UU NINETEEN NINETY-TWO Lisa McGee138 Characters DAVID, twenty-seven JOHN PAUL, twenty-three Two Northern Irish brothers. Place The middle of nowhere. Year 2009.139 on the living room of a run-down English Lights come UP iously been abandoned for some ti airy house. It has obviously been abandoned for sor e ime. — is practically empty. An old well-worn armchair pies one corner, a broken television is propped up ona kitchen stool beside it. Downstage, DAVID sits at a cheap patio table with a newspaper spread out in front of him. He struggles with a crossword puzzle. The only item in decent condition, a fairly large wooden strongbox, sits at the opposite end of the room. JOHN PAUL sits on the box examining his bruised face in a shaving mirror. His shirt is stained with his own blood. The floor is covered with pieces of screwed-up newspapers. In the centre of the room hangs a noose with a stack of books directly underneath it. DAVID (re: crossword). Something — something — something — E—something — something — S$? JOHN PAUL (examining his face, wincing in pain). Ah... it’s every time I open my mouth... Ican... ah... I can hear a crack... I can hear like a cracking sound... . DAVID (re: crossword). ‘This Greek daughter may oppose your purpose?” JOHN PAUL (opens his mouth). Can you hear that? Can you? I’s like a cracking sound. DAVID. Greek daughter? JOHN PAUL. Look at the state of me... DAVID. Something — something — something... JOHN PAUL. Look at the fucking state of me. DAVID. E — something — something - S? JOHN PAUL. Do you hear me? DAVID. Something — something — something - E... ola ts—t—‘_O—ao LSA McGEE JOHN PAUL. Shut up, DAVID looks up from his crossword, DAVID. Or what? JOHN PAUL. Or 1 - something - will - Something ~ knock your fuck in - something. DAVID. What's your problem? JOHN PAUL. My face looks like I’m wearing it inside out, ‘That's my problem. DAVID. tt was an accident. JOHN PAUL. You should think about where your fist might land the next time you throw it. DAVID. You got in my way... it was an accident... I hardly meant to hit you, What, you think I meant to hit you? JOHN PAUL. | don’t care if you meant to do it. The fact is, you did it. It's done. DAVID. And all the crying in the world won’t undo it so dry your eyes. JOHN PAUL. You tore skin... DAVID. No | did not... JOHN PAUL. You did... look... you tore fucking skin - although to be fair that gyppo sovereign ring you insist on wearing did most of the damage . DAVID. It’s not a sovereign ring. JOHN PAUL. It’s still bleeding. DAVID. It’s a signature ring... JOHN PAUL. And there's like... there’s like a dent... DAVID. W's called a signature ring... JOHN PAUL. There... beneath my eye... you could have had my fucking eye out.ap NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 14) avi: Jens Christ, how many times T didn’t do it on purpose, oun PAUL. approaches DAVID. J jollN PAUL. Feel it go... paviD. Twill not... JOHN PAUL. Go on... feel. DAVID. 1 will not feel. Fuck off. DAVID returns to his crossword, JOHN PAUL. It’s probably gonna scar you know... DAVID, Probably. JOHN PAUL (shocked). You think it’s gonna scar! Jesus Christ! | | | DAVID, Relax, John Paul, I’ve done you a favour. It could only be an improvement. JOHN PAUL. Everyone says I look just like you, David. | DAVID. Aye... after a stroke maybe. JOHN PAUL. Fuck off, fuckwit. | DAVID. ‘Fuck off, fuckwit’? I wish I had such an extensive vocabulary... this crossword would be a piece of piss... JOHN PAUL. Will you just admit defeat and give Up..- DAVID, That’s the spirit. ish it, you've never finished JOHN PAUL. You're not gonna finis one. DAVID. That’s not true... , JOHN PAUL. You're the same with them eudok —— ven just frustrate yoursel i... way 40 998 ° talk to women I jou con tly get DAVID. The s' ame eet chance I vt actually 8 imagine... © somewhere: *s brilliant. .