Parramatta Girls Page 4
CORAL: He did it to you and then he told you that you were a good girl.
Pause.
MELANIE: Keep your voice down.
CORAL: I’m gonna tell the Super.
MELANIE: Are you?
CORAL: Yep.
MELANIE: That he did that to me?
CORAL: Yep.
Pause.
MELANIE: That won’t get him into trouble, you know.
CORAL: Yes it will.
MELANIE: No. It will get me into trouble. For being a liar.
CORAL: But I saw him do it.
MELANIE: So it will get you and me into trouble.
CORAL: And him.
MELANIE: No. Not him.
CORAL: It will.
MELANIE: No.
CORAL: It will. It will. It has to.
Pause.
MELANIE: Go back to sleep.
CORAL: I’m gonna tell them. Tomorrow.
MELANIE: They’ll find out.
CORAL: No they won’t.
MELANIE: They’ll examine me.
CORAL: Who will?
MELANIE: Doctor Fingers.
Pause.
CORAL: So?
MELANIE: Then they’ll examine you. And they’ll know that you’re talking about yourself.
Pause.
CORAL: Well, what am I gonna say?
MELANIE: Nothing.
CORAL: I can’t say nothing.
MELANIE: Why not?
Pause.
CORAL: I think there’s something wrong.
MELANIE: Like what?
CORAL: My blood’s stopped.
MELANIE: Shit.
CORAL: I have to stick something up there. Or tell him.
MELANIE: Don’t tell him.
CORAL: Maybe he’ll help me.
MELANIE: Shhh! You’ll have to say you were already gone when you came in here.
CORAL: But Doctor Fingers examined me.
MELANIE: They won’t care about that. If you say you were already gone they’ll say they made a mistake.
CORAL: But why would they?
MELANIE: Because it will make it easier for them.
CORAL: Can’t you stick something up there?
MELANIE: No.
CORAL: Please?
MELANIE: Go back to sleep, Coral.
CORAL: I can’t. [Beat.] Can I climb in with you?
MELANIE: No.
CORAL: Please.
MELANIE: No. Now shut up.
Pause.
CORAL: He told me I was a good girl.
MELANIE: I bet he did.
CORAL: A good girl.
MELANIE: Yeah.
CORAL exits. MELANIE goes back to sleep.
LYNETTE is still sitting outside. She steps forward, rubbing a spot near her clavicle.
LYNETTE: Even though I’ve been told that I am the bastard scum of the earth, I love and accept myself completely.
Throughout the first half of the following she taps her forehead, under her eye, under her mouth, on the sides of her fingers.
Even though I been told I am incapable of trust, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I been told I’d be unable to maintain a relationship, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I have immense problems with parenting, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I been told that I am worth nothing, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I been told that I would end up in the gutter, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I been told that no one wanted me or ever would, I love and accept myself completely. Even though I been told I’ll never be any good, that I’m useless, I’m pathetic and I’m a sook… I love and accept myself completely. And I am capable of going inside my former place of detention. I am going inside my former place of detention. I will soon go inside.
She finishes the routine and sits down, unable to go inside.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
SCENE FIVE
The dining room. All the cast march in, in formation, and sit at a long table, to eat their meal.
JUDI: Do the impersonation again.
MAREE: You vill eat your vrankvort!
MARLENE: It’s Matron.
MAREE: You vill eat your vrankvort and your spinach or I vill send you back to Hungary!
KERRY: Back to where?
MAREE: Back to Hungary. Where I am from.
MARLENE: Hey, you’re good, Maree. Isn’t she good, Melanie?
MELANIE: She’s all right.
MAREE: All right? All right! For zat you vill get no weevils in your porridge in ze morning. And you vill have no lumps in your mashed potatoes. You vill not be getting everyzing zat ze other girls vill be lucky enough to be getting.
MELANIE: And she’s not from Hungary, she’s from Russia.
JUDI: She is not. She’s from Germany.
MAREE: I am from Hungary. Hungary. Otherwise how could I so happily let you go hungary?
KERRY: Yeah, she does that often enough.
MAREE: Silence. Silence. Ve know zat you are only like zis because you vant ze part in ze Shakespeare play for yourself.
MELANIE: Shut up, Maree.
MAREE: It is true! But ze only vay you are going to get it is to be eating ze big balls. Ze big meatballs vith big chunks of ze onion.
CORAL: Yack. Cack. Poo.
MAREE: Don’t you be saying ze poo, you. You. Don’t you be saying ze poo. Not all ze food is horrible to you because I can see she is putting on ze vreight. Eh, you girl. You are packing on ze vreight.
MELANIE: Stop it now, Maree.
MAREE: Yack, cack, poo, you say to ze meatballs. Ze lovely big meatballs zat hang from ze vaist of ze Zuperintendent.
GAYLE: Not the waist. Keep going, Matron.
MAREE: I love to suck ze balls of ze Zuperintendent. And he loves to suck mine!
The girls are all laughing ridiculously.
MARLENE: If you vill not eat ze rissoles, zen you vill have to eat ze rhubarb.
