front-porch cyclone
- Ed makes a bolt for it at the restaurant and heads for his mom's place, where he sits on the porch and waits for her to get home.
- When she arrives she's annoyed to see him there, and she gets even more annoyed when he starts asking her about her date.
- She brushes it off, but Ed doesn't let it go. And that's when his mom tells him the biggest insult she can think of—he's just like his old man—and slams the door in his face.
- Ed's not sure how to feel. On the one hand he's hurt, but on the other his dad wasn't such a bad guy.
- He yells at his mom that he's not leaving her place, that he's sick of her being nice to everyone but him. All his siblings have it easy, but he has to hear her whine all the time—plus he's the only one who stuck around.
- But that's just the problem. Ma tells Ed she wishes he had gone off and made something of himself, but instead he stuck around. All he does is promise he'll do this or that, but he never follows through. Ouch.
- She tells him she's gotta be cruel to be kind. Okay.
- It's as "dark as the Ace of Spades" during this fight, and Ed wonders about the man she was just with.
- He asks his mom if she's been with him long—he wants to know if she cheated on his dad)—and when she doesn't answer, he knows the truth and walks away.