINNIE: I thought maybe I could set things straight.

ROSIE: What things?

VINNIE: I uh—found Simms. I went and talked to him.

ROSIE: Who?

VINNIE: Simms. “Ames”, as he’s called now.

ROSIE: I don’t know who you’re talking about.

VINNIE: He seems to have reconciled something with himself. No malice. He lives in his own little world. Studies bloodlines and stays out of trouble.

ROSIE: What’re we talking about here?

VINNIE: He’s the kind of man who was able to rebound from terrible shock and pull himself back together. He had no interest whatsoever in what I had to offer.

ROSIE: And what was that?

VINNIE: These.

VINNIE holds out the shoebox to her. She doesn’t take it from him.

ROSIE: What’s in there? Dead puppies?

VINNIE: Take it.

ROSIE slowly takes the box and puts her hand on the lid but doesn’t open it.

ROSIE: Is a snake going to jump out at me or something? A tiny nightmare?

VINNIE: Open it.

Pause.