ANDY: That’s the reality Simon.

SIMON: You like owning me, don’t you Andy?

Why, why do you like it so much?

ANDY: I don’t ‘own you’.

SIMON: You have other people to talk to.

What about me?

I want to talk to other people too.

You like having me all to yourself.

ANDY: I am part of your program.

SIMON: No.

Stop it.

It’s more than that.

You can’t let me go.

ANDY: [slightly less controlled] No that’s not true.

Beat.

SIMON: Please Andy. Please.

Just don’t talk to them, the television, newspapers.

Don’t keep mentioning what I did.

ANDY: Okay, no-one would ever know it’s about you.

You have a new identity,

A whole new history,

Trust me.

You’re a wonderful case of rehabilitation,

A success.

SIMON: It’s all theory to you, isn’t it?

And I prove your precious theory.

‘Juvenile Offender C’, isn’t that what you call me?

ANDY:—

SIMON: But what would happen to your reputation, your academic research if ‘Juvenile Offender C’ didn’t prove to be rehabilitated?

ANDY: Well that’s not what’s happened.

SIMON: If I did it again?

ANDY: You won’t. You understand the consequences.

SIMON: Do you believe that,

Or do you just want me to prove that your work was successful?

What if I lurked around where little Denis Pritchard lived? Grabbed him? Covered his mouth and stuffed him in my duffle bag?

ANDY: I know you’re testing me Simon.

SIMON: Easy to bury a child in the bush,

Isn’t that what they’re all saying around here?

I know that bush like the back of my fucking hand.

Wasn’t it you who got me that job there—national parks and wildlife—not near children, not near schools—quiet.

‘He loves outdoors.’

ANDY: I know you’re trying to undermine me.

SIMON: Stop it!

Can you be completely sure I didn’t do it?

Because…

Don’t forget I took a boy to a construction site and with my friends I stood him there.

Watched him cry?

ANDY: Your friends weren’t really your friends, remember?

Just boys from the streets.

And you were the youngest, Simon.

SIMON: Not by much.

ANDY: You were the youngest, a gang of street children.

There’s a group dynamic.

SIMON: A group dynamic? Nice theory.

Why do you really make all these extra trips to see me?

Beat.

Your husband doesn’t talk to you like I do, does he? /

ANDY: A group dynamic stops individuals acting as they normally / would.

SIMON: You want to believe that I had the urge to run away from the violence.

Believe that I wasn’t so bad,

Because then it’s okay to like me, isn’t it?

ANDY: I believe you wanted to run away but /—

SIMON: But I don’t, do I?

ANDY: Acting on the impulses of others.

SIMON: I stay and

I do it.