Misha Williams
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99 "M" You didn't use your intuition to get to them on the right wavelength. If you had you would have found that their destiny was exactly how I said! BRIAN But they failed! RUTH I think they are more popular now than they ever were. Mmm. She takes a bite on one. "M" You have to see it on a different level. BRIAN They've faded from the public memory. RUTH I don't agree. The Women's Institute just ordered three hundred of them. RUTH picks up the cup-cake dish to pass to BRIAN. RUTH Well, try a raspberry one then. "M" Thank you. "M" takes the cup-cakes and instead of passing them straight onto BRIAN (RUTH'S favourite conjuring trick) She begins to waltz round the room with them to the music. RUTH stares in horror. BRIAN (Trying to make light of it) It's just a trick, darling. RUTH Oh, Brian! Stop! Stop her! She's here! Stop her!!!! 100 She runs out of the room screaming. BRIAN holds his head in his hands. Blackout. Later. SCENE NINE. BRIAN'S BUNGALOW. Next evening. BRIAN, again in dressing gown and pyjamas. He stands downstage in spotlight and speaks to audience. RUTH lies on the sofa in a trance. BRIAN The Queen gave a zombie-like Xmas speech on TV. I'm sorry for the woman. When will people grow up and scrap the Monarchy? Ruth has spent a lot of time in bed. A lot of leg pain. I saw in the New Year with "M" but things weren't quite the same. Oh well, we're into another year. Yesterday I treated Ruth's rheumatic knee. Well, she will eat meat. She's been gorging on that Turkey for the last fortnight…. Strange happenings last night made me fear that she was breaking up… After tea she said she heard singing coming from next door. RUTH It sounds like hymns. And they are singing beautifully. BRIAN Not a sound was perceptible to me. RUTH Is there a church near here? The bells are so loud. Now! Can't you hear? They are singing Hallelujah …(Singing) Halle-lu-jah…Halle-lu-jah…Halle-lu-jah… BRIAN She next joined the phantom voices in "Abide with me". Then later, in her bath, she heard the singing as if it was coming from the Braddock's next door. At bedtime she claimed it was still going on. At 1.15 in the morning, she raced out of bed to the window. 101 RUTH It's outside. It's coming from over the road. It's a lovely singing too. There must have been a party. Children carrying lights are coming out of the houses and walking down the pavement. People are watching them from the windows. BRIAN I looked out. Not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be heard. RUTH There's a policeman at the gate. Charles and Diana must have arrived and the children are there to welcome them. BRIAN Still nothing outside. Prince Philip is due in Carlisle soon and a few weeks ago Princess Diana was here on a visit but…(To Ruth) Back to bed now. There is nothing in the street. RUTH Of course there is!! You'll read about it tomorrow in the papers! BRIAN I persuaded her back to bed and eventually we got some sleep, but this morning…. RUTH There it is again… It's very lovely music…But I wish they'd stop! One doesn't want it all the time. BRIAN Apart from this she is absolutely normal. Old people who've lived out their lives are known to become super-normally receptive. Is it indeed a sign that her end is imminent? ….This evening she started hearing Jazz. She thought it came from the Braddock's. To me no sound broke the stillness. Later we heard that Braddock next door had passed away during these phenomena but I wouldn't have thought his background was so special as to evoke such astral 102 recognition. These cosmic charges certainly take it out on you. Ruthie is fine now, but I'm utterly exhausted. He goes. JESS enters with phone. Light comes up on her. SCENE TEN. JESS'S FLAT. JESS on the phone to ALBERT. JESS Pigeons? You're taking pigeons? As if! Oh, carrier pigeons. I see. What's wrong with a mobile phone?… Ah, you're broke. I'm not surprised. I heard Brian is very ill. He's having tests in hospital. I'm just on my way up to visit him…. Because he called and said he had a soft spot for you. That he regretted his brutal behaviour and would I keep him in touch with your progress. Oh, dear. Nothing changes in the Fawcett Saga…Yes. I had a great time in L.A. Ida is going ahead with the Fawcett movie as a musical. So the world can enjoy a facile yarn while the real secret story stays sacrosanct. That's good isn't it? Well, just chill out and enjoy yourself out there…Yeah, I stayed with her. She's fantastic…. I'm not callous and cold-hearted! Don't be so dramatic. You'll be alright. You just want re-assurance all the time….Oh, how can you say that after everything you've done to me?…(exasperated) O.K. Good-bye! She sighs, irritated. Blackout. SCENE ELEVEN. HOSPITAL. BRIAN in bed. He speaks to audience. He is very weak. BRIAN Thought my time had come last night and woke up Ruth who was deeply shocked. Got up feeling like death. Nose bleeds. I had to devise a method of holding up my enormously distended scrotum before I could dress this morning. But the doctor had fixed up 103 some tests. So I'm at least being monitored. But I feel worse than ever. My scrotum is almost down to my knees. There is something very wrong. Joan recommended some zinc tablets to open the urethra and these gave a little relief but… There is a knock and JESS enters. JESS Hullo. BRIAN Ah. Come in dear. JESS Are you alright? What is it exactly? BRIAN Valdenstrom macroglobulen aenemia, merely. JESS (Joking) Oh, in that case you'll be out in no time. They both laugh. She opens her bag and hands him a bag of fruit. BRIAN Fruit. How lovely of you. JESS Not really. I'm sure you'd have preferred a volume of Madame Blavatsky. BRIAN Anyway…To the point. If anything happened to me, thirty volumes of secret diaries, not to mention much of my father's highly confidential writing, would be left in my cupboard for anyone to gawp over. The Royal Geographical Society would have a field day. They accused him of being a mystic and dreamer and these papers certainly reveal that and very much more which the gross material world is just not ready for. Here's the key. (He hands it to