THIRTEEN

Lyndsey, holding a baby, Roland, Bea.

Roland He’s a lovely chap.

Lyndsey Thanks.

Roland What do you call him?

Lyndsey Dayne.

Roland Is that his name?

Bea It’s his name.

Mark comes in.

Mark Sorry – Hilary’s on her way – work – some kind of crisis meeting.

Can I get you –?

Bea No, thank you.

Roland (to Lyndsey) Keep you up much?

Lyndsey He’s very good. My mum helps.

Roland Does she?

Lyndsey Has him Saturday nights, some Fridays, every Wednesday.

Roland A big commitment.

Lyndsey She doesn’t mind.

Roland All those late nights. At her age.

Lyndsey Thirty-six?

Roland That is – that is young. Well, that’s good of her.

Lyndsey His dad’s mum has him every other weekend.

Roland You’ve got it sorted.

We could do that.

Bea No, we couldn’t.

It would be hellish to go back.

Hilary enters.

Hilary Thanks for coming. Lyndsey, your input will be really useful. Is Tilly still –?

Lyndsey Upstairs. I’ll text her.

Hilary I haven’t said hello properly. Is Josh –?

Bea Josh isn’t coming.

Hilary Right.

Bea I’ve told him he doesn’t have to.

Roland You told him not to.

Bea Because it’s a bit like a military tribunal.

Roland I don’t think it is.

Hilary I thought the idea was to get us all together.

Bea That might be damaging.

Hilary Damaging?

Bea We can give Josh’s side of things better than he can.

Hilary Well.

Bea He’s sixteen years old. He’s still a child.

Hilary But he’s old enough to –

Bea The guilt.

Hilary The guilt?

Bea Of this whole – It’s designed, unintentionally, to make him feel – guilt.

Roland Make him face his responsibilities.

Bea From the man that had psychosomatic headaches every time I attended a pre-natal class.

Roland I didn’t need lessons in deep breathing.

Bea No, that would be me.

Roland (to Lyndsey) We’ve split up. You might be able to tell.

Lyndsey Isn’t that weird? You’ve split up and they’ve split up and mine’s dead.

Roland Yes, that is weird.

Bea The pressure might make Josh agree to something he doesn’t really want because –

He’s afraid to say what he really feels.

Hilary I’ll tell Tilly not to come down. It’s not fair she – On her own.

Bea What are we here for? Look, it’s her decision, of course it is.

Only from my point of view I think it’s a disaster for Josh. To father a child at sixteen.

What kind of father can you be at that age? And not being a good father, what effect does that have?

Roland Are you absolutely sure she’s –

Mark We’ve taken three tests.

Roland So it’s highly unlikely.

Hilary I told Tilly you wanted to have input into her decision. And Tilly agreed to get your input. So whatever is decided, she decides – with your input, our input, and Lyndsey’s input – but if Josh isn’t here, then obviously I can’t let her come down alone, it’s not fair.

Bea Then how will she get our input?

Hilary You could input to us and we could convey your input to her.

Bea It’s more persuasive if it comes from us. This is our son’s life.

Hilary She’s not coming down if Josh isn’t here. Lyndsey, would you mind –

Lyndsey I’ll text her.

Roland We thought she was on the pill.

Hilary She was, then she stopped when they stopped and then it started again.

Roland Oh dear.

Hilary I mean, if we had a choice of course –

I mean, Lyndsey, if you could turn back the clock.

Lyndsey What?

Hilary I thought Lyndsey could advise Tilly – because if you could, Lyndsey –

Would you choose to have had a baby at fifteen?

Roland It’s not that you don’t love your baby. But if you could wipe the slate clean.

Bea Look, she’s not going to admit to that.

Lyndsey I’m not wiping the slate clean.

Roland No, of course.

Lyndsey Of Dayne.

Roland No no no.

Hilary But in an ideal world of course –

Lyndsey What?

Hilary In an ideal world you might have delayed.

Lyndsey Dayne?

Then he wouldn’t exist.

