"A wet and misty day with persistent rain in most regions, occasionally heavy..." "Everything's damp." "Clothes, books, curtains, towels, wallpaper, furniture... thoughts." "Due to unforeseen circumstances, regular network programming is suspended until further notice." "'These floods have changed us.'" "Daily weather forecasts will continue to be broadcast at the same time on this frequency." "Until then, do enjoy the following selection of music." "'Medusa Farm, 5th of July." "'Rain again." "'Rain like yesterday and the day before and more rain to come." "'I've lost track of when it began." "'That date's lost now." "'Blotted out in the drizzle and mud." "'And the future... what's that?" "'Faded, wishy-washy, grey." "'All I can see out there are dreary hours, leaden skies, 'mist the colour of ash to all sides." "'Dishwater clouds." "'Good weather for ghosts." "'How much more before I just... 'come apart?" "'Dissolve?" "'" "Bella!" "I'm upstairs." "Come to the farm!" "Come and help!" "'Jude says not to worry." "It will all blow over.'" "'The weather will turn like it always does." "'What if she's wrong?" "'" " JUDE:" "Bella!" "'What if it rains till the end of time?" "'Till kingdom come?" "'" "Five sacks of flour." "I said five sacks of flour." "BELLA:" "I wrote it down." "You say check." "I call it out, you say check and I go on to the next item." "So, five sacks of flour." "Check." "Four bags of millet." "Check." "Heating oil a quarter full." "Right, I'm doing the fuel now." "Make a separate column for fuel." "Check." "Animals." "New column." "I counted 13 chickens." "They're looking thin." "They'll fatten up this summer." "It is summer." "And last but not least, one very magnificent shire horse." "Come here, Delilah." "There's a good lass." " Hello, beautiful." " Hello, Delilah." "Look at that shiny coat." "Not bad for a 20-year-old." "What's that in human years?" "About double." "Bit more, maybe." "Same age as us." "BELLA:" "Speak for yourself!" "Good lass, Delilah." "Good girl." "She's got the most amazing eyes." "Like glass conkers." "Not just a pretty face, though." "Reliable when everything else breaks down or runs out of petrol or won't start." "Good girl in a crisis." "Really?" "Can she swim?" "One of the family." "THUNDER ROLLS Hey, Delilah?" "Hey, girl?" "Temperatures will climb to a maximum of 16 to 17 degrees Celsius, suggesting overall weather conditions are likely to remain the same for the immediate future." "Due to unforeseen circumstances, regular network programming..." "RADIO CLICKS OFF." "'Medusa Farm, Saturday 6th of July." "'I need colours." "'I need... blue." "'The pastel blue of a bluetit's hat." "'A kingfisher's iridescent bolt of blue." "'The good blue of a clear sky." "'The honest blue of an old-fashioned sea." "'This bottle of ink, where I dip my finger in and out, in and out." "'Blue where it runs over the side onto the bed sheets... 'you messy thing." "'The one blue cup in the cupboard next to the grimy mugs." "'Words for blue." "'I make a list." "'Cyan, cornflower, sapphire, cobalt, azure..." "'We're an island now, cut-off by water and fog." "'These floods have changed us." "'Floated something in Jude's brain." "'Drowned something in mine.'" "This way." "Go careful!" "It's really soft." "I lost a boot in it the other day." "Look." "In the water." "A cane." "I stuck it there last week." "Tied that ribbon on it, see?" "JUDE:" "Very pretty, I'm sure." "That was the edge." "I put it right at the edge of dry land." "Now it's a yard further out." "The water's still rising." "JUDE:" "Oh, I don't know about that." "It's probably just a bit of swell." "BELLA:" "Jude, something's wrong!" "Seriously wrong!" "It's been hammering down for..." "Feels like for ever." "Nonstop." "JUDE:" "It's just a phase." "A jet stream or whatever." "Flood, drought, feast, famine, flood again." "Comes in cycles." "No, it's not right." "Did you turn on the TV?" "JUDE:" "It's claptrap." "Well, don't even try because it's dead." "Mobile, dead." "Landline, dead." "Internet, dead!" "The radio works." "Oh, a one-minute weather forecast, then 24 hours of music?" "The plug sockets, dead." "We're fine." "We've got a generator, a wind turbine, solar panels, all that eco-stuff." "That was your idea." "The wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine." "When was the last time we had contact with another living soul?" "You don't need anyone