Melanie Daniels: I have an Aunt Tessa. Have you got an Aunt Tessa?
Mitch Brenner: Mm-mm.
Melanie Daniels: Mine is very prim and straight-laced. I'm giving her a mynah bird when she comes back from Europe. Mynah birds talk, you know. Can you see my Aunt Tessa's face when this one tells us one or two of the words I've picked up at Berkeley?
Mitch Brenner: You need a mother's care, my child.
Melanie Daniels: [pause] Not my mother's.
Mitch Brenner: Oh, I'm sorry.
Melanie Daniels: What have you got to be sorry about? My mother? Don't waste your time. She ditched us when I was eleven and ran off with some hotel man in the East. You know what a mother's love is.
Mitch Brenner: Yes, I do.
Melanie Daniels: You mean it's better to be ditched?
Mitch Brenner: No, I think it's better to be loved. Don't you ever see her?
Melanie Daniels: [pause] I don't know where she is.