Bang Bang Bang (11 page)

A flight landing which leads into a long note from a fiddle which develops into a traditional air. A banner is hung.

‘HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY SADHBH'

We're at a party. A group dance
(
a Siege of Ennis or some such
)
with
SADHBH
in the middle. They clap her and whirl her and then dance off – taking the banner.

The sound in the background is that of the party
–
on stage is of the street.

A lorry rumbles near by.
SADHBH
is at the back of Brennan's Bar and has been followed by
BIBI
and
MATHILDE
. A neon sign of Brennan's illuminates the small scene.

MATHILDE. Hey!

BIBI. What's he doing here?

SADHBH. This is kind of overwhelming.

Look – he called the day before yesterday – said he wanted – needed – to see me. /

I didn't think he'd come straight away.

MATHILDE. He was shocked to see us. Did you see that?

BIBI. Are you surprised? I love the guy but / he's acted like a jerk.

SADHBH. Please just be yourself with him.

I didn't tell him you guys were coming over for my birthday.

He thought – I was going to be alone.

You know – we've been calling, / emailing. It's okay.

BIBI. If I ‘be myself' with him I'll kick his ass – but under the circumstances –

MATHILDE. We will be so cool.

SADHBH. Thank you.

She puts her arms around
MATHILDE.

MATHILDE. I mean – we'll get drunk tonight? You're not too old for that.

SADHBH. Never.

MATHILDE. Okay. He's coming.

STEPHEN
stands away a little.

BIBI. I love Kincasslagh. It's like the twenty-first century hasn't got this far north.

People say things like ‘Enjoy the power of the Atlantic'.

Beautiful.

SADHBH. They just might be putting it on.

BIBI. No. Because I'm American?

SADHBH. Because you're a tourist.

BIBI. No way! Don't spoil it.

SADHBH. What can I say? You guys paid for a sea view – on Cruit Island. You're surrounded by the ‘power of the Atlantic'.

MATHILDE. I'm afraid we did.

BIBI. Okay, total suckers for the ‘blarney'.

SADHBH. Have you walked along the Tra Dearg?

Roughly translates as the Red Strand.

BIBI. Take us tomorrow.

SADHBH. There's a beautiful walk from your cottage.

On a clear day you might see the outline of Tory Island. The last outpost of Gaelic civilisation.

BIBI. Oh my God! You're doing it too. That blarney stuff.

SADHBH. Underneath it all – we're actually Leprechauns.

STEPHEN. Hi!

Can we talk?

MATHILDE. Hey. Sure, Stephen.

BIBI. We'll see you inside?

Pause.

SADHBH. Brilliant. See you in a minute.

MATHILDE. Hurry. I want to learn the jig.

MATHILDE
turns back and kisses
SADHBH
four times.

The women exit.
SADHBH
and
STEPHEN
are alone together.

SADHBH. I haven't seen Mathilde since Congo.

Her second HIV test was clear, thank God.

STEPHEN. I guessed as much. But that's good news. Great.

Great. She's getting on with it.

SADHBH. We all are. It's not something can be fixed.

STEPHEN
nods.

STEPHEN. Bibi's a little cool with me.

SADHBH. It's your imagination.

STEPHEN. You think?

Pause.

I hired a van from London so I brought all your stuff with me.

SADHBH. It would have fit in a rucksack but that's really kind.

STEPHEN. It is and it isn't.

Pause.

I'm leasing the flat – or hoping I can.

SADHBH. That was quick.

STEPHEN. I've taken another contract in China. Twelve months.

SADHBH. Have you moved your Chinese translator into our flat?

STEPHEN. Course not.

Pause.

No. Susie is still in Beijing.

SADHBH. Is she a fuck-up too?

STEPHEN. She leaves that to me.

Pause.

How are you doing?

SADHBH. My mother is driving me crazy. She doesn't understand the concept ‘leave of absence'.

I'm trying to write up the report from Masisi.

She's telling everyone I've moved home.

STEPHEN. You didn't have to come back to Ireland.

You could have stayed in the flat until you found a place.

SADHBH. Of course I had to fucking come back.

I didn't want to be a lodger in my own home.