else." "I thought you liked it here, just the two of us." "But we're marooned!" "I think we're in trouble, Jude." "I really do." "We're fine." "We need to leave." "Leave Medusa?" "!" "Farmers don't leave their farms." "Leave?" "So that any chancer can just turn up and help himself to everything I've worked for?" "I just turned up, didn't I?" "What is it you always say?" ""With nothing to your name but a toothbrush and a radio"?" "And a carrier bag full of David Jarman DVDs." "It's Derek Jarman." "You were propping up a bar, not roaming around the countryside." "That's what I mean." "You were invited." "Anyway, leave how?" "I don't know." "There must be some way." "It's a farm on a hill." "Do you think I've got the Royal Yacht Britannia moored around the back of the barn?" "It'd be more use than the car." "We're fine, Bella." "Just because it's been a bit wet, there's no reason to..." "Bail out?" "Jump ship?" "Why are we clinging on here, Jude?" "Like we can't swim." "You can swim, can't you?" "Why would anyone want to swim in that muddy stuff?" "...suggesting overall weather conditions are likely to remain..." "Oh, that should keep us going for a while." "Want a go?" "I tried once." "Nearly took my toes off." "Yeah, there's a knack." "Not much would left, is there?" "And it's damp." "Rotten to the core, some of it." "It'll be fine once it's stacked." "It'll dry out." "HORSE SNORTS Oh, all right, girl?" "She's a bit unsettled." "I don't think she likes the sound of the axe." "Delilah?" "She's a farm horse." "She's heard it a thousand times." "Not happy, though, is she?" "What's wrong, girl?" "What's bothering you?" "What?" "At the back." "I saw something move." "Where?" "Behind the bale, under that oilcloth." "There!" "See it?" "A fox." "That's what's spooking her." "How can it be a fox?" "We're cut-off!" "Holed up somewhere, stinking thing." "You flush it out." "It'll run this way, I'll clobber it with a spade when it comes past." "Don't kill it, Jude!" "They're vermin and thieves." "Well, couldn't we just..." "Just what?" "When I say so, pull the corner of the cloth away." "Ready?" "Go!" "Don't!" "Don't!" "Please don't!" "Stay where you are." "Stay on the floor." "Please, please..." "Who is he?" "God knows!" "Don't go near him." "He's soaking wet, shaking like a leaf!" "Were you in the water?" "MAN:" "In the water, yes!" "In a boat?" "Hanging on to a tree." "Then I let go." "He's blue in the face." "MAN COUGHS HEAVILY." "Too cold to hold on any more." "I let go to die." "OK, help me get him up." "Wait!" "Wait, Let's just think about this." "What is there to think about?" "We need to get him up to the house and get a fire going." "And he'll need clothes." "Fetch him some of your clothes." "What?" "!" "Try to stand." "Put your arm around Jude's shoulder." "One, two, three." "That's it!" "We'll get you up to the house." "Drink this." "It'll warm you up inside." "Bless you." "Thank you." "Thank you, both." "What's your name?" "I'm Gregor." "Where're you from?" "I'm Romanian." "From Bucharest?" "Constanta." "My family are in Constanta." "Long way from home, aren't you?" "Jude!" "How long were you in the water?" "GREGOR:" "Two days." "Two nights." "So what happened?" "I mean, did you just fall in the river?" "Did I fall in the river?" "No." "The river fell into me." "Into everyone." "The river fell into us all." "What do you mean?" "Everywhere is water." "Parks are lakes, roads are rivers." "No cars, just boats for lucky few." "No houses, just tall buildings with people on the roofs." "But the government have stepped in, I suppose?" "Got the army involved?" "I think your Houses of Parliament is full of fish by now." "And your army's in its submarine." "I think your government ran for the hills." "You're talking nonsense." "Jude..." "Why didn't you come and knock on the door?" "It was dark." "No lights, no door." "I crawled into the barn, tried to get warm." "If the country was up to its eyes in water," "I think we'd have heard by now." "Heard how?" "By smoke signals or carrier pigeon?" "You must be full of unknowing here, living in the clouds." "Is that what you think?" "Well, maybe we like it that way." "I'm Bella." "Bella and Jude." "Don't worry about her." "She'll come around." "Jude?" "What time is it?" "3:30." "Come back to bed." "What are you doing?" "Just checking." "Checking what?" "We don't know anything about him." "Who?" "Him!" "Gregor!" "We know