The Year of the Sex Olympics and other TV Plays (7 page)

COBB
(grinning)
: Not a bit.

LAVINIA
: But surely—

COBB
: They’re not immoral. They’re enjoying a natural virtue. What morality is there in being tied to—a dotard, for instance?

LAVINIA
(softly)
: Or a dullard.
(She laughs prettily)
I begin to understand.

COBB
: You’ve much to learn. You must learn it.

LAVINIA
: Yes. I must.

For a sudden, split second there is a disturbance in the air, a mere blink of sound, shrill and gone in a moment.

Tetsy, who is filling a mug at the cask, drops it. She gives a wail of terror.

Sam runs to her. Her cry dies into sharp sobbing. She seems unaware even of his arms around her.

Men are scrambling to their feet. Sir Timothy comes running. Lavinia springs from her seat and starts towards the spot.

SIR TIMOTHY
: That noise frightened her.

She shakes her head, unable to speak.

LAVINIA
: What was it?

SIR TIMOTHY
: Sounded like—a shot somewhere across the valley.

SAM
: No, it was here.
(Pulling the girl round)
All right, love. ’Tis gone now.

TETSY
(looking into his face and whispering)
: I seen the road!

SAM
: Eh!

SIR TIMOTHY
: What does she say?

Tetsy turns to him, her voice gaining strength as she speaks.

TETSY
: Like a lightnin’ flash, I seen it! There wasn’ no trees, but a huge, wide road—an’ things movin’—
(Clutching at Sam)
Didn’
you
see it?
(Sam shakes his head. She looks again at Sir Timothy and from him to the other men. Heads shake)
Nobody?

She looks even to Lavinia, whose white face shows only distaste. But beyond her is a surprising sight. Cobb sits with his face buried in his hands. His spilled tankard lies on the grass beside him.

SIR TIMOTHY
: Cobb—

He kneels by him. After a moment the heavy face is uncovered, chalk-white. The eyes look warily, slowly about.

COBB
: A touch of dyspepsia. I must have eaten too quickly. Rather distressful.

TETSY
: Did you see it, sir?

COBB
: I—heard a curious sound.

SIR TIMOTHY
: That might have been the echo of a fowling piece. A poacher somewhere.

TETSY
: It was real—it was real to me! Oh, Sam—

She clings to him, shivering.

SIR TIMOTHY
(to Cobb)
: Nothing else?

Cobb shakes his head. Sir Timothy goes briskly back to his observations.

Cobb meets Lavinia’s curious eyes and manages a smile.

COBB
(putting a hand to his stomach)
: Greed. Clear example of vice, it’s so painful.

His hand stops rubbing his belly and his smile fades as he looks past her to Jethro.

The negro is regarding him with total disbelief.

A yard away, Tetsy senses the silence and turns from sheltering in Sam’s arms.

TETSY
(whispering)
: He was lyin’.

Cobb looks up at the ring of doubting faces.

JETHRO
: Were you?

COBB
: Jethro—!

JETHRO
: Were you?

COBB
(pulling himself up on one knee)
: I will not have you speak so—

JETHRO
: Here in this place, I can! I am not real to you, am I? I’m something you made, not a man. But the man is speaking to you now! Mr. Cobb, you have a great mind, but there are too many things it won’t admit—troubling, odd, hid-away, mean things—even in yourself. Yes, listen to me! They’ll rise up and spoil your grand design—you can’t talk them away and make a new world just with words—not even all
your
words, Mr. Cobb—

There is a wild jangling and clashing from the rope barrier.

THE ROPED TREES

Near the cart, bells and coils of rusty iron are jumping and clanking on the rope. Sam and one or two other men come running. They can see no cause.

THE CLEARING

Sir Timothy pauses only to grab the loaded blunderbuss before running after Sam and the others. Jethro glances at Cobb, picks up a lantern and goes too.

Lavinia looks at Cobb. He is breathing fast, all complacency gone.

THE ROPED TREES

A long shot across a different section of the rope barrier. Sir Timothy and Jethro join the other searchers. The rope in the foreground is undisturbed. But now something creeps towards it from outside. A pitchfork.

It tweaks the rope deftly and sharply, then whips out of sight. The cowbell and scraps of harness on the rope are set jangling.

JETHRO
(pointing)
: There!

The men come running, Sir Timothy in the lead with his blunderbuss. The others have their staffs and rakes at the ready. As they peer about, there is growing alarm in their faces.

From the silhouetted shape of a tree in the foreground outside the rope—something projects. The end of a pitchfork. A man’s head follows it, watching them go.

Jethro suddenly turns, flashing the lantern round. Before the head can withdraw, he has seen it.

JETHRO
(shouting)
: It’s Jeff! Behind that tree.

They turn quickly back. The big man springs out into the lamplight, roaring with laughter.

BIG JEFF
: How’s that for a spook? You should’a seen your faces!

His wild laughter is cut off by a thunderous boom from the blunderbuss.

Sir Timothy has fired over his head. Jeff cringes, white and silent before the suddenly fierce figure glaring at him across the rope. Smoke drifts from the guns wide muzzle. Leaves and twigs scatter down.

SIR TIMOTHY
: Throw your fork down.
(Jeff does so)
Now get back to the village and stay there. If I see you again, you’ll get this through your middle.

Big Jeff stands a moment more, then twists round and bolts, crashing and blundering through the bushes. As they turn back, Lavinia comes running.

LAVINIA
: What was it?

SIR TIMOTHY
: Big Jeff. I frightened him off home.

LAVINIA
: Oh. I thought you’d—killed—

She breaks off. He watches her.

JETHRO
: Why should he do it, sir?

