Jason: Come on Maggie. Come on. Time is running out.
Maggie: This is the best I can do. E X C O N.
Jason: That's ex con. Ok, just say it Maggie. Don't try to be cute. I don't like it when you're
cute. You are too old to be cute.
Maggie: Pardon?
Jason: That word Maggie. Why did you use that word?
Maggie: Because it is the triple word score.
Jason: Oh, yes. It is.

Webster: When I got paroled, I learned I was no longer a thief. And what I am I don't know,
but I fear a dark and desperate time may come when I must define myself as something. And
the only word that comes to mind is thief.
Carol: So beautiful. There is such a sense of hopelessness.
Webster: I'll say.
Carol: Read the rest.
Webster: That is all I got so far.
Carol: Well what are your ideas for the ending?
Webster: I don't know. I was thinking maybe after this high school thing I could get some
training and maybe be a counselor for guys like me.
Carol: Really?
Webster: Yeah. City College has this program where you go part time and you work part time.
And there are plenty of jobs in the bad neighborhoods because nobody wants to work there,
and for it would be a short commute. What are you going to do Carol?
Carol: I'm not sure exactly beyond Columbia, a top Law School, Clerking for the Supreme
Court Justice, and not necessarily a woman, but I wouldn't rule out a career in politics.
Webster: So this will be our last meal together.
Carol: No.
Webster: Some more coffee over here to cut the grease.
Waiter: I told you not to order the chilly. Hey, have you been in here before?
Webster: No. That's why I ordered the chilly.
Waiter: All night long I've been trying to place your face.
Webster: Well its right here.
Waiter: Maybe I saw you on Johnny Carson.
Carol: Look, I want to apologize. I must have seemed like such a...
Webster: Princess?
Carol: Ok, ok, I was a princess.
Webster: Hey don't get down on yourself. It must be kind of strange of you to be in this
neighborhood.
Carol: Well actually I commute to Manhattan everyday for school. I see all kinds of disgusting
filth.
Webster: Well here you don't get to walk over them and keep walking with a face like this.
Carol: I will have you know that I have lived in the city.
Waiter: That is the guy who mugged me two years ago.

Jason: Thank god. Alright Maggie, your suspicions were true. I didn't want to say anything
before because I knew you'd be upset. But Carol tonight has been out with an ex con.
Maggie: What?
Jason: Yes, somebody I have been working with down at the clinic. An armed robber.
Maggie: Carol is out with him now?
Jason: No, she is not out with him now. She is home safe and sound, like I knew she would be,
and we think we should applaud carols new found sensitivity and awareness. Come on. Hey!
Mike: Thank you, thank you. Thank you.
Maggie: Jason, you were saying?
Jason: Carol is going to be fine. Alright, let's just finish the game.
Maggie: Carol is out with an ex con?
(Phone rings)
Jason: Ex con is hyphenated. That doesn't count Maggie.
Mike: Telephone.
Jason: Excuse me.
Maggie: No, take a message Mike.
Mike: It sounds pretty important mum.
Maggie: So is this.
Mike: Guys, how do you spell precinct?

Policeman: Did you know your daughter was going out with a convicted felon?
Maggie: Some of us did.
Policeman: That's not good.
Jason: What happened?
Policeman: Well what happened was the owner of the diner recognized the suspect as the
person who'd mugged him a couple of years ago. The owner called the police. Held the guy at
gunpoint. Before we arrived the suspect wrestled the gun away from the guy and then, this is
crazy he took ten bucks from a full cash register and fled.
Maggie: It was a miracle Carol wasn't hurt.
Policeman: Yeah.
Jason: That just doesn't sound like Webster. Webster would be the kind...
Maggie: Webster! Jason please!
Jason: Carol.
Maggie: Oh honey. Are you ok?
Carol: I think so.
Maggie: Oh my poor baby. Let's go home.
Carol: daddy I don't understand what happened.
Maggie: Forget about it.
Carol: Mum, I don't want to forget about it. Daddy, how could this happen?
Jason: I don't know.
Carol: Daddy, he was telling me how he wanted to be counselor and help other kids. We were
laughing. And then all of a sudden, this guy comes and pulls this gun on him and calls him a
thief. "You are a thief and that's all you are is a thief". And Webster's eyes changed. It was like
he'd died. And then he just grabbed the gun, took some money and left.
Maggie: He's a criminal Carol.
Carol: Mum, he is more than that. He was trying. I mean you should read this essay. He
worked on it so hard. And then he just left it there like it didn't even matter. Daddy, I don't
understand.

Maggie: Jason, are you coming to bed? I'm not through yelling at you yet.
Jason: Not right now.
Maggie: I finally got Carol to sleep. And do you know what she said to me as she was drifting
off? She actually said that she was glad that she went down to that awful clinic. Jason are you
listening to me?
Jason: She could have been killed.
Maggie: Damn right. She could have been killed. Look Jason, I want to help the downtrodden
people just as much as you do, but when there is a chance that one of our children...
Jason: Maggie, I put my daughter in danger. I know that. Yes, yes. It was a silly idea. My
stupid idealism. I believe that just because I go down there and I work with people, that I can
make a difference. I can change them Maggie. I'm a fool.
Maggie: Oh Jason, I, I never called you a fool.
Jason: If anything had happened to her Maggie. God!
Maggie: Sweetheart I need a little of your stupid idealism in my life. I can be narrow minded.
But you know what; together we make a pretty balanced person. Separately, I'm not crazy
about either one of us.
Jason: Yeah. Well I always thought, you know I believed that if you were a good person, if you
treat people with respect, if you are sincere and you're fair and you're honest, if you believe in
god, then nothing can harm you. Nothing can harm the people you love. Tonight Maggie I see
for the first time, it's uh, I was wrong.
Maggie: Oh Jason, just because Webster turned out bad doesn't mean you haven't helped out
a lot of people down there.
Jason: Well Maggie, how do I know that they wouldn't have gotten better by themselves? How
do I know I make a difference?
Maggie: You make a difference with me.
Jason: That's very sweet. I just, I think I want to be alone for a bit.
Maggie: Ok. Jason, I love you.
Jason: I'm glad.

Webster: Doc.
Jason: What are you doing here?
Webster: Where else can I go?
Jason: Well you came to the wrong place.
Webster: I made a big mistake.
Jason: You made a mistake! What about me? I trusted you Webster. I trusted you with my
daughter.
Webster: I didn't plan for that gun.
Jason: I don't want to hear about it. I'm going to call the police.
Webster: Well is Carol alright?
Jason: What do you care?
Webster: I care alright damn it! I do.
Jason: What were you doing tonight Webster?
Webster: Doctor Seaver, tonight for the first time, I saw that all that stuff we talked about
could really happen. Then that guy in the diner starts talking about stuff that happened years
ago. Saying I was a thief and that was all I was ever going to be. Well he convinced me.
Jason: Well you know better.
Webster: Yeah doctor, but only because of you. And that's why I'm here.
Jason: Cos of me.
Webster: Yeah, I wouldn't feel so awful right now if you hadn't made me feel so good. Would
you come down to the police station with me? I need you to come with me.
Jason: I'll come. I'll come. I'll come with you.
Webster: I didn't mean for...for any of this to happen. I'm so, I'm sorry doc. (crying) I'm sorry
man.
Jason: We'll get you through it. We'll get you through it.