as much about him as he does about us." "Why should he know about us?" "He's the one who needs to explain himself." "Be quiet!" "He'll hear you through the walls." "Bloody gooseberry." "Gooseberry!" "We're not on a date." "We're not 16." "Anyway, we've done our bit." "Saved his neck." "In the morning, we'll sort him out with a decent breakfast and get him on his way." "To where?" "How?" "Put him on a log and launch him off downstream?" "So you're saying we're stuck with him for good?" "Just until the weather turns." "And the weather will turn, won't it, Jude?" "That's what you keep saying." ""Always has done and always will."" "So there's no problem, right?" "Why don't we fix up the old chapel in the top field for him?" "We never go in there." "How come there's a chapel here anyway?" "Private prayers and private burials, I suppose... when the family were lords of the manor." " Listen." " BELLA:" "What?" "Traffic, I think." "An aeroplane." "Life goes on." "We'll be fine." "What are these blue spots on the sheet?" "...suggesting overall weather conditions are likely to remain the same for the immediate future." "Due to unforeseen circumstances..." "'I'm thinking of red." "'A bullfinch's breast." "'Shepherd's delight." "'Lipstick and their red names." "'Decadence, Cherry Bomb," "'Honolulu Sunset, Big Kiss." "'The rust-red spider that inched across this diary." "'Fire engine, postbox." "'The blood from between my legs, which I touch on my cheek... 'on my forehead and my chin." "'Strike a match and set fire to this page, 'just for the sudden flame." "'The outrageous red as it burns." "'Red alert." "'Then nothing again.'" "Get out!" "Get out of there!" "Don't shoot!" "Jude?" "How much have you taken?" "Jude?" "Jude?" "!" "FOOTSTEPS SPLASHING Jude!" "Stop it!" "What's going on?" "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" "Get on your feet." "Don't shoot, please!" "Jude, what the hell are you doing?" "For God's sake, leave him alone, Jude!" "Jude!" "We save your skin and this is how you repay us?" "!" "You're a common thief, that's all you are!" "Stop it, Jude!" "What's he done?" "I heard him creeping around this morning." "I couldn't sleep!" "Please, don't point the gun!" "Followed him to the barn, sitting there like butter wouldn't melt." "Then when I checked the stocks, there's all sorts missing." "Dried fruit, biscuits..." "And he's a crafty one!" "A bite here, a bite there, thinking we wouldn't notice!" "Please, please, I want to talk!" "And where's the knife, eh?" "Where's the knife?" "I don't know about knife!" "Just like you don't know about the tinned peaches and the bags of nuts?" "GREGOR:" "You can trust me!" "I swear!" "We had a dog once, used to steal off the table, so we put it in this cage till it learned its lesson." "CAGE RATTLES Get in there!" "He's not a dog, he's a human being!" "And it's only yesterday that he nearly drowned!" "Get in there and close the door!" "Jude, lady, let me talk!" "Bella!" "Let me say something to you!" "Bella!" "So when were you going to tell me you had a gun?" "It was my grandfather's." "And did he go around pointing it at foreigners as well?" "He did, actually." "All farmers have guns." "Rifles and shotguns, not revolvers." "He brought it back from the war." "Have you cut yourself?" "There, on your face?" "Since when were you a farmer?" "You're not a goddamn farmer, Jude." "You buy and sell!" "Antiques and flea markets, you restore period furniture, build the odd cabinet, but this farm was only ever a toy, a plaything, and now you're playing with guns." "Someone's got to take charge." "Like you're the Sheriff of Nottingham suddenly?" "Nine generations, now it's my turn to do my bit." " Is it loaded?" " Oh..." "Yes, it's loaded." "Do you think I can't handle a gun?" "Did you think I was bluffing?" "I don't want it near me." "Would you rather I left it in the dog cage with Vlad the Impaler?" "He took a knife, Bella." "What does that say about him?" "Doesn't that concern you?" " Yes, it concerns me, but..." " But what?" "You didn't even give him a chance to explain." "I don't trust him." "He's a man." "If we don't trust men, then stop acting like one." " I'm going to feed him." " Oh!" "You can't let him starve." "You're joking, he's been gorging himself all morning." "We are not barbarians." "I'm taking him something to eat." "Half rations." "And give it to him in that dog bowl under the sink." "It's