The table is set with silverware, candles lit. KAT wheels in MA in a wheelchair.
KAT. A toast?
MA. Of course!
KAT pulls a bottle of vodka from her coat pocket.
KAT. Should you?
MA. Certainly.
KAT pours two shots.
KAT. Jack Hodge, finally –
MA. Finally!
KAT. Finished and done for!
MA. Jack Hodge, skewered and skinned!
They drink.
KAT. Pleased with me?
MA. Very.
KAT. Proud of me?
MA. Very.
KAT. Jealous?
KAT laughs, takes off her coat, stretches her body and shakes herself.
MA. Strangely not.
KAT. What?
MA. Jealous. It all seems very far away.
KAT. How d’you mean?
MA. You hungry?
KAT. Starving. Feel like I haven’t eaten for days.
MA. Excellent. We want to feast you. Maudie’s killed a chicken and picked the apples. She’s been working in that kitchen like a slave. Here she is!
MAUDIE pushes on a trolley with pots.
She wears KAT’s dress under her apron and cap.
MAUDIE (removing and replacing lids). Voilà! Fennel soup! Chicken stew –
MA. With fennel.
MAUDIE. Mash and fennel! Alphabetti Spaghetti –
KAT. With –?
MAUDIE. Don’t be daft. And afters is apples baked in cider.
MA. We had to get extra fennel.
KAT. I don’t even like it.
MA/MAUDIE. It’s your favourite! Voilà!
KAT. What’s happened here?
MA. What d’you mean?
KAT. I don’t know. Something’s happened. Something’s going on.
KAT looks from one to the other.
Is that my dress?
MAUDIE. No.
MA. Ah.
MAUDIE. It’s mine.
KAT. She’s wearing my dress.
MA. You hardly wore it. You didn’t like it.
KAT. How did she come by it?
MAUDIE. Fair and square.
MA. You can’t get into it, anyway.
KAT. What?
MA. The mighty oak! Too ample! Too many rooms!
KAT. How did she get it, Ma?
MAUDIE. Swapsies.
MA. Yes yes yes.
KAT. You gave her my dress?
MA. Gave her! She worked for it fair and square. Now don’t get squeaky, Kat. Let’s eat.
KAT. What are Swapsies?
MA. Right, well. Extras can be swapped for certain things –
KAT. My dress?
MAUDIE. My dress.
KAT. Did I say you could talk?
MAUDIE. No. But I got it fair and square.
MA. Sssh, Maudie, I’ll do this.
KAT. Are you protecting her?
MA. Just –
KAT. What are Extras?
MA. We’ve kept a strict tally.
KAT. We?
MA. Maudie and me.
KAT. She can’t read, she can’t write.
MA. Her letters now she can.
MAUDIE. She shown me.
KAT. Fetch the ledger.
MAUDIE goes.
MA. Kat.
KAT. Ma?
MA. Are you angry?
KAT. No.
MA. You sure? These days I find I don’t know what I’m feeling half the time.
MAUDIE comes with the ledger.
KAT opens it.
KAT. There’s a new column.
MAUDIE. X.
MA. For Extra.
MAUDIE/MA. Excellent.
They laugh.
MA. We agreed, Maudie and me.
KAT puts the ledger on the table.
KAT. Explain.
MAUDIE. H is for Hold.
KAT. And S?
MAUDIE. Is for Sleep and F is for Feet.
KAT. How much?
MAUDIE. A pound.
KAT. Per Extra?
MA. We agreed, Maudie and me.
KAT. I see. And over here. Under Misdemeanours.
MA. What?
KAT. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
MAUDIE. Mm.
MA. That’s good, isn’t it?
KAT. All this time and not a single Misdemeanour?
MA. Commendable.
KAT. Improbable.
MA. She’s an example.
KAT. A bloody miracle.
MAUDIE. Let’s shout and sing!
MA laughs.
KAT starts totting up.
MA. I’m sleeping like a child. I’m getting lighter, Kat. Aren’t you pleased?
KAT. Ecstatic.
MA. You don’t look it.
KAT. Ninety-four pounds.
MA and MAUDIE gasp.
Thirty pounds wages, sixty-four pounds Extras. Less five pounds repayment, eighty-nine.
MAUDIE. Mine?
MA. It does seem a lot. But you can’t take it with you.
KAT. I won’t be. Or I wouldn’t be if I paid it.
