Chapter Text
EXT. COLLEGE DORM
There are fewer parents and students carrying things in. Celine hurries out and strides for the sidewalk. Jesse emerges a few seconds later.
JESSE
Celine!
She doesn’t stop. If anything, she steps up her pace.
He starts to follow but the parents step in from the side. One mother shoves copies of his novels This Time and Our Time by Jesse Wallace into his hand. Drawings of a college age couple like Jesse and Celine on the one and a thirtysomething version on the other. They babble but he isn’t listening. He scrawls his autograph on each and hurries on.
JESSE (CONT’D)
Celine, wait up! I got to ask you something.
She stops on the sidewalk then turns her eyes, full of fury and scorn, onto him.
JESSE (CONT’D)
What are you in a hurry for?
CELINE
I have to catch the noon train.
Jesse looks at his watch. It’s just before ten.
JESSE
What for?
She hesitates for a moment.
CELINE
I just do.
She steps to the edge of the sidewalk. Looks both ways for a break in traffic. They inevitably catch each other’s eye by doing so then nervously look away.
Celine starts crossing the street. Jesse falls in right beside her. Still giving each other a look. Not too dissimilar to the wary looks they gave each other when they got off the train together in Before Sunrise or when walking away from the bookstore in Before Sunset. Each of them both excited and nervous and a little bit scared.
EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE
They reach the other side and stroll into the park. It is full of tourists out in force and filling the square. Jesse and Celine continue down the broad main walkway. Jesse takes it all in, energized by the sight.
JESSE
I used to love all this. So vibrant and exciting.
Celine looks around, starting to loosen up.
CELINE
Yeah, it is. I always loved that about New York.
They walk along, enjoying the mood and atmosphere.
But Celine’s smile is momentary, replaced by a worried glance back toward the dorm retreating into the background.
JESSE
Don’t worry about our girls. They will be fine.
Celine faces front.
CELINE
I know they’ll be fine.
JESSE
No, you don’t.
CELINE
Yes, I do.
JESSE
No, you don’t.
CELINE
Yes, I do. Don’t tell me how I am feeling.
JESSE
You’re in denial.
CELINE
No, I’m not. Shut up!
JESSE
You are.
CELINE
I said shut up!
As they argue, they stroll past a young couple in their early 20’s who just frown and shake their heads.
BOY
Do you have any idea what they are arguing about?
GIRL
No, I don’t. Have you heard that as couples get older they lose their ability to hear each other?
BOY (kidding)
What?
The girl bats him on the shoulder. They giggle and kiss.
GIRL
I wonder if anyone is ever happy in a long term relationship.
BOY (pulls her close)
We will be.
Jesse and Celine move on. She puts on her sunglasses.
CELINE
Why do we raise our children to be powerful and independent only to discover that whey they grow up that they don’t need us anymore? What’s the point of that?
JESSE
Said every good parent who ever lived.
Around them are dozens and dozens of New Yorkers doing their favorite park activity.
--College age boys with their shirts off toss frisbees or footballs back and forth.
--College age girls stretch out on towels on the grass and sunbathe in some combo of swimsuits and shorts. Older men sit and read books, and sneak looks at the girls.
--Women walk their dogs.
--Musicians of all stripes and genders strum away on their guitars or instruments of choice with an upside down cap or open instrument case in front of them for money.
--A collection of a dozen or so youth protest the latest American outrage: overturning Roe v. Wade. Their chants ring throughout the square.
Celine smiles and sends a somewhat envious look the protestors’ way. Jesse follows her gaze and smiles himself.
JESSE (CONT’D)
This place hasn’t changed much.
CELINE
I like that. This was always my favorite part of New York when I lived here.
Celine looks back at the protestors one more time.
CELINE (CONT’D)
I never thought I would live in a country where my daughters had less rights than I did.
JESSE
They’re going to be fine.
CELINE (faces front again)
I know that. I just wished they had picked a different school.
JESSE
You didn’t want them to go to your alma mater?
CELINE
No, I wanted them to go to my other alma mater. In France.
JESSE (with a phony French accent)
The Sorbonne?
CELINE
Yes. In a civilized country.
JESSE (laughs)
What can they learn at The Sorbonne that they can’t learn here?
Celine purses her lips, appears reluctant to answer. Jesse can’t resist pressing.
JESSE (CONT’D)
What?
CELINE
I wanted their education to be as non-American as possible.
JESSE
What’s wrong with being American? You’re an American now.
CELINE
I am not an American. I am a French woman who happens to live in America.
JESSE
With dual citizenship.
CELINE
Only because of your fucked up tax laws.
JESSE
So what’s wrong with being American?
Celine shakes her head.
CELINE
We don’t have enough time to go into all of that.
Jesse’s turn to shake his head.
CELINE (CONT’D)
You do realize you all are the laughingstock of the world now. With your Trump and your fake news and your cancel culture and your repressed Victorian prudishness masquerading as feminism.
JESSE
Hey, don’t lump me in with all that.
CELINE
You’re from Texas, aren’t you?
JESSE
That doesn’t mean I believe all that. I live in LA now.
CELINE
Which is just as bad as Texas in its own ways. I am glad I live here in New York which is the only civilized part of this country.
JESSE
And yet you are still living here in this country you despise instead of back in your native France.
CELINE
You know why I am living here. And I don’t despise your country at all.
JESSE
It sure sounds like you do.
CELINE
I don’t. I only dislike what it has become. Nothing but willful ignorance and cell phones.
Jesse can only shrug at that.