what he deserves." "I brought you some food, and a drink." "Sorry about the bowl." "Strict orders." "Aren't you worried if you open the gate the monster will drag you in and hit you?" "Actually, I don't have the key, so you'll need to, through the mesh with your fingers and with this straw." "She is the animal." "Not me." "Your sister." "She's not my sister." "What then?" "Your special friend?" "BELLA LAUGHS." " Your wife?" " It's none of your business." "But we're not married." "No problem for me if you are." "I am married." "My wife, Nadia, she's in Constanta." " What does she do there?" " She waits." " In a restaurant?" " What?" "No, waits for me." "Ah." "I see, sorry." "Romanians are, are very good at waiting." "We're used to it." "If it were Olympic sport we would be world record holders." "Why didn't you tell Jude?" " About my Nadia?" " About the food." " That you didn't take it." " Didn't take?" "Who did?" "I think you know that already." "I've been taking it for months, so she was going to find out eventually." "How were the peaches?" "Heavenly." "When I was a boy, in Constanta, I made a crystal set." "A radio?" "Just that, from crystal." "Listen to your World Service." "This is how I know your country." "Your Leyton Orient and Sheffield Wednesday." "Your Hamilton Academicals." "BELLA LAUGHS." "Your Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, where hurricanes hardly ever happen." "Your Rockall, Forties, German Bight, know them by heart." "Hmm..." "I didn't take the knife, Gregor." "I took the knife." "Why?" "I..." "You think I'm the stranger, but you are strangest to me." "You and your Jude." "She'd prefer it if I drown." "I see that." "If you were washed up among foreigners, wouldn't you want to protect yourself until you were sure?" "Tell me where the knife is." "I'll tell you where it is." "But remember this," "I knew you were the food thief and I think your Jude knew it too." "Is it true what you said?" "About everywhere being water?" "Like the world melted." "Everything fluid." "Nothing fixed any more." "What should we do?" "Find a thing that floats and... hang on." "What's this?" "What does it look like?" " Where did he hide it?" " Under his pillow." "He was scared." "He's a pilferer, he's got every reason to be scared." "I took the food." "Did you hear me?" "Were you hungry?" " Not especially." " So, why?" "Pleasure, desire, something of my own." "Did you know it was me, Jude?" "Was it me you were punishing, pushing into the dog cage, pointing the gun at?" "I suppose you want me to let him out." "I've been told to apologise." "Oh, am I being released from quarantine?" " Am I clearing passport control?" " You must have a guardian angel." "Oh, really?" "You mean because my life is one episode of shimmering brilliance after another?" "GREGOR SIGHS What now?" "You came to this country to find a job?" " I did." " Well, you struck lucky." "Board and lodgings for an honest day's work, that's the deal." " You start right now." " Oh, I passed interview?" " You know what this is?" " A spade?" " And do you know what manure is?" " I know shit." "I'm a Romanian." "So, get shovelling, out of the stable and down to the muck heap." " Yes, Jude." " Don't forget who I am." " You are Jude." " No, I'm the person with the gun." "You are the person with the gun, ma'am." "'Medusa Farm, Saturday 13th... '..the edges of the fields leech into the watery mist." "'The farm weeps into nonexistence." "'All were afloat, 'the house and yard and the barn drifting away." "'A heron landed at the water's edge, a grey heron.'" "'I walked towards it, as if it had come with news." "'A note in its pocket." "'But it lifted up its skirts, flapped away into its element." "'Gregor has been here a week." "'Through the wall I can hear him mumbling in his dreams 'in a language I don't understand." "'Jude resents every crumb of food he eats, 'every footprint he leaves, 'as if she's been invaded, trespassed against.'" "Bella?" " Bella!" " BELLA:" "Down here, by the water." "GREGOR BREATHES HEAVILY I made some tea." "Cheer us up." "That's a very British thing to do." "Ah." "Not your English Breakfast, or your "early grey"." "From dried fruits and spices." "Good for the constitution and the spirit." "Hope you cleared it with the quartermaster, or you'll be killed." "Oh." "Don't move." "What?" "On your shoulder." "Turn your head slowly." " Look." " Ah..." "It's