Leaving Rhode Island: Bargain Matinee

            (MICKEY and LOUISE in a movie theater.  A moment passes.)

MICKEY:  I knew I’d find you here.

LOUISE:  I’m always at the movies, Mickey.  You know that.

MICKEY:  On a Tuesday afternoon?

LOUISE:  It’s Bargain Tuesdays.  I get a free popcorn.

MICKEY:  There was blood on your doorstep.

LOUISE:  At my house?

MICKEY:  Yes, at your house.  What other doorstep—

LOUISE:  I think I cut myself.

MICKEY:  You think?

LOUISE:  Best I can remember.

MICKEY:  I saw Rose today.

LOUISE:  Bullshit.  She’s on her deathbed.

MICKEY:  Not anymore.  Her grandson came to see her, now she’s out and about.  I saw her at Oakland Beach.

LOUISE:  What were you doing at Oakland Beach?

MICKEY:  I brought Scott there.

LOUISE:  Why?

MICKEY:  So I could tell him I’m leaving him.

LOUISE:  You’re not.

MICKEY:  I am.

LOUISE:  You must be out of your mind.

MICKEY:  Why?  Because I want to be happy?

LOUISE:  Yes.  As soon as you start thinking you deserve happiness, your whole life falls apart.

MICKEY:  It’s not that I’m unhappy.  It’s just that I think I could be happier.

LOUISE:  So happy isn’t enough?  You want to be happier?

MICKEY:  When you say it like that—

LOUISE:  Where are you going to go?

MICKEY:  I don’t know.  Out of Rhode Island.  This place is…

LOUISE:  Is what?

MICKEY:  I think it’s the reason Scott and I grew apart.

LOUISE:  Are you saying Rhode Island is the other woman?

MICKEY:  No.

LOUISE:  Is that what you’re trying to say?

MICKEY:  No.

LOUISE:  Good.  Because that would be ridiculous.

MICKEY:  I—

LOUISE:  Your problem is you’re looking out a window when you need to be looking in a mirror.

MICKEY:  It’s not that I don’t blame myself—

LOUISE:  This is a beautiful place to live.  People who don’t like it here have never lived anywhere else.  Or they go to New York or Boston and they tell themselves that’s better, but that ain’t better.  That’s just more distracting.  Here, there’s just enough quiet to hear your own thoughts, and some people don’t like what they hear.  That’s not Rhode Island’s fault.  That’s your damn fault.  Buy headphones.  Because your thoughts are going with you wherever you go.  Trust me on that.

MICKEY:  I hope this is just a really mean way of you saying you’d miss me.

LOUISE:  My son’s not coming back, you know.

MICKEY:  Trevor?

LOUISE:  He called me today.  He likes where he is.  He’s not…

MICKEY:  Mitch isn’t either.

LOUISE:  No.

MICKEY:  He likes Austin.

LOUISE:  Does he know he’s in Texas?

MICKEY:  Austin isn’t really Texas.

LOUISE:  Still.

MICKEY:  Scott’s just torn up about it.

LOUISE:  Aren’t you?

MICKEY:  As someone who desperately wants to get out of this state—rightfully so or no—I really can’t blame Mitch, can I?

LOUISE:  People are being pulled apart these days.  It’s a real shame.

MICKEY:  And some of us just sit watching movies.

LOUISE:  You can be a real bitch sometimes.

MICKEY:  (Laughs.)  I learned it from the woman next door.

LOUISE:  You know, making friends is easy, and family is family—you get what you get—but a good neighbor?  That’s a hard thing to find.

            (A beat.)

MICKEY:  What movie is this anyway?

LOUISE:  It’s about these two people who have a love affair that goes on for years and years.  They write each other letters.  It takes place in Newport.

MICKEY:  Is it any good?

LOUISE:  The acting’s not bad, but the writing sucks.

MICKEY:  Too bad for the actors, huh?

LOUISE:  I don’t come here for the movies anyway.  I come here to force myself to focus on something other than the heat for five minutes.

            (A beat.)

And the fact that my son doesn’t want to see me anymore.

MICKEY:  That’s not—

LOUISE:  The blood isn’t mine.

            (A beat.)

MICKEY:  Do I want to know?

LOUISE:  I don’t know who’s it is, but it isn’t mine.  I may be losing my mind, but I doubt I’d forget bleeding all over my doorstep.

MICKEY:  You mind if I sit here with you?  The central air’s broken at my place.  And Scott is probably pacing back and forth like he always does when he’s upset.

LOUISE:  (Looking around.)  We’re the only two people here.  Back when I was younger, this is when we’d start to neck.

MICKEY:  Only neck?

LOUISE:  Hey, I was a classy young lady.  Anything more than necking and we went back to his car.

            (They laugh.)

How did you know which movie—

MICKEY:  I asked the man at the counter which theater the grumpy woman went in.

LOUISE:  And he ratted me out?

MICKEY:  He did.

            (A beat.)

LOUISE:  Sometimes, you know,  no matter how bad the movie is, something at home is so much worse that—I almost want the movie to keep going.  I almost root for the awfulness to continue, just so I can sit here and not have to deal with it, you know?

MICKEY:  Oh, I know, Louise.  Believe me, I know.

            (They continue to watch the movie.  Lights.)