MA. Now, Kat –
KAT. I don’t know what’s been going on, but I know when I’m being ripped off. I’m not paying that out.
Silence.
MAUDIE. Mrs G?
MA. We agreed.
KAT. Not me.
MA. Maudie and I agreed in good faith and we wrote it down.
KAT. I was working day and night to get you what you wanted.
MA. I’m proud of you.
KAT. Working my arse off.
MAUDIE (under her breath). It’s still on.
KAT. While back at the ranch, every penny I make’s running out the door.
MAUDIE. Eighty-nine pounds, Mrs G.
MA. Yes.
KAT. No.
MAUDIE. Stroke your feet, stroke your hair, fair and square.
MA. I know, yes.
KAT. No.
MAUDIE. She’s taking advantage.
KAT. I am?
MAUDIE. It’s only right.
KAT. You think you decide what’s right here?
MAUDIE goes to the door and opens it.
A sunset light comes through.
MA. Stop her.
MAUDIE stands on the threshold.
KAT. She’s not going anywhere. She’s got too much to lose. She’s working the seam, that’s all.
MAUDIE. Goodbye, Mrs G.
MA. Pay her.
MAUDIE. I’ll think of you sometimes.
MA. Please.
KAT. Let her go.
MA. I need her.
KAT. I can get you another one.
MA. Kat.
KAT. I’ll just wait till dark and drive down to the river.
MA (realising). I don’t want another one.
KAT. There’s loads to choose from.
MA. I want Maudie. Maudie!
MA holds out her arms to MAUDIE.
MAUDIE looks at MA, then at KAT.
KAT unlocks the strongbox and counts eighty-nine pounds onto the table.
MAUDIE closes the door and picks up her money.
MAUDIE. Thank you.
KAT. No, thank you.
MAUDIE. No, thank you, very excellent, yeah, cos where would I be else? You could’ve took a breath and blown me to dust, and look at me now.
KAT. I’m looking.
MAUDIE. Truly.
KAT. You think everything’s changed so much that I can’t make you sorry.
MAUDIE. No. Because you can.
KAT. That’s right.
MA. Good. Let’s eat.
KAT picks up the vodka bottle.
MAUDIE. How much for a shot?
KAT. Of vodka?
MAUDIE. Vloddy vod.
MA. No.
MAUDIE. How much?
MA. She shouldn’t have it, Kat.
KAT. Twenty pounds.
MAUDIE. Steep.
KAT. Isn’t it?
MAUDIE puts a twenty-pound note on the table.
MA. Don’t let her have it.
KAT pours a shot.
You don’t want it, Maudie.
MAUDIE. I do.
MA. You don’t want to go back to that terrible –
MAUDIE drinks.
MAUDIE. Vladivostok!
KAT laughs.
She pours two shots and hands one to MA.
She and MA drink.
(Sings.) Three three, the rivals! Two two, the lily-white boys, clothèd all in green –
KAT/MAUDIE (sing). Ho ho! One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so!
MAUDIE. Whooh!
KAT. You know that one?
MAUDIE. There’s fire running down my wires!
KAT. That’s the only song I know.
MAUDIE. Church.
KAT. You?
MAUDIE. Say what you like about Christians, they do a good bowl of soup.
KAT laughs.
(Quiet.) There was a basket of fire.
MA. Is this a piece?
MAUDIE. Want one?
MA (to KAT). Sssh.
KAT. Why?
MA (quiet). You’ll like this.
MAUDIE (quiet). Orange lovely spitting sparks. She opens her mouth to sing, the sounds are like drops cool on your face, your neck, they even fall inside you splat! she turns up the bottle, sways, he licks sweat off her arm, off her cheek and they fold up together, so then it’s just me and Frankie running through all the wet, all the shine, filthy wet and everything’s spoiled now, all his everything, new Spiderman T-shirt, Spiderman trainers, it unwinds inside me too quick and oh! he crouches, that look when he huddles down and tears roll slowly down his sweet fat cheeks, his tears are bigger than pearls.
MA. That it?
KAT. What was that?
MA. A piece. She fishes them up sometimes. Netta and Frankie are always there.
KAT. Who?
MA. Another!
MAUDIE puts a twenty-pound note on the table.
I meant another piece.
KAT pours a shot for MAUDIE.
MAUDIE drinks.