beautiful." "So clean and vivid." "Cabbage white, very common butterfly." " Not in this place." " Oh, oh, there it goes." "Goes where, though?" "What's out there?" "Cabbages, maybe?" "And maybe not." "True, but definitely no cabbages here." "It takes its chance." "I can still see it." "Radiant, like a flame." "GREGOR WHEEZES." "Here is something brighter." "BELLA GASPS A lemon!" "Oh, my God." "Where did you get that?" "Out there, in the water." "When I was drowning, there it was, right next to me, bobbing along." "It's luminous, like it's switched on." "Yes, like a light bulb." "That's what I thought too." " Look at it." " I'm looking." "But really, look." "At its lemon-ness." "There is something absolute about a lemon." "Yes?" "Like, it's the fruit all others admire." "Ask the peach, or the cherry, or the kiwi who they respect the most, they say... the lemon." "Every time in fruit terms, the lemon is the unit of truth, the gold standard." "Know what I mean?" "Not the apple?" "No." "Too theatrical." "Too cliched." "Look at this lemon." "It's a miracle." "Lemons float." "Limes sink." "Are you a lemon or a lime, Bella?" "I..." "I think Jude needs you in the barn." "Two boxes of assorted biscuits." "Check." "12 bottles of pear and blackberry cordial." "Check." "Three packets of candles." "I said, "Three packets of candles."" "Might I be allowed to speak?" "I need to concentrate when I'm doing the books." " It's about the books." " Go on, then, what?" "The numbers." "They're wrong." "JUDE LAUGHS You're telling me how to add up?" "!" "So what were you in Romania, a maths teacher?" " I was not." " Exactly." "I was professor of rhetoric." "A smart arse then?" "Correct, a smart arse, know it all, big mouth." "Too big, that's why I was dismissed." "What's your point?" "There is not enough food for the winter." " There's plenty of food." " Actually, there isn't." "Nowhere near." "Half the flour has gone mouldy because of the damp." " So you've been snooping around?" " I'm trying to help." "Working my passengers, you say." "And rats have been eating the rice." " There aren't any rats, what rats?" " Look at the droppings on the floor." "They've been in the potato sacks and the oats as well." "You need to burn it all." "Rats are a disease." "And you have no medicine, no doctor." "Anything else while you're at it?" "GREGOR SIGHS Not enough fuel." "There's tonnes of fuel, the tank's over a quarter full." "You'll use more when the cold comes." "Oil runs out, no power." "No power, no freezer." "No freezer, no frozen meat, no greens, no fruit." "Oh, we got through last winter and we'll get through this." "I've done the sums." "Last year, you were two." "Now you are three." "Or will I be drinking the fog and eating the rats?" "You're a pessimist." "It's in your nature." "You Eastern Europeans are born miserable." "Well, yes, we are melancholic people." "That's why I'm sorry for the horse." "For Delilah?" "Don't you worry about her!" "She's stronger than the three of us put together." "Aren't you, girl?" "Think what she eats every day." "She could eat for England and shit for the British Empire." "I know this." "I'm the man with the spade." "Half the cereal has gone off and there'll be no hay." "Not in this weather." "JUDE:" "Tough as old boots, she is." "That's what sailors eat when they starve." "Boots, gloves, leather buttons and belts." "And when that's all gone, that's when they turn on themselves." "You're forgetting you're in a civilised country now." "You know what they say about civilisation, Jude?" "What do they say, Professor?" "That's..." "It's only seven meals deep." "Two days with an empty belly and you wake up a caveman." "Then it's not so civilised any more." "Is that a threat?" "I believe... it's an aphorism." "You can go now." "You're excused." "There's a girl." "HORSE GRUNTS Good girl, Delilah." "You're a good lass, eh?" "'Medusa Farm, Monday 15th July." "'We are farm, parish, county, country, continent, planet, 'all rolled into one." "'Jude caught a rat." "'Paraded it through the house then hung on the washing line by its tail." "'I go to sleep when she wakes." "'Wake when she sleeps." "'In an old cake tin in the back of the pantry," "'I found food colouring, 'small, sticky bottles of inky juice." "'Tasteless, but sharp and intense on the eye." "'Serum, elixir, 'the green greener than chewed grass, 'fells, Christmas trees, 'moss, greener than spring." "'I