(LEXI is sitting in the waiting
room of a hospital in Mumbai. ETHAN
approaches and sits down next to her.)
ETHAN: Of all the
places in the world to give birth, you picked a hospital in Mumbai?
LEXI: Excuse me?
ETHAN: Just seems
like an odd choice.
LEXI: I’m not giving
birth today. My due date isn’t for—Who
are you?
ETHAN: I’m
Ethan. You’re Lexi, right?
LEXI: Do I know you?
ETHAN: Not yet.
LEXI: I’m going to go
back to eavesdropping on the nurses if that’s okay with you.
ETHAN: I’m not from
the future.
LEXI: Sorry?
ETHAN: If that’s what
you were thinking, then don’t worry. I’m
not from the future.
LEXI: Okay.
ETHAN: This isn’t
that kind of thing.
LEXI: Well, I’m
glad. I’d hate to be trapped in an H.G.
Wells novel.
ETHAN: You’re from
Rhode Island, right?
(A
beat.)
LEXI: How did you?
ETHAN: One of the
Exiles?
LEXI: I…Are you…?
ETHAN: Yes.
LEXI: Oh. I’m…Hi.
ETHAN: Isn’t it
funny?
LEXI: Isn’t what
funny?
ETHAN: That you trust
me now. Just because we’re both from the
same place and the same set of circumstances.
It’s funny, isn’t it?
LEXI: I wouldn’t say
I trust you. How did you know my name?
ETHAN: I’m good at
knowing things.
(A
beat.)
LEXI: He’s coming
early, isn’t he?
ETHAN: She? Yes.
She’s coming early.
LEXI: Is she going to
be--?
ETHAN: That I don’t
know.
LEXI: Why would you
not know that?
ETHAN: It’s like
fog. You take a few steps and something
reveals itself. You take a few more
steps and something else gets revealed.
LEXI: So take a few
more steps. I need to know if she’s
going to be okay.
ETHAN: Why on earth
would you come to Mumbai?
LEXI: You don’t know
the answer to that either?
ETHAN: For some
reason, I seem very focused on your daughter.
She must be important.
LEXI: Maybe she’s
going to defeat the Terminator.
ETHAN: Maybe she’s
the Anti-Christ.
LEXI: Well her father
is the Devil, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
ETHAN: Really?
LEXI: I’m speaking
figuratively.
ETHAN: Oh.
LEXI: I’m in Mumbai
because this is where he left me. My
husband. In Mumbai. He was here on a fellowship and then one day
he was just…gone. I hate it here.
ETHAN: So go home.
LEXI: I can’t go
home.
ETHAN: Didn’t you get
the letter?
LEXI: Yes, I got the
letter, but I still can’t go home.
ETHAN: Why not?
LEXI: Because I made
this big scene when I left. My mother
told me that my husband was going to leave me, and he did. So now I have to stay here until I can figure
out a way to fictitiously kill him off without anybody asking too many
questions.
ETHAN: And what are
you going to tell your child?
LEXI: That she should
never trust men.
ETHAN: I mean about
her father.
LEXI: Right now I’m
in the thick of the fog. Nothing is
visible. I can’t even see what’s in
front of me.
ETHAN: I would get
out of Mumbai.
LEXI: Why? Is something going to happen here?
ETHAN: Here? It’s hard to say. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen
because you are where you are, and what’s going to happen to you no matter
where you are.
LEXI: But something
bad happens here?
ETHAN: To you? Yes.
LEXI: Oh.
(A
beat.)
ETHAN: You’re not
going to leave, are you?
LEXI: If I left then
you wouldn’t have seen me here.
(Slight
pause.)
So I
guess now.
ETHAN: The baby makes
it out fine.
LEXI: Maybe that’s
why I stay. Here, there’s a guarantee for
her. It might not be the same somewhere
else.
(A
beat.)
But why are you here?
ETHAN: I’m the
Terminator.
(A
beat.)
LEXI: I’m sorry?
ETHAN: She’s going to
kill me. You’re baby.
LEXI: But how do you—
ETHAN: I don’t see
it. The fog. But I hear things. Rumblings.
Whispers. She’s going to kill me—or
try to at least.
LEXI: I…I…
ETHAN: I had to at
least see you. Before I made a decision
about…what I was going to do.
LEXI: I see.
(A
beat.)
When did you start having these—
ETHAN: As soon as
they exiled me. Did you—
LEXI: No. Well…no.
Not if you don’t count pregnancy.
ETHAN: Was there—I
mean, you did have—
LEXI: Oh—yes. Trust me.
There’s nothing special about me.
ETHAN: Well, there’d
have to be. Otherwise you wouldn’t be
carrying her.
LEXI: Do you know
anything about her other than the fact that she’s going to try to kill you?
ETHAN: No.
LEXI: So maybe you
just want to believe she’s important so that, conversely, you yourself can feel
important. Because only two important
people could have their individual destinies be intertwined like that.
ETHAN: Have you given
any thought to the fact that I might want to kill you right now? I mean, I pretty much insinuated that I came
here to do that.
LEXI: But you haven’t
done it yet.
ETHAN: Well, what do
you expect me to do? Strangle you to
death right here in the waiting room?
LEXI: Do you expect
me to leave with you and go somewhere else so you can strangle me?
ETHAN: No.
(A
beat.)
To be honest, I really didn’t think
this through.
LEXI: Are you
planning on going back to Rhode Island—ever?
ETHAN: I’m afraid if
I do I won’t be able to see things anymore.
I have this idea of—of the fog clouding over me, surrounding me, almost—suffocating
me. All things become unknown and
unknown forever. Not being able to see
in front of me—just like you.
LEXI: You mean like a
normal human being?
ETHAN: Well—yeah.
LEXI: Yeah, I guess
that would be terrifying.
ETHAN: I always
thought they made me leave because they knew—about me, about—what I could
do. So I thought maybe all the people
they kicked out where the same way.
LEXI: Like the X-Men?
ETHAN: Yeah.
LEXI: I’m sorry I don’t
fit into your…theory.
ETHAN: No, it’s sort
of comforting. It makes me think it
really was just random selection and I just happened to get thrown in with all
the regular people.
LEXI: It’s
amazing. The things you think are
planned and the things you think are accidents.
You get older and you realize everything’s an accident—even the things
that were planned. It all turns out
differently no matter what anybody does.
(A
beat.)
ETHAN: May I?
(He
looks down at her stomach.)
LEXI: It’s too
soon. You won’t feel anything.
(He
looks at her.)
Sure. Go ahead.
I mean, this is incredibly weird, but what the hell?
(He
puts his hand on her stomach. He keeps
it there for a moment.)
ETHAN: I have no idea
what I’m going to do.
LEXI: Yeah, well—that
makes two of us.
(Lights.)
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