(David has been injured in a motorbike accident, and wife Sheila, though still estranged, is visiting him in the civilian hospital near his base.)

SHEILA ASHTON
Listen, um...I think we ought to talk about your future, David. That's what I came back for.

DAVID ASHTON
(laughing)
Why should you worry about my future?

SHEILA
Oh, well, I should expect you to do the same for me.

DAVID
You know what my future is.

SHEILA
You'll have me crying in a minute. You're not down to selling boot laces.

DAVID
Well, do you know of a better alternative?

SHEILA
There are other things besides flying.

DAVID
Oh, not for me, love.

SHEILA
You had ambitions before the war.

DAVID
No, I didn't, Sheila. All I had was bitterness because I wasn't educated for anything.

SHEILA
Well, look, you can start now. You can train for something.

DAVID
Sheila, I've fallen off a ladder. I haven't got the guts to try again.

SHEILA
Yes, you have.

DAVID
Well, what incentive do I have?

SHEILA
Oh, you'll find one.

DAVID
I've only got one incentive, and I'm looking at you right now.

SHEILA
(saddened)
Try and be sensible.

DAVID
I am. No, you...listen.
(sighing)
Ever since the day we met, I've...I've done nothing but think about myself...all the things I wanted. But it's...it's not like that anymore. I'm cleaned out. I want to start again, Sheila, but I can't do it on my own.

SHEILA
Please...

DAVID
I've stopped pretending. I'm not the big wheel anymore. Sheila, I've thrown away my pride. I've got nothing. Just give me a home.

SHEILA
None of us have got anything.

DAVID
We could all have something to go back to...the children as well.

SHEILA
David, we've been over it all before.

DAVID
No, we haven't been over this before because I just didn't see it. There's not going to be any land fit for heroes, you know...just a great big nothing.

(Sheila, close to tears, stands up and walks away from David's hospital bed.)

SHEILA
She said Derek was lost. I think we all are.

DAVID
Well, who are you talking about?

SHEILA
All of us.

DAVID
Look, I... I'd work for you and the children, and I'd do anything.

SHEILA
David, come on. You're confusing me.

DAVID
Look, Tony spoke to me once. He said there might be a job with Sefton.

SHEILA
No, no. Not after what he's done to your father for the last thirty years.

DAVID
Well, does it matter to you what I do?

SHEILA
Of course!

(She forces herself to retreat.)

SHEILA
Uh, look, let me think about it.

 

(from "The Lost Ones" by Alexander Baron)