Could you not have waited for me to come out to Beijing?

STEPHEN. It was clear you didn't want to come.

SADHBH. Horseshit. I took a leave of absence, didn't I?

You knew I had to tie things up in London.

It took you all of five minutes to meet someone.

STEPHEN. It was clear you thought nothing about me or us.

SADHBH. How can you say that? I was recovering –

STEPHEN. I'm talking about our baby. You didn't tell me.

SADHBH. I was six weeks pregnant, Stephen. That's not a baby!

STEPHEN. You didn't want it.

SADHBH. You don't know that!

How can you say that?

The truth is we moved so far from each other –

You just didn't have the balls to say it before you left for Beijing.

STEPHEN. Why didn't you have the balls to say it? Sadhbh, we have always wanted different things –

SADHBH. You just want ordinary, Stephen.

STEPHEN. I want peace. I don't want to be part of your appetite for chaos.

SADHBH. So you've punished me,

I'm punished, Stephen.

I'm up to fucking here with guilt.

What are you here for anyway?

Who asked you?

We've screamed what we had to scream at one another.

STEPHEN. Over the phone.

SADHBH. I don't want to go through it again.

Enough. Enough. Enough.

Pause.

STEPHEN. This is awful. I'm so sorry.

SADHBH. I thought I could do it.

It's just – stupid – isn't it?

She shakes her head.

STEPHEN. I'm leaving tomorrow.

Sorry. I really wanted to see you before I go back to Beijing.

SADHBH. You've seen me.

Pause.

I know. I wanted to see you too.

It's my fault. I should have said no.

STEPHEN. But we're not ready –

And

I've really missed you.

Badly. Badly.

SADHBH. I'm fine.

Let's just try and cope with this evening.

STEPHEN. Sorry. Of course.

SADHBH. You should go in. Mum will only be scourging me about you tomorrow. She thinks tonight is the big reconciliation. Don't want to give her the wrong idea.

STEPHEN. No.

SADHBH. You go on – I'm gonna –

I'll just be a few minutes.

STEPHEN. Okay.

He takes a page of folded magazine from his back pocket.

I thought this might interest you.

She looks at the page.

Vincent Holman. He's the photographer who –

SADHBH. I know who he is.

STEPHEN. He won the Ian Parry award –

SADHBH. For ‘The Gun, The Gun, The Gun'.

The little shit.

Don't mention Vin to Mathilde.

STEPHEN. Course.

SADHBH. Can I keep this?

STEPHEN. I brought it for you.

Beat.

Do you think you'll go back? To Congo?

SADHBH. What does it matter to you?

STEPHEN. Because I'll be worried? I'll always be worried.

He turns to exit.

I think a lot about us and what could have been and the baby… It's not like I don't think about it.

I think about you.

SADHBH
nods.
STEPHEN
exits.

SADHBH
lights up a cigarette. The wind picks up. She pulls her jacket tightly around herself.

After some moments a man about the same age joins her.

MICHAEL. How are ya?

SADHBH. Michael Pender. Howya yerself?

MICHAEL. Brass monkey weather wha?

SADHBH. I'm willing the east wind away.

MICHAEL. Gis one.

She hands him a cigarette and he lights it from her lit cigarette.

Welcome to the leper colony.

There's only a few of us left.

They stand about – dragging hard on cigarettes.

Haven't seen you for years.

SADHBH
shrugs.

SADHBH. About five years, is it?

MICHAEL. Naw. More like ten.

SADHBH. Is it?

MICHAEL. It is.

Yer ma knows how to throw a do.

SADHBH. Ah, ya know Cait Kavanagh. Was she looking for me?

MICHAEL. Yer grand. She's forcing ham sandwiches on your vegetarian friends at the moment. Really good to see ya, Sadhbh.

You haven't changed a bit.

SADHBH. Ya think?

MICHAEL. Ya look exactly the same as when you'd stride up main street to meet me. The hair flyin' and yer Stetson pulled nearly over yer eyes.

They used to call you the cowboy of Kincasslagh.

Did you know that?

SADHBH. No, I didn't.

She laughs.

