Leaving Rhode Island: Paris

                (A small studio apartment in Paris.  MATTHEW and CLAIRE are at an impasse.)

MATTHEW:  I just can’t believe you’d think—

CLAIRE:  I’m sorry.

MATTHEW:  Why would I leave—

CLAIRE:  Oh, I don’t know.

MATTHEW:  It’s Paris.

CLAIRE:  So Paris is perfect?

MATTHEW:  Yes, Paris is perfect.  It’s Paris.  Paris is French for perfect.

CLAIRE:  Oh please.

MATTHEW:  It means ‘Never leave here, you’ve found home.’

CLAIRE:  I’m so happy I surprised you.  I’m so happy I didn’t call ahead because I assumed my little brother would be thrilled to come home after all this time.

MATTHEW:  I’m happy I can visit now.

CLAIRE:  You could have visited whenever you—

MATTHEW:  Not without being arrested!

CLAIRE:  We’re your family.  You should have taken the risk.

MATTHEW:  Just so you could have something else to yell about on tv?

                (A beat.)

CLAIRE:  What?

MATTHEW:  You’re still yelling about all this, Claire.  It’s been five years.  Everyone else has moved on.

CLAIRE:  Moved on?

MATTHEW:  For the most part, yeah.

CLAIRE:  Matthew, our family was torn apart!

MATTHEW:  Families are torn apart all the time.  Divorce—

CLAIRE:  Mom and Dad did not get a divorce.  You and Mom got exiled and Dad and I had to stay behind and try to get you back.

MATTHEW:  You’ve been trying for five years.  Everybody else gave up a long time ago.

CLAIRE:  You don’t give up on your family.

MATTHEW:  No, but you…adjust.  You…you don’t waste your life fighting a losing battle.

CLAIRE:  I don’t see how it’s a losing battle when we won.  Do you get that?  We won.  You can come home, and now you’re saying you don’t want to?

MATTHEW:  Mom and Dad are gone, Claire.  Our house is gone.  My friends, everybody—everybody’s gone.  What would I be coming home to?

CLAIRE:  Wow.  Okay, that makes me feel great.

MATTHEW:  I said I’d visit—

CLAIRE:  I don’t want a visit!  I want my brother back!

MATTHEW:  You’re…I…

CLAIRE:  Not enough, right?  Isn’t that what you want to say?  I’m not enough to get you to come back.  I’m your sister and I’m not enough.  That’s—I mean, it says more about you than me,  so—I guess living in Europe really does make you a heartless asshole.

MATTHEW:  Yes, and living in America makes you a teddy bear full of hearts and lollipops.

CLAIRE:  Do you have any idea how bad this is going to look?  Do you?  All these years I’ve been fighting, and finally—FINALLY—we get what we want, the exile’s lifted, and now you’re saying you don’t want to come back?  I’m going to look like a total idiot.

                (A beat.)

MATTHEW:  Is that what this is about?  You looking bad?

CLAIRE:   No, it’s—It’s part of it, sure, but—

MATTHEW:  So all this sibling affection is just—what?  A tool you’re using to guilt trip me so you can get me back to the states for a couple more photo ops and an interview on Good Morning, America?

CLAIRE:  First of all, I do The Today Show, not Good Morning, America.  I’m not an animal psychic.  Second of all, I’m sorry people care about us.  I’m sorry they’re invested in what happens to our family.

MATTHEW:  There is no more family!  Dad had a heart attack three years ago!  Mom had cancer and—You know, I didn’t want to bring this up—

CLAIRE:  Oh, I know what this is going to be about.

MATTHEW:  You’re mad at me for not wanting to come back but nobody was stopping you from coming here when Mom got sick.

CLAIRE:  I was going to come.  I didn’t know she was that sick.  By the time you called me, she had two days left.  It takes a day just to get here.

MATTHEW:  She didn’t want to bother you, that’s just how she was.  But you never got on the plane.  You never came here, not even for the funeral.  And now you’re here and you want it to be some kind of big happy reunion?  You should be grateful I’m not throwing you out of my apartment.

CLAIRE:  Maybe if the funeral hadn’t been on the same day of the memorial service—

MATTHEW:  Oh Jesus.

