LINES FOR SETH

SHAKTI
Who is Love Daddy?

SETH
A drug dealer.

SHAKTI
You know him?

SETH
She wasn't a very good mother. An easy mark for him. The same old line used on so many women. "Rat-a -tat-tat come here baby and try my smack. Yeah, it's you and me baby, you're my number one lady, I'm gonna make you feel good all over. It'll take the pain away. Go on boy, get the hell out of here momma, and I have got business to attend to. She's my number one lady ya hear."

Seth turns around to face Shakti.

SETH
I can remember one incident vividly. We had just finished our math homework. It wasn't much just four problems, but we were so very proud of it. Excited, we showed it to mother. She wasn't pleased. She said we had gotten all of them wrong and that we was stupid. She took my notebook and ripped it to shreds. She was so full of anger, she couldn't control herself. She then proceeded to beat us with a wooden table leg. She broke two bones in our body. I had to tell the doctor that we were playing in the school yard and fell off the monkey bars.

Shakti is sympathetic for his plight.

SHAKTI
What happened to her?

SETH
We killed her.

SHAKTI
(Shocked)
You killed her?

Seth looks down at the ground ashamed.

SETH
One night we saw her lying on the sofa. Needle still in her arm. She awoke throwing up, profusely.

Seth moves over to the bed acting as if his mother were there.

SETH
We watched as she drowned in her own vomit. We wanted to do something but we were paralyzed. Part of us wanted her to die. But as we touched her lifeless body the realization struck us.

Seth spaces out reliving the entire experience. He kneels down beside the bed weeping.

SETH
Wake up mommy, wake up. Mommy, please wake up! Please mommy, we'll get it right, we promise. See six divided into eighteen equals three. Three mommy! Wake up!

SHAKTI
Seth honey, she's dead.