ACT ONE
BARBARA has been running. She arrives up on the hill. She stumbles, it is uneven and rocky. She takes off her shoe and examines it. There is a hole right through to the cardboard inner-sole.
She takes a cigarette out of a packet, but after three or four attempts, it is obvious that the lighter is not going to work. She throws it behind her and finds a book of matches in her bag. Only one match is left however, and she almost burns her finger, then it disintegrates without lighting the cigarette.
The funeral which she has just attended is the final straw in a long line of events. Still no luck with the cigarette. She wears a uniform dress with a cardigan over it.
BARBARA: Unbelievable ⌠honestly to God âŚ
She continues to fumble with the shoe.
Donât tell me funerals arenât a waste of time. Felt like seeing two people in the entire church and one of them was in a box.
She searches again for a match, then looks down towards the church.
And donât put yourself out. Donât bother getting a personâs name rightâbloody priests, probably didnât slip him enough. John this. John that. Jacko. Jacko. I didnât know who he was talking about. Not a mention that he hung himself, of course. Start up a trend.
The sound of a coal truck going by. Later we hear it returning.
You live next door to someone eighteen years, youâd know if anyone ever called him John. Which they didnât.
DEN arrives. He has followed her up the hill, unsure as to whether he should have come. She acknowledges him; she thought he would probably show up.
Well, you wonât have a light.
There is the sound of a coal truck and they wait for it to pass.
I thought that was you. Thought that was you at the back of the church.
DEN: Yes. [A nervous smile] So âŚ
BARBARA: Then I thought it wasnât.
Pause.
I mean I didnât come up here expecting you to follow me. Iâm not thirteen. I have been up on this hill without you, you know.
DEN: Just to see how you were. Just to see how youâre getting on.
BARBARA: Oh, well brilliant of course. Getting on brilliant.
DEN: Bit of a shock. [Looking back down towards the church] All very sudden. Heart I thought someone said ⌠You wouldnât think âŚ
BARBARA is silent, and DEN produces a lighter in a leather case. He gives it to her and she hangs it around her neck. Pause.
Didnât know if you realised you left it.
Pause.
I came back from getting the chips and it was where youâd been sitting, on that bench. And of course you were ⌠Quite a few months old, might be dried out by now âŚ
BARBARA lights a cigarette.
You look nice.
BARBARA: Well, how was I supposed to know youâd be there? And all them. Everyone Iâve ever known practically, all having a gawk. God, funerals are stupid.
Pause.
You wouldnât have been mates with Jacko.
DEN: Well, workâI used to see him.
BARBARA: But you wouldnât have known him. You wouldnât have played cards with him at lunch for instance.
DEN: I told you what Iâm likeâa quiet corner with a cowboy novel and a couple of devon sandwiches.
BARBARA: No, youâd steer clear of any troublemakers.
DEN: Kept him pretty busy, shaking things up.
BARBARA: Someone has to.
DEN: Fills in the time.
BARBARA: Someone has to. People rely on people like him to give things a shake-up. You probably never spoke to him.
DEN: Thereâs a lot of men in that plant.
BARBARA: Used to be.
DEN: Yes.
BARBARA: Opposite of you, he was. He didnât let that place get to him. He got to it.
Pause. DEN longs to talk to her and doesnât know what to say. BARBARA looks down the hill.
DEN: His old man knew mine. Minersâ Federation. Why I came.
Pause.
I was hoping Iâd see you. I remembered once that you said you knew him.
BARBARA: Why that church? Very woggy if you ask me. Couldnât be woggier if they tried. [Looking] And that bloody mob from the Northern Beaches. [To them] Sorry you had to drag yourselves south of the steelworks. Still hanging round. Yap yap yap yap. All kissing each other.
She draws a line in the air.
You could divide this city in half, I reckon. Theyâre getting everything up there. [To DEN] We used to feel sorry for them, stuck out on bloody cliffs, living in their poky little shacks. âOh, Barbara, people are coming down and paying a quarter of a million dollars for our little minersâ cottages!â They used to be bloody communists.
DEN: Iâve been thinking about youâquite a bit.
BARBARA: Shocking bloody viewâlook at that.
DEN: Oh well.
BARBARA: Oh well what?
DEN: No smoke from the steelworks and weâd ...