CLAIRE:  It’s on the same day every year.

MATTHEW:  C’mon, Claire.

CLAIRE:  And you knew that.  You knew what day it was and you still went ahead and planned the funeral for the day.

MATTHEW:  I’m sorry I didn’t keep the fake memorial service in mind.

CLAIRE:  What do you mean fake?

MATTHEW:  Nobody’s dead!  You only have a memorial service for dead people!  Not people who are living in other countries or other states and cities!  It’s ridiculous!  You look ridiculous!  You missed an actual funeral for your own mother so you could have a symbolic funeral for people who aren’t dead!

CLAIRE:  They might as well be!

                (A beat.)

MATTHEW:  Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?

CLAIRE:  It’s not like you—like you—like you made any effort to—

MATTHEW:  To what, Claire?  To what?  And what effort did you make, huh?  Mom and I were the ones calling all the time.  Mom and I were the ones who were good about staying in touch.  Mom and I only saw you and Dad when we turned on the tv so we could hear you talking about how much you missed us.  Maybe instead of telling reporters, you could have just told us.

CLAIRE:  I don’t know where you’re going with this.

MATTHEW:  You know, honestly, I’m surprised you’re happy about the exile being lifted because now you don’t have anything left to keep you in the spotlight.

                (A beat.)

CLAIRE:  I should go.

MATTHEW:  I don’t even know why you’re here.

CLAIRE:  Because—

MATTHEW:  I mean, I’ll give you this, I’m surprised you don’t have a film crew with you.

                (Pause.)

MATTHEW:  They’re downstairs, aren’t they?

CLAIRE:  It’s just one camera guy.

MATTHEW:  Oh my God.

CLAIRE:  You know, you got Paris.  Mom found a job here and the two of you left and now you’ve had all these years in this beautiful city.  That’s what you got.  And what did I get?  What did I get, Matt?  Five years with Dad, who, I mean, God rest his soul, but he was out of his mind.  And too afraid to leave Rhode Island so we could just come move here with you.

MATTHEW:  He wasn’t the only one who was afraid, Claire.

                (Pause.)

CLAIRE:  I would have…I…

MATTHEW:  You had a panic attack when Mom brought up having you stay here for a summer.  You had a panic attack when you and Dad were going to get on a plane to come here for the first time and he had to cancel the trip.  You had a panic attack anytime the suggestion of moving even came up—

CLAIRE:  Well it’s not like you were one state over.

MATTHEW:  No, but don’t go on and on about what I had or what I got out of living here when you could have lived here too.  Nobody was stopping you from coming here.  And, you know, it never ceases to amaze me that somebody who was so terrified to get on a plane could be totally in comfortable in front of a camera.

CLAIRE:  Fear’s funny that way I guess.

MATTHEW:  So the prospect of some sappy, filmed reunion special with me was enough to get you on the plane without any problems?

CLAIRE:  No, I just took Xanax and drank the whole way here.

                (MATTHEW laughs a little laugh.)

MATTHEW:  You know, now that you’re here, you could just…hang out for awhile.

CLAIRE:  I can’t.  I have to get back.  I thought I was just going to help you pack your stuff and then—

MATTHEW:  What are you ‘getting back’ for, Claire, honestly?

                (A beat.)

CLAIRE:  I have…there’s…

MATTHEW:  Just stay.  It doesn’t have to be forever, just…give it a shot.  You might like it.  You want to be enough for me to come home?  Let me be enough for you to stay here.

CLAIRE:  I don’t speak French.

MATTHEW:  The French don’t care if you speak French.  They prefer it, actually.  That way they can make fun of you without you knowing what they’re saying.

CLAIRE:  I don’t have any of my stuff—

MATTHEW:  We’ll buy you new stuff.  Or we’ll wing it.  I don’t know.  Just stay.

                (A beat.)

CLAIRE:  I’ll try.  Is that enough?

MATTHEW:  That’s enough for me.

CLAIRE:  Okay.

MATTHEW:  Go see if the cameraman wants to have dinner with us.  It’s the least we can do.

CLAIRE:  Right after I call Matt Lauer.  He’s going to be so disappointed.

(Lights.)