Grace walks out of the room into the hallway, into her father’s arms, her own arms in front of her chest. “Dad.” Jake says something like “Oh, no, no, listen honey.” Lily walks to Rick, who kisses her on the cheek. Grace rolls away from Jake’s arms. Jake asks Lily “What’s goin’ on?” “He’s out,” she answers. Jake says “Thank God” and starts to head back toward the hearing room again but Rick blocks him and steers him away. “Hey, hey, hey Jake.” Grace hears this, crosses her arms, and looks away.
Jake says to Rick “Alright, no, fine, fine,” and they both head out the exit doors. Lily reaches for Grace’s arm to follow but Grace stops as she sees Mr. Dimitri enter the hallway and walk in the opposite direction, not looking at her. Grace sighs, and looks to the side like a wild animal silently begging to be set free to join her own kind. Lily says “Go ahead and tell him goodbye.” Grace turns to face her. Lily says “Hurry up.” Grace starts walk-running to Mr. Dimitri’s classroom.
Mr. Dimitri is packing his books into a red milk crate. He looks up to see Grace standing in the doorway. He looks down and sighs while still packing his things. Her hands intertwined, Grace starts walking toward him.
Dimitri smiles at her hopefulness, naivete’. “Grace, I’m not coming back.”
“What do you mean? You don’t know that yet. They haven’t decided anything.”
“I’ve decided.” He picks up his crate and starts walking across the room. “All this time I’ve been encouraging you to write, send your stuff out, but I don’t write.” He sets down his crate. “I don’t send anything out.” He picks up some record albums and turns toward her. “You said it yourself. You saw it. I’ve.been.scared.” Grace lowers her eyes. Mr. Dimitri continues. “In a way I…guess I used you.”
“No! How can you say that?” Grace says.
"Just listen—"
Grace puts up her hands. “You didn’t use me. Don’t say that.”
“Oh come on, let’s be honest here.” Dimitri faces Grace. “Of course I did. I mean, I knew…that something like this might happen.” Grace barely moves. Dimitri starts picking up his crate, then stands in front of Grace. “But I needed my life to change, and I used you…to change it.” Dimitri looks at Grace while she looks at his jacket. He softens his voice, gazes intently at her and says “Which doesn’t mean I won’t miss you.” Grace nods her head slightly and tries to say “Okay.” Dimitri smiles half-wistfully, half-teacherly, and moves away. The long moment is broken.
“But wait! I mean…” Dimitri stops and turns to face her. “Can I ever…” Grace looks around for what she can say. “Can I still send you my story? If I ever figure out the ending.”
Dimitri takes a breath and smiles, understanding. He leans close to Grace and says “Read ‘On Love.’” She leans in. “What?”
“On Love. It’s in that book I gave you. Read it. More than once.” He starts to turn away but Grace asks, “Why? Why?” She moves forward. “Is, I mean, there a message in it, or something?”
“A message?”
“You know,” Grace smiles eagerly and steps in close. “About you and me.”
Dimitri lifts his head and smiles faintly. “No. No, I’m saying…” He looks at her for a moment, then looks down briefly. “I’m saying it’s important you read it, as a writer.” He whispers the last three words, then says nothing else, but doesn’t move his eyes from hers.
Mr. Dimitri meets Lily at the doorway. “Mrs. Sammler.”
“I don’t want to hear it.” She doesn’t even look at him. He steps slowly by her into the hallway. Lily goes to Grace and wraps her arm around her as they walk out of the room in the opposite direction, not looking back.
The scene goes to black and white. Grace reads aloud from Chekhov’s “On Love”:
“And with a burning pain in my heart, I realized how needless, and petty, and deceptive were all those things which had kept us from loving one another. I came to realize that when you are in love you should start from something higher and more important than happiness or unhappiness, virtue and sin and all their accepted meanings, or you should make no judgments at all.” Her voice cracks as she touches the book’s cover.
Dimitri walks down the hallway, alone, carrying his box toward a door at the end.
“He kissed her for the last time, pressed her hands, and we parted, forever.” Dimitri fades away into air.
“The train was already in motion.” The hallway door closes itself shut.
Lily sees her daughter’s crumpled face reading in her bedroom. She enters to comfort her. “Oh, sweetheart.” Grace turns toward her mother and lets herself be hugged as she takes crying breaths. “Honey, come here. I know. I do.” “No, you don’t understand,” Grace says, still holding the book.
“I do. It’s okay,” Lily reassures her. “No, I know. It’s just…” Grace pulls away to look at her mother. “Mom,” she smiles through her tears, “it’s just such a beautiful story.” She starts crying and Lily holds her. Grace smiles at the painful beauty.