Don't Jump, Part 2

HONOR
No! Of course not! Why, do I seem...I mean, do I give off the appearance of someone who--

John
Hold on. Have you?

HONOR
Have I what?

JOHN
Done this before.

Honor
...maybe.

JOHN
Before as in, one crazy night in the boy's dorm at college twenty years ago? Or before as in...more than once?

Honor
Ten years ago, thanks. And no, you're my first...

JOHN
Okay.

HONOR
...this year. I've done...well, four others.

JOHN
Four?! And you've chickened out every time?

HONOR
"Chickened out"? Really nice. What is this, the third grade?

JOHN
Four times?

HONOR
You're really not what I expected. Your tactics aren't normal at all.

JOHN

I'm not normal.

HONOR
They usually ask nice, harmless questions. What's your name is the first one.

Beat.

HONOR
Oh, come on. I'm feeding it to you. Just ask me.

JOHN
What's your name?

HONOR
It's Honor.

JOHN
Anna?

HONOR
No, HONOR. H-O--

JOHN
Oh.

Beat.

HONOR
You really suck at this, don't you? Aren't you going to ask me anything else?

JOHN
Such as?

HONOR
Everyone's approach is slightly different. Not so different, but it varies, I guess. Some get personal. They tell me their names, too.

JOHN
I'm John.

HONOR
Then they just...ask me about myself. Little details. Children. They always ask if I have children.

JOHN
Do you have children?

HONOR
God, no. Twice I lied and said I did. A girl, two years old, father left me when I was pregnant. Cute little thing with blond curls. I was just trying to help them out, because God forbid you are a woman without a child. Suicidal, fine, but never alone.

Beat.

HONOR (CONT’D)
So? Got any ideas of your own? Any other questions for me?

JOHN
When did you start faking suicide attempts as a hobby?

HONOR
Who says I'm faking? Who says I'm not one-hundred-percent serious right now and just screwing with you?

JOHN
I won't tell on you.

HONOR
It started, like, four years ago. It was real the first time. It really was. I thought it was. I was so lonely, and I guess I convinced myself that that was the only way out. I lived in Utah before that. I used to rock climb a lot. So many great outdoor cliffs. I loved it. You couldn't think about falling or you got stuck. You had to focus on getting higher without thinking about how high you were. It was so zen, just...looking around. It kept me sane. And then I lost my job and had to move to New Jersey. Have you ever been to New Jersey, John?

JOHN
I think everyone has, at some point.

HONOR
Yes. Just passing through on your way to New York or something, right? But still, you saw a good amount of the state?

JOHN
Sure.

HONOR
Then you understand where I'm coming from. Everything got so gray. So I decided to go back to Washington.

JOHN
I thought you lived in Utah.

HONOR
No, I grew up in Washington. It's kinda gray there, too, but I had started to dream about it. About fourth grade.

JOHN
Fourth grade?

HONOR
The year that we drove into the city for a field trip to the Space Needle. I got the stomach flu that week, and I never really got around to visiting it before I moved away. Anyway, once I was exiled to Jersey, I was having all these dreams about how incredibly great it would be to go there and go up high and look down again.