The Year of the Sex Olympics and other TV Plays (27 page)

The duty engineer watches, bored, sucking at a brightener.

INSIDE THE COTTAGE – NIGHT

Nat puts his arm round Deanie.

NAT
(surprised, whispering)
: You . . . all shaking.

DEANIE
: Shivering. Like they said.

NAT
: The cold?

DEANIE
: No matter.

He pulls her closer to him. He looks into her face. He kisses her, not casually, almost ritually. And she returns it. They draw slightly apart and look into each other’s eyes.

A few moments later he sees she is shaking again. But this is different. She is laughing silently to herself. She smiles with a small, secret triumph.

NAT
: What is it?

DEANIE
: Not cold.
(Moving closer)
We got the laugh. On them, Nat. If we just go on and on, and we got fun . . . and they got to watch.

Nat grins. Then the grin fades.

NAT
: It can be hard for us.

DEANIE
: We learn. Take time and learn it all. We be okay, Nat. I know.

NAT
: How?

DEANIE
: I know.
(She puts up her hands to hold his face and speak to it tenderly)
We got our . . . place.

Nat nods solemnly through her hands. She smiles. She raises herself in the bed to look at her sleeping daughter . . . and then round her home. She gives the holographic unit a last, almost contemptuous glance. Then she settles back with Nat . . . in a warm, gernerous embrace . . .

INSIDE THE PRODUCTION POD

The duty engineer has lost interest in the screen. He is almost asleep in his seat . . .

INSIDE THE COTTAGE

Nat and Deanie lie asleep in each other’s arms . . .

INSIDE THE PRODUCTION POD

It is the following morning. Opie is back at the control desk and Priest is just joining him.

PRIEST
: So, Lasar.

OPIE
: So. He’s outside.

On the main screen is a wide exterior shot of the landscape in front of the cottage. Nat is there, with Deanie and Keten watching him nervously from the doorway as he starts to explore. He is carrying a plastic water bucket.

Opie zooms in to a tighter shot of Nat, who seems unaware of any holographic apparatus out here, or is simply ignoring the possibility. He peers watchfully at the gulls that scream overhead.

OUTSIDE THE COTTAGE

Nat grins to cover his uncertainty, glancing back at the cottage. Then he moves warily on towards the sound of gurgling water nearby. He is as watchful as a cat, ready to run back into shelter at any sign of danger.

A few yards from the cottage, just past the tiny vegetable patch with its stone-wall surround, a spring of clean water bursts from the ground. It splashes among worn stones.

Nat studies it. He waves the others forward, to watch as he places the bucket under the trickle of water.

NAT
: See? Got to do this every day.

DEANIE
: Automatic.

NAT
: No. Not automatic. It just . . . runs.

They feel a creeping awe of the forces that this tiny spout may represent. Nat leaves the bucket to fill and turns to the bank that rises behind the cottage. He tests his footing, tries to climb. He slithers back on his bottom.

Deanie and Keten watch in some alarm as he scrambles up and tries again, clawing at the long grass and heather. In a moment he is a yard or two up the bank. He holds out his hand to Keten. She takes it and he pulls her up. Deanie follows suit. They help each other along, as unfamiliar with the ground beneath their feet as explorers on the Moon . . .

INSIDE THE PRODUCTION POD

Priest and Opie are watching absorbedly . . .

THE CENTRE OF THE ISLAND

In the foreground now is the shaggy form of a horned sheep. It suddenly turns and bolts. Nat comes into view, watching the sheep running away across the thin, broken turf. It stops a short distance away. He turns to Deanie and Keten, who are hesitating a few yards behind him.

NAT
(calling)
: Must be a sheep. Like in the instructions.
(Pointing)
More of ’em. See?

KETEN
: They real jumbo.

NAT
: They just run.

He makes a sudden bound and the sheep bolts again. Keten bursts into relieved laughter. Nat and Deanie laugh too.

KETEN
: Where the other animals?

DEANIE
: The rabbits. Like it said.

Nat shakes his head. He pulls the recorder from his pocket and switches it on as they talk.

OPIE’S VOICE
: “. . . The big animals named sheep are wild but harmless. Small animals named rabbits live in holes. You kill these for food, both sheep and rabbits. Cut off skins and . . .”

Nat switches the recorder off, less on account of Keten’s feelings than his own.

DEANIE
: Kill . . .

KETEN
: What’s kill?

Nat jams the recorder back in his pocket . . .

INSIDE THE PRODUCTION POD

Opie smiles to himself as he operates the controls . . .

A BARE HEADLAND

We zoom slowly towards the three figures moving along the skyline, dwarfed by the harsh, bare immensity of the landscape.

A closer shot as they move together across a broad, level stretch of turf. It seems safe here. The wind that blows in their faces is getting familiar and exhilarating. They walk faster, eager to see what is ahead.

The shot widens . . . and widens . . . to show that the broad level they are walking on is the top of a towering cliff. The rock face drops sheer to the sea. They pull up at the edge and peer cautiously down. Far below, huge breakers crash against the rocks and hurl up spumes of spray.

Surprisingly, as Nat steadies her, Keten laughs. They turn back, all three holding hands, running together, amused by the clumsiness of their steps . . .

A STONE CIRCLE

Great outcrops of rock jut like teeth from the hairy, weathered turf. Somewhere below the sea roars. Nat, Deanie and Keten appear, walking separately again. They stare about them, speechless at the strangeness of the place.

A circle of low standing-stones is set in the turf . . . an ancient relic of . . . what. They look at each other and have no answer. Keten runs among the rocks, enjoying the springiness of the turf. She keeps close enough to her parents to be sure of them. But she goes on her own, no longer afraid.

