Truck Stop (9 page)

Sign up ahead.

KELLY:
‘Rest Area'.

SAM:
You look at me and grin the same grin you had on your face when we tried speed I remember what you said that night when the speed came on you said / It's like I'm at the top of a roller coaster.

KELLY:
It's like I'm at the top of a roller coaster.

Where we going Sam?

SAM:
Just up here. Peace and quiet. / Then we are at the truck stop.

KELLY:
Then we are at the truck stop.

SAM:
Just the sound of the highway. / Nobody here.

KELLY:
Nobody here. Just us in the dust. Flies on your back.

SAM:
Brush 'em off then.

Magpie on a picnic table.

Go on scare it off hate magpies fuck off.

KELLY:
Scare it off, sit reading the shit people scribble on tables. Jonny for Nerrida.

SAM:
Johnny roots Kylie.

KELLY:
John eats out Cathy's cunt.

SAM:
I'm sixteen with a big fat cock wanna suck?

KELLY:
Where's the action? Been looking all day? Want some action call me.

SAM:
Want a smoke?

They smoke.

Give us your phone. Let's ring the guy with the big fat cock.

KELLY:
What for?

SAM:
What do you reckon?

They laugh.

What would you do if your dad drove in and stopped?

Pause.

Eryn Jean Norvill as Sam in the 2012 Q Theatre production at the Seymour Centre. (Photo © Amanda James)

KELLY:
We talk about sex.

You tell me about how out of control things got with Trent. The look on his face when you finally dumped him. How you wish you hadn't lost your virginity to him 'cause he came so quick.

SAM:
And when I ask you about virginity you tell me that you lost your ages ago and I laugh at you and say bullshit!

Pause.

Do you want to talk about it?

KELLY:
No truck driver pulls up that day.

AISHA:
Go to Westfield after school, food court smell of meat. I sit alone near Donut King wait for something, anything to happen. Nothing does.

Go home. Sit online alone.

I'm on Facebook checking to see if Kelly dumped me yet and there's a friend request. From Noah. From Noah Futemana. Message says I'm really sorry Aisha. Hope I can make it up to you.

KELLY/SAM:
Next day at lunch, we go back.

SAM:
Did you see Aisha this morning?

KELLY:
Yeah.

SAM:
Think she's finally got the message?

KELLY:
Yeah. Looked straight through her.

SAM:
Me too. Froze that bitch off like a wart.

They laugh.

We go to the truck stop every day now.

KELLY:
We sit there at lunch.

SAM:
Don't do the mall no more.

KELLY:
We change out of our uniforms in case someone dobs us in and /

SAM:
Sit on that picnic table / at the Truck Stop.

KELLY:
At the Truck Stop.

KELLY:
Quieter than anywhere else.

SAM:
Our picnic table.

SAM/KELLY:
Just us.

Pause.

SAM:
The day it first happens.

KELLY:
We get there and there is a truck parked right up the end.

A truck with a bowl of fruit on the side.

SAM:
Anyone in it?

KELLY:
Can't see.

SAM:
Just sit at the table.

KELLY:
You got a smoke?

They smoke.

SAM:
We talk and shit. Look at the cover of a magazine I nicked.

KELLY:
Boys boys men
written on the cover.

SAM:
And
sex moves that'll rattle his brain for days.

KELLY:
Article promises to tell the way to find your perfect sex match. You reading it out / when

SAM:
When this guy gets out of the truck. Shit. Look.

KELLY:
You see him first. I'm reading and you stop me.

They watch him in silence.

SAM:
This young dude /

KELLY:
Tanned with thick legs /

SAM:
Tanned with tattoos / This dude who drives the fruit truck is /HOT!

KELLY:
HOT. He doesn't see us.

SAM:
He walks around the truck looking at the tyres.

KELLY:
Bends over. Look at that.

SAM:
What's he looking at you reckon?

KELLY:
Dunno.

SAM:
You reckon he's seen us?

KELLY:
No. Do you?

SAM:
Dunno. No.

They watch him.

KELLY:
The magazine pages flutter in the wind.

SAM
lights a smoke.

SAM:
This is like some video clip.

KELLY:
I lean back, camera on me.

SAM:
Stand up play with my hair, camera on me.

KELLY:
Then he turns around. Camera on us. / He sees us.

SAM:
He sees us.

KELLY:
Don't know whether to wave. Or /

SAM:
Don't look at him. Read the magazine.

KELLY:
He forgets his tyres, looks this way for ages.

He's looking at us.

SAM:
Shut up.

KELLY:
He can't hear me.

They giggle.

What should we do?

SAM:
Camera on him. He leans against the truck, lights a cigarette.

Go over to him. Say hello.

KELLY:
Me? Why don't you?

SAM:
I will if you want but… I dare you to. Double dare /

KELLY:
What'll I say?

SAM:
Ask him where he's going?

KELLY:
Then what?

SAM:
Ask him if he's tired.

KELLY:
Then what?

SAM:
For fuck's sake Kelly. I don't know. If you like him… ask him if you can make his journey better.

