(Lights find Julia and Steve at a counter in a hardware store. They are looking at a stack of various shaped storage containers. Steve is picking up each container, opening it, looking carefully inside, smelling it, looking through it to see how clear it is, etc. Julia stands behind him and watches, growing more impatient as he seemingly can’t make up his mind. As he picks up another, she sighs heavily as he examines it closely. After a thorough inspection, he turns to her and holds out the container. Julia looks at it in his hand and shrugs. He motions for her to take it, she does so, gives it a cursory look.)
JULIA (handing it back to him)
It works for me.
STEVE
You barely even looked at it!
JULIA
You looked at it plenty for both of us.
STEVE
It’s gotta be just right to protect it.
JULIA
Omigod, it’s just a piece of dirty old glass.
STEVE
That snowflake is not dirty. It was important to Mom, then lost for a long time. I’m not letting that happen again.
JULIA
But we’re sorting through the stuff. It’s going to go to one of us anyway, so why don’t we just worry about storage after we divvy everything up.
STEVE
Because it can’t just be lying around loose. It’s not good for it. I want it protected. What if falls of a table or someone sets something on it?
JULIA
That’s not going to happen.
STEVE
How do you know?
JULIA
I just know.
STEVE
Mom probably thought the same thing, and then it just disappeared. That’s won’t happen if it’s in a proper container.
(Steve starts towards a cash register off in the distance.)
JULIA
Do you really believe that?
STEVE
Yes, if it’s protected no one will lose it and then—
JULIA
No, I mean about it being lost. Do you really think it just disappeared?
STEVE
Well, what else happened to it?
JULIA
I don’t know. (She looks at him carefully.) I don’t think that things just disappear though.
STEVE
Well, the snowflake did. But it’s really good that you found it.
JULIA
Yeah, great. Now you can be obsessed about it like Mom was.
STEVE
I’m not obsessed about it. I just want it to be safe. Mom would want that.
JULIA
Uh huh. (she pauses for a moment; thinks before she says this next bit) Would Dad?
STEVE
What do you mean?
JULIA
Would Dad want the snowflake around?
STEVE
I don’t know. What’s that got to do with anything?
JULIA
I just don’t remember him liking the snowflake very much. He sorta tried to always put something else at the top of the tree. Then Mom would come in and insist that the snowflake go up instead. Maybe Dad just made it go away.
STEVE
Don’t say stuff like that about Dad. He wouldn’t do something like that. It’s not nice to make up stories about dead people, especially our parents. He’s gone.
JULIA
And so is Mom.
STEVE
And?
JULIA
They’re both gone, Steve. But you’re like stuck on this snowflake because you think it’s what Mom would want. “That it stays in the family.” “That we never let it out of our sights again.” All that happy crappy stuff she liked to say.
STEVE
What’s wrong with keeping things in the family?
JULIA
I didn’t say—
STEVE
And why shouldn’t it stay with us?
JULIA
It’s all just so sentimental. Why are you and Claire so sentimental about all of this. I don’t get it.
STEVE
Yeah, well, I don’t get you. You always take the other side about this stuff.
JULIA
What other side?
STEVE
Like whenever I worried about Mom or wanted to do something for her, you always tried to tell me it wasn’t necessary. “Stop worrying about her, she’s fine.”
JULIA
That’s not true.
STEVE
It is true. You never wanted me to take her to the doctors or make her dinner or go out of my way to help her. You always gave me hard time about it. Even when we were kids.
JULIA
You’re crazy. I’m going to go wait in the car while you pay for that. (she goes to leave)
STEVE (raising his voice, drawing attention in the store)
It’s true! That time in kindergarten when you—
JULIA
Yo yo yo, quiet down. People are looking at us!
STEVE
So?
JULIA
The whole store doesn’t need to know our business from kindergarten.
STEVE
OK, “Dad.”
JULIA
What is it with the parental comparisons every time I say something?
STEVE
That’s what’s happening to you. You sound like both of them.
JULIA
No way. I will never be like them. I’m going out to the car. Pay for that and let’s get out of here.
STEVE
That time in kindergarten when we were making cards for our families for Christmas. You said you didn’t want to make one. I said I wanted to make two. You made fun of me and told the other kids at your table to make fun of me. I made two any way, one for Mom and one for Dad, and then when we got home you pretended that one of them was from you.
JULIA
You’re still not over that? I was 5 years old, Steve. I didn’t want to get the paste on my fingers, so I didn’t make the card. What’s the big deal?
STEVE
You lied about it to Mom and Dad.
JULIA
So did you! You didn’t say a word when I said I made it. That’s just as bad.
STEVE
What was I supposed to do? You always did that to me, Julia. All the time as kids. You would lie to them, and then I’d have to lie too. I hate lying. And you just kept doing it. Middle school report cards. “Where are your report cards?” “We didn’t get them yet.” High school curfews. “Where are you both going?” “Out with friends to the late movie at the mall.” Then you’d drive us to the city. College break plans. “I’ve got a final really late this term. I won’t be home until right before Christmas.”
JULIA
I learned that from Claire.
STEVE
Doesn’t matter. At least Claire eventually told the truth. You were always lying about things, and then I ended up lying to. Do you know what my first penance was?
JULIA
You’re not supposed to talk about what you say to a priest.
STEVE
It was about lying for you. I was terrified to go to confession because I thought part of it was going to be getting yelled at. I had Father Fitzsimmons—
JULIA
Ugh.
STEVE
And we had to go face to face, remember?
(Julia just looks at him.)
STEVE
And when I got to the part about the sins, I told him about the lies. And he just kind of looked at me funny. We were in second grade, Julia.
JULIA
So?
STEVE
Then he told me not to lie for you or for anyone else anymore, and then he said to say three Hail Marys and a Glory Be.
(Steve looks at Julia. She looks back at him.)
JULIA
What do you want me to say?
(Steve clutches the container.)
STEVE
I don’t want you to say anything. Just stop lying.
JULIA
I don’t lie anymore.
STEVE
I don’t believe you.
JULIA
I don’t lie about things that are important.
STEVE
What’s important is relative.
JULIA
Yes. It is.
STEVE
So if it doesn’t matter to you, but it does damage to me, isn’t that important to consider?
(Julia takes this in, looks at Steve for a moment.)
JULIA
Survival of the fittest, Steve. You should read some Darwin.
STEVE
I hate Darwin.
JULIA
That explains a lot.
STEVE
But we’re twins, Julia.
JULIA
Fraternal twins.
STEVE
Doesn’t that mean something to you?
(Julia is silent.)
STEVE
Has it ever meant anything to you?
(Julia doesn’t say anything.)
JULIA
I’ll wait in the car. Just hurry up and pay for the container.
(Julia walks out of the store, leaving Steve to call after her.)
STEVE
I can’t believe you!
(Julia stops for a second without turning around and then walks away. Lights fade as Steve stands looking after Julia as she exits. End of scene.)