TODD: (denial with disgust) I am perfectly healthy!
SAM: I don’t think so.
TODD: I don’t care what you think.
SAM: Well, I care about you.
TODD: Find yourself another lonely orphan.
SAM: No way Jose, I love you. You’re my orphan. You tell me about Michele.
TODD: (quieter) Nothing to tell. She was just some girl. (looks away from his eyes)
SAM: Oh really, some girl you invited to your house!
TODD: (swallows) It was my birthday.
SAM: And? (whispers) What?
TODD: (telling the story, oddly low key, almost monotone) She showed up at the door. And I didn’t want to let her in. My father didn’t like it when I had visitors. (like a young boy) But she was really nice.
SAM: Fine....fine. So.....so you let her in and.....and what happened then?
TODD: Well, she had a cake. And it had candles on it. I hadn’t seen candles since my Mom split. (with smile) And it felt really nice.
SAM: (he smiles back) It’s supposed to.
TODD: But she didn’t have any matches. (thinking, remembering) So I went to get the lighter from....
SAM: (cutting him off) That’s when you stole you’re father’s lighter.
TODD: That’s when he walked in.
SAM: What did he do? What happened?
TODD: (looks away) He went nuts.
SAM: In front of Michele?
TODD: Yeah, in front of Michelle.
SAM: Was....was he angry because Michele was there? Was he angry because she took the lighter? I mean, what, why was he......
TODD: (cutting him off) He threw the cake down on the floor. And he called her a bunch of names. He told her I was a loser, then he threw her out.
SAM: Tell me why Todd, he can’t hurt you anymore.
SAM: (he grimaces) Take? (clears his throat, in fear) Take what?
TODD: (music becomes ominous, he is almost trance like) He'd hold my hand over the flame. He said I had to keep it there for a minute. And if I failed the test, well then things would just get worse. (Sam stares in horror, Todd shifts his eyes back to him, fade out)
Scene break
SAM: So....so you stole the lighter? Did...did that stop him from hurting you?
TODD: (eyebrow up, giving the look as in ‘no way’, walks a few steps in front of him) You couldn’t stop my father. What I would do though, when my hand was in the flame I would just go somewhere else in my head. I couldn’t feel the pain. And I never made a sound. (enjoying the thought) That made him crazy.
SAM: This happened after Michele left, I mean was this to punish you for stealing the lighter, or what?
TODD: (quiet) No.
SAM: Well, what then?
TODD: Nothing. Nothing that hadn’t happened before. (flicker of doubt in his eyes)
SAM: (Todd has a far away look in his eyes during this) You never tried to kill him before so something must have happened. Todd this is not time to go someplace in your head, I mean you....stay on track here. You got a chance to exorcize these demons, pal, you can open up.
TODD: (snaps out of it, turns back to him, warily) Alright. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know whether it was the fact that I took his lighter or the fact somebody showed up on my doorstep with a birthday cake. (small smile) I mean that somebody cared about me that much. But he decided he wanted to do it a little differently this time. It was an experiment. (Sam grimaces) He would hold my hand over the flame and he wanted to know how long before I moved it away, (looks back at Sam with a little pride) and this time, for the first time, I said, no.
SAM: (warily) What did he do then?
TODD: Nothing. (pause) At first. And then it was like a storm. (matter of fact) He pushed me down on the ground face first and he lifted my shirt and he hit me with his belt and he used the end with the buckle.
SAM: (reacting strongly) Oh, I’m sick, if only you’d told me, I would have gone to the police. I would have done something to stop him......
TODD: I took his lighter, I deserved it.
SAM: Todd, you don’t do that to a little kid!
TODD: (as if it were a good reason) Well, I took his lighter.
SAM: Todd!
TODD: This night......(he stops cannot continue)
SAM: What? What about this night?
TODD: It was different. (his voice catches)
SAM: How? How was it different?
TODD: (his eyes widen, lower lip trembles) He didn’t want to stop with just the lighter and he didn’t want to stop with just the belt. (his eyebrows up, his words are pointed, his face telling all)