KELLY:
Make his journey better? You mean…

SAM:
Fuck it. Do you want me to do it?

KELLY:
No. I'll go.

SAM:
Then go.

KELLY:
I will. Mind my bag.

KELLY
walks towards him.

Gravel and dirt under my feet sweat under my arms. What am I doing? He's looking at me now. I want to look back, check if Sam's watching but I can't. I just keep going.

SAM:
Sun beats down, flies everywhere and Kelly stands in front of the truck driver.

KELLY:
I am close to him now. Smell his sweat his cigarette. I stop in front of him. Look up and see my face reflected in his sunglasses. Say it /

SAM:
Say it.

Where are you going?

Are you tired?

Don't just stand there.

SAM/KELLY:
Is there something I can do to make your journey /

KELLY
reaches down and lifts up her t-shirt.

We hear flies seething.

AISHA:
Facebook chat: Noah.

NOAH:
Have to walk my dog after school want to meet me in the park
?

AISHA:
Don't like dogs don't want to say no. I go.

He's sitting at a picnic table with a bag of donuts. The dog's asleep at his feet, says

NOAH:
She's old she can't hear.

AISHA:
He looks at me for ages, says /

NOAH:
Sorry.

AISHA:
Looks at his feet, says /

NOAH:
I really like you.

AISHA:
Looks at his hands, says /

NOAH:
Maybe we could… go out.

AISHA:
You mean?

NOAH:
Yeah.

AISHA:
Okay.

Noah and me. We're going out.

SAM:
Kelly's in the truck. I sit at the picnic table waiting.

Flies seethe everywhere, questions seethe in my head. I think of backpacker killers and rapists on TV, thinking too much and the seething sounds all around me, listen to my iPod.

A brown car drives in some woman with a dog.

Dog runs towards me, I pat it and then it shits near my bag.

Your dog's done a shit.

Want to leave.

Fifty flies squat on my bag. Highway buzzes. Wish you weren't in the truck. Wish you'd come back.

Long pause. Flies and highway noise.

The truck door opens.

The truck door shuts.

Truck engine starts. Rumbles away.

KELLY
walks towards
SAM
. She looks calm. She reaches into her pocket and pulls a $50 note, holds it up, it waves in the breeze.

Shit!

KELLY:
I know.

SAM:
I can't believe you did that. That you…

What happened?

How was it?

KELLY:
Guess you'll have to find out for yourself. / Why we did it?

SAM:
Why we did it? I didn't think about that much.

KELLY:
I wondered that when I was sitting alone at the picnic table. When Sam went and I was waiting with the bags and the phone.

SAM:
That was the deal.

KELLY:
One of us went and one stayed to keep watch, ready with the phone to ring fuck knows who or say fuck knows what.

SAM:
Didn't think about what people would say if they found out.

KELLY:
When we weren't there life went on as normal.

SAM:
Nobody I know talks about truck drivers.

SAM/KELLY:
Why we did it?

KELLY:
Money?

SAM:
It gave me a rush.

KELLY:
It was pretty easy money.

SAM:
When we were sitting there waiting and a truck came in it was like…

KELLY:
Speed and a shot of tequila with your favourite song full blast.

SAM:
Being a long long way from everything you knew.

KELLY:
Trucks with all sorts of shit in them and we keep a record, a list in the back of a book.

KELLY:
Blueberries /

SAM:
Lambs /

KELLY:
Milk /

SAM:
Beer /

KELLY:
Sand /

SAM:
Shampoo /

KELLY:
Petrol, baked beans.

SAM:
Hamburger patties, calves.

There was this fat bloke. He'd just eaten McDonald's. Stunk of special sauce and there was a French-fry in the crease of his shorts when he unzipped it. I wanted to…

KELLY:
Second guy wasn't like the first /

SAM:
Turn back. Wanted to…

KELLY:
Second guy was old. I wanted to take it back when I said / can I make your journey better?

SAM:
Can I make your journey better?

KELLY:
I wanted to turn around and run back to the picnic table but then he offered me a Starburst, a smoke, changed the radio station and Rihanna came on and / I just closed my eyes.

SAM:
I just closed my eyes. Got it done.

KELLY:
I hoped the first guy'd come back. Dude with the fruit. 'Cause most of the others were /

SAM:
Old with hairy ears and shit.

KELLY:
Never really talked about it much. Made a joke about it but never really spoke about what we were doing. And I want to ask you Sam, how far do you go?

And I wanted to ask you Sam, when you're in there, in the truck, how do you feel? But…

SAM:
After the first week we have cash. / Cashed-up bitches!

KELLY:
Cashed-up bitches! Go into the city /

SAM:
Shop in the city.

KELLY:
We sit on the train next to each other and I want to ask… but I don't say a word. I want to say something, anything but don't know how to start.

Something between us, something different.

SAM:
It didn't go for that long.

KELLY:
Wasn't long at all.

SAM/KELLY:
The feeling, when I hear sound of the trucks pulling in.

SAM:
It makes me feel thrilled, that never fades /