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turning to page one
Sean and Will in session.
SEAN
Really? How'd the date go?
WILL
Do you still counsel veterans?
(beat)
I read your book last night.
SEAN
No, I don't.
WILL
Why not?
SEAN
I gave that up when my wife got sick.
WILL
Is that why you didn't write anything
else?
SEAN
(smiles)
I didn't write anything else 'cause
nobody, including most of my colleagues
bothered to read the first one.
WILL
Well, I've read you colleagues. Your
book was good, Sean.
(beat)
All those guys were in your platoon?
SEAN
Yeah.
WILL
What happened to that guy from Kentucky?
SEAN
Lon? He got married. He has a kid.
I kind of lost touch with him after
Nancy got sick.
WILL
Do you ever wonder what your life would
be like if you never met your wife?
SEAN
What? Do I wonder if I'd be better
off if I never met my wife?
Will starts to clarify his question.
SEAN (cont'd)
No, that's okay. It's an important
question. 'Cause you'll have your bad
times, which wake you up to the good
stuff you weren't paying attention to.
And you can fail, as long as you're
trying hard. But there's nothing worse
than regret.
WILL
You don't regret meetin' your wife?
SEAN
Why? Because of the pain I feel now?
I have regrets Will, but I don't regret
a singel day I spent with her.
WILL
When did you know she was the one?
SEAN
October 21, 1975. Game six of the
World Series. Biggest game in Red Sox
history, Me and my friends slept out
on the sidewalk all night to get
tickets. We were sitting in a bar
waiting for the game to start and in
walks this girl. What a game that
was. Tie game in the bottom of the
tenth inning, in steps Carlton Fisk,
hit a long fly ball down the left
field line. Thirty-five thousand fans
on their feet, screamin' at the ball
to stay fair. Fisk is runnin' up the
baseline, wavin' at the ball like a
madman. It hits the foul pole, home
run. Thirty-five thousand people
went crazy. And I wasn't one of them.
WILL
Where were you?
SEAN
I was havin' a drink with my future
wife.
WILL
You missed Pudge Fisk's homerun to
have a drink with a woman you had never
met?
SEAN
That's right.
WILL
So wait a minute. The Red Sox haven't
won a World Series since nineteen
eighteen, you slept out for tickets,
games gonna start in twenty minutes,
in walks a girl you never seen before,
and you give your ticket away?
SEAN
You should have seen this girl. She
lit up the room.
WILL
I don't care if Helen of Troy walked
into that bar! That's game six of the
World Series!
Sean smiles.
WILL (cont'd)
And what kind of friends are these?
They let you get away with that?
SEAN
I just slid my ticket across the table
and said "sorry fellas, I gotta go see
about a girl."
WILL
"I gotta go see about a girl"? What
did they say?
SEAN
They could see that I meant it.
WILL
You're kiddin' me.
SEAN
No Will, I'm not kiddin' you. If I
had gone to see that game I'd be in
here talkin' abouta girl I saw at a
bar twenty years ago. And how I always
regretted not goin' over there and
talkin' to her. I don't regret the
eighteen years we were married. I
don't regret givin' up couseling for
six years when she got sick. I don't
regret being by her side for the last
two years when things got real bad.
And I sure as Hell don't regret missing
that damn game.
A beat. Will is impressed.
WILL
Would have been nice to catch that
game though.
SEAN
(breaking)
Well hell, I didn't know Pudge was
gonna hit the home run.
They laugh.
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