- tg good. That's br! ). That 's 8 JOHN PAUL (7 — aipo ee CE EES a 4 ay 142 LISA McGEE DAVID. Do you know what though? You're right, DAVID turns the paper over. This is pointless. DAVID starts to read the paper. JOHN PAUL looks around the room. He goes to the window. He Stares out. JOHN PAUL. The English count ryside is a lot duller than the Irish countryside isn’t it? DAVID. Definitely. Do you know why? JOHN PAUL. Is it something to do with rain? DAVID. Partly, but mostly it’s because you’re a biased bastard, JOHN PAUL laughs slightly. JOHN PAUL. Yeah maybe. (Beat.) How did you come across this place anyway? DAVID. That... that weekend I... that weekend I came over with the boys for Mickey’s Stag... JOHN PAUL. Yeah... DAVID. Well, after it happened... you know after I saw... JOHN PAUL. After you saw her? DAVID. Well, my head was just... you know... JOHN PAUL (sympathetic). Of course it was. DAVID. I needed to think so I got in the car Mickey hired and I just drove. I didn’t even tell the lads I was going. I just got in the car and drove... suddenly I’m out here... looking at this place... JOHN PAUL. I still can’t believe you bought it. DAVID. It had only been on the market for a matter of days you know. This old widower... he’d lived here for over fifty years... then the week before I pull up outside... he decides to drop. Fate. JOHN PAUL. Fate?NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 143 paviD. Fate. jolIN PAUL. So what'll you do with it after... when it’s... (Beat) Whuat'll you do when it’s over, you know when it’s finished... When it's done? pAVID. Wait awhile then sell it | suppose. JOHN PAUL, You will be waiting awhile. DAVID. Ldon’t give a shit. JOHN PAUL. Like it’s the middle of fucking nowhere... DAVID. It’s half an hour from Liverpool, JP. JOHN PAUL. I can’t believe you actually bought it. DAVID (annoyed). We needed somewhere didn’t we? JOHN PAUL (quietly). Yeah. DAVID, We couldn't exactly do this in a hotel room could we? JOHN PAUL. No. DAVID. We needed somewhere private. A silence. The mood is tense. JOHN PAUL (lighter). Well, it is that... It’s private alright. Nobody or nothing around... not as much as a fucking sheep. (Shudders.) Thank Christ. DAVID. I can’t believe you're still afraid of sheep. JOHN PAUL. Creepy wee fuckers. DAVID. You should get hypnotherapy, John Paul... JOHN PAUL. That's a pile of balls... DAVID. It’s not. Remember Mary Morgan? JOHN PAUL. Mary from Derry? on . from Derry aye. She was scared itless of DAVID she went and got hypnotised, she's totally fine at _. they don’t bother her.«ome cage teat ee DAVID, Well, Mary's not out drinking with Coco ang oD Friday mht either but it's an rational fear sn JOHN PAUL. Well, I've coped so far. DAVID returns to his paper. A silence. I'd like to have done this at home. DAVID. Well, that’s not possible. JOHN PAUL. It would’ ve been better at home. DAVID. John Paul... come on... JOHN PAUL. This is... I didn’t want to say anything. I’ve been trying not to say anything but... it’s playing on my nerves a bit now. DAVID. 1 know. You're alright though. It’s alright. JOHN PAUL. It’s this... it’s just this waiting... it’s just this DAVID. I'll make us a cup of tea... JOHN PAUL. Good... yeah... I think I’m about ready for my seventy-fifth cup of tea ... DAVID. What do you want me to do? JOHN PAUL. I don’t know make coffee... or hot chocolate or Something... mix it up a bit... keep me on my toes. DAVID. We don't have any bot chocolate... JOHN PAUL. Jesus, my head's wrecked. DAVID. Aad mine isn’t? JOHIN PAUL. | know. I'm sorry. It’s the waiting. I can't cope With it... the waiting.NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 145 piesa portle of water and fills the kettle on the table mw ie souk shes it on, He rattles around in a plastic bag. wae aw peyou ant a Hobnob? : DAN PAC. What? jai. A Hobnob? JON PAUL! heard you. Where the fuck did you pull the Hodaods from? DAVID. 