The cowboy of Kincasslagh.

Pause.

You've not changed.

MICHAEL. Go on outta that. I'm the same apart from the paunch and a thin spot the baby calls ‘a hole in yer head,
Daddy'.

SADHBH. How old's the baby?

MICHAEL. Ciara is four, nearly five. Well, not so much a baby any more but sure Fintan is nearly nine.

SADHBH. Wow.

MICHAEL. And we're expecting our third in a couple of weeks.

That's why Karen didn't come.

SADHBH. How is she?

MICHAEL. Big as a house.

Asking after ya.

SADHBH. I'm surprised.

MICHAEL. I think she realises after marriage, three kids and a Mitsubishi Shogun – I ain't going anywhere.

SADHBH. We only went out at school.

MICHAEL. Ah, but ya see – you were my first love.

SADHBH. Was I?

MICHAEL. Broke my heart. Yep.

You lost your accent!

SADHBH. Sorry about that.

MICHAEL. Ya did well to get out of this town.

I still see the old crowd.

I'm still working for the da.

Still drinkin' at The Railway bar.

You know, same old, same old.

Do you keep in touch with any of the girls?

SADHBH. No. No, I don't.

MICHAEL. Ah well. They're all about anyhow.

SADHBH. How's your da's business? Did the recession bite?

MICHAEL. Ah – but we'll manage. We always do.

SADHBH. Glad to hear it.

MICHAEL. So, eh – Africa hah?

We saw ya on a news programme about Darfur.

SADHBH. I was in Congo.

MICHAEL. Yeah, no. Good stuff. You were working with all those refugees.

SADHBH. Internally displaced people. I was.

MICHAEL. You don't hear so much about the Congo now.

Has the situation improved at all?

SADHBH. It's a catastrophe.

MICHAEL. Jesus. Pardon my ignorance.

SADHBH. Don't worry about it.

It doesn't make the news much.

MICHAEL. Even at school it was clear you were going to cannonball your way there.

SADHBH. I had a notion I could save the continent.

MICHAEL. And we believed ya.

Remember ten pee for the black babies at school.

SADHBH. There was a felt board.

And for every pound collected we built up a picture of an African village. A pound for a hut –

RONAN. A pound for a palm tree,

you were forever scourgin' us to hand over our pocket money.

SADHBH. Ten pee for the black babies sounds a bit dubious now.

MICHAEL. Ah, yeah. The nuns wouldn't get away with that now.

Then again – there's a lot the nuns wouldn't get away with now.

So –

Did you figure it out?

SADHBH. Figure out what?

MICHAEL. Why can't Africa look after Africa?

SADHBH
is about to answer and then stops herself.

SADHBH. Haven't a clue. But at heart – I'm an optimist.

MICHAEL. The town's very proud of ya, Sadhbh.

Ya know? Yer truly a citizen of the world.

Doing something – the kind of stuff ya would think about but would never do.

You've earned your title.

SADHBH. Cowboy of Kincasslagh?

MICHAEL. Fair fucks to you.

Listen, would ya ever think of coming up to The Railway one of the nights? It's the old crowd but they'd love to see ya.

SADHBH. Oh, well… that's, eh – I'm writing up a / report and –

MICHAEL. It's just if you wanted to like.

SADHBH. Yeah.

Pause.

MICHAEL. Is that your fella in there?

Pause.

SADHBH. No.

MICHAEL. You had to think about that, didn't ya.

SADHBH. I did.

There is a silence.

MICHAEL
pushes a strand of hair from her face.

The music starts up again.

SADHBH
's name is being called from off.

MICHAEL. It's the last dance of the night.

Pause.

Might you have the last dance with me?

SADHBH. Tongues will wag.

MICHAEL. I'll chance it.

SADHBH
stubs out her cigarette.

SADHBH. I better go in.

MICHAEL. Well, come on then, Miss Kavanagh.

This is your life.

MICHAEL
takes her hand and twirls her around.

Bright spot of light.

The Congolese
SOLDIER
appears. He raises his AK-47 towards
SADHBH.

SOLDIER.
Je vais terminer le boulot.

End of Act Two.

EPILOGUE