The Door in the Floor

Ted Cole:
[discussing Eddie's first story] Oh, its very heartfelt. Very personal. Well, its just a collection of personal anecdotes that don't really add up to much.

Eddie O'Hare:
I was just trying to see if could write something that seemed true.

Ted Cole:
Oh, it seems true. It just isn't very interesting. It sort of an emotional outburst, but it really isn't a story.

Ted Cole:
Everything in fiction is a tool: pain, betrayal, even death. These are, you know, these are like, uh, different colors on a painter's palette. You need to use them.

Ruth Cole:
Your penis looks funny.

Ted Cole:
My penis *is* funny.

Ted Cole:
And so the little boy was born, and he was happy. And his mommy was happy, too. Although she told the boy, at least once every day, "Don't ever, not ever, never, never, never, open the door in the floor." But of course, he was only a little boy. If you were that little boy, wouldn't you want to open that door in the floor?

Eddie O'Hare:
[matter-of-factly] Wrong cubes!

Ted Cole:
[looks at his glass and realizes he did not used ice cubes for his whisky]

Ted Cole:
[gets rid of the glass contents]

Ted Cole:
I hired you, Eddie because you look like Thomas.

Ted Cole:
About the shoe, it was a basketball shoe. Air Jordan I think you called it. [pause] Specific details, Eddie. Specific details.

Ted Cole:
The sound of it, it was a rear entry position, not that I have a personal problem with that or any other position, but for a child, I imagine, doing it doggishly must seem especially animalistic.

Marion Cole:
Am I going to die? No, you're not going to die.

Eddie O'Hare:
I want to know more about you.

Marion Cole:
You know too much already.

Ted Cole:
Everyone has mice. Mice are everywhere.

Eddie O'Hare:
[startles awake] Marion?

Ted Cole:
Jesus, aren't you the optimist.

Marion Cole:
[speaking about her daughter] I won't be a bad mother to her. I'd rather be no mother than to be a bad mother to her.

Eddie O'Hare:
That doesn't make any sense.

Marion Cole:
I don't want her to be like me.