We Might Be Heroes: Everybody Else

(NATALIE is seated in an interview room.  ELLEN enters with a folder.  She sits.)

ELLEN:  Your paperwork is done.  You can leave whenever you want.

NATALIE:  So that’s it?

ELLEN:  Yup.

NATALIE:  It seems a little anticlimactic.

ELLEN:  Sorry.

NATALIE:  Not your fault.  I was just hoping…that I could help.

ELLEN:  Well you said that your ability belonged to your brother?

NATALIE:  Yes, Jack had always had…He was very special.

ELLEN:  I’m surprised the army never caught it.

NATALIE:  Caught it?

ELLEN:  His, uh, talent.

NATALIE:  Oh, well—he was very protective of it.  He didn’t just, you know, want to throw it around, like, um…um…

ELLEN:  Natalie, can I ask you something?

NATALIE:  Sure.

ELLEN:  Why are you here?

NATALIE:  Excuse me?

ELLEN:  Your brother’s been gone for—how many years?

NATALIE:  Uh, well, let’s see, uh, I answered this on the form—

ELLEN:  No, I mean—

NATALIE:  Six years.  He was, uh—he was older than me.

ELLEN:  I’m sure he was a very good man.

NATALIE:  I just want it on record.

ELLEN:  What?

NATALIE:  That he was a hero.

ELLEN:  Well, I don’t think there’s any denying that he was a hero.  He fought for his country.

NATALIE:  No, I mean, a real hero.  Like with powers and everything.

ELLEN:  Uh—Natalie, I don’t know—

NATALIE:  I mean, you’re going to have a list or something, right?

ELLEN:  A list?

NATALIE:  Of all the people who, you know, pass your test or whatever.

ELLEN:  There’s no test.

NATALIE:  But you decide that certain people are heroes, and then, that information will become public, right?

ELLEN:  Uh—it’ll—No, it won’t be public.

(A beat.)

NATALIE:  Oh.

ELLEN:  Natalie, is this a financial matter?

NATALIE:  What do you mean?

ELLEN:  I mean—do you need help?  With money?

NATALIE:  I don’t need any money.

ELLEN:  No, but—

NATALIE:  I’m not here for money.  I’m here because I want someone to acknowledge my brother and what he did.

ELLEN:  Didn’t he have a military funeral?

NATALIE:  Yes, but—he was so much more than that.  Than just a—you know, some guy who died in a war.  That wasn’t all he was.  He could do things.  He had these—these abilities, right?  That’s what you call them?  Somebody should say that.  Somebody should say that he was special.  Like, officially special.

ELLEN:  I’m sure he was very special to you.

NATALIE:  Not just to me!

ELLEN:  No, of course not.  Your parents—

NATALIE:  They don’t even know I’m here.

ELLEN:  I think it’s very nice that you want us to honor your brother, but as I said, none of what we’re doing here will be public once we find what we’re looking for.

NATALIE:  But since he’s already dead, can’t you just…make an announcement about it?  I mean, why does it have to be private?

ELLEN:  Even if we could do that, we don’t have any proof that he could, uh—

NATALIE:  But I’ve shown you videos.  Photographs.  I  have testimony from fifteen different people.

ELLEN:  But we would need to see it for ourselves.

NATALIE:  So you are testing people.

ELLEN:  Not the sort of tests you’re probably thinking of.

NATALIE:  Do you think I’m making this up?

ELLEN:  It really doesn’t matter what I believe.  I’m pretty low on the totem pole.

NATALIE:  Well then why am I talking to you?

ELLEN:  Natalie—

NATALIE:  Are you supposed to call me Natalie?  Aren’t you supposed to—use my last name or something?

ELLEN:  Well, I thought being a little more informal might help.

NATALIE:  Help with what?  Letting me know that you think I’m a liar?

ELLEN:  I don’t think that.

NATALIE:  Is it because you think he was stupid?

ELLEN:  What?  No.  Of course not.

NATALIE:  Because he died?  Because he died when he probably didn’t have to?  Because he could have just used his power and that would have been it?  Hell, the whole war would have been over.  Maybe you’re mad at him about that.  That he didn’t do everything he could have done.

ELLEN:  Nobody’s mad at him.

NATALIE:  Well, I’m mad at him.  I have all these questions, and I just…I just don’t have any way of getting answers.  I was hoping coming here would…I don’t know.

ELLEN:  Maybe your brother wanted to be like everybody else.  Maybe he didn’t want to stand out.  We’re seeing a lot of that with the people who are coming in here.  They’d rather be like everybody else.

NATALIE:  Why?

ELLEN:  Well I think when you’re born different you want to fit it, and when you’re born fitting in, you want to feel special.  It’s all one big chase.  But your brother died in an honorable and heroic way, and even if he had a million superpowers, it wouldn’t make him anymore of a hero than he already is.

NATALIE:  Thank you for saying that.

ELLEN:  I’m not just saying it.  I believe it.

                (She puts her hand on NATALIE’s hand.)

You take care of yourself, all right?

NATALIE:  Okay.  Thank you.

                (ELLEN gets up.  She walks to the door.)

ELLEN:  Natalie?

NATALIE:  Yes?

ELLEN:  We often find that these enhanced abilities are genetic.  You don’t happen to—

NATALIE:  No.  I’m…just like everybody else.

ELLEN:  All right.  I—All right.

                (She exits.  Lights.)