Nat touches the lichenous rock, taking pleasure in its harsh coldness. His to enjoy. He looks about with a new sense of possession, and at Deanie to see if she shares it. And knows that she does.

OUTSIDE THE COTTAGE

All three of them are cheerful and breathing fast as they scramble down the bank towards the cottage. They are gaining in confidence, learning to cope with the strange surfaces.

Nat picks up the full bucket from its place under the spring. He points to the little vegetable patch inside the dry stone wall.

NAT
: We got food here, see? Little plants they left. Soon grow, we can eat ’em, then sow more seeds like it said.

DEANIE
(happily)
: No need to kill ’em.

Nat throws the door open—and stops short. Deanie gives a strangled shriek and clutches Keten.

INSIDE THE COTTAGE

There are two people in the room, a man and a woman. The man is a huge fellow with a wild, grizzled beard. He is clad in roughly dressed sheepskins. The woman is a sombre creature, with a stillness about her that suggests an American Indian, Lapp or perhaps Patagonian. She wears elaborately worked garments of leather, that she must have made herself.

They stand quite motionless.

NAT
: Who are you?

MAN
: Name . . . Grels.
(He pronounces it like “else”. His voice sounds genial. He points to the woman)
This Betty.

NAT
: How you get here?
(Grels seems puzzled)
Where you from?

Grels seethes with amusement. He turns to Betty, but her face hardly changes from its immobility. He faces Nat again.

GRELS
: Been here always.
(He points)
Other side island.

Nat and Deanie exchange glances.

DEANIE
: But . . . they said . . . you see the men who came?

NAT
: They see you?

Grels nods. He seems faintly puzzled by the question.

GRELS
: They say you come. Man, woman, child. You Nat?

NAT
: Yes.

Grels points at Deanie, running his eyes over her till she almost shrinks.

DEANIE
: Deanie. This is Keten.

KETEN
(pulling the doll out of her anorak)
: Timbo.

It breaks the spell. Grels roars with laughter. Even Betty smiles.

GRELS
(to Nat)
: You got food?

NAT
(guardedly)
: Yes.

GRELS
: Not much. They tell me.
(Chuckles)
Listen, I help! I show how to get eggs, gull-eggs. I show you to get fish, too. Down the rocks I get crabs, big crabs!
(Nodding at Keten)
She like to eat. Listen, I bring hooks and we go for crabs. Eh?

NAT
(relieved)
: Yes—

GRELS
: Soon, soon.
(He turns to Betty, nods at the door)
Now we go.

She follows him obediently. In the doorway he turns to wave to Keten. Then they are gone. Keten runs to the door to watch.

NAT
: He said nobody.

DEANIE
: Who?

NAT
: Lasar.

DEANIE
: A mistake. Nat, they seem okay. Palwise. If he can help, this Grels, help get food—

NAT
: He said nobody.
(He makes for the vision unit, glowers up at it)
You in Output. Lasar Opie, anybody, we made a deal! You trick on this, I do it too! I can smash this unit, stop the show! Now!

INSIDE THE PRODUCTION POD

There is Nat’s face on the main screen in the production pod. Opie and Priest are watching.

NAT
(on screen)
: You hear?

He moves away. Priest frowns at Opie.

PRIEST
: Who this two? Who this man Grels?

Opie pushes a mini-recorder across to him.

OPIE
: Dossier.

PRIEST
(picking it up, suspiciously)
: We made a deal. No interference.

OPIE
(agreeing)
: No interference. Just a bit of scene-setting.

PRIEST
: That all?

OPIE
(evasively)
: It’s a show. Something got to happen.

The recorder is a confidential model with an earpiece extension. Priest applies it to his ear . . .

ON THE SHORE

A large crab is pulled out from the seaweed where it hides, on the end of a heavy hook stick. Grels dangles it triumphantly for a moment before dropping it in the sack of woven rushes that Nat holds ready.

Grels shoulders the stick. He and Nat wade along in the shallows at the foot of the cliff. Grels peers and pokes into crannies. He points to the mussels clustered on the rock face, cracks some with his stick and devours the contents. He offers a broken shell to Nat, who tastes and spits the mussel out. Grels roars with laughter.

GRELS
: Okay, you can boil ’em first. Now, look here—
(They come to a steep pebbly beach with a scatter of driftwood. Grels picks some up)
Good for your fire. Burns good.

Then they are climbing up a steep cliff path, clutching heather roots for support. As they reach the top, Nat is sliding and panting. Grels reaches back and grabs him, pulls him up to safety. Glancing back, Nat is glad of his help.

The cottage is just ahead. They make their way towards it.

GRELS
: Some time I show you how to get a sheep. Got to be quick and trick ’em. Then . . . you get a lot of meat. And the skin—like this—

With satisfaction, he pats the rough sheepskin that covers him.

INSIDE THE COTTAGE

Deanie is watching at the window. She runs to the door to meet them.

DEANIE
: Nat!

She is almost collapsed with terror. He drops the sack and takes her in his arms.

NAT
: What wrong? Where Keten?

Then he sees Keten lying on her bed a few feet away. She looks white and shocked. Her hand and forearm are swathed in a rough, bloodstained attempt at a bandage.

DEANIE
: Fell against the wall. Out there playing when she saw it—and she ran and—

NAT
: Saw what?

DEANIE
: I dunno. Been watching us all the time—for hours—! Something, somebody, I dunno—

Bulky Grels moves fast. He is outside in a moment, followed by Nat.

OUTSIDE THE COTTAGE

Grels scours the landscape, the heavy crab-hook raised like a weapon. Deanie clings to Nat.

GRELS
: Where is it?

DEANIE
(pointing)
: Out in the mist. Moving across . . . and then back. Sort of hiding.