Minor Conversations—The Last Conversation

A COFFEE SHOP

A diner. Maybe a home. No, a diner, that’s better. SEAN and KELLY sit at a table. He’s almost forty. She’s on her way.

KELLY: This is it.

SEAN: What do you mean?

KELLY: This. Right here. This is it.

SEAN: You said that. What’s it mean?

KELLY: I don’t want to do it anymore.

Sean shifts in his seat a bit.

KELLY: I can’t do it anymore is what I’m saying.

Sean thinks about it. Maybe a bit of sadness, but he pushes it down.

SEAN: Okay.

She waits. Is there more?

KELLY: Wow.

SEAN: You don’t really leave a lot of room.

KELLY: If that’s how you see it.

SEAN: Me?

KELLY: Yes, you.

Sean takes a beat. Watches her.

SEAN: Is this what you imagined?

KELLY: No.

SEAN: I mean today. Now. We take turns being tough.

KELLY: Is that what we’re doing?

SEAN: You tell me. I just got here.

KELLY: You just got here? What does that mean?

SEAN: It means I just got here. I sat down. You’ve been thinking, I can only imagine. So what? You tell me. I’m just here.

KELLY: We’re both just here, Sean.

SEAN: No. I’m just here. You don’t want to do it anymore. In fact, you can’t. I’m just here. You? Something else. Something completely else.

Kelly just stares at him, frozen.

SEAN: What happened?

She looks for the words.

KELLY: It’s just…

SEAN: What? It’s just what?

KELLY: Everything.

SEAN: No. It’s not everything. That’s too easy. Everything is everything. This. What is this? This here.

KELLY: Please don’t.

SEAN: Please don’t what?

KELLY: Tell me. You’re too good. I can’t win.

SEAN: Well, who knows, maybe there’s a reason for that.

KELLY: See.

SEAN: No. I don’t see. See what? What am I looking for?

KELLY: You’re looking at me. You’re too quick. You’re so sharp. You got all the right things to say and I can’t win. So that’s it. That’s everything. I surrender.

SEAN: No, you don’t.

KELLY: I don’t.

SEAN: You don’t surrender, you give up. There’s a difference, you know.

KELLY: Well, I don’t know the difference.

SEAN: Sure you do.

KELLY: What do you want?

SEAN: Me?

KELLY: Who am I speaking with?

SEAN: It’s what you want. I don’t want. I’m just here. You asking me what I want? I didn’t want anything. I didn’t know I was going to be in that position. In fact, I’m not. At all. What do I want? No. What do you want?

KELLY: Is that really a question?

SEAN: I don’t know.

KELLY: Right.

SEAN: Right what? You want to know something? Ask me. Or tell me. You want something, say so. You can’t do it anymore? Nothing I can do about that. Unless there is.

KELLY: So, it is a question. That’s all. Don’t make me seem crazy for not being sure. What am I? New?

SEAN: Look it…

KELLY: No.

SEAN: No?

KELLY: Yes, no. You look it. You pay attention. You show up and be here and listen to me. Don’t talk me out of my way. I know what I’m doing and then you get going and I end up with no clue.

SEAN: Well, I don’t know what to say to that.

KELLY: Think of something.

Sean stands up.

SEAN: See, this is something. It’s really something else. You say something to me, something that doesn’t have much to go on. It’s a period. This is this, it’s the way it is and there ain’t nothing else, but then you keep going. You want to blame me? I confuse you? Maybe you confuse yourself. If there’s something to talk about, I’ll talk, but I’m stuck trying to figure that out. There either is or there isn’t. You get what I’m saying.

KELLY: Nobody gets what you’re saying and that’s the problem. It’s you. It’s always you. It’s whatever you’re dealing with and if the rest of us want to play along, then we get an invite to the puzzle. It’s not about us. We’re not even here. Unless we really want to be. Unless we decide to throw everything else away and stick. And that’s not easy to do, but we do it.

SEAN: But not anymore?

KELLY: I can’t. And that’s what I’m saying.

SEAN: So, what’s the question?

KELLY: I guess there isn’t one.

SEAN: How ’bout an answer? You got that one?

KELLY: Maybe.

SEAN: Well, here I am. I’m right here. Willing to be right here. Right now. Right here.

KELLY: Are you sure?

SEAN: How can I be sure of anything? There’s nothing being presented to join. Speak.

KELLY: I need something else.

SEAN: That I can’t help you with.

KELLY: From you.

SEAN: Try me.

Kelly takes a deep breath.

KELLY: I just want to be with the part of you that doesn’t think. That doesn’t write me down. Doesn’t take notes. I’ll help you figure out everything, but it needs to be together. I can’t be on the end of it all. I need to be with you. I can’t be artwork anymore. I can’t be the problems being solved or the loser of minor conversations. I just want you. The bad parts are fine, but I can’t and won’t be part of the problem anymore because I know I’m not. And it’s taken me a really long time to realize that.

SEAN: I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

KELLY: Yes, you do. You’ve been doing the opposite for all your life. It’s easy. Just do the opposite now.

SEAN: How?

KELLY: Just stop.

SEAN: Stop what?

KELLY: All of it. Forget the detail. Let’s just go. Together. Me and you.

SEAN: You and I?

KELLY: Both of us. Everything doesn’t have to be funny. It doesn’t have to be entertaining. Just stop. That’s all I’m asking.

Sean thinks about it.

SEAN: It’s just me though.

Kelly nods her head.

KELLY: No, it’s not. If it was just you, I would have left a long time ago.

SEAN: Well, I think it’s me.

KELLY: I think you’re wrong.

SEAN: Then that’s a problem.

KELLY: I know, so let’s fix it.

Sean takes his time.

SEAN: I don’t want to, though. That’s the problem. I don’t want to fix something that I like.

KELLY: You like it? How can that be?

SEAN: I don’t know, but it is. You’re not wrong, maybe it’s just not for you, but if I start changing things, things that I don’t know why but I just like, trying to make other things smooth, that’s no good. We gotta do what we know how to do. Be what we are. Maybe I could change that, but I don’t want to. All the things that make us crooked are the same things that keep us straight.

Sean kisses her on the forehead.

SEAN: I see, but I’m sorry. I really am.

He just stands there looking at her. It’s over.

THE END