MAUDIE. Yaroslavl!
KAT laughs.
(Sings.) Five for the symbols at your door, four for the Gospel-makers –
KAT/MAUDIE (sing). Three three, the rivals! Two two, the lily-white boys, clothèd all in green –
ALL (sing). Ho ho! One is one and all alone and evermore shall be so!
MAUDIE slaps down another twenty-pound note.
MA. No!
KAT pours MAUDIE a shot, then one for herself.
They drink.
MAUDIE. Nizhny Novgorod!
KAT. Vologda!
They laugh.
MAUDIE. Another piece?
MA. Go on, little bird.
MAUDIE. I’m running. I’m looking for something, dunno if I lost it or if I just got to find it, get a stitch so I get on a bus, then I’m running again, not looking any more, just running and running and when I stop everything’s gone green, supersize green, it’s epic! I take off my trainers and feel the field through my feet, and it’s kind without even thinking about it, the worms are busy and kind and I think maybe this is it.
KAT. The thing you’ve lost?
MAUDIE. So I stay in the field till I’m sure it’s not.
KAT. Not? How long did you stay?
MAUDIE. Dunno. Couple of days?
KAT. Off your face on something.
MAUDIE. Maybe.
KAT. Then what?
MAUDIE. Get up, go looking again.
KAT. For the thing? What was it? Maudie?
MAUDIE. Eh?
KAT. Did you find it?
MAUDIE. Maybe the nipper was it.
MA. Frankie.
KAT. How?
MAUDIE. He was so clean. Like a flower. And wanted, she wanted him, I did. You got no one to hold onto, you get blown down the river, sometimes that’s alright, floating, drifting, other times it takes you and you’re so wet and stuck with mud, it hauls you up, turns and takes you under.
MA. Where is he now?
MAUDIE. Dunno. Gone.
MA (shocked). Not dead?
MAUDIE. They took him off her and went away with him.
MA. I don’t want him to be dead.
KAT. But what was it?
MAUDIE. What?
KAT. The thing.
MAUDIE. What thing?
KAT. The thing you were looking for! The thing you lost!
MAUDIE. How the fuck would I know?
MAUDIE puts a twenty-pound note on the table.
KAT pours two shots.
MA. There are plenty of other words.
KAT and MAUDIE drink.
MAUDIE. Novosibirsk!
KAT. Smolensk!
They laugh.
MA. I know! We’ll each do a piece, take turns, like a game.
MAUDIE. Yeah yeah yeah!
KAT. Since when do you like games?
MA. Since. I don’t know, since always.
KAT. Name one.
MAUDIE. Pass the Parcel.
KAT. You hate games.
MA. We played games.
KAT. Never.
MAUDIE. Hide and Seek.
KAT. Pointless when you can be working.
MA. You’ve just forgotten.
KAT. No. Don’t do that.
MAUDIE. Tail on the Donkey.
KAT (to MA). That’s too easy.
MA. Musical Chairs!
KAT. Here’s a piece, then.
MAUDIE. Epic.
KAT. I bunk off school on a windy day. I’ve nicked a trashy book about shiny people making money and having drug-filled sex, I sneak home and bam! you’re here, I don’t know why, you’re always at the yard but no, so you march me outside and I tear out the pages one by one and we watch them blow away. We played that sort of game.
MA. I don’t remember that.
MAUDIE. Not blinking at the bottom of the bucket?
MA. No.
KAT. You hated games.
MA. Well, I don’t now.
KAT. Why? What’s different now?
MAUDIE. Here’s one.
MA. Epic.
MAUDIE. We got sparklers, two each, we’re drawing on the dark, hearts, arrows, silver whirls, we can’t stop singing, we link arms and run, McDonald’s, milkshake and two straws, the windows are all steamed up, and she writes: U R 4 Ever!
MA chuckles.
MA. Your face.
KAT. Now what?
MA. Because nothing like that ever happened to you.
KAT. Omniscient, are you?
MA. You’d always come straight to the yard from school. I’d see you from the office, chatting to the drivers, smoking, trying to look sophisticated. You never thought I can’t stop singing. Did you?
KAT. No.
MA. I never even heard you sing. Maudie sings all day.
KAT. You’re like a demented parrot, Maudie, Maudie and me, Maudie and me.
MAUDIE laughs.
MA. Are you jealous?
KAT. Of her?
