Aired February 23, 1987
BACKGROUND INFO: Our scene begins just after Steve has walked in and found his father sitting by Jo’s bedside. They get into a fight, Kayla and Neil have help in separating them. Steve goes to the lounge and Duke follows him there. Kayla arrives and, after going around for several minutes, Duke leaves. This is one of the first times that Steve doesn’t go back in a defenive shell.
Kayla —“You Ok?”
Steve —(Angry) “I’ve been better”
Kayla: “I know”
Steve: “He’s a fool for coming here Kayla. Doesn’t he have any idea how I feel about him?. You know he’s the only person I ever really wanted to see dead in my whole life”
Kayla—(she begins to start to cry) “I know I’m usually quick to give advise, but I really don’t know what to say”
Steve: “There’s nothing to say”
Kayla: “I want to help you”
Steve—“NO!, I don’t want you invloved”
Kayla—“I’m already involved”
Steve—“No, I don’t want to see you hurt”
Kayla—“I can take care of myself”
Steve—“You can’t take care of yourself with him. He’s a filthy pig. He’s nothing but trouble.”
Kayla—“Do you want me to go away?”
Steve—(Shakes his head) “No”
Kayla—“I will stay”
Steve: “Ok”
Kayla: ” Do you want to talk about it?”
Steve: “He beats her Kayla, every day. He put her in this place. But he won’t fight with me. He’s a drunk and he’s a coward! I’m just praying … for him to just come at me, just come at me once!!” (yelling)
Kayla: (starts out yelling) “You know your mother just wants you to stay away from him. Your mother’s very worried about you.”
Steve: “I know”
Kayla: “I’m not trying to interfere, but I told her I’d talk to you. Steve…what happened to make her so worried?”
Steve: (turns away, quiets down) “It happened a long time ago….”
Kayla: (Comes up behind him, and softly asks) “What happened a long time ago?”
Steve: (turns to face her. Looks her in the eyes) “I tried to kill him”
Kayla: “You tried to kill your father?”
Steve: “I couldn’t take it any more. All the yelling…all the crying. The sound of his hand cracking up against the side of her face… and my baby brother screaming at the top of his lungs. I was under my bed in the corner, the pillow wrapped around my head, my hands held tight on the sides of my face to keep the sounds out..I just wanted to keep the sounds out. And I’d pray, don’t let her die. Don’t let him kill her. It happened almost every night ,except the nights he didn’t come home at all. One of these times, after he did his dirt, I came in the room, he was passing out drunk. I remember I saw the bottle slide out of his hand and hit the floor. And I knew it was my chance. I got some matches, and I walked real careful, real careful, past his bed, to the curtains. And I lit them on fire. Wooo. Whole place went up, oh it was pretty. If it wasn’t for her, if she hadn’t come in the room….(laughs) He would have been dead. ”
Steve: “I was five years old”.
Kayla is sobbing, tears rolling down her face
Steve (turns to face her): “That’s when they gave me away you know…(laughs). Makes sense right? I mean, you can’t keep a kid who tries to torch the old man, can you?”
Kayla (crying): “Stop it!”
Steve: “It’s true Kayla, I did it, it’s all true!”
Kayla: (crying) “You were a little boy!”
Steve (intensely)— “I knew exactly what I was doing. When I came in that room and I saw him passing out, I remembered all those times I had the pillow wrapped around my head so tight, and I could still see her crying. And then I knew I had to do it”
Kayla: “It must have been awful.”
Steve: You know, most kids they idolize their daddies, I couldn’t feel anything for mine but fear and hate.
Kayla: (Crying) “It’s understandable. He hurt your mother”
Steve: “Now you understand, now you understand how I feel about my family, don’t you. Now you get the picture. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t anything like the way you grew up. We didn’t have a happy little home. We didn’t have anything…”
Kayla: “Yes you did…your father may have been a cruel, sick man, but you and your mother..you had a lot…”
Steve: “Kayla…”
Kayla: “You had love!”
Steve: “Kayla, my mother gave me and my baby brother away..”
Kayla: “She was scared for you that’s all !…”
Steve: “Scared or not scared, you don’t give your kids away, if you love them you don’t give them away. You know what? I don’t believe any of that crap, I don’t believe any of that crap about her giving us away to protect us. If she loved us, she wouldn’t have done it!”
Kayla: “Well maybe you can start new. Maybe you can build a new love with her”
Steve: “All the love in the world isn’t going to help this family Kayla. As long as that sick pig of a father is still alive. As long as he’s around, this family’s not gonna have anything but trouble.”
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