Hilary He’s lovely.

Yes, in an ideal world, perhaps not for you, but for Tilly – you can see that.

Mark Is she the right person to ask?

Bea Josh has other options.

Hilary Tilly has options.

Lyndsey I have options.

Bea You have less options. Let’s be honest. I’m sure you’ve faced that.

Josh, like a lot of bright kids, has the capacity to go off the rails, to be derailed.

This could derail him. I know it could. The stigma, the confusion of being a child with a child, the adult responsibilities.

Roland Romeo and Juliet.

Bea Are characters in a play.

I don’t know why you are seriously giving her an option.

Mark You can’t force –

Bea She doesn’t understand fully the nature of the decision before her. That should be impressed upon her. I’m not saying forced. How did this happen?

Roland We know how it happened.

Bea I mean how was this allowed to happen? By us.

Hilary By me – are you saying?

Bea Do we think it’s OK for girls to be hyper-sexual and not bring upon themselves the, OK, unfair consequences? Josh would be expected to go to a university but as the father of a young child, he won’t be developmentally experiencing what he needs – freedom – to learn – to socialise.

Hilary The same for Tilly.

Bea Changing nappies. Wiping up sick.

Lyndsey She says Josh keeps ringing her, can you tell him to stop ringing her?

Bea He’s upset.

Roland He should be here.

Bea I don’t want him here. It’s awful.

Mark We should get Tilly down here.

Hilary On her own, as if she’s the guilty one? The girl who dared to have sex – the slut.

Lyndsey She’s not a –

Hilary I was making a point, Lyndsey – I wasn’t really calling her a –

I can’t force her to get rid of it – she has to want to.

Bea It won’t last. Have you mentioned that? The relationship won’t last. Perhaps she thinks this will cement something – it’s the opposite. Lyndsey, are you with your partner?

Lyndsey No.

All He’s dead.

Bea Oh God, yes, sorry.

Lyndsey It’s all right. It was last year.

Mark I think Tilly has to be here.

Bea What was he seeking – some kind of love, attention?

Roland He was seeking sex. It’s a drive. You missed out on it.

Bea It had a resurgence after you left.

We are happy to pay for the termination privately. That is something we can do.

Mark It’s not a question of money.

Bea It’s a gesture.

Does Tilly want a baby – at sixteen? Her life will be over.

Lyndsey My life isn’t over.

Bea I shouldn’t have said over. Severely limited.

Hilary Thank you so much for being here, Lyndsey. Whatever she decides she needs to know how tough it is.

Lyndsey I wouldn’t turn the clock back.

Hilary Of course not. You must have feelings of frustration?

Lyndsey I do worry.

Bea Yes –

Lyndsey How I’m going to support him?

Will I meet someone who’ll be a good dad to him? When I see on the news – stepdads who starve kids, put them in black plastic bags in the bath and the mothers stand by, I’m scared, but I won’t like anyone like that, will I? Unless I change in some way, get depressed, I start taking drugs, my life spirals out of control, I end up homeless, a crack-whore – but apart from that I’m fairly positive.

Have you seen that film The Road?

The Road made me cry. If someone ate Dayne I’d go mental.

I can’t afford to get down. Not now I’ve got Dayne. Who else has he got?

Bea Your mother. It’s just this generation has everything now. Don’t wait. We pick up the pieces.

I won’t do that.

Lyndsey starts to cry.

Mark We’re talking about our grandchild here. We do know that.

Bea We don’t know that it is.

Roland Very likely.

Bea There was that other time she – at that party – a stranger. I can’t be the only one to be thinking it. It’s the elephant in the room. Josh going through all this and it’s not his.

Hilary Josh can’t just walk away.

Roland No no.

Bea Roland, you asshole.

Hilary Josh fucked my daughter. He fucked her and now he thinks he can just walk away.

Mark Calm down, love.

Bea I’m here to advocate for my son.

Hilary Sorry, Lyndsey, have we upset you?

Lyndsey No.

She holds up her phone.

Tilly. She’s been bleeding.