MA. You are!
KAT. Here’s one.
MAUDIE. Let’s have it, Captain.
KAT. It’s very dark.
MAUDIE. Nice start.
KAT. The car smells of leather. He tastes of Extra Strong Mints. When he comes, he stops frowning, just for a moment. When he gets out I can see by the courtesy light there’s a blob of spunk on the back seat. So I wipe it up with the sleeve of my school blazer.
MAUDIE. Ooh. Mucky one.
KAT. Mmm.
MA. Disgusting.
MAUDIE. Were you a naughty little puss then?
MA. She made that up.
MAUDIE. Did you?
MA. To provoke me. But we’ll draw a veil.
KAT. Ah, the veil! No matter how much muck there is, it always covers it, so nothing ever quite happened. Abracadabra!
KAT pours herself a shot and drinks.
MAUDIE puts down her remaining nine pounds.
Nine?
MAUDIE. She’s all I got.
KAT. Blown your pay?
MAUDIE. It’s the prices in this bar. (Remembering.) But there’s more!
KAT. Where?
MAUDIE taps the strongbox.
MAUDIE. Safe in the bank of Kat. (Whispers.) Let her out, puss. We might all be dead tomorrow.
KAT. No out-of-hours withdrawals.
MAUDIE. Not even for a little vloddy voddy? Write it down then.
KAT. IOU?
MAUDIE. No, I owe you.
KAT pours three shots.
(Sings, fast.) Twelve for the twelve Apostles, eleven for the eleven who went to heaven –
KAT/MAUDIE (singing, getting faster). Ten for the ten commandments, nine for the nine bright-shiners, eight for the April rainers, seven for the seven stars in the sky, six for the six proud walkers, five for the symbols at your door, four for the Gospel-makers –
ALL (sing, very fast). Three three, the rivals! Two two, the lily-white boys, clothèd all in green, ho ho, one is one and all alone and evermore shall be so!
They drink.
MA. Kirov!
KAT. Kharkov!
MAUDIE. Minsk!
MAUDIE and KAT laugh.
MA. You’re slipping.
KAT. What?
MA. Must be your age.
KAT. What must?
MA. You missed it.
KAT. What you on about?
MA. Look in the ledger.
KAT stares at her, then runs to the ledger.
Did you write it down?
KAT. What? No. I don’t know. What did I miss? Tell me.
MA. Missed it, gone!
KAT. Tell me! I don’t know what I’m looking for! Say!
MA shouts with laughter.
MA. Kat doesn’t know what to write, it’s the End of Days! Scribble scribble scribble and when you think no one’s looking, you stroke the columns!
KAT. And that’s funny, is it?
MA. Yes!
KAT. I work like a mule because you taught me to, I flog on in my dark suits to be just like Mrs Joyless Skinflint here, but she’s had a stroke or something cos now she spends a pound per Extra on treats!
MA. The yard’s yours.
KAT. Easy as that.
MA nods.
No no no. You struggled for years, we struggled, Christ! you ached for this, Jack Hodge skewered and skinned, you didn’t think I could do it, I’ve done it, Ma, and now –
MA. Do what you want with it. I just want to be peaceful here with Maudie.
MAUDIE. Mm.
MA. She makes me happy.
MAUDIE. Do I?
KAT. Peaceful?
MAUDIE. Do you love me, Mrs G?
MA. Of course I do.
KAT sits down abruptly.
KAT. Years ago if I’d agreed that price you’d have taken the skin off my hands.
MA. I wouldn’t, Kat. Not really.
KAT. That’s who you are, not some old girl who wants to be peaceful –
MA. We were always pretty good pals, weren’t we?
Silence.
KAT takes off her shirt. She has scarred skin on one flank.
How did you get that?
KAT. Cos you don’t remember?
MA. Not really.
KAT. Touch it.
MA. No.
KAT. Touch it. It might come back to you.
MA. I don’t want to.
MA turns away.
I never knew you had such a thing.
KAT. At least look at it. At least give me that.
MA won’t look.
MAUDIE comes close to KAT.
MAUDIE. A burn. What from?
KAT. An iron.
MAUDIE. I got one here. (Glances over her left shoulder.) Not so bad as that.
KAT. I thought it meant something. Maybe it’s just a weird patch on my side.
MAUDIE. Just something that happened.
KAT. Ugly, isn’t it?
