(Archibald, holding the knives straight out like swords, looks poised to lunge at the portrait.)

Char: (stepping forward.) Archibald, destroying the portrait will only harm you. You will be arrested. Come down. No harm, no foul. (Pauses.) I know life is not perfect. You have had tough times, and we may not have been very helpful. But you can’t unbundle your life. You can’t bring a kid back from the dead. Maybe that loss will be with you forever. Maybe you will be lucky enough to forget it. That does happen. (Pauses.)

You can’t ever get a divorce from the facts of your life. The consequences continue to haunt you in some way. The facts just don’t go away. Life is just a combination of events, emotions, and decisions that tie you to your past, frame your present, and limit your future. You