drag a deckchair down to the water's edge, 'rig up a parasol for a brolly, 'paint with the food dye, 'let the colours curdle and swim, 'write with the dark green and the heavy blue and the deep red." "'Put blotchy rainbow letters into empty bottles 'and fling them into the flood.'" "SHE GASPS Oh!" "You startled me." "I thought you were Jude." "I look like Jude?" "Because of her clothes." "Lucky for me, she wears the trousers in your house." "How long have you been together, you and your... girlfriend?" "A couple of years." "A bit longer, maybe." "You keep a diary?" "Just doodles and musings." "Private thoughts." "Do you know what day it is today?" "Monday?" "St Swithin's Day." "Do you know what that means?" "I know all your British ways." "All your sayings." "It means... rain." "We have to leave." "BELLA:" "Tell that to Jude." "If we stay here, we won't survive." "Maybe till Christmas." "Maybe not even till Christmas." "Not enough food or fuel." "BELLA:" "So what do you suggest?" "We need a boat." "There's no boat." "Not even a canoe or inflatable dinghy?" "On Medusa Farm?" "!" "The nearest we ever got to water was the duck pond." "Then we take floorboards from the house, build a raft." "Are you serious?" "You have to help me." "Are you with me, Bella?" "Could we do that?" "Do you think it would work?" "I think it will work." "But... are you with me?" "Bella, tell me what you say." "Oh..." "Bella?" "...this is cosy." "The two little mutineers." "The owl and the pussycat." "I was just coming to find you." "Answer the man, Bella." "Are you with him?" "BELLA:" "You're being ridiculous." "Go sailing off into the sunset with your gypsy friend, will you?" "I meant we should all leave!" "The three of us." "Build a raft." "A raft!" "Yes." "Make a raft from floorboards and beams, is that your escape plan?" "If that's what it takes." "This is a raft!" "This farm, dry land, it's the best raft anyone ever made, get it?" "Permanent, solid as a rock." "No, it drifts!" "It's lost, it leaks!" "Every day, another piece of it disappears under the surface." "Then one day it sinks and down we go with it." "We should have put you back in the river the day we found you." "In a tin bath and pushed you off downstream, back to where you came from." "Oh, you think this is the river?" "I floated in that water for two days." "That's not a river, it's the sea." "JUDE:" "It's the river." "What is he, professor of geography now?" "Go and taste it." "It's full of salt." "And probably full of poisons as well." "You're the one full of poisons." " Poisoning the well." " BELLA:" "Stop it, Jude." "Bringing the sickness." "Stealing light." "GUN COCKS, BELLA WHIMPERS." " Whispering in the dark." " GREGOR:" "Whoa." "That's enough, Jude." "Not the gun again." "Put it away, Jude!" "Do you know what they do with traitors at sea?" "Do you?" "String them up." "Put a noose round their neck and run them up the mast." "So what should I do?" "Swear allegiance?" "Salute the flag?" "Look, my hands are in the air!" "Let them dangle from the mast like that rat on the line." "Lesson to everyone." "BELLA:" "Jude... you're scaring me!" "Not very rhetorical now, are you, Professor?" "You think I wouldn't?" "You think I wouldn't?" "GREGOR:" "I think you would." "This is my place, my house, my country!" "And she's mine!" "Mine!" " Understood?" "!" " BELLA:" "That's enough!" "Do you hear?" "!" "Enough!" "All he said is that we need to leave and I believe him." "With all my heart I believe that's true." "What are you?" "!" "Some sort of lynch mob?" "Listen to yourself!" "Just listen to yourself." "Have you any idea?" "This place may be yours, but I live here too, so don't you dare..." "Don't you dare hurt this man, do you understand?" "Or will you string me up as well, next to him?" "Then you can have the whole hill to yourself." "I'm yours, am I?" "Your what?" "Your woman?" "Not for a long time, Jude, as well you know." "Ignorant, small, pathetic!" "Do you hear?" "!" "Jude!" "Jude?" " Jude!" " GREGOR:" "Go after her!" "I wouldn't know what to say." "I barely recognise her any more." "Maybe the weather got into her mind." "Water on the brain." "Sometimes, in bed at night when the rain eases up for a minute and it's quiet..." "GREGOR:" "Those are rare times." "Very special." "...she wakes me up and says, "Listen, Bella."" "Cars on the road, an aeroplane overhead and just for a few minutes I feel safe." "You