JENNIFER (She begins unwrapping the wine bottle. To Bob): Do you want to get some glasses?

BOB: I was kind of sitting, but—

JENNIFER (Interrupting): I’ll go.

BOB: No, I’ll go. (He exits)

JENNIFER: This looks good.

PONY: It’s from Europe.

JOHN: Just outside Europe. (Very brief pause) There was free iced tea where we had dinner.

JENNIFER: Do you want something different to drink?

JOHN: I was explaining the bathroom.

PONY: We probably drank a gallon each. I hope it doesn’t keep me up.

JOHN: It’s not the worst night for insomnia.

PONY: I hate insomnia. I don’t even like saying it.

JOHN: You’ll sleep. It’s a pretty night is all I meant.

JENNIFER: I was just saying that to Bob. (A quieter voice) He’s, um, the last few months, he’s ill. So we’re just kind of laying low and trying to figure that out.

PONY: What’s there to figure out?

JENNIFER: Well, plenty, actually. They keep changing the treatment and the drugs. But you have a point.

PONY: What does he, I mean, is it contagious?

JENNIFER: It’s most likely congenital. It’s very rare.

PONY: So, I’m sorry, so it’s not?

JENNIFER: No. They don’t know much about it. There’s a chance it’s more popular. I mean, common.

PONY: I hope he’s, wow, yeah—

JENNIFER: Well, we do too— thank you. One of the best doctors for his thing is right here in town. Actually, the best.

JOHN: Yeah?

JENNIFER: And there’s a patient of his, Elliot, and I talk with him and his wife to get a sense of how the disease, just, how it goes from month to month. It’s interesting, he’s an albino, Elliot, which I always thought was interesting. But it’s, um, it’s hard, it’s really . . . yeah.

PONY: Say no more.

JENNIFER: Have you had experience with something like this?

PONY: I just didn’t want you to say any more.

JENNIFER: No, of course— Bob doesn’t like talking about it, either. In fact, we kind of distinctly never do.

JOHN: Then let’s do that.

JENNIFER: I’m sorry. I just kind of blurted all that out.

JOHN: That’s all right. That’s what separates us from the animal. You never hear animals blurting things out. Unless they’re being run over by a car or something.

(Bob enters, with a glass of water and no wine glasses.)

JENNIFER: Did you bring the . . . (Bob turns and exits)

PONY (To John): That’s like you.

JOHN: Sometimes, I forget stuff. On the other hand, sometimes I remember stuff.

JENNIFER: So, wow— you can do it all. (John smiles) We had a leak in the roof, almost a year ago, and everything is still kind of musty. So we like to sit out here.

JOHN: Nothing wrong with any of that.