SIR TIMOTHY
: He’s a simpleton.

LAVINIA
: Did he cause—the other?

SIR TIMOTHY
(after a moment)
: No.

JETHRO
: D’you still think it was a shot?

He gets no reply.

THE CLEARING

Cobb is standing with a staff in his hand, close to Tetsy as if ready to defend the girl. He feels obliged to explain the weapon as the others return. He tosses it down.

COBB
: She was frightened.

Sir Timothy passes the gun to Sam.

SIR TIMOTHY
: Reload this.

And while Sam finds the powder horn, he returns to his observations.

Tetsy has not moved. Her eyes go to Cobb again.

TETSY
(quietly)
: You seen it like I did.

Cobb gives her an odd look, as if she is mad. He takes out his snuffbox with deliberation, turning to Lavinia.

COBB
: How much longer—are we to share this midnight party for the yokels?

Lavinia’s eyes are on his hands. They are trembling. He forces himself to open the silver box without spilling the contents. He clicks it shut and takes a great sniff.

Sir Timothy frowns at one of his thermometers. He checks the previous reading in his notebook, then notes the new one with his crayon. He hurries to the next lighted plank with its jars and instruments. What he sees there leaves him in no doubt.

He turns to find Jethro at his elbow.

SIR TIMOTHY
: The thermometers—they’ve gone down by seven Fahrenheit degrees! In these last few minutes.
(He makes for his wife and Cobb)
Have you noticed the air temperature? It’s dropped.

LAVINIA
: Yes.

She shivers and pulls her cloak round her.

COBB
: Normal at this time of night, surely? Out here in the open—

SIR TIMOTHY
: It’s not normal.

He darts across the clearing to where another thermometer is set up. The results are the same. He scribbles in his notebook. Cobb stays close behind him.

COBB
: Sir—are you bent on spreading alarm? Not only to the women—

SIR TIMOTHY
: The barometer’s down too. All in the past five minutes.

COBB
: You’ll have these simple men in terror. I appeal to you, squire, not to submit to superstition—

SIR TIMOTHY
: Quiet!

He makes for the planks where the electrical apparatus is set out.

COBB
(staying with him)
: I don’t think you’ve the smallest idea what you’re doing!

SIR TIMOTHY
: I’m setting down facts! Even if I
don’t
know what I’m doing—if I make these readings for all the wrong reasons—there’s no doubt about them! If I don’t find out their meaning, someone else will. They’ll take this notebook as I’ve taken other men’s—and they’ll read it and use it! It will be there to use!

He crouches over the Leyden Jars. Cobb stares at him, momentarily baffled.

COBB
: That—humility again.
(As the implications begin to reach him, he draws back, suddenly and strangely appalled)
Selfless. Aimless. Mindless. Why do I suddenly find danger in it?
(He starts back towards the middle of the clearing)
Yes, danger—danger—!

The camera pans from him to a couple of men on watch by the rope. They turn back to look out into the darkness.

COBB
(joining Lavinia)
: Make sure you despise him for the right reasons.
(She frowns)
He is ruthless in his way.

LAVINIA
: Timothy!

COBB
(seized with insight)
: One of a blind, mad pack! They will do things!

LAVINIA
: What do you mean?

COBB
(coming to himself)
: Let us leave this place.
(She shakes her head, watching him)
Why not?
(She says nothing)
I’m afraid now. You know that.

LAVINIA
: Yes.

COBB
: And you want to watch it.

She says nothing. The camera pans from them to where Sam is wiping down the reloaded blunderbuss with a greasy rag. Tetsy is at his side. Jethro sits without expression. In the tree above, Lukey is cramped and watchful. He stretches.

At the rope barrier, a man joins two of the others and they crouch, listening.

The camera pans to Sir Timothy. He is just rising from his observations when he freezes at a small, sharp sound. It lasts perhaps two seconds, distant and uncanny, a fragment of a shrill wail.

Sam is instantly on his feet, the gun raised.

Above in the tree, Lukey stares about in alarm, grabbing at the trunk.

Lavinia is looking to Cobb when her husband hurries across and grabs Sam by the arm.

SIR TIMOTHY
: Was that like the sounds you heard?

SAM
: Yes, I—think so—

Cobb steps forward, fighting to maintain his composure. His voice has a shake in it.

COBB
: This is where we must take a grip on our senses. Whatever this be, it is of the world we inhabit. We
can
understand it if we seek a profoundly natural—

This time the distant wail lasts a fraction longer, three or four seconds. And there are other, more staccato, sounds superimposed on it.

SAM
(pointing)
: Far away yonder! That’s where it started before—

COBB
: Quiet, lad.

There is a blast of sound in the very clearing. Again it cuts in sharply, but this is a terrible medley of noises, of deafening loudness. It lasts only a second or so. Then it cuts again.

Lavinia clings to Cobb in terror. All round the clearing the men are shouting out their alarm. The lad comes tumbling down from his tree almost at Sir Timothy’s feet.

The squire brushes aside the shuddering lad and crouches by his precious apparatus on the nearest plank. Sweat is streaming down his face.

Cobb looks jerkily about, his heavy face loose. Sam has dropped the gun. One arm is round Tetsy, his other hand creeps to the hidden talisman within his jerkin.

In the tree, Lukey has stuck to his post.

LUKEY
(shouting down)
: Squire! Squire!

Below, Sir Timothy is at the electrical apparatus. He yells back.

SIR TIMOTHY
: Stay where you are!

The tiny gold leaves of the electroscope are moving, opening and closing as a charge reaches them through the wire. Sparks flicker between two brass knobs.

The distant sounds come again—and again—in short, irregular bursts. From now on they do not cease.