All the girls ooh and ah.
MELANIE: Marlene. Don’t you start.
MARLENE: Ze rhubarb is lovely vith ze snotty, yellow custard.
MELANIE: I told you to shut up.
MARLENE: Come on, Coral, come here now and eat ze rhubarb vith lovely, long, yellow pieces of snot.
CORAL breaks free from the table and goes and throws up in the corner.
MAREE: What’s wrong with her?
MELANIE: I told you to shut your mouth.
KERRY: Why would she throw up?
MARLENE: What’s going on, Melanie?
MELANIE: Leave her alone. I told you.
MAREE: She’ll have to go to Dorm Four.
MARLENE: What’s Dorm Four?
MELANIE: It’s where you go if you’re unwell.
KERRY: Or up the duff.
MARLENE: What’s that?
MAREE: That’s what happens when the boogey man comes and gets you in the night.
MARLENE: The what?
MELANIE: The boogey man.
Pause.
MAREE: Has the boogey man ever come and got you, Melanie?
MELANIE: No.
MAREE: Then how come you know about it?
MELANIE: I dunno. Stories. Stuff other girls talk about in here.
MAREE: In the night.
MELANIE: Yeah.
GAYLE: In your own house?
MELANIE: Yeah, I guess so.
MAREE: So it has to be someone who lives with you. [Pause.] Like your brother maybe.
MELANIE: As if your brother would do that? Is that what your brother did?
MAREE: No. I don’t have a deviant brother.
MELANIE: Well, neither do I.
GAYLE: So it must be your father, then.
Pause.
MELANIE: What?
GAYLE: I’ve heard girls say their father did stuff to them.
MELANIE: What girls?
GAYLE: I dunno. Girls who were in here.
MELANIE: What girls?
GAYLE: I don’t know.
MEL
ANIE: Shut up, it’s Matron.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
SCENE SIX
The girls put on small hats, as if they are in a chapel, and begin to sing a hymn.
ALL: [singing] Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!
They all kneel down, except for GAYLE.
KERRY: What are you doing?
GAYLE: It’s all right.
KERRY: Gayle. You have to get on your knees.
GAYLE: No. I don’t believe in kneeling so I’ll just explain. He’ll listen to me because I’m House Captain.
KERRY: Well, you’d better because he’s coming over.
ALL: [singing] Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!
GAYLE: I’d like to choose not to kneel, sir.
KERRY: Gayle, just do it.
GAYLE: No, I’m not being disrespectful but, you see, I don’t believe in God and so it would be more disrespectful to pretend I did.
ALL: [singing] Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where’s thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!
GAYLE: It was a priest, sir, he hurt me when I was thirteen and ever since then I haven’t believed in God. [Pause.] I’d really rather not disrespect God by kneeling, sir.
GAYLE is forced down onto the ground. She reacts as if she is taking blow after blow to the head and legs and arms and back.
ALL: [singing] Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!
GAYLE: [screaming] Stop it. Stop it.
ALL: [singing] Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail the Resurrection, Thou, Alleluia!
CORAL suddenly stands up.
MELANIE: Coral, get down or you’ll get the same.
But CORAL remains standing.
CORAL: I told him.
MELANIE: You did what?
CORAL: I had to.
MELANIE: No, not like this, Coral.
CORAL: No, sir, I believe in God. But I don’t think Gayle should be forced to kneel.
CORAL reacts as she is ‘hit’ in the face and the stomach. MELANIE watches her and then she stands.
MELANIE: Neither do I, sir.
MARLENE: Or me.
MELANIE: Marlene, get back down.
MARLENE: If you’re standing, I’m standing.
CORAL mimes taking repeated blows to the stomach.
MELANIE: When he gets to you, don’t cry.
MARLENE: What?
MELANIE: Whatever you do, don’t cry. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
MARLENE: Yep, don’t cry.
MELANIE: And look him in the eye when he comes up to you. Like you’re not scared of him.
MARLENE: Don’t cry. Look him in the eye.
MELANIE: Right.
Behind them the beating of CORAL continues. Then MARLENE is knocked to the ground and takes one kick and then MELANIE is knocked to the ground and reacts to the ‘beating’.
ALL: King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
Thee to know, Thy power to prove, Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!
The lights change and the girls are sitting in a line, waiting.
CORAL: He’s busted my teeth.
MELANIE: Then why did you tell him?
MARLENE: Tell him what?
CORAL: Shut up, Melanie. Just shut up.
MELANIE: All right, all right. Are you all right?
CORAL: He kept kicking me.
MELANIE: In the stomach. I saw.
CORAL: Please, Melanie, please don’t say anything.
MARLENE: Why was he kicking her in the stomach?
The other girls go into a huddle and begin to whisper.
MELANIE: And you, you can shut your mouth. You started this.
GAYLE: She didn’t have to stand up. I was doing all right on my own.
MELANIE: Great. Fat lot of thanks that is.
GAYLE: I didn’t ask for the little slut to help me.
MELANIE: You’re the little slut.
MARLENE: Stop it. Stop it, both of you. Come on.