don't hear them, but I don't either." "They're in our ears, in our head." "What about the weather forecast - that's real." "I listen to the wall." "Sentences in different order, but same sentences, automatic, broken record." "No-one there." "You can't know that for sure." "Like one of those space probes sending out your Beatles albums and Blue Danube waltz." "Till the batteries die and the music stops." "And the light goes out." "Nobody there." "GUNSHOT." "Jude!" " Jude!" " GREGOR:" "In the barn." "Jude!" "Jude!" "Jude!" "Very touched by your concern, I must say." "It was a shot." "Oh, no, not this." "Not this!" "Wouldn't have felt a thing." "Straight through the brain." "Dead before she hit the floor." "Oh, you poor creature, Delilah." "You poor soul!" "Oh, I'm so sorry." "So sorry, Delilah." "You didn't deserve this." "You beautiful, beautiful horse." "Happy now, Gregor?" "Happy because of this slaughter?" "This execution?" "JUDE:" "Sums add up now, do they?" "You took life from this animal." "There is blood on the floor, on the wall, on your face." "You probably whispered in her ear before you put a hole in her head." "Did you?" "Yes, it adds up." "But to what?" "JUDE:" "Well, less mouths to feed." "More food to go round." "Plenty of meat now, get you through the winter all right." "Stop talking!" "Shame on you!" "You're a disgrace!" "So hungry I could eat a horse!" "Ever heard that expression?" "Figure of speech in this country, but we're an accommodating nation." "Always willing to make a stranger feel at home." "So... help yourself, Professor." "Be my guest." "Oh..." "Should I get a blanket?" "Cover her over?" "It's too late for kindness." "Just leave her be." "'A wet and misty day for the UK, 'with rain in most regions, occasionally heavy...'" "'Medusa Farm, Wednesday 17th July." "'Yesterday I stayed under the sheets." "'Listened to the rain on the roof." "'The rain on the windows." "'The rain on the rain." "'In the pattern on the curtains," "'I see the clouded brown marble of Delilah's eye." "'Her raw, pink tongue hanging sideways from her open mouth." "'The purple hole in her head." "'Where do we go from here?" "'" "I made breakfast." "Not hungry." "I couldn't get in the bedroom." "I locked the door." "Are you expecting me to say sorry?" "It was unforgivable." "She was my horse." "And I'm your woman." "Am I next?" "I buried her." "Found a quiet place by that hawthorn tree." "Thought we could put up a stone." "So thoughtful." "Dragged her across the yard with a tractor, I suppose." "Very dignified." "Gregor turned up." "When I handed him the spade," "I half expected him to sink it into the top of my head." "Instead, he pulls a lemon out of his pocket and says "I give this to you."" "He's as weird as they come." "Go and get him." "Meet me by the old chapel." "Another firing squad, is it?" "Just come up to the chapel." "Is it a house of God?" "Only a small one." "Maybe God's bungalow." "JUDE:" "We consecrate it." "Oh, God's not at home." "Gone fishing?" "BELLA:" "What are we doing here?" "Open the shutters." "THEY STRAIN AND GROAN Let some light in." "Is this what I think it is?" "Oh!" "I used the pews for the base." "The oak." "Pretty sturdy, especially with those plastic barrels underneath." "Altar rails down the side." "And the pulpit on top for a small cabin up front." "Sacrilege, probably, but needs must." "Ah, going to sea in a pulpit?" "How could it fail?" "Will it take all three of us?" "JUDE:" "It's all yours." "We're staying here, obviously." "And when was that decided?" "And these old dust sheets should make a sail." "A few moth holes, but they'll darn." "You can stitch them together, can't you, Bella?" "A boat?" "A boat!" "Well, more of a raft, technically." "A boat!" "Oh, praise be to God who I don't believe in for giving us the furniture from his house!" "W-What about a mast?" "Standing in yard, flying the Union Jack." "A boat." "So when can I sail?" "I need to countersink the nails, load up supplies, but you should get off at first light." "Get a full day's sailing in." "No point hanging round here." "Oh, she's solid." "HE KNOCKS WOOD Very solid." "I'll call her The Argus, with 100 eyes." "99 eyes keep looking out for land, while one eye sleeps." "The Argus." "Sounds good, huh?" "Go and get the tractor." "Back it up, hitch the trailer on, then tow it down to the water." "Huh, first a boat, now I get to drive the tractor?" "It