"(EXCLAIMING)" "(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)" "Ever made hay before?" "Not in the literal sense, no." "Have you?" "When I was a child." "Ha!" "EMMA:" "Come on, kids." "Come on." "Run." "(EXCLAIMING)" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Glad you saved the cherries." "We have cherry dumplings for supper." "JENNY:" "Oh!" "What have we got then?" "Eggs, bird each, a loaf." "Hey, Paul, give him a lift up, will you?" "Go on." "Come on here." "Get your feet in there." "Put your foot there." "There, there you are." "Now, climb over." "John, hang on to those, okay?" "Yeah." "I want to get on the horse." "You can't." "But I want to." "Come on." "You can go on this one." "There, you see?" "There he is." "(GRUNTS) Up." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "Hey, Greg!" "Oh, oh, oh." "Sorry, sorry." "JENNY: (LAUGHING) There you are." "Right, come on." "ABBY:" "Hold tight." "I say, Greg, I've been looking at that river." "I think it's fast enough to run a water wheel." "GREG:" "Yeah, we should probably do something in the winter there." "If we can't, we'll think through." "Bye." "Bye-bye." "LIZZIE:" "Bye." "EMMA:" "Bye, Lizzie." "JOHN:" "Bye." "(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)" "Vic." "(RATTLING DOORKNOB)" "Vic, don't you want your breakfast?" "Vic, answer me, please." "What's the matter?" "Answer." "Vic!" "That's all the answer I got." "And not a word to the children this morning." "Oh, he has been getting quieter and quieter all along." "Somehow getting more and more inside of himself." "First, I put it to Barney, but that's not the reason." "No." "It's been getting worse ever since you brought him here." "I never clocked he was that upset." "(SCOFFS) You never see what's under your nose as you're too busy." "But I notice these things." "Yeah." "Come on." "(RATTLING DOORKNOB)" "Vic?" "Vic, can you hear me?" "Now, Vic, will you come on out, please?" "(KNOCKING ON DOOR)" "Look, Vic, you know you can't stay in there forever." "Look, just come on out and we'll talk it over, whatever's bothering you." "(GUNSHOT)" "(GASPS)" "Come on, Paul." "(GASPING) Dead." "He's..." "It's all right." "It just looks worse than it is." "EMMA:" "I'll get some water." "He can see there's always so much to do and he feels out of it." "He does what he can and he does it well." "It's more than just a physical problem." "He watched us all go off on a hayride today." "A hayride?" "I've never felt so tired in my life." "All right, it was work, but we made it a picnic." "Emma's right." "He feels left out." "Well, whose fault's that?" "Why doesn't he come along?" "What's to stop him coming tomorrow?" "You know very well." "He would be just watching you work." "Well, how lucky he is." "(CHUCKLES) Finest pastime in the world, watching other people work." "This is serious, Arthur." "Do you think so?" "If you ask me, it's about time he stopped feeling sorry for himself." "Well, how do you think you'd feel if you were crippled?" "You know, it would help if he had a proper chair." "Emma, you can't say we haven't tried to get him one." "(SIGHS) I can't say that but I can say you haven't tried hard enough." "Now, hang about, we've got a lot of other things to do, you know?" "More important things." "What's more important than a man trying to kill himself?" "He didn't try to kill himself." "EMMA: "He didn't try"?" "What..." "Look, Emma, I don't have to spell it out." "If you really want to do it, you don't miss." "Exactly." "You put the thing in your mouth." "Yeah, all right, Arthur, thanks very much." "He's trying to draw attention to himself, that's all." "I think he was asking for help." "He gets help." "Nobody here gets more." "That's what I meant." "Oh, come on." "You can't say he's treated like a lame duck." "EMMA:" "Ah, Jenny, did you bring it?" "What?" "The civet." "Oh, Emma, I'm so sorry." "Oh, it's all right." "I've finished for tonight." "It was the children." "They're quarrelling again." "I don't know, I can't seem to manage them nowadays." "They only listen to Vic." "CHARMIAN:" "How is he?" "I don't know." "Abby's with him now." "You're not tough enough with them." "Anyway, let's leave them behind