A Simple Love Story

5-THEIR WALK, PUBLICLY, ON THE GREEN

DANIEL I saw this woman today. She was about forty-five years old, maybe fifty, and..you know how time makes us tired? She wasn't tired like that. At twenty-eight, you can start to see sadness on the face, but this woman, no. Some people have grace. It's not born, and it's not bred. I think maybe it's cultivated. Anyway, she had it, and..it was beautiful.

AMERICA Keep talking.

DANIEL What about?

AMERICA Anything. You're a wonderful talker. You talk in essays. Not essays, but full paragraphs. That's something I noticed about you on the first day. You talk like a book. You're not dry, but.. It's like a book has already been written and you stand in front of the class and recite it.

DANIEL Do you ever feel like you missed a moment?

AMERICA Missed a moment?

DANIEL You should have, you didn't though, there was something you could have—

AMERICA Yeah, no, yeah. I mean, yeah. Sure. All the time. You feel that?

DANIEL Yeah.

AMERICA Wha'd you miss?

DANIEL A kiss.

AMERICA When?

DANIEL Long ago.

AMERICA Describe it for me.

DANIEL I was near your age—how old are you?

AMERICA Twenty-one. How old are you?

DANIEL Fifty. I was twenty-one. There was this girl.

AMERICA You were in college?

DANIEL Yes.

AMERICA Where?

DANIEL It doesn't matter.

AMERICA Was this when you were at Amherst?

DANIEL Stalker!

AMERICA It's on your site, sorry.

DANIEL There was this girl. I should have kissed her. I didn't.

AMERICA You're right you should have.

DANIEL I know.

AMERICA Did you make the same mistake twice though?

DANIEL I've made that one a couple of times.

AMERICA Never do that.

DANIEL I know.

AMERICA That's the only sin.

DANIEL Murder?

AMERICA Don't ever make the same mistake twice.

DANIEL You've killed someone?

AMERICA Only one time that I shouldn't have, and I learned my lesson.

DANIEL You're a sage.

AMERICA People always say that.

DANIEL It's true.

AMERICA Doesn't feel like that from the inside.

DANIEL What does it feel like?

AMERICA Confused. Disconnected.

DANIEL I have that.

AMERICA Which one?

DANIEL Disconnected.