JESSE
True enough.
They glance at what all is happening around them.
CELINE
But this part hasn’t changed. I mean, everyone could be home on social media but here they are out enjoying themselves.
JESSE
I think COVID made people appreciate the real world more. And at least it set the clock back on global warming.
CELINE (groans)
See? Another myth Americans want to tell themselves. Another instance of fake news.
JESSE
What do you mean? It’s true. Whatever activism gets done, whatever amount of marching and protesting we do, the world corrects itself. Society corrects itself between left and right. Politics corrects itself between fanaticism and compromise. It has nothing to do with how much protesting people do.
CELINE
That is just another excuse people tell themselves so they don’t have to do anything at all. Usually white males who think the world is already arranged just fine. For them.
JESSE
Yeah, well, most people just want to live their lives and not have to worry about the state of the world 24/7. I have enough troubles of my own.
Off to the corner of the broad walk, a woman is playing Bach’s “Un Clave” piece on the cello. It is the same harpsichord piece they listened to in Before Sunrise after their night in the park.
They both recognize it and glance at the other. Their eyes meet and hold for a moment.
They have reached the fountain at the center of the park.
The two of them stand there enjoying the sound of the water and the nearby scream of children playing: boys and girls splashing water and chasing each other around.
It makes them smile.
Celine spies the Washington Square Arch on the edge of the square to the right.
CELINE
Oh, I love that arch.
She heads toward it.
JESSE
Yeah, me too.
Jesse hurries to catch up.
As they walk along they pass a woman standing atop an apple box on the edge of the walk. She’s dressed in Puritan garb and holding a baby doll wrapped in swaddling clothes. A large red “A” hangs over her chest. It is Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter come to life.
A few men laugh and jeer at her but she says nothing.
Jesse and Celine glance at each other, taking in the contemporary relevance of the tableaux.
JESSE (CONT’D)
Nathaniel Hawthorne still has something to say to the world.
EXT. WASHINGTON ARCH
They reach the Arch and stroll under it. Neither can help looking up.
CELINE
It reminds me of the Arc de Triomphe back home.
JESSE
I suppose those protestors will want to knock this down eventually because it celebrates George Washington and he was a slave owner.
They come out from under the arch and turn to pause in front of the statue of Washington as commander in chief.
CELINE
Don’t you think we should take that fact into account?
JESSE
Of course. But I also think you have to consider the full measure of a person’s life. I mean, yes, he owned slaves. But he also won the Revolutionary War, he refused to be a king after it was over, and almost single-handedly set up the institutions of the U.S. government that we still use today. I think any time you take the measure of a person, you have to look at their entire life, not just one aspect of it. Everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
CELINE
Including Sally Fairfax? I wonder how Martha felt about her.
JESSE
Could George help it if he was a babe magnet?
They both laugh.
JESSE (CONT’D)
They stayed together, didn’t they?
Celine sighs and nods. They stroll over to the other column and gaze at the sculpture of Washington as president.
CELINE
Yes, they did. “My love for those I love - not very many, but don’t I love them so?”
JESSE
Thank you, Emily Dickinson.
CELINE
The greatest writer who ever lived.
JESSE
No, that would be Nathaniel Hawthorne.
(points back at tableaux)
And still relevant today.
CELINE
So is Emily.
JESSE
I didn’t say she wasn’t. Or maybe Faulkner. I don’t think there is a better short story in the world than “A Rose For Emily”. But in George’s case the full measure of his life appears to be overwhelmingly good.
CELINE
You should ask his slaves.
JESSE
Touche’. Although I understand that he freed them in his will.
CELINE
Another myth. He granted them their freedom but only after Martha died and she didn’t die until three years later.
JESSE (throws up his hands)
Do you always have to have the last word?
CELINE
And you don’t?
They both laugh. Jesse smiles.
JESSE
This is nice. Walking around and talking about non-parental stuff again. We used to do that all the time. In Vienna. And Paris.
CELINE
And Greece.
JESSE (sighs)
And Greece.
CELINE
I don’t miss the old days.
A pensive look passes between them.
CELINE (turning away)
I have got to go.
She starts to walk away.
JESSE
Celine?
She stops and looks back. Jesse steps up to her.
JESSE (CONT’D)
I just thought, I mean, I was wondering. We just dropped our daughters off for their first year of college. I thought maybe we could get a cup of coffee together and pat ourselves on the back about what a great job we did despite everything. We raised them. We just set them free. Mission accomplished.
CELINE
I don’t know that an empty nest is something worth celebrating.
JESSE
Just a cup of coffee. And then you can catch your train.
Celine mulls this over.
CELINE
Where?
JESSE
Just northwest of here. One of my favorite shops. I used to go there all the time when I lived here.
Celine appears to be actually considering this.
CELINE
Is it still along the way?
JESSE
Yes, yes, still along the way.
CELINE
And I will still make my train on time?
JESSE
You will still make your train before noon at the Christopher Street station.
She stares at Jesse. She looks in the direction he pointed. Then back at him. The edge of her lip curls up into a bit of a smile.
CELINE
Alright.
JESSE (surprised)
Alright?
CELINE
Yes.
JESSE
Alright!
They set off, strolling past the chess tables set up in the corner of the park where men of all ages (and a few women) play. A man and a woman play a game. She moves her piece into...
CHESS WOMAN
Checkmate!
The man groans while the woman cackles with glee.
END OF CHAPTER 2
COMING TUESDAY - CHAPTER 3 (OF 7) – OF COFFEE & PARENTING