CREATIVE GRANT RECIPIENT #034: JOANNE GALLAGHER ->

Scene Six - Claypits/The Tenderness of Wolves

Kirsty and Fiona jump a gate and burst onto the banks of the Black Cart water, on a backroad farm. A local spot where the YT’s dominate its beauty in the Summer: a heatwave making everyone merry.

FIONA: Wit so ye’ve never drank here?

KIRSTY: No. Who was I going to come here with? The drama club? If I wanted to get bullied, I would definitely have shown face. Can you imagine?!

FIONA: God, it wis good down here in the Summer. It’s a shame sad sacks lut you had to miss it.

KIRSTY (laughing): Fuck you!

FIONA: Ahm telling Maw you swore.

KIRSTY: Pffft, she won’t believe you.

FIONA: True enough.

Fiona hands over the bottle of Prosecco. Kirsty pops it and pours generous measures into plastic cups.

Dance music plays faintly from nearby, and we hear laughter and chatter, downhill of the sisters, unseen by the audience. Underneath throughout.

(Gesturing across).

FIONA: Ooft there’s the Young Team.

KIRSTY: The green light, that year by year recedes us!

FIONA: Wit you on about?! Ah told you ye need to lay aff the Dutch stuff!

(They laugh).

KIRSTY: You look stunning you know.

FIONA: Wan prosecco in and I’m a model!

KIRSTY: Stop it you.

I’m sorry if I wis cruel to you growing up. Encouraged to bully, weren’t we?

FIONA: Look let us at least talk to these wans and get a bit wrecked afore ye start that chat.

KIRSTY: How, which one d’ye fancy?

FIONA: None ae them! I’m no a paed!

(They laugh).

Check you oot, first time at the Claypits, pure 30-year-old virgin oer here.

KIRSTY: I’ve had sex with more than one man Fiona.

FIONA: Euw! That is the most disgusting thing you’ve ever said to me.

KIRSTY: Would you not like to start doing new things since you’ve moved back to Mum’s?

FIONA: Ah could say the same for you. Pure dole queue superstar oer here!

KIRSTY: That’s unfair.

FIONA: Is it? When wis the last time ye made yer ain bed?

It’s alright to get sad but it’s not alright to act the arse about it.

Beat.

I’m sorry he wisnae good enough: to be honest ah always thought it. Glad ye wurnae a sad faced wee bride. Ah’ve never met anyone who’s close to being good enough fur ye.

KIRSTY: See that on paper is lovely, but it’s actually a problem.

FIONA: How?

KIRSTY: You assume I’ll meet someone tremendous; I’ve been meeting people for ages.

FIONA: You are a nonsense!

One of the Young Team approaches, his presence is a threat to Kirsty and a joke to Fiona.

WEE GUY: Here, ma pal wants tae get aff wae ye.

FIONA: Who?

WEE GUY: Him (pointing to another wee guy offstage)-

FIONA: Should you no be in school?! Naebody here wants to get arrested! Skeddadle!

(They laugh).

The Wee Guy exits.

FIONA: There’s hope fur us both yet!

KIRSTY: I’ll drink to that!

FIONA: Who you kidding, you’d drink to putting a big wash oan af a Tuesday, ‘cept Maw would do it fur ye!

(They laugh)

Mon we’ll get the tunes oan.

Fiona sets up her mini speaker and pumps out The Wolfe Tones, Come Out Ye Black an Tans.

KIRSTY: (Laughs) Trust you!

FIONA: Whoop! Get up ‘mon!

Dancing and pushing Kirsty to take her hand.

KIRSTY: Away ye go! (Laughing)

Dancing

FIONA: (Singing) “And those loving English feet they walked all over us!”

On the chorus, Kirsty submits to dancing with Fiona. They sing, swinging each other aroon.

They break off, laughing, collapsing into the grass. The music turns down in the speaker.

KIRSTY: It’s funny, people always say Linwood is a shithole, but walk for ten minutes, and you’ve got these backroads – the Kilpatrick Hills: golden, lit up like a stage, reminding us that something better might await us yet. Ben Lomond in the distance! Look!

FIONA: Aye, it’s nice right enough…

(She laughs).

FIONA: Yer no cut oot for it here hen.

KIRSTY: I know…

Remember you once told me about a guy going down the Black Cart in a rubber dingy, on a Summers day: like it was the craziest thing in the World? The whole town buckled! Wouldn’t we all like to do that? Isn’t he freer than anyone that laughs at him?

FIONA: I dunno…

KIRSTY: Well, let’s drink to oor collective freedom! Like Beyonce, “Aw the Single Ladies, aw the Single Ladies!” We could go out together and meet guys!

FIONA: Pfft no thanks.

KIRSTY: How?

FIONA: Just hink we’re different.

KIRSTY: You think I’m a bit simple, don’t you?

FIONA: Naw, it’s no that…It’s no.

Just don’t know how ready I am, an that. It’s not been easy…

KIRSTY: You’ve never spoke to me about the car crash you know.

FIONA: Aye why would ah? It’s no exactly after dinner conversation.

KIRSTY: Were you scared?

FIONA: Ah wis screaming Kirsty. We were arguing an – ah didnae have ma seatbelt - up fae the night afore. I told him tae watch his driving, and ah quickly strapped masel in, then that corner…

Beat.

Flew so we did. The car birrlies roon; bits o the ground, trees an that, knockin fuck oot ae the windscreen!

So naw, I’m no lookin to meet anyone right noo, no really.

KIRSTY: Why were you with him Fiona?

There must’ve been a reason?

FIONA: You know you’d like him if you got to know him.

KIRSTY: Well that won’t happen so…

FIONA: Aye I know, I know! But still, you would. If you gave him a chance!

KIRSTY: Fiona/

FIONA: /I know! Anyway, oan a night oot, he’s magic to watch: to be around.

Everyone wantin tae talk tae him, wantin a piece of him. And he’s wae me. Ah’ve always fancied him, always!

He’s the only guy who’s ever made me feel beautiful. When we first met it was aw marriage and babies, straight away, and I was always sure it’d be wae him.

KIRSTY: It’s those shared dreams that kill you in the end. I suppose he’s your Heathcliff.

FIONA: (Laughs) An who is this Heathcliff when he’s at hame?

KIRSTY: A beautiful bad bastard fae a book.

I used to think I wanted love like that – all that passion, all that longing. Except he murders the lassie’s dog and hangs it from a tree, so, maybe not a top guy after all.

FIONA: Here, I dare ye tae jump in!

(Kirsty laughs)

Dare ye!

KIRSTY: You sister, and yer confetti glances!

Kirsty runs to the water and jumps in the Black Cart river.

KIRSTY: Whooop!

A splash and the laughter of the wee bams.

Fiona laughing alone on the banks, looking out. We see her worry for a moment as the mask slips. Looks to her phone. Nothing. No salvation.

(Unseen) KIRSTY: Get in ya cow! (Laughing).

(Unseen) WEE GUYS: She’s feart!

FIONA: Ahm no feart of anythin!

She jumps!

A splash as her laughing body hits the water.

Blackout.