must be my birthday!" "Independence Day, eh?" "Will it float?" "It's not a death trap, if that's what you're thinking." "Why this?" "Why now?" "It's what he wants, isn't it?" "Send him on his way, then we can get back to normal." "Me and you." "Carry those dust sheets into the house for me." "I'll do what I can." "Ten packets, original Jamaica ginger cake." "Check." "Eight packets, digestives." "Ginger cake and digestives." "Did you raid the Queen's pantry?" "I'll carry these on for him." "Just throw them across." "Bad luck for a woman to go aboard, they say." "Says who?" "Coming aboard!" "Oh!" "RAFT CREAKS." "There we go." "Sorry if I've cursed you, Gregor." "JUDE:" "One torch." "One knife." "You're giving me the knife?" "I'm giving you A knife." "With a rusty blade." "Going-away present." "I'm all heart." "How about a couple of the chickens?" "It's not Noah's Ark!" "He'll have enough to think about without hens pecking round his feet." "You should come ashore now, let him sort himself out." "Everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion, whatever that means." "Fetch him one of the chickens, Jude." "He's not having the chicken and that's that, right?" "All ready to go?" "The Argus is all ready, I think." "Shouldn't we christen her?" "Smash a bottle for good luck?" "Yes, we should!" "Of course we should!" "For God's sake!" "Don't be a Scrooge!" "Fetch a bottle of that disgusting cider you make." "It'll have gone off anyway." "It's in the porch, I'll have to..." "All right, all right, I'll get it." "Have you sailed before?" "One time, in the Black Sea." "Which way do you think you'll steer?" "Towards anything that isn't just cloud and mist." "Anything that shines." "Untie the rope." "If I untie the rope, we start to drift." "Untie it." "But what about you?" "What about Jude?" "Before I change my mind!" "It won't!" "I can't undo the knot, it's too wet." "Use the knife!" "Cut it with the knife!" "Bella!" "Get back here!" "Should I put up the sail?" "It's best this way!" "I'm putting up the sail." "Bella, no!" "Bella!" "You'll get by, Jude!" "You're a survivor!" "Drop that sail, you thieving...!" "Come back here with that boat!" "Come back now!" "I think she'll kill me if she gets aboard." " I think she'll kill you too." " BELLA:" "No." "We're too far already, too deep." "Take care, Jude!" "It's all yours!" "Come back here!" "Bella!" "Come on!" "'Jude, if you're reading this, you found my diary 'and you won't like some of the things it says." "'Where will I be by now?" "'Somersaulting over the waterfall at the edge of the map 'with a mad Romanian?" "'Maybe over the world's edge." "'But rather that than just ebb slowly away into nothingness." "'Drain into greyness, become cloud." "'I'll think of you, Jude, on sentry duty in the yard, 'patrolling the coast at dusk 'or surrounded by boxes of soggy biscuits, 'or perched on the chimney of Medusa Farm, 'pirouetting like a weathercock." "'Think of me, 'heading through the fog under the shining white sail 'with the mended holes." "'Looking for land.'" "Did you sleep?" "I must have nodded off for an hour or so." "Three hours, more like, maybe four." "It's very soothing." "Like being rocked." "Maybe I was just very tired." "Which way are we heading?" "With the wind, against the current." "Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems to be brighter this way." "On the horizon, yes?" "BELLA:" "It looks brighter to me too." "Let's keep on going in that direction." "Hmm." "So how shall we pass the time, me and you?" "Captain Bella." "Do you know any... sea shanties?" "Any stories or games?" "I spy with my little eye..." "Here?" "No, not that, please." "Anything but that." "BELLA: ..something beginning with." "C." "As in, you see the sea?" "That's all there is." "Your English is good, but your spelling is atrocious!" "Clouds?" "No." "Colourlessness." "No." "Oh, I give in." "What do you see?" "Chrysanthemums." "What, where?" "Over there." "Next to the cornfield, see it?" "Next to the cornfield?" "Yes." "By the castle and the crystal candelabra." "See them?" "Oh, yes, I see them!" "I see!" "And a... crocodile." "BELLA:" "Exactly." "And a coffee cup!" "And circling crested cranes." "And crumbling cliffs." "Cathedrals." "Cinderella!" "Carrot cake!" "Chocolate-coated crimson cherries." "Confetti!" "Cairo!" "China." "Canada!" "Constanta!" "The coast of Constanta!" "Cabbages, cabbages, cabbages!"