1 got them in that garage we stopped at... JOHN PAUL. And why are they only surfacing now? DAVID. | forgot about them... JOHN PAUL. Forgot about them my hole... you were keeping them shy. DAVID. | wasn’t keeping them shy... if | was keeping them shy wouldn't ask you if you wanted one. JOHN PAUL. You're as fly as fuck. DAVID. All | did was offer you a biscuit. JOHN PAUL. Are they caramel or regular... DAVID. Regular. JOHN PAUL. Aye alright then. The kettle boils. DAVID begins to make the tea. Nothing changes. You would always hoard your sweets when we were weans. DAVID. I was not hoarding the Hobnobs. DAV! ishes makin, the tea. He brings a cup to JOHN PAUL. He stops oefort reaching him, freezes and stares oul the window. JOHN PAUL. Well, are you gonna give me it or warm your hands with it? DAVID. I'm gonna fuck it round you...146 LISA McGEB JOHN PAUL. What? DAVID. Which part of ‘park the car around the back’ you exactly? JOHN PAUL. It’s fine. confoneg DAVID. It’s not fine, John Paul... anybody could drive past... anybody could see... JOHN PAUL. Nobody’s gonna drive past. We might as well be up a mountain in a cave... DAVID. Jesus but you're useless. We can’t draw attention to us... to this. We can’t draw attention to it. DAVID hands JOHN PAUL his tea. Here. I'll do it myself. DAVID lifts a set of car keys from the table. He walks towards the door. Useless fucking bastard. DAVID exits. JOHN PAUL now alone. Sips his tea. After a Sew moments a faint knocking sound can be heard, it’s coming from inside the box. JOHN PAUL looks at the box. He puts his tea down and stares at it, After a few moments more DAVID re-enters. DAVID stares at JOHN PAUL who is completed fixated on the box. What is it? JOHN PAUL. Knocking... DAVID (re: box). From in there? JOHN PAUL. Yeah. They listen. Silence. DAVID returns to his chair at the Patio table, paper again. DAVID. Open it up and check if you want. JOHN PAUL. What, now? He opens the: NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 147 a. 7 avID. If you want? : IN PAUL. You don’t want to? jou ; AVID. Are you afraid? paviD. JOHN PAUL. Piss off. DAVID. Open it then. Check, DAVID reads his paper. JOHN PAUL cautiously opens the strongbox and stares inside. A few moments of silence pass. Well... has she come round? JOHN PAUL. I dunno. h DAVID. What do you mean you don’t know? Is she awake? JOHN PAUL. I dunno. DAVID. Are her eyes open? JOHN PAUL. I can’t tell... w e... David, we... DAVID. What? JOHN PAUL, I think we fucked her face Up pretty bad... DAVID takes a sip of his tea, he turns a page of his paper. IW’s all Swollen out... her head’s huge now... DAVID. She’s not already dead is she? JOHN PAUL. No she’s breathing. DAVID. Good. JOHN PAUL. Let’s just do it... DAVID. No. JOHN PAUL. Please... come on... please, .. DAVID. I’m not finished. JOHN PAUL. Let’s just do it. Let’s douse the bitch in petrol and spark her up. DAVID. I'm not finished with her yet. Sa“A 148 LISA McGEB JOHN PAUL starts (0 close the box but suddenly notices something else... JOHN PAUL. Did you... did you cut her hair off? DAVID. Does that milk taste funny to you? JOHN PAUL. Did you cut off her hair? DAVID. I think it’s out of date... JOHN PAUL. You shouldn't have done that. Not without me. Why did you cut her hair off, David? DAVID (matter of fact). She cut off his hair, do you remember? JOHN PAUL. No. DAVID. She did. He had long hair... do you remember? JOHN PAUL. Yeah... DAVID. Too long for a boy... he looked like a girl... do you remember? It embarrassed me back then. I would say to Mammy, ‘He looks like a wee girl, people are gonna think he’s a wee girl.’ Do you remember? JOHN PAUL. | remember. I remember his hair. I don’t remember that she cut it off. DAVID. She did. JOHN PAUL. I don’t remember ever hearing that. DAVID. ea aes never told you because you were that bit younger, but she cut off his hair. Bef id i his fucking hair... eect diate = JOHN PAUL. I think... I'd like thi "dtl eh A emt is to be over already. I'd like DAVID. I'm not finished with her ° yet. When 1’ ished wi her we woot have to do anything. When Vn Aniahed “= her she'll walk over to that rope herself, put it round her ow® neck and swing the way she should have done a long time ago. You'll sce. Trust me.er NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 149 JOHN PAUL stares in the box again. DAVID returns to his paper. Close it again. JOHN PAUL. I can’t believe I’m this