tomorrow." "They only get in the way." "No, no, no, no, no." "They're not getting under my feet." "Anyway, they should be in the fresh air." "John is still coughing." "GREG:" "How is he?" "He's all right." "I think he wants to talk to you." "(SIGHS) Yeah, all right." "ABBY:" "Laura's with him." "ARTHUR:" "That's nice for him." "Oh, no, she's much better." "He's taking her mind off things, helping her postnatal blues." "EMMA:" "Postnatal blues, my foot!" "(SCOFFS) It's because we're all spoiling her." "Me, I never had time for postnatal blues." "Didn't they take you?" "No." "Make up?" "All right." "What shall we do?" "I wish we had some books." "These are just false fronts." "They kept the beer behind there." "We've got doctor's books for the baby." "Do you think Jenny is going to have a baby?" "I don't know." "What happened to you, Vic?" "I told you." "I had an accident." "LIZZIE:" "Let's play." "What at?" "I don't know." "Tell us a story about animals." "Tell us what happened to you." "Once, there was a tiger" "with good legs." "There's nothing there, except the farmer and his wife." "At least I suppose it's the farmer." "We better go." "I'm not getting in that thing again." "We can't stay here." "You can put up with the smell of that." "Speak for yourself." "Frankly, I'm about ready for a change." "I don't care how bad it is." "I'll go and get something to eat." "ANNE:" "And I'm sick of eating out of tins!" "And I'm tired and I want a bath, and I want a drink!" "Then why don't you shut up!" "Don't you dare speak to me like that." "There's some woods over there." "I'll see if I can find something." "(SNIFFING)" "Come on, Greg, this stink's killing me." "We're supposed to be looking for a wheelchair." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know." "I just want to have a look at these." "Come on, even if we can't find a chair, we ought to concentrate on the garage." "Petrol's the most important thing." "Is it?" "Oh, come on, you've got to be kidding." "He's teaching them reading and sums." "What more do they want?" "Yeah, well, I can teach them maths and physics and you can..." "Yeah, well, what can you do?" "I can read, for what it's worth." "Yeah, well, it may not be worth very much to you, but it's important for the kids." "Look, I know education shouldn't just be sort of stuffing information into people, but that's what our kids are gonna need, information." "I mean, how to use..." "How to make use of anything that's left in the world." "Everything's written down." "Everything's in books." "The key to the whole future is in libraries." "You mean, they're gonna finish up like we did." "Make the same mistakes?" "Well, they might." "At least we can give them a choice, can't we?" "If you say so, but let's come back in the winter." "Yeah, but you're missing the point." "I'm not just talking about the kids and the future," "I'm talking about Vic, solving his problem." "What do you mean?" "Look, what does he do?" "What does he teach?" "He teaches the kids simple arithmetic and reading, yeah?" "Kids' stuff." "Yeah." "And you've already said that you think reading is pretty unimportant." "(SIGHS) I don't know." "Yeah." "All right, well, that's what he thinks." "I mean, he thinks it's unimportant and because of that he thinks he himself is unimportant." "So, we change it." "Just convince him that because he's the one who's getting all the stuff from the books and feeding it into the kids, we just convince him that because of that he's the most important person that we've got in this settlement." "Right." "But he's gonna take one hell of a lot of convincing." "Greg!" "(BOTH CHUCKLING)" "DONNY:" "Anne!" "There's some smoke over here." "There must be some people." "Come on." "(VEHICLE APPROACHING)" "Greg!" "We saw your smoke." "Are you all right?" "ANNE:" "We're not sick, if that's what you mean." "We've both had the illness." "Are you on your own?" "Where did you come from?" "Taunton." "We met there." "Where did you find that?" "Avonmouth." "You come from there?" "No, I was working on a trawler up in Yarmouth." "I asked if you were alone." "No, I'm not." "How many of you?" "Eleven." "We're looking for people, people to join." "Well, you've