TONY BRIGGS
Dad wants me to take over Reg Clark's job.

EDWIN ASHTON
I see.

TONY
I wanted to tell you myself.

EDWIN
Yeah. Yes. Good of you.

TONY
I've no option but to take it on...for the time being, at least.

EDWIN
I see.

TONY
Well, there are reasons, obviously.

EDWIN
Yeah.
(laughing)
Yes, obviously.

TONY
I don't suppose you expected this any more than I did.

EDWIN
I expected the job, lad. He's been evasive, but I thought it was just his usual way.

TONY
I'm sorry. I really have no option.

EDWIN
When I first came here, God knows how many years ago, I thought I had no option. Your aunt was keen on me taking it...didn't want to go too far from her mother, you know. I had no other prospect -- young David was on the way. It all seemed to add up to no option. But I don't know. I reckon if I'd pulled out, I'd not have regretted it.

TONY
Have you regretted that you didn't?

EDWIN
Yes, lad, I have.
(choking with emotion)
By God, I have! Nobody to blame, only me.

TONY
But you've been running the place anyway. You know that, don't you?

EDWIN
Power without glory, is it? No, lad. You'll not be satisfied with that. Once you've found your feet, you'll be wanting to exercise your muscles. How do you think I've felt these last years, holding poor old Reg Clark up? Your dad knows what he's doing.

TONY
I don't know how you can say that.

EDWIN
Has he told you I'm soft on the men? It's true. Has he told you I want the place cleaned up and decorated? Fancifying, he calls it. It's true. He's scared out of his wits I'll be chasing over new machinery twenty-four hours a day. He's right about that and all. He'd be off his rocker if he made me manager. I'm everything he doesn't want. Reg Clark was your dad's man all the way. He did nothing but sit in that chair, but he was worth his weight in gold to your dad.

TONY
Is that how you see me, is it?

EDWIN
It's how you see yourself that matters, son.

TONY
He'd be terrified if you left here.

EDWIN
Except he knows I won't...at my age. He knows which horse to put his money on, does your father.

 

(from "The Facts of Life" by John Finch)