Party of Five (TV Series)

Have No Fear (1995)

Matthew Fox: Charlie Salinger

Quotes 

• [Charlie and Kirsten walk down the street and start going up the stairs of the house] 

  Charlie Salinger : And drive down this street. Check out that paint job. My paint job.

  Kirsten Bennett : [laughs]  Great paint job, Charlie.

  Charlie Salinger : It's an $800 paint job. Not bad.

  [laughs] 

  Charlie Salinger : So lunch is on me. A big splurge.

  Kirsten Bennett : Let's go to Salinger's. I wanna check on Joe.

  Charlie Salinger : Okay.

  Kirsten Bennett : You're not worried about him?

  Charlie Salinger : Of course I'm worried about him. He's gotta take better care of himself.

  Kirsten Bennett : He's pretty sick, Charlie.

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah, he's sick. I know he's sick. He's got a heart problem. But he's gonna be okay.

  Kirsten Bennett : It's scary, isn't it? I mean, you love him.

  [they reach the porch] 

  Charlie Salinger : What? What are you doing, Kirsten?

  Kirsten Bennett : I'm trying to be realistic. Everybody's walking around like Joe just got diagnosed with a bad case of the hiccups or something.

  Charlie Salinger : He went into the hospital for observation. One night.

  Kirsten Bennett : [sighs]  Okay. But things are gonna have to change at Salinger's.

  Charlie Salinger : What?

  Kirsten Bennett : Someone's gonna have to run the place for him.

  Charlie Salinger : Then I'll help him find someone.

  [she gives him a serious look] 

  Charlie Salinger : No. No. Forget it. And you know what, Kirsten? You're just making trouble here, so cut it out. You didn't see his doctors running around getting nervous. I'm telling you, he's just gonna take it easy for a while. By Christmas, he'll be the same old Joe.

• [Kirsten comes to the restaurant near midnight and finds Charlie alone working on receipts] 

  Kirsten Bennett : Hey, you.

  Charlie Salinger : Hey. I'm almost done. I'm just double-checking these receipts. Actually, I'm triple-checking. I mean, I've closed up before, you know, but now it feels kind of... Different.

  [she sits in front of him] 

  Kirsten Bennett : My guess is you know what you're doing. You know this place the way Joe did, the way your father did.

  Charlie Salinger : No, it was different with Dad. He'd close up at 11:00, and then he'd make up this huge pot of spaghetti and sit around with Joe and the other guys and... They'd tell stories, you know, about the business, about their kids. At his funeral, guys he hadn't worked with for 15 years told stories like he was still their best friend. Because this place...

  [looking around the restaurant] 

  Charlie Salinger : Wasn't work for him. It was his life. He made it his life.

  Kirsten Bennett : Is that what you're afraid of, Charlie? Are you afraid of turning into your father?

  Charlie Salinger : No. No. I'm just afraid of not being as good as he was.

• [Charlie goes out and sees Joe sitting in the alley behind Salinger's] 

  Charlie Salinger : Joe.

  Joe Mangus : Oh, hey, Charlie. Yeah, I'm just catching a little break. I guess I better...

  [he tries to get up but, feeling pain, he sits down again] 

  Joe Mangus : Oh!

  Charlie Salinger : Joe...

  Joe Mangus : No, I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm fine. It's, uh... Mostly I'm just sitting here worrying whether table two got the pellegrino they asked me for.

  Charlie Salinger : [worried]  What's going on, Joe?

  Joe Mangus : I'm sick, Charlie. I'm not dying, but I'm sick. It's, uh, congestive heart failure.

  Charlie Salinger : Then what the hell were they doing letting you out of the hospital?

  Joe Mangus : They didn't let me out. I, uh... I signed myself out early.

  Charlie Salinger : What?

  Joe Mangus : I don't wanna deal with it, okay? It just pisses me off. Because I think about it, and I'm still a young man. I mean, in my mind, you know, I'm 25 years old, and I'm staying out all night, and I'm still drinking, and I'm... Whatever. But... This damn body of mine...

  [sighs] 

  Charlie Salinger : You can't really do this anymore, can you?

  Joe Mangus : Oh, yeah. I can.

  Charlie Salinger : I'm gonna take over for you, Joe.

  Joe Mangus : No. No, you're not.

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah.

  Joe Mangus : Charlie...

  Charlie Salinger : What? What are we gonna do? Turn this place over to a total stranger? Dad's place?

  Joe Mangus : I can't let you do this, Charlie. You got too much you wanna do with your life.

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah, I know. So, I'll... Quit painting houses. I think I can live with that.

  [he sees Joe doubting] 

  Charlie Salinger : What are you looking at me like that for? Give me a little support here, huh? This is kind of a momentous decision.

  Joe Mangus : Right.

  Charlie Salinger : I don't know. I made so much noise for so long about how much I hated this place... It could be there was just some stupid little voice in me I just didn't wanna hear, you know? Saying, "Hey, you could do worse. You could do way worse than Salinger's."