(After observing his father kiss Mrs. Edwards at the first-aid post, John, in uniform, is now riding with him in a taxi cab.)

HARRY PORTER
You must let me talk about it, son.

JOHN PORTER
I'd rather you didn't, dad.

HARRY
John, you're going overseas in an hour.

JOHN
(glancing at his watch)
It's forty-five minutes, actually. Anything I could say in the time is likely to be rash and unfeeling. I'd just rather you didn't, that's all.

HARRY
Where are we going?

JOHN
Home.

(Harry seems startled.)

JOHN
Oh, don't worry. I shan't say anything. I wouldn't want to go away knowing she'd got a thing like this on her mind. I shall feel like an accomplice, aren't I? "What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over," isn't that it?

HARRY
You must have noticed things over the years... little things... things that show people aren't living as happily together as perhaps they try to appear to be.

JOHN
For God's sake, don't start making excuses.

HARRY
Oh, I'm not trying to plead not guilty. I'm just asking for... what do you call them?... mitigating circumstances to be taken into account.

JOHN
(tearful)
I come home with no time at all, and you... I haven't even gotten around to asking you where Margaret is.

HARRY
Well, didn't you ask your mother?

JOHN
Yeah. She knows she's gone to a friend's, that's all. I thought there might be a chance you might know which one.

HARRY
Oh, I see.

JOHN
Well?

HARRY
(to the driver)
Drop me off at the end of the road.
(to John)
You carry on to the Ashtons'. You'll have some time together at least.

JOHN
She's there?

HARRY
Yes.

JOHN
(confused)
But Mum said that...

HARRY
Your mother obviously made a mistake.

JOHN
Uh, but I've left my kit at the house.

HARRY
I'll bring it on to you by taxi.

JOHN
Oh, yeah...
(becoming very emotional)
Dad, why...? I mean...

HARRY
Very fond of your mother, aren’t you?

JOHN
Yes, of course I am.

HARRY
When you've loved someone, you find that perhaps they're not quite all you've expected them to be. It shouldn't cancel everything out, should it? I don't want you to think that I'm going to cause your mother any pain or distress. And I don't want you to go away thinking that I'm a...an old roué.

JOHN
Oh, dad.

HARRY
Love for one's son is not just a mother's prerogative, you know.

 

(from "The Gate of the Year" by John Finch)