found some." "Couldn't you find something smaller?" "It's over half-full." "You mean, of petrol?" "Yeah." "Well?" "I can do it." "Got brakes, hasn't it?" "Yeah." "(GRUNTING)" "Fine." "Look, thanks for going into town." "It's all right." "What are these books?" "Well, I thought we could do with some more." "Well, I suppose so." "Not much of a reader myself." "Well, it's for the kids." "Well, I thought they should be learning more than just reading and sums." "I see." "Greg." "Yeah." "I'm not an educated man." "Who is?" "PAUL:" "Hey, Greg!" "Yup?" "Found you." "Oh, I like your wheelchair." "Yeah." "Would you believe a tanker of petrol just arrived?" "A tanker?" "No kidding." "A guy and a posh chick, I reckon they want to join." "Told them to put it in the yard." "Come and have a buthcer's." "New potatoes." "We got them for our cabbages from people a few miles away and the peas." "I'm going to boil them in the pot." "They are so nice." "You..." "You are not ill, are you?" "No, but I would like to lie down." "I am very tired." "Is there hot water?" "We have a copper, yes." "But whatever you take out for your bath, you have to fill up with buckets." "We are working on piped water, you know, but it has to wait its turn, I expect." "There's the haymaking and harvesting and all this." "Buckets aren't too bad." "I know." "I thought perhaps... (CHUCKLES)" "Forgive me for asking, I was born to ask, you see." "But I thought you are a person who had a rather nice life before all this." "Am I right?" "Yes, I had a nice life." "Uh, where have you been?" "I mean, now, where have you come from?" "I was on a farm, but it wasn't very well organised." "Uh-huh." "And I quarrelled with the people who ran it, and I needed some things from the town so I went on my own." "And Donny came with me." "Oh, I saw him through the window." "A good, strong young man." "Would it be possible for me to have some kind of a bath now?" "All right, I'll show you." "Hello, Anne." "Greg." "You know each other?" "Yes." "A long time ago." "Six months." "How are you?" "I'm all right." "We met when there was an accident in the quarry." "Mmm-hmm." "A tractor went over on a man." "He died." "He didn't die." "And he's here." "LIZZIE:" "Hey, what are these?" "No, put them away in the cupboard." "Notebooks." "Put them away." "Put them away!" "Neatly." "LIZZIE:" "Hey, put the rest of the..." "JOHN:" "Put all these into this box." "And put them into..." "LIZZIE:" "Hey, what are these?" "JOHN:" "Oh, there's clips." "LIZZIE:" "Gosh, pencils." "Oh, put those up there." "JOHN:" "No, the clips are up there." "(BOTH CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)" "Uh, right." "Come over here." "Come on." "Now, what..." "What does that say?" ""Vic."" ""Teacher."" "(CHUCKLES)" "What's two and two and two and two and two and two and two and two?" "What's 100 and 100?" "Two hundred." "Four 13's are 52." "Oh, that's cheating." "That's from playing cards." "It's still numbers." "What else besides playing cards do we need counting for?" "Buying things." "No." "Measuring things." "Except we don't need to measure things anymore." "Nothing." "We don't need counting." "Who were the Romans?" "They were people who came..." "Do we need to know?" "No." "Tell us more about the tiger." "The tiger." "Well, he was a very smart fellow." "He walked around the forest all day, enjoying himself." "Talking to all the other animals." "One day?" "One day, they all got sick." "So the tiger thought to himself," ""All right, getting sick is what happens to other people."" "He was never sick." "Then the other animals..." "Died?" "Yes, they did." "All his friends." "So, he went and found a safe place in a quarry." "And he stocked it up with everything that he could want." "'Cause he was good and strong." "Strong legs." "He never had any trouble." "Then somebody came." "Somebody came to give him company." "Somebody to talk to, somebody to love." "It was a beautiful... snake." "Now, you two, grab yourselves some food and we'll be off." "Where are we going?" "It's half a mile away." "A field of grass, we're cutting it." "What are we cutting grass for?" "To turn into hay." "Sit down and eat." "I'll call Vic..." "No!" "Greg." "Mmm-hmm?" "You