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 ~: FICTION / SCRIPTS :~  All Souls' Day by Christine Evans Characters: MILO: A boy of about 8 years old. MANJA: MILO'S's aunt, MANUEL'S mother. Her feet are bandaged and swollen. MANJA sits on the beach, rocking. Sound of distant tango music. She is rocking half in pain and half with the music. MILO runs up. Music stops. MILO: When I went through the park there were people waving at me. I didn't wave back to them. That was right, wasn't it? I never wave. A man gave me a chocolate. Here. It's a bit squishy but you can eat it Manja. [pause] Want me to peel it for you? I can peel it. You like chocolate don't you? Are your feet sore? Do you want me to peel your feet? MANJA blinks yes. MILO undoes the bandages, which are encrusted with blood. MANJA cries out. MILO: Sorry Auntie, the bandage was stuck on. You've got elephant feet. No, grapes. They're like squashed grapes. Can you feel that? -I'm going to bury them. MILO digs a hole and puts MANJA'S feet in it. MILO: I'm going to build a castle on your toes. Here's the front door. And some seaweed on top to make it pretty. This stick is a monster guarding the gate. And this is where the fog comes down. It's magic fog and it hides us. Makes us invisible. Can you feel your toes...? That's good, the magic's working. This is a nice beach, isn't it. Can we catch a fish do you think? Manuel's great at fishing. He's my favorite cousin. I like fishing with him- but not all the guts and smelly stuff. I always get him to do that bit. Manuel will be all right too. You'll see. I sent some fog to make him invisible too. - Don't cry Manja don't cry. Before long people will be coming along, won't they? Does it still matter if they see us? They might give us some food. Some icecream. There might be kids. Are we still hiding? -I'm sick of it. It's getting light. I can nearly see an Ice cream van... I'm hungry. Hungry hungry starving hungry. I've got a bear in my stomach and it's growling. I WANT A DRINK OF WATER! Beat. MANJA stares out to sea. MILO digs in the sand. MILO: If I was a cat I wouldn't catch and eat birds. I would live on icecream. I would go out hunting every night with my X-ray vision. But I wouldn't really catch anything- I would just stalk. Or maybe I would catch things and let them go. Like lizards. I would practice being invisible if I was a cat. Then I wouldn't have to hide. -I'm practicing now. MILO closes his eyes. MILO: Can you still see me? Nod if you can. [Beat] -Well, you'll have to tell me later if you nodded. Because I'm not going to cheat and look. MANJA stands and shakes the sand off her feet. She walks painfully towards the sea and wades into the shallows. Throughout MILO'S speech MANJA is slowly disappearing into the water. MILO: Maybe it's good you don't talk. Most people just say horrible things. [Beat] When I was on my own I would play with my blocks and after a while the faces chipped off them and they were just lumps of color and then they got their own voices. Different people would come but some were always the same. There's the evil one who whispers like velvet: 'You're nothing. You're nobody. You're just specks of dust on the floor, dead without sunlight. See, nobody wants you cause you're all alone. You have no friends –' Shut up Shut up Shut up... -I smashed that block on the wall till the voice was gone. When it came back anyway I smashed it in my head. I smashed that part of my head that hears things. That's how you shut them up- And the real voices too. Often they say ugly words about me- 'There's something wrong with that child-' I listen to the birds instead. 'Yes of course I want him to pay attention –' Even when the men came with the guns I didn't listen. I hid in the forest and listened to the wind. Until the guns stopped. The wind didn't stop though. I sat there for a long long time. It was quiet without any more voices to hide from. [Beat] The forest sounds a bit like the sea doesn't it Manja? Swoosh whoosh. Swoosh- whoosh... Birds don't hate anyone. I can sing nearly every bird's song now. I can hear all the birds in my head and Manuel laughing. And you. I can still hear your voice from when you used to talk. Guess what Manja- bet you can't. Do you want to know a secret? -I saw Manuel on the beach last night! It wasn't a dream because he smiled at me and winked. "Shhh Milo"... And because then I woke up properly - and everything was the same- And he was still there! Shiny moon on the sand- little puffy clouds- and a secret smile in my chest like a little bird hiding. I ran down to him. He always laughs. He made me stand on his feet and then he danced me like a lady and we laughed and laughed and then we fell over. And my jeans were all wet and covered in sand. Then he wasn't there any more- he didn't leave any footprints though you could see mine in twirly patterns all the way up the beach. I can't dance by myself so he must have been there. -Manja? How could he not leave any footprints? -Auntie? MILO looks round. He can't see MANJA. MILO: [screams] MANJA!!! MANJA turns and splash/stumbles back to him. MILO: Don't do that [hitting her] Don't run away. MILO stamps on MANJA'S wounded feet. MILO: Now you can't run. Now you can't run. Now you can't run. MANJA cries soundlessly but lets MILO trample her feet. MILO: Why don't you yell at me? Yell at me! I can't hear you! Please don't cry, don't cry. I hate it when you cry. Long pause. MANJA is still. MILO: I wish I was dead. Like everyone else. I hate you Manja. You never say anything any more. I wish you were dead too. [Beat] Maybe you are dead. You don't care. How can you tell if you're dead? You can tell if someone else is but what if it's you and nobody tells you? Do you think you would just go wandering around on a beach like this one maybe? It's not like Heaven is it. But it's not Hell. Are we ghosts now? Where do ghosts go? Maybe if you hide for a really long time you turn into a ghost because even the angels can't find you. [Beat] This is Ghost Beach. You can't talk because you're dead Manja and I am too and I can't talk either I just think I can [shouting] but no-one can hear me [starts to spin around] 'cause I'm dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead... MANJA turns and catches MILO, stopping his wild spin. She shakes him. Silence. MANJA holds her hand out to MILO. Her voice sounds rusty. MANJA: Your face is dirty. She wipes his face. MILO takes MANJA'S hand. They walk. MILO: I'm so hungry MANJA: Hungry MILO: Everything will be all right won't it? [Several beats] Because we're not dead really. MANJA: No. MILO: Dead people don't get hungry. Do they? MANJA: Not really. MILO: I saw Manuel you know. He smiled at me. I really saw him. Is he dead? MANJA: I think so. MILO: Why? [Beat] MANJA: We should find something to eat. MILO: Some ice cream. They walk slowly up the beach. |
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| Christine Evans | |
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| Christine Evans is an Australian playwright now in the US, thanks to a Fulbright Award. Plays produc...>> | |
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| More by author: Home to Roost: an Impossible Play Cannibalized by Events - Readers' Choice Retrospective Scripts | |
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