(speaking to the sleeping infant)
FATHER- i can still remember how beutiful you were, how fragile you were. i didn't really know how to feel about you, i knew how difficult you had made my life. I needed too take a second job to save enough to put a downpayment on a home for you. Everything I've been doing for the last eight month has been to bring you into a world that's prepared. It was difficult beyond all expectation. But now that I see you infront of me, it's all worth it.

Setting changes: Father, looking about a decade older, now sits in a chair in the room across from a bed where CHILD sits on the bed. The room is now one of a young boy's.

(in a raised and iratiated voice FATHER adresses CHILD)
FATHER- i don't see anything about this that should be this difficult. use your twenty spelling words each in there own sentences. you can even use your typewriter.
CHILD- i know... it's just hard for me.
FATHER- try to make me understand. do you think your dislecsict. do you see words backwards? what? what could be so goddamn hard about this. Your teacher says your one of the smartest kids in here class. But you don't do any work. She doesn't know what to do with you. i sure don't know what to do. I've tried too. Life is hard. don't you think i know what something difficult is. do you know what it's like to work for somebody who thinks your an idiot. that's what's hard. i would love to sit around righting sentences.
(tearing up)CHILD- I'm sorry...
FATHER- and your going to be sorry all weekend. because no sleep overs, no soccer, no leaving this room untill this is done.
(bawling)CHILD- no... it's to hard for me... i wanted to play tonight... i get to be goalie... i'll do it tomarow... i promise
FATHER- Why are you going to do it tomarow if you didn't do it already. I don't believe you... your a liar. And i'm not going to let your mother come in her and treat you like her little baby. This isn't tuff, you could kick this out in ten minutes if you just did it. but your lazy... your mother lets you get away with whatever you want.(letting out a forced laugh) I'm the only one around here who knows how to work.
CHILD- i can't do it in fifteen...
FATHER- Well then your not going anywhere...

Setting changes: A middle aged FATHER stands in a room of a teenager. TEEN stands infront of him. Anger hangs on both thier faces.

FATHER- did you think we weren't going to find out! you think you can just stop going to school and we wouldn't know. And on top of this your arrested, you bring police to my house. your smoking pot. what the fuck are you doing... you little shit!
go ahead explian, (forced laugh) just try to explain this to me
TEEN- I just needed time off i was over welmed...
FATHER- How can you be over welmed you only go to half your classes. you never get higher then a D when you do. What do you think i'm fucking stupid! And you doing drugs that somehow is included in you being 'over whelmed'.
TEEN- i have never once seen you come home from work and not have a beer. so you have no place. and It's my education... my life... i can decide if i want to take a break from it.
FATHER- your life, your right, it is. and since your not in school you better start fucking living it... i suggest you get a job and find a place of your own... your eighteen, your an adult... it's time you learned how to be a man. I'm not going to let you sit around my house! live off what I make! and do shit whith yourself.
(choking on tears) TEEN- you mother fucker... you going to kick me out of my house. so i can learn how to be a man... or a fucking loser like you...
(bringing his back hand up to connect with TEEN's face. the blow knocks the spit from TEEN's mouth. in retaliation he reaches toward the desk behind him. picks of his reading lamp and throws it at FATHER head, hitting him just above his left eye.
FATHER pounces forth in rage, though TEEN avoids him hopping through an open window on the other side of the room)
(calling out the window after him)FATHER- Don't you think you can come back here you little son of a bitch!

Setting change: FATHER sits on the bed in the room of the teen. it is night. the room is quite. objects lay lifeless apon shelves, never again to be handled by thier owner. FATHER is alone. truely.
FATHER- Why did you do this... How could you do this to your mother and I. Since the day... the day you came home from the hospital I've given everything to you. There wasn't a single day in eighteen years I didn't put you first... before my self... my career... even my wife... there wasn't anything i wouldn't do for you. (the tears begin to fall) If only I could have been there. i could've stopped you... that night you left i drove around town for hours looking for you. then i did the same thing every night after work. I was even out looking for you when the officer called. I wasn't there for your mother because i was out looking for someone who i wasn't going to find. You didn't need to do this... there is no possible reason that you had to do this. so fucking selvish... and what did you think all of us would do now. what did you think we wouldn't notice... that we wouldn't care.
(tears pour down now, FATHER curls himself foward hugging himself)
FATHER- Why?!?

Setting changes: Father sits on a white block in an empty white room. His eyes looked and the person standing in front of him. the boy he raised as the MAN HE COULD HAVE BEEN.
(he gazes down at FATHER. cold, hard, with no forgiveness in his eyes)
MAN HE COULD HAVE BEEN- You son of a bitch... look me in the eyes you pathetic bastered. All my life i looked into yours... as you demanded from me. As you pushed your frustrations down on me. I'm not your lesser any longer. I don't need the aproval I begged of you for all thoughs years. I never asked to be brought into this fucking world. You stuck me here... never once thinking about what you've done. only worried about your petty existence being changed, your bullshit life style being arraticated. Thinking some how i owed you something for this "gift" you had no place bestowing. Then you have the audacity to inform me on my need to be an adult. the most difficult time in my existance and you throw me from my home. Tell me I need to become a man... your not even a man yourself. your a child. you small petty creature. look at me. i didn't need boundries, or lessons, or an understanding of responsibility... and i certainly didn't need nor deserve the harsh reality of homelessness... and i could have gone without your demands that i adopt some fucked up suto-work ethic that you feel is some venerable quality. so i can follow in the foot steps of harsh labor for little reward. the life style you chose for your self, and now carry like a cross.
(tears roll down cheeks) FATHER- what could i have given you, what did you need...
MAN HE COULD HAVE BEEN- a father...

Setting change: a man stands in a hospital room holding a newborn in his arms; a young boy rides his bike for the first time without training wheels while his dad runs behind him, his hand on the back of the seat ensuring he won't fall. A young boy holds up his soccer trophie, with his dad's arm around him, with a look of pride on his face. A teenage boy sits at the dinner table showing off his report card. same as usual mostly c's and d's. but with one exception, ART-A, his fathers face gleams with happiness. thinking about his son's true calling as an artist. laughter and love, till one day they give way. Harsh words exchanged between a young man and his father over nothing worth the effort. Another aguement, this one much worse than the last. His father storms out of the house, the teen falls to the floor and sobs. seral more scence like these pass by, untill a vision of a father, sitting behind the wheel of his car. roaming the streets, with fear in his heart that he could never had imagined prior. to far away for him to here the night is shattered with a resounding BANG. and a flash of white.

Setting change: a young man stands over a crib in an infants room. it is night and the baby sleeps soundly.

(with tears still rolling down his face, though a gentle smile has appeared on his lips. He leans down into the crib and kisses the baby on the fore head)
FATHER- I love you son... (he whispers)
(with great care so as not to wake the sleeping baby, he walks to the door, passes through and slowly closes it behind him. across the room a figure appears from the darkness)
MAN HE COULD HAVE BEEN- I love you too dad...
(Fade to black)

                                            END