say he's in a wheelchair." "Yes." "Can I go upstairs?" "What's the matter with everybody?" "Sit down and eat." "ANNE:" "Donny." "We've no time, Emma, We've got to go." "ANNE:" "Donny, please!" "She can wait." "Emma." "Mmm-hmm?" "I don't want Vic to know that woman's here." "Come on." "(SIGHS) We must make some beer." "CHARMIAN:" "Oh, why?" "'Cause it's more refreshing than milk, that's why." "Oh." "Mmm, who's that?" "(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)" "(LAUGHS)" "This is Donny." "This is Abby, Jenny, Arthur, Charmian." "Hello." "Hello." "Donny, you tell 'em what's been happening to you." "Abby?" "(ALL CHATTERING)" "He's just arrived in a tanker full of petrol." "What?" "I don't believe it!" "Well, it's true, and he wants to stay." "(CHUCKLES) He's welcome." "Yeah, but there's a problem." "There's a woman with him." "So?" "Well, it's one who was with Vic at the quarry when he had his legs crushed." "Do you mean, the one who left him?" "Left him to die?" "Mmm." "(SIGHS) Have they met, yet?" "No." "But she knows he's here." "She's gone upstairs where he can't get at her." "Does he know?" "Not yet." "And Donny knows nothing at all about it." "Now, Vic's waited a hell of a time just for this." "Revenge!" "It's about the only thing that kept him going." "Oh, she couldn't have come at a worse time!" "Hey, where you off to?" "The other patch." "Greg, that woman's got to go." "Yeah, but what about him?" "We need him and that petrol's absolutely priceless." "(SIGHS) Yes, I know." "We've only heard Vic's side of what happened." "Maybe we should hear what she's got to say first." "Doesn't matter what she says, I was there." "She..." "She just walked off and left him to die." "Come on, you two!" "Let's get it done today." "We've wasted enough time." "(INAUDIBLE CHATTERING)" "What's he like?" "Very nice." "Let's hope he stays." "And there's all his wonderful petrol." "His name's Donny." "Hmm." "Where's he been?" "I don't know, didn't have a chance to ask." "He brought a lady with him." "No!" "Did he?" "Yes." "I met her." "She was going to have a bath, but I don't think she did." "Did she go to make cake?" "(STAMMERING) Uh..." "I don't know." "Uh, I don't know." "You always think I know everything, I don't." "What's her name?" "Anne." "JOHN:" "Can I have a go on your chair after, Vic?" "Yes." "LIZZIE:" "Can I?" "Yeah." "(BLADE WHOOSHING)" "The Prayer of the Little Ducks Who Went into the Ark." ""Dear God" ""Give us a flood of water" ""Let it rain tomorrow and always" ""Give us plenty of little slugs and other luscious things to eat" ""Protect all folk who quack" ""And everyone who knows how to swim" ""Amen"" "Pick a poem, both of you." "Write it down." "ANNE:" "Donny !" "Donny?" "Donny?" "Come up." "Now!" "It's her!" "Greg, it's her voice!" "It's her!" "I know it's her." "It's her voice!" "Look, I can't stay here." "(SIGHS) Well, that's up to you." "Could you keep him out of the way while I go down" "and Donny and I get away?" "Yeah, I can do that." "Look, I don't know what's going on." "There's no need to know." "I can't stay in the same place as that man!" "There was something between you?" "Yes!" "Are you going now?" "ANNE:" "Yes." "Look, I could do with a rest." "Anyway, he's not going to come up here, is he?" "And where are we gonna get to?" "Can't you wait till the morning?" "No." "You can take some food and go while we're eating tonight." "You're Donny?" "Vic, is it?" "Yeah." "We're gonna leave." "Why?" "We need people like you." "That's the way it is." "I'd like to stay but..." "Vic, she says she knows you." "(QUAVERING)" "Look, I don't know what happened between you two, but I like her." "Anyway, she doesn't want to meet you." "No hard feelings." "I mean, if you and she..." "No hard feelings, eh?" "Cheers." "Well, we'll grab something to eat and get off." "(GREG SIGHS)" "Where is everybody?" "GREG:" "Well, Abby and Jenny are with Laura and the baby." "Where is Vic?" "Excuse me." "GREG:" "Vic?" "Vic?" "Food's on the table." "Where is she?" "(SIGHS) Vic, will you listen to me?" "Where is she?" "Greg, where is she?" "She's upstairs and she's going." "She's having a meal and then she's leaving." "Why?" "Because