DR. BROWN: Is that how you see it?
DANIEL: The reason women leave is always the same. I made my life studying the heroines of romantic literature. And the end is always tragic. I was a brilliant scholar of love. And I just never knew what I had.
DR. BROWN: Neither did I. I had a wife. She's gone now too. I didn't know what to do once I lost here. People thought I was crazy.
DANIEL: Are you lying to me?
DR. BROWN: No. Maybe I was just mad with grief. I think I just couldn't find a way to tomorrow.
DANIEL: And then?
DR. BROWN: And then my children needed to be fed and tomorrow just showed up. We don't choose who we love any more than we choose when it ends. I think our destinies sweep us along. We're just here for the ride. Fate takes what she wants from us and there's nothing we can do about it.
DANIEL: Don't forget your map.
[Daniel heads back inside.]
[Cut back to the Abbotts. Dr. Abbott is mumbling as we walks out into the back porch. Edna is sitting on a swing, alone.]
EDNA: A little too much togetherness for ya?
DR. ABBOTT: Oh. You. Suppose you're starving and have some complaint to register about how we're making the food?
EDNA: Not at all. I just came out here looking for a little quiet.
DR. ABBOTT: Well, that makes two of us.
EDNA: You ever think about tearing this old thing down?
DR. ABBOTT: Bright still loves it.
[Dr. Abbott gets into the seat next to his mom.]
EDNA: I don't know what you're trying to prove with this shindig, Junior.
DR. ABBOTT: I'm not trying to prove anything, Mother. I'm opening my home to the community...
EDNA: We appreciate the gesture, Irv and I, and the rest of them too, I bet. But this, this, this generosity, this man of the people thing, well, it's just not who you are.
DR. ABBOTT: [annoyed] Says who?
EDNA: Harold. You and I have very little in common other than a few errant genes, and we found little to admire in one another over the years.
DR. ABBOTT: Is this your version of a pep-talk?
EDNA: But, the one thing I've always been proud of, is that you, from the moment you were born, have always known exactly who you are. You gotta respect a man who knows who he is and doesn't waiver.
DR. ABBOTT: You're right, Mother. I do know who I am. I am a man who is unloved and will be unmissed when he's gone.
EDNA: You are not unloved, Junior. It only takes one.
DR. ABBOTT: Mother, that is one of the kindest...
EDNA: I meant Rose.
DR. ABBOTT: Oh.
EDNA: It's like this: It's a campaign of limited resources. There's only so much in the supply tent to go around. What you've got, you give to your wife and kids. And you give more than just about any father and husband I've ever seen. And that ain't half bad.
[Edna goes back inside.]
[Cut to the Brown house. Everyone is seated at the table ready to eat.]
DR. BROWN: Is anything missing?
NINA: No!
DR. BROWN: Unbelievable. This is just awesome, Ephram.
SAM: Now we say grace?
DR. BROWN: That is a good idea, Sam. Who wants to say grace?
EPHRAM: [getting up] Wait-wait-wait. I've gotta get one thing first.