close to her... finally. DAVID. | would fantasise about seeing her, and when I did I always imagined it would happen in some faraway place, some remote town in New Zealand or Australia... when really she was just across the water, she was in here in Liverpool. Six years in a detention centre... JOHN PAUL (correcting). Six years ina fucking holiday camp. DAVID. Six years then they slap her on the wrists... they say “be a good girl... don’t do it again’... and they let her start a new life within spitting distance of his fucking family... JOHN PAUL. It’s unbelievable. DAVID. If it wasn’t for that weekend we'd be none the wiser. The funny thing is I didn’t want to go on Mickey’s stag at all. I tried to cancel but the boys were having none of it.I wasn’t really in the mood for it... or for them. I only walked into that bookshop to get away for them for five fucking minutes. (Beat.) And there she was... I knew right away... I mean she'd changed. I mean of course she’d changed, she was twelve then... She was only twelve then. JOHN PAUL. And he was only three. DAVID. Nineteen ninety-two... a long time ago I suppose... but I still fucking knew... I probably know her face better than she does, I was so scared I'd forget. | would study her photograph, I would stare at those newspaper cuttings until my vision blurred, do you remember? JOHN PAUL. I do. DAVID. Every feature, every flaw, every freckle... I knew. She hadn't a clue who I was. I bought this book from her... Ruth Rendell or P.D. James or... | don’t know some fucking thing. I chucked it as soon as I got out of there. When I went to theCounter with it | di afraid she might she’s lost hers. JOHN PAUL. I know, dn't speak, | Was t guess somehow, Careful not to. | w, MY accent of Something DAVID. Dia you hear her Speak? JOHN PAUL. She cried out. She cried out for help... me" she kept saying. DAVID. She doesn’t sound like she was ever Irish. That day in the shop she said... ‘It's Teally good that one.’ She was talking about the book... and she smiled at me... }j had the Tight to talk... like she had the right to s when she Save me my change her hand touched mine and] --- [had to get out of there quickly... Thad to Practically run out of there because I knew I was going to vomit and I did., - did. All over pavement... all over the Pavement and all over myself, JOHN PAUL. ‘It wasn’t me.. “it Wasn't mile... and - It was somebody else.” DAVID. I stayed in here for a week you know? JOHN PAUL. ‘That was somebody else,’ She kept saying. DAVID. | stayed in Liverpool. I stayed for a week after that. I watched her for a week before I told you. I watched her go to work... I watched her go for lunch... I followed her home... a whole week... and her life it’s just... it seems normal... ordinary... like she’s walking about Pretending to be one of us... JOHN PAUL. When she was calling out like... I started to doubt you, David. But then I realised what she meant... she meant that she wasn't that person any more, that she was different, that she was somebody else, (Speaks into the box.) It wasn’t just him you know. That day you saw him in the park. That day he put his little trusting hand in yours. That day you led him away. Well, you didn’t Just take him... you took oot mother, you took our poor fucking father, you ined them, you ruined us. You don’t Bet to be somebody te You fucking animal. You evil fucking animal, >.NINETEEN NINETY-TWO 151 paw, Close it over. JOHN PAUL closes the box and sits on it, He picks up his pea aga, Do you know what [always think about? When we were young... When he was alive and the three of us were children, Ma and Da would warn us about strangers, ‘don’t akes sweets, don't get into cars’... but the strangers were always men... bad men... we were all so busy watching out for bad men we forgot about bad women... we either forgot or We thought they didn’t exist. DAVID turns back to his crossword again. JOHN PAUL takes a sip of his tea. JOHN PAUL. This is freezing... DAVID (quietly). Something — something — something - E... Fade to black. End of play.