MAUDIE. Yeah.
MAUDIE touches the scar gently.
She picks up KAT’s shirt, puts it on her and buttons it up, looking at her.
KAT pours two shots.
They drink.
KAT. Semfiropol!
MAUDIE kisses KAT on the mouth.
KAT takes MAUDIE’s head gently between her hands.
KAT throws MAUDIE across the room.
KAT sits.
Silence.
MA. Maudie?
MAUDIE. Mm.
MA. I want my bed.
MAUDIE stumbles to her feet, rubbing her neck.
MAUDIE wheels MA to the bed.
She takes MA’s hands and pulls her up.
MA holds onto her hands.
I’m sorry.
MAUDIE. What for?
MA sobs without tears, without looking at KAT.
MA. Say it’s alright.
MAUDIE. What is?
MA. Please. Say it’s alright.
KAT bows her head.
MAUDIE. But it isn’t.
MAUDIE helps MA into bed.
MA. My head’s terrible.
MAUDIE. Close your eyes. I’ll be there in a minute.
KAT falls asleep.
MA. Maudie.
MAUDIE (stroking her hair). Sssh.
MA. My little bird.
MA closes her eyes.
MAUDIE finishes the bit of vodka in the bottle, considering
KAT.
MAUDIE goes.
(Slurred and slow.) Head’s awful. Can’t. Somethin’s. Me?
MAUDIE comes with the well-bucket and its rope.
She ties KAT into the chair by her arms.
KAT half-wakes, sleeps again.
MAUDIE ties KAT’s legs to the chair.
MAUDIE. This bus will wait here for a change of drivers.
She puts the bucket over KAT’s head.
MA. Maw.
MAUDIE. The voddy’s gone, Ma. Go to sleep.
MAUDIE gets the keys from the pocket of KAT’s coat.
She unlocks the strongbox.
KAT. What?
MAUDIE. Ah.
KAT. What’s?
MAUDIE. Ding dong bell, pussy’s in the well.
KAT. Get me.
MAUDIE. Who put her in?
KAT. Get me out.
MAUDIE. Maudie.
KAT shakes the bucket off her head.
She takes in her tied state and strains against good knots, then stops.
KAT. This wasn’t part of the plan.
MAUDIE takes the notes, coins and pliers out of the strongbox.
She sets them out on the table.
You won’t, though. You don’t have the balls.
MAUDIE. No balls here, Captain. Wisest thing’d be tip you down the stairs, break you to bits, then drop you in the well with old Bromwich.
KAT. But you won’t.
MAUDIE. Someone needs to look after Ma.
KAT. Don’t call her Ma, she’s not your ma.
MAUDIE. Might as well be.
KAT. Ma!
MAUDIE. She loves me. Does she love you?
KAT. Ma!
MAUDIE. She’s all in.
KAT. Ma!
MAUDIE. Just you and me, Kitty Kat. It was so simple when you were gone, we were epic. Now.
MAUDIE brings the knife out of her apron pocket.
KAT. What you want?
MAUDIE. I dunno yet.
KAT. Take the money and go, I should.
MAUDIE. Mm.
KAT. You can go running and looking again, you can –
MAUDIE. Ssh.
MAUDIE holds the point of the knife just below KAT’s eye.
I knew a one-eyed cat once. He managed. Had to be on guard all the time or the other cats stole his food, poor puss. Goes without saying he weren’t a looker.
KAT. You wouldn’t.
MAUDIE. Quick as you like and it’s blinking in the bottom of the bucket.
KAT. There’s a few thousand. Take it.
MAUDIE. Thanks very much, very excellent truly. Not hard to give, though, is it? Even for Miss Joyless Skinflint here. What will you give to save your eye?
KAT. What you want?
MAUDIE. Something hard.
MAUDIE fishes a chicken leg out of the pot.
Tell me about the iron.
KAT. There was a boy. He washed the cars.
MAUDIE (eating). How old were you?
KAT. Fifteen.
MAUDIE. Good looking, was he?
KAT shrugs.
Go on.
KAT. Sometimes I helped him out with jobs. I thought we were just mates, then he pulled me into the bit under the stairs and kissed me.
MAUDIE. Naughty puss.
KAT. Don’t think he thought about it again. I couldn’t stop. Then he stole a pair of driving gloves. I said it was me, but she found out. Better than a bloodhound. She sacked him. Then the thing with the iron.