it's important that the people in this settlement can work together." "Yes, but you need people, you need more people..." "Yeah, well, I need people who can get on with each other!" "(SIGHS) Greg, it's..." "It's a long time ago." "I just want to see her..." "No!" "Why should she eat upstairs and sneak away?" "Why can't we just talk to each other?" "Come on, let's go and eat." "(ALL CHATTERING)" "VIC:" "Lizzie?" "Lizzie?" "Nip upstairs, tell Anne there's a place for her at the table, will you?" "You said you were leaving soon." "Seems a shame, you don't have to go, do you?" "No." "This is a good place." "Very good." "Oh, when the hay is finished, they'll be scouting for grain to harvest." "You ought to stay on..." "Oh, I..." "...for a month or two, at least." "I'd like to." "Yeah." "Yeah, all right." "So, I'll see Anne, talk to her." "Did you get it all cut today?" "Yes, we did and raked too." "Oh, good." "Good." "Know what I've been doing today?" "(WHEELCHAIR CREAKS)" "(CHUCKLES) Been practising this." "How do you like it?" "Great improvement." "Tried to teach John and Lizzie something, couldn't find anything worth teaching." "Mrs Cohen teaches them how to cook," "Abby and Jenny teach them how to burp a baby, the only thing I could have told them was how to drive a tractor, but I can't do it." "Do you know what I read in one of the schoolbooks today?" "Westminster Abbey was opened in 1065." "(SCOFFS) Wonder what it's like now." "There's a place, Anne." "Hello." "Hello, Vic." "Give Anne some stew." "I've had mine." "Let's get it over with then." "For those of you who don't know the story," "Anne, before the plague, was a rich brat." "You can see she's good looking." "We met." "(SCOFFS) I built a kind of fortress, which you know about because you found me there, in a quarry." "Anne and I stayed there, I had my legs then." "We loved each other, you know." "I was moving stores about, she was playing with the tractor, just playing." "She overturned it, I was underneath." "I was her man, she ran away." "Met Greg, came and did what he could with no equipment and he's not a doctor." "Before he came back, she left me." "I was talking to her, she left me and told him I was dead because he was a better bet than me." "I was left alone for four months." "There she is." "Is this true?" "Yes." "Vic..." "Yes, Anne." "I thought you were finished." "If you'd have been a horse or a dog," "I'd have shot you." "Why didn't you?" "Look at me!" "Will you do it now?" "You're a human being!" "That's enough of it!" "You're alive and what's done is done." "Anne's leaving." "Donny is welcome to stay if he likes." "We're all useful." "Yeah, I'll stay." "Abby, that's what I'm saying, what's done is done." "I was just clearing things up." "Now, why can't she stay?" "Everybody's heard the story now." "Here I am." "That's all." "Do you want me to go now?" "Alone, in the dark?" "You can stay till morning." "(DOOR CLOSES)" "(WHEELCHAIR CLANKING)" "(WHEELCHAIR LOCK CLICKS)" "(EXHALES)" "(GRUNTING SOFTLY)" "(GRUNTS)" "(PANTING)" "(PANTING)" "(GRUNTING)" "(WHISPERING) You want to kill me?" "No." "How can you kill me?" "(VIC BREATHING HEAVILY)" "I want to live." "Good." "(INHALES) I want to live." "I'm going to live." "I'm sorry you didn't die then." "I'm sorry for you now." "(GRUNTING)" "I'll use this!" "Don't mistake me, Vic!" "I want to live." "(PANTING) Do..." "Do me a favour." "Use it!" "(WHIMPERING) Please." "Use it." "(SOBBING)" "(EXCLAIMS)" "Sssh!" "Don't scream." "(GROANING)" "I've waited for you!" "(CHOKING) Let go..." "Vic!" "Vic!" "(GASPING) Don't, Vic!" "Please." "(CRYING) It's life, Vic." "You've got children to look after and children to teach." "(SOBBING) You've got more than me." "I didn't do wrong, I didn't love you." "I never loved anything or anyone but living." "It's living!" "You're braver." "Yes." "And you are real." "It's life, Vic." "Life." "It's all that matters, to go on living." "It's life." "Life." "(CRYING) Life." "Lizzie said," ""God protect those who know how to swim."" "And you'll find the story about how to tell a real princess." "She lies on a pile of mattresses like this." "I'm not." "I was a kind of one once." "(BIRDS CHIRPING)" "(GRUNTS)"