(Powell has come to visit Todd in between the last scene telling him to leave Rebecca alone, because she loves him)

RAY: (they are in the middle of a session, Todd is intense staring into space, Ray is at him standing to the side) What do you do when the pot’s about to boil over? You take the lid off, right? I mean you let the steam escape.

TODD: You don’t get it, Ray. If I let it out...

RAY: (cuts him off) I can take it, can you?

TODD: (turns quickly) You! Take it? You have no idea what you’re asking for. (crossing around the room, starts to build) When I get angry...

RAY: (cuts him off again, yelling) You were born angry! You think I don’t know that? Your anger is old news, man! You’ve been carrying it around since you were your daddy’s boy.

TODD: (turns viciously) I was never my Daddy’s boy!

RAY: Like I said.

TODD: Oh, this is great. Don’t play games with me Ray, I’m warning you! (in his face)

RAY: Oh...oh...What...what...what? You gonna jump ugly, with me, you gonna get in my face? Your anger doesn’t impress me Todd. (Todd backs down) It’s just trash talk that you need to take out, bag up, tie up and leave with the garbage man. Your problem is that you’ve collected it, you cherish it!

TODD: Oh, what? You think I like being this angry?

RAY: I think it’s the only thing your father ever gave you. No love, no tenderness, no friendship just RAGE. (hits the mark) Let go of it, Todd.

TODD: (turns away upset) I can’t. (his back to him, afraid) You....you don’t know what would happen.

RAY: I know what happens when you try to keep it inside. It....it always finds a way of breaking out. It always finds a way of hurting someone, like Marty Saybrooke! Or Suede Pruitt. (turns glancing at Ray) I mean who’s next Todd? Powell Lord or maybe Rebecca Lewis!

TODD: (turns to Ray, crossing away) I’d never hurt Rebecca, don’t be stupid!

RAY: If you had enough chances you would. (this is getting to him) Guaranteed! I mean you’re gonna keep on hurting everybody including yourself if you don’t get rid of this rage! Or maybe you just want to stay angry?

TODD: (turns quickly, insistent) No!

RAY: No, no maybe you are your daddy’s boy, after all.

TODD: (meaning it) I....I don’t wanna stay like this anymore.

RAY: Then change!

TODD: CHANGE?! What....just....?! (hands up at the absurdity) That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard! (goes right up to him) It’s not that easy, Ray.....

RAY: (he cuts him off) I never said it was easy! It’s just necessary. First step. (Todd turns away but is listening intently) Understand the anger. You have to realize who you’ve been mad at all these years. Direct it there, at him, not at everybody else! Express it, control it and then, only then, can you get rid of it.

TODD: (snorts, pause, then sits, Ray then sits) It’s not gonna happen. It’s too strong.

RAY: You are stronger, Todd.

TODD: (staring off to the side) No. It’ll win. It always wins, always has. Always will.

Scene break

RAY: (they are in the middle of a session, Ray is sitting Todd is pacing with his hands in his pockets) Why don’t you tell me about the women you knew growing up? Besides your mother, that is.

TODD: (back to him) Like who?

RAY: Teachers.

TODD: Teachers? Yeah, they were all over me.

RAY: How?

TODD: (shrugs) I was lazy. They hated that. You know the guy teachers, they didn’t care. I did whatever I wanted.

RAY: And you got away with that?

TODD: (crosses to the door) Yeah, sometimes. Or sometimes I didn’t. (leans against door) Anyway I...I didn’t care much.

RAY: What other women did you know?

TODD: We had a whole revolving door of nannies and housekeepers. No one special. Except the one my Dad was sleeping with for three months before he canned her. (crosses past Ray not looking at him)

RAY: Who was she?

TODD: Cindy. I think that what her name was. (surprised) God, I...I don’t even know why I remembered that. Anyway, you know, there was always a low rent girlfriend around with my Dad. The only thing that was different about this one was that she worked for us.

RAY: So you met your father’s mistress.

TODD: (crosses back to the door) Yeah, what? It’s not like he had to hide them. He had a new one every couple months.

RAY: How’d you feel about that?

TODD: I don’t know. It didn’t matter to me.

RAY: (very surprised) Not at all?

TODD: (goes back to the door with his back to it and slides down and sits on the floor) No. What? They were nothing. It’s like they weren’t even people. They were just.....something of my Dad’s.

RAY: Well, didn’t you get to know any of them?

TODD: Oh yeah, sure I mean, you know. Some of them would pretend to like me to try and impress my Dad.

RAY: Did it?

TODD: Are you kidding? (picks at his fingers staring down) If they knew him any better they would of known that they...they’d stick around a lot longer if they said that they hated me. The smarter ones figured that out.

RAY: What do you mean smarter ones?

TODD: I...I remember this one time, this one girl I know...(stops himself, looks up) Look, she started talking to me, right, about school and sports and stuff and I bought it. I thought it was real. And then, later I heard her laughing at my father’s impersonation of me crying. (he is upset) Crying the night before, because, uh, had a nightmare about my Mom. (trying to show it didn’t mean anything)

She, uh, you know, she just thought this was a big laugh riot. She got a big kick out of me being jerk enough to cry. I should have figured it out right then. (stands)

RAY: Figured what out?

TODD: (glares at Ray walking past him) Women. They’re fake.

RAY: All of them?

TODD: Yeah pretty much. They want what they want and you want what you want and you can’t win. I mean you can’t ever satisfy ‘em.

RAY: (he turns in his chair to him) So why try, right?

TODD: Yeah, beats me. They’re all pretty much users. Users and liars.

RAY: But your mother wasn’t like that.

TODD: (quietly, glancing at him) No, not at all.

RAY: And she was the only woman you’ve ever known that wasn’t after something?

TODD: No, there was one other, just one. (looks away, he is thinking of Rebecca) And she cared about me. And she showed me, she still cares. The thing I can’t figure out is why.