her) Ruth knows you are coming on an errand. I said something to do with 104 publishing. You see, heaven knows who my family might show these papers to once I'm gone. I can't trust their discretion. JESS Sure. I'll get them. Then what? BRIAN I want you to burn the lot. Burn them thoroughly won't you. You've always thought the mystery was a load of bollocks, so I thought you were just the right person to consign it to the flames. JESS I'll happily do that. It's ruined enough lives. Not to mention Albert's. He's somewhere in Mato Grosso with six carrier pigeons in a canoe can you believe. Heading for lost cities! He's cut his own throat as far as a career is concerned. You men and your childish illusions! What a waste…Well, good luck with the tests. .I'll visit again soon. Bye. She starts to go. BRIAN Bye... Oh, ask the nurse to pop in, would you. I need some pain-killer. JESS. Certainly. She exits. A moment later "M" enters. A cold chill replaces their usual rapport. BRIAN Ah. 'Wondered where you'd got to. The afterlife. Tir- nan-og. Will I feel at home there? "M" It's what you make of it, dear. It's a subjective land of the imagination. It's peopled by the mind's own creatures and is entirely what you choose to make of it. Anyway. You're not there… yet. 105 He lies back and she kisses him. Blackout. Music. SCENE TWELVE. HOSPITAL. JESS speaks to audience. JESS I surprised myself. I hesitated in carrying out my promise to Brian. My curiosity got the better of me. I started reading. There was certainly a message in those papers…Their time will come. Or perhaps it won't…. Brian was in and out of hospital and after some weeks I heard the news about Albert so I went on another visit. She walks from the spotlit area into BRIAN'S hospital bed area. To BRIAN. JESS He got these carrier pigeons from a missionary nun, would you believe. She agreed to pass on news to the consul in Sao Paolo who was given my address….. He set off alone in a canoe… down the Juruena River. Only one pigeon got back with its message. Pigeon number three. She gets the tiny scrap of paper out of her bag and hands it to BRIAN who reads it. JESS stares out of the window for a few frozen seconds. SCENE THIRTEEN. AMAZONIA ALBERT revealed in a spotlight, lying down on his stomach. He looks extremely feverish. ALBERT I think…it's malaria. I'm so cold. It's very dark. But I saw the ruins!! There's no doubt about it. I saw Fawcett's city. Co-ordinates; 13 South, 60 West. 'Lost the camera, damn it…I can't move…I just can't…Jess, could you kindly do me a favour?…I ordered a book…"Mysteries of South America" by Harold 106 Wilkins…from the little book shop. Would you…pick it up for me…I'll pay you back… later… He dies. SCENE FOURTEEN. HOSPITAL. JESS (Carrying on impassively) He says that he'll be sending the exact co-ordinates and a sketch map of the location of the city on carrier pigeon "number four". Predictably "pigeon four" never arrived. His claim seems a bit crazy. BRIAN Why? JESS Because the consul writes to me that it sounds like an invented story and that there are absolutely no lost cities to be found there. And also that he's heard recent rumours that Albert's canoe was found by prospectors with him in it dead and discoloured. BRIAN is shocked as JESS continues unaffected. It's rumoured he was poisoned by Indians and set afloat, as this is their favourite way of dispatching unwelcome visitors into their lands. Ah well, rumours. BRIAN You seem so detached. I thought you and he… JESS Oh, that's long ago. Well, he had only himself to blame. He was obsessed. I did my best to wean him off Fawcett mania, but it was pointless. He had a chequered career. Never fulfilled his potential. Always wanting re-assurance. Always dramatising. Never learned to chill out. I got fed up with it. She starts to leave. 107 I don't think he has a next of kin. BRIAN (Grasping at a straw)..But… do you think he found Daddy's city? The light fades on them but stays up on the face of the dead ALBERT for a moment and then fades. Weird piano chords tinkling. Light fades up on BRIAN who sits on the edge of his bed.. JESS moves into a separate light on the other side of the stage as if arriving back at her flat. SCENE FIFTEEN. HOSPITAL. BRIAN Coming back to me like in a dream are those spacious days at Waterside. Mother so much on top of life. Daddy just arrived back from one of his expeditions and still charming to everybody even Joan. Jack tinkling on his piano - so happy - the treasured first born, destined to vanish in unknown Amazonia. He stands up in his pyjamas and bare feet. He is frail. "M" appears in the shadows behind him. Life begins with such an impetus…Then, slows up - perhaps even stops and slips back. Reminds me of a motorcycle doing a freak hill climb. There's the same tempestuous, confident, racing start - the same slowing as the steepness of the hill is felt. Waterside…the container of childhood memories. Will one of the last flashes of memory to pass through my dying brain be a recollection of what exactly it was that I so often searched for, or dreamed I searched for at Waterside? In the lumber-room, that butler's pantry off the hall, where the great safe is?…. I wanted it so badly, but…I couldn't find it. 108 BRIAN stands dead still in his pyjamas. "M" takes a white hospital pillow case and covers his face with it. She then walks slowly to arrive silently behind Jess who sits at her table with documents spread out. SCENE SIXTEEN. JESS'S FLAT. JESS Back home I faced the secret archives still all over my desk. I'm becoming very intrigued by their strange hold. I get a feeling that I'm just not going to be able to burn those damn papers. A strange eerie silence. She becomes aware that someone is in the room behind her. She turns and is terrified. JESS Who are you? …(In a hoarse whisper) WHO ARE YOU? "M" walks to JESS who is frozen to the spot, moves behind her slowly and puts her arms round JESS'S neck. "M" It's alright….It's alright… A pause. JESS is terrified and then calmed by the woman's warm smile. "M" (Jauntily) I think… I've got you…. Blackout. THE END 109 Document Outline
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