We Might Be Heroes: Hope

(NATHAN speaks to his daughter, SKY.)

NATHAN:  Now I want you to tell me the truth.

SKY:  Okay.

NATHAN:  Did you go invisible when you were at your mom’s?

SKY:  Yes.

NATHAN:  Okay.

SKY:  Are you mad?

NATHAN:  Yes, I’m mad.  You’re not supposed to go invisible.  We talked about this, Sky.

SKY:  I can’t help it sometimes.

NATHAN:  When did that start?  You can always help it.

SKY:  It’s just been happening.

NATHAN:  Did something change?

SKY:  No.

NATHAN:  Well, something must have changed, otherwise why would it be happening?

SKY:  Maybe it happens when I’m upset.

NATHAN:  Were you upset at your Mom’s?

SKY:  Yeah.

NATHAN:  Why?

SKY:  Because I didn’t want to be there.

NATHAN:  Why not?

SKY:  Because I was scared you weren’t coming back to get me.

NATHAN:  Because you heard I was going to DC?

SKY:  Yeah.

NATHAN:  Sky, I told you I was coming back.

SKY:  I know.

NATHAN:  Did you think I was lying?

SKY:  I know you wouldn’t want to lie but…

NATHAN:  But what?

SKY:  Maybe you didn’t know you were lying.

NATHAN:  You know, sometimes I gotta have hard conversations with you, right?

SKY:  Yeah.

NATHAN:  Like, sometimes we’re going to have to talk about stuff that you might not want to hear.  Stuff that’ll make you sad or something, and that’s okay, but we still gotta talk, you know, whatever that stuff is.

SKY:  Okay.

NATHAN:  I do have to go to DC.  I went on Thursday to scope things out, but now I gotta go back.

SKY:  Why?

NATHAN:  You know why.  Because you’re not the only one who can go invisible when she wants to.

SKY:  I know.

NATHAN:  And I gotta turn myself in.

SKY:  But you didn’t do anything wrong.

NATHAN:  It’s not about doing something wrong.  It’s about signing up to do something right.

SKY:  Why do you have to sign up?

NATHAN:  What if everybody who could help had a daughter saying that to them—Why do you have to do it?  Then nobody would do it, right?

SKY:  I don’t care though.

NATHAN:  But I want you to care, that’s the thing.  When you grow up, I want you to be somebody who cares a lot, even if it means doing something you don’t want to do.  And right now, I need you to be with your mom and not give her any trouble, okay?

SKY:  She makes me feel weird.

NATHAN:  That’s because she doesn’t understand what you can do.  You gotta have patience with her.  Just because she’s a mom, that doesn’t make her perfect.

SKY:  She’s just jealous of me.

NATHAN:  Yeah, maybe she is.  A lot of people wish they could be invisible these days.

SKY:  She says I should keep it a secret.

NATHAN:  That’s because she doesn’t want other people to hurt you.

SKY:  If I’m special, why would they hurt me?

NATHAN:  To try and get at what you have.

SKY:  Why can’t you just stay here and protect me?

NATHAN:  Because I already gave you everything you need to protect yourself.  I gave you what I have.  Somebody starts something with you—you just blank out on ‘em.  They won’t know where you went.  Then you get yourself somewhere safe and you call Mom or Grandma or somebody, okay?

SKY:  Okay.

NATHAN:  You scared?

SKY:  A little.

NATHAN:  You know who gets scared?

(She shakes her head.)

NATHAN:  Smart people.  That’s why they’re so smart.  Because they don’t try and act all big and bad.  They say ‘I’m scared’ and then they do what they gotta do.  They regroup, they plan, and they come back ready to fight.  That’s how you gotta be.

SKY:  Ready to fight?

NATHAN:  Yup.

SKY:  I thought fighting was bad?

NATHAN:  It is.  But it’s something you gotta do.

SKY:  Sometimes you gotta do bad stuff?

NATHAN:  Yeah, that’s life, kid.  And if you’re lucky you can tell the difference between the good stuff and the bad stuff.

SKY:  What if you’re not lucky?

NATHAN:  Then you gotta hope.

(He hugs her.)

NATHAN:  If nothing else, you can always hope.

(Lights.)