MAUDIE. Why d’you let her do it?
KAT. Let her?
MAUDIE. Fifteen? Tall and strong, weren’t you?
KAT. I deserved it.
MAUDIE. Did you?
KAT. Lying. Being soft.
MAUDIE. How she do it?
KAT. In the garage. Dad had gone to bed. We stood in the dark by his workbench, waiting for the little red light on the iron to click off.
MAUDIE. Was you scared?
KAT. Of the pain? Very.
MAUDIE. Did you say things?
KAT shrugs.
What did you say?
Silence.
MAUDIE holds the knife below KAT’s eye.
KAT. Please. I said please don’t. I said I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.
MAUDIE. And when she took no notice?
KAT. The water closed over my head.
MAUDIE. Then?
KAT. I felt sick. For days.
MAUDIE. With the pain?
KAT. And the shame.
MAUDIE takes away the knife.
MAUDIE. First time you give me something. Pity it’s cos I got a knife in my hand.
MAUDIE pulls the trunk from under the bed.
See what else you got beating about in there. Cos by any reckoning you owe me big time.
KAT strains against the ropes and rocks her chair.
KAT. Ma!
MAUDIE. You’d call for her when she done that to you?
KAT. Help!
MA stirs.
Ma!
MA. Maw?
MAUDIE goes and strokes MA’s hair.
KAT. Tell her to stop!
MAUDIE. Sssh.
MA. Maw.
KAT. Ma?
MAUDIE. Try to sleep now. Sssh.
MA settles back to sleep.
KAT gives up.
MAUDIE opens the trunk and gets out a dark suit.
She takes off her apron, KAT’s dress and reluctantly her McDonald’s cap.
KAT. Why d’you love that scummy hat so much?
MAUDIE. Netta give it me. M for Maudie, see?
MAUDIE puts on the suit.
KAT. Has your entire sad fuck-up of a life been played out in McDonald’s, lurching over the cold fries and slipping in ketchup?
MAUDIE. Ronald McDonald has certainly seen some golden moments.
MAUDIE picks up the knife.
Right then, Top Cat. A woman’s got to pay her debts. What you got?
KAT shrugs.
MAUDIE holds the knife blade in the candle flame.
I already done it once, you should know that. Self-defence it was, and him heartless as a stone, can’t say I planned it exactly, but I did take out his eye. Shocking how easy it is. Screwdriver. Blood and goo everywhere, him sat sobbing on the bank. Sobbing, him! As good as the loaves and fishes that was, we stood and stared. Then we legged it.
MAUDIE tests the blade.
Fuck, that’s hot. Isn’t it?
MAUDIE touches KAT’s arm quickly with the knife.
KAT cries out.
Oooh. Now I feel it. Isn’t it lovely? Now I want to.
KAT. What you want me to say?
MAUDIE. The iron.
KAT. I told you!
MAUDIE. The water closes over your head, you’re sick for days, that it?
KAT. Yes!
MAUDIE. Then what you do it to me for?
Silence.
Two roads. You could’ve took the other one, had a different life. What you do it to me for?
KAT. Cos it gives me a buzz. You’re buzzing. I can see it in your eyes.
MAUDIE. Yeah yeah yeah. What else?
KAT. To see if you’d fight back. I wanted you to fight back.
MAUDIE. Enjoying this, then, are you? Sick with shame, you said. Say about that.
Silence.
MAUDIE brings the knife up in front of KAT’s face.
KAT (slowly). Sometimes. Just as I’m waking up I see it – it’s like looking down on it – a tiny me, prised open on a garage floor. It’s disgusting. That’s why you do it. You just want to get rid of that. So you do it and do it, cos it’s the only way.
MAUDIE. It’s not disgusting. It’s epic.
KAT. Ugly. Pathetic.
MAUDIE. It’s sad, you idiot, it’s super fucking sad.
MAUDIE puts down the knife.
You don’t understand anything, do you?
KAT (realising). No.
MAUDIE brushes her hair.
MAUDIE. That piece you said, the mucky one in the car. Was it true?
KAT nods.
Who with?
KAT. A driver.
MAUDIE. Just him?
KAT. A few of them.
MAUDIE. To get even with her?
KAT nods.
Did you ever like it, though?
KAT. Not then.
MAUDIE. Nor me. And now?
KAT shrugs.