CORAL stands, with trepidation, and goes offstage.
Why was he kicking her in the stomach?
MELANIE: He was trying to kill the baby.
MARLENE: Why would he want to do that?
MELANIE: Why do you think?
MARLENE looks at her, realising.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
SCENE SEVEN
MAREE enters, singing.
MAREE: [singing] I have seen the lark soar high at morn,
Heard his song up in the blue,
I have heard the blackbird pipe his note,
The thrush and the linnet too,
But there’s none of them can sing so sweet
My singing bird as you.
If I could lure my singing bird
From his own cosy nest,
If I could catch my singing bird
I would warm him on my breast,
For there’s none of them can sing so sweet
My singing bird as you.
GAYLE and KERRY enter, carrying a small soft toy.
GAYLE: Look what we found.
MAREE goes to snatch it, but GAYLE keeps it out of her hand.
What’s this, then?
MAREE: Just some shit from Welfare.
GAYLE: You don’t think it’s shit, we found it in your bed.
MAREE: Only so that the officers wouldn’t take it.
GAYLE: So Maree’s a softie, is she?
MAREE: No way.
GAYLE: So prove it.
MAREE: What?
GAYLE: Rip its arm off.
Pause.
MAREE: Yeah. No problem.
GAYLE: Go on, then.
MAREE tries to rip the arm.
MAREE: It won’t rip.
GAYLE: Musn’t be doing it hard enough.
MAREE: Come on, Gayle. This is stupid. I don’t like soft toys.
GAYLE: Rip it!
Pause. MAREE yanks the arm of the toy and rips it.
MAREE: There. Now do you believe me?
MAREE rips the toy a bit more.
GAYLE: Yeah. Righto. We just needed to make sure.
They exit. She clutches the teddy to her.
MAREE: Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. You’ll be all right, I promise. I promise I’ll get some cotton from the sewing room and I’ll sew you up better than before. You’re not angry at me, are you? Otherwise she would have done something even worse like make me burn you or something. Or make me throw you away. I’ll never throw you away. I’ll never never throw you away or let anyone find you or hurt you ever again. Shh. Mummy’s here now. We’ll sew you up as good as new.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
SCENE EIGHT
MAREE ties a bedpan on her backside and walks ‘outside’.
LYNETTE: Maree?
MAREE: Yeah.
LYNETTE: Who’s made you wear that?
MAREE: Who do you think?
LYNETTE: You can take it off now.
MAREE: Just have to put it back on again.
LYNETTE: What’s it for?
MELANIE: It’s for wetting the bed.
Pause.
LYNETTE: What’s wrong, Maree?
MAREE: Nothing.
&
nbsp; LYNETTE: Come on. Take it off while you’re out here with me.
MAREE looks around fearfully. Then she takes it off.
You been wetting the bed again?
MAREE nods.
MAREE: I try not to, Lynette, I try so hard not to. And now I’m not allowed to drink anything after lunch. Nothing at all so I don’t wet the bed at night. But I get so thirsty.
LYNETTE pulls a little bottle out of her purse.
LYNETTE: Here, have some of this.
MAREE: No.
LYNETTE: Go on.
MAREE: No. Then I’ll wet the bed and it will be worse.
Pause.
LYNETTE: What’s happened, Maree?
MAREE: You know they told me that my family died in a car accident?
LYNETTE: Yeah.
MAREE: I found out that they’re not really dead.
Pause.
LYNETTE: But why would they tell you that they were?
MAREE: The Superintendent told me. You don’t think my parents would have told him to say that?
LYNETTE: No. I think he was just being… I don’t know why. I’ll still never know why they’d do or say something like that.
Pause.
MAREE: Swear to me that you won’t tell.
LYNETTE: I swear. I swear I’ll never tell a soul.
MAREE ties on the potty and exits.
LYNETTE is crying when JUDI enters.
JUDI: You all right out here?
LYNETTE: Just having a break.
Pause.
JUDI: I found the schoolroom.
LYNETTE: Does it still have all the chairs set up?
JUDI: No, it still has the same smell, though.
LYNETTE: Chewing gum.
JUDI: Chalk dust.
LYNETTE: Tomato sauce.
JUDI: Round past the dining room.
LYNETTE: Thanks.
JUDI: You seen that? [Pause.] You’ve been in?
LYNETTE: Yeah. Well… no.
JUDI: Come on, then.
LYNETTE gets up. She is shaking with anticipation. Then she sits back down, crying.
LYNETTE: I can’t.
JUDI: Yeah. You can as soon as you stop that.
LYNETTE: I… what?
JUDI: You should stop that right now.
LYNETTE: But I thought… I thought we came here to…
JUDI: Not me.
Pause. LYNETTE dries her eyes a bit.
LYNETTE: There’s nothing wrong with crying.
JUDI: No one’s doing anything to you now, are they?
LYNETTE: No.
JUDI: They’re not shutting us in for the night, are they?
LYNETTE: No, but…
JUDI: But they did.
LYNETTE: Yes.
JUDI: And how many years ago was that? [Pause.] What do you think? When you cry?