[General Stratton’s study. He is at his...

[General Stratton’s study. He is at his desk, sipping coffee, Luger in his other hand. Sergeant Danny Donovan is in a wheelchair, facing the audience.]

SERGEANT DONOVAN Are you going to put the Luger back in the cabinet?

GENERAL STRATTON I’m thinking about it.

SERGEANT DONOVAN You have no right to take your own life. You haven’t suffered enough.

GENERAL STRATTON Maybe not. Seems to be the way the mind works, though. You can think of possibilities. Then you make a choice.

SERGEANT DONOVAN So make one. You didn’t know me from Adam, did you?

GENERAL STRATTON (takes note from memento folder) Not until I got this letter from your brother, Jimmy.

SERGEANT DONOVAN Good kid. Glad he’s overweight. Couldn’t get in the military if he wanted to.

GENERAL STRATTON When I got it, I called you.

SERGEANT DONOVAN I heard the phone ring. Sorry there wasn’t anybody there to pick it up.

GENERAL STRATTON Jimmy asked me to try to stop you.

SERGEANT DONOVAN I had a right.

GENERAL STRATTON To kill yourself?

SERGEANT DONOVAN To be free. I was an athlete, you know. Baseball. First base. Thought one day I might make the majors. But one bullet in my spinal cord and that was that. Couldn’t move anything from the neck down. Helpless. Couldn’t even shoot myself. Even had a hard time takin’ enough sleeping pills to do the job. I was frickin’ helpless. It was time to check out.

GENERAL STRATTON Your brother didn’t think so. He loved you. Said your parents were dead.

SERGEANT DONOVAN Yeah. Plane crash, when I was nineteen. It’s one reason I enlisted. Wouldn’t have done it if I knew what would happen. I was helping to train the Afghan army, if you can call it that. One their soldiers turned on me and shot me from behind. Right in the neck. That’s the thing that gets me the most. I lost everything in a place where what we’re doing isn’t appreciated. No appreciation. No goddam appreciation.

GENERAL STRATTON I know, son. I honor your sacrifice. It’s one of the reasons I’m sitting here with this. (holds up Lugar)

SERGEANT DONOVAN Why don’t you try to do something about it? I can’t. I want you to tell my brother something for me. Tell him I miss him. Tell him, tell him I just couldn’t go on anymore. Whole body useless and wasting away. Bed sores, infected ones. No hope for the usual things. Told my girlfriend to leave me. Find a guy she deserves. F##kin’ useless. I was useless to her. Will you tell him?

GENERAL STRATTON Yes, I will.

SERGEANT DONOVAN You can’t blame me for what I did to myself.

GENERAL STRATTON I blame myself, son. I blame myself for not being able to keep you out of the way of the bullet that did it.

SERGEANT DONOVAN So do I. I blame everybody who let it happen. But that doesn’t mean you have a right to kill yourself. That’s why the guys sent me.

GENERAL STRATTON The other soldiers?

SERGEANT DONOVAN Who else? They thought you might listen. Well?

GENERAL STRATTON Well, what?

SERGEANT DONOVAN Either use the f##kin’ gun or put it away.

GENERAL STRATTON (looks at gun, considering what to do; rises) OK. You win.

SERGEANT DONOVAN Win? What the hell is left for me to win?

GENERAL STRATTON (unloads gun; gets up and goes to armoire; puts gun and bullets back) The argument. Done. (goes to him) Thank you, Sergeant. Thank you for your help. And thank you for your goddam sacrifice.

[Lights fade down]

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