Misha Williams

 90 
 
ALBERT 
Goodbye, Brian. 
 
ALBERT walks off into the darkness. We catch a glimpse of "M". 
 
BRIAN faces the audience. 
 
 
 
SCENE SIX. BELO HORIZONTE HOTEL. BACK YARD. 
 
BRIAN 
'The Fawcett Saga about to claim another victim? I flew back to 
Belo Horizonte. One of those wild frontier towns. I slept for 
days. Then I got up and went for a stroll round the back of the 
hotel. 
 
FAWCETT enters in rags and scavenges among dustbins. He looks and 
moves like a gnarled reptilian. 
 
It was there I saw an old beachcomber… 
There are so many of them in South America. Some 
look European and of a disturbingly cultured 
background. God knows how they get here into this 
frontier madhouse. I spoke to him. 
 
BRIAN approaches him. 
 
English? Or German?… 
 
FAWCETT 
(Preoccupied searching for scraps) English. I'm an 
English Colonel.  
 
BRIAN 
A lot of English Colonels come to South America to take 
up Beachcombing. Why is that? 
 
FAWCETT 
Freedom. 
 
BRIAN 
You're covered in mosquitoes. Don't you mind? 

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 91 
 
FAWCETT 
The little creatures are hungry. They have to eat. Oh-
hum-dy-dum-dum-dum. 
 
He carries on scavenging. 
 
BRIAN 
May I ask your name, Sir? 
 
FAWCETT 
Zahaz. 
 
BRIAN 
Have you another name? 
 
FAWCETT 
No. Do-dum-dy-dy-dum-dum. The hotel haven't 
thrown out their leftovers yet. I'm slightly ahead of my 
schedule.   
 
BRIAN 
Can I offer you a thousand cruzeros for a meal. 
 
FAWCETT 
(Singing the line as if in an opera) Thank you, kind Sir. 
 
Brian gives him the note and notices a bright ring on the man's finger. 
 
BRAIN 
Interesting ring. 
 
FAWCETT 
Just a nick-nack.  
 
FAWCETT holds it towards BRIAN like a magic weapon. 
 
FAWCETT 
(Hissing) Snake-eyes. 
 
BRIAN 
Yes. Sapphire snake-eyes and coiled like a serpent. 
 
 

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 92 
 
FAWCETT 
No. I haven't another name. The hotel haven't thrown 
out their leftovers yet. Can you spare some cash? 
 
BRIAN 
I think I've just given you some. 
 
FAWCETT 
Oh, thank you very much. What is your name if I may 
be so impudent as to ask? 
 
BRIAN 
Er. De Winton. Albert de Winton. Haven't you any 
family? 
 
FAWCETT 
Ditched them years ago. Don't like families. They 
interfere with life. 
 
BRIAN 
You are Fawcett. Aren’t you? 
 
FAWCETT 
Yes! I'm "Fawcett". Certainly. If you say you are 
Fawcett around here,(Singing his words) you get an 
extra thousand cruzeros. Hint-hint-hint. Ha-ha-ha. Or 
sometimes a smack in the face.  
 
FAWCETT yells up at a window. 
 
FAWCETT 
Hey! It's time to throw out the leftovers! I haven't got 
all day! 
 
BRIAN 
What happened to the ancient city?  What happened to 
"Z"? 
 
FAWCETT 
Oh, it's there. But not everybody can see it. 
 
BRIAN 
Did you complete the journey? 

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 93 
 
 
FAWCETT 
Unfinished journeys are the best.  
 
BRIAN 
Did you hand over Jack to the Great White 
Brotherhood?  
 
FAWCETT 
Jack? Now who do I know called Jack? 
 
BRIAN 
Let me tell you. Jack was your oldest child. You had a 
younger one named Brian. 
 
FAWCETT 
Brian! What a ghastly name.  
 
BRIAN 
And a daughter, Joan. 
 
FAWCETT 
No. It doesn’t register. 
 
BRIAN 
At Trincomalee… 
 
FAWCETT 
(Singing) Trincomalee!! Hee-hee-hee!!! 
 
BRIAN 
At the army fort at Trincomalee. Jack, at his birth was 
hailed as a messiah by the Buddhist elders. You were 
told his destiny was to become an avatar among the 
hidden Earth Guardians of Amazonia. And that it was 
your life's task to deliver him there. 
 
FAWCETT 
You do surprise me. 
 
BRIAN 
Don't you dare dismiss it so nonchalantly! Brian and 
Joan suffered because of your damned obsession with 

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 94 
Jack! Taken from school at fifteen and eleven so you 
could spend the money and go gallivanting off, chasing 
your crazy theories. Your wife waited forty years for 
your return and died in poverty. You took her son into 
oblivion! Not to mention Raleigh Rimell who you left to 
die with an injured foot in order to complete your 
delirious quest! And you claim not to remember a 
thing! 
  
FAWCETT 
I am going on to the next hotel because I am feeling a 
little peckish….Brian. What a ghastly name…Hee-hee-
hee… 
 
BRIAN 
Just a moment. What if I told you I was Brian? 
 
FAWCETT 
You? 
 
BRIAN 
I've spent my life upholding your reputation. I re-wrote 
your turgid manuscript and made it a best seller. I've 
looked after your deranged wife. 
 
FAWCETT 
Is she? 
 
BRIAN 
Mother became deranged because you made her so by 
vanishing so spectacularly. I've guarded your secrets 
against the vulgar prying media and to save you from 
ridicule. 
 
FAWCETT 
What's ridiculous about me?  
 
BRIAN 
The colony of evolved beings that you were planning to 
found in the jungle. An isolated community of chosen 
ones to be trained in the highest aspects of spiritual 
ambition. A Noah's Arc of super-beings to survive 
capitalism's impending end and start culture again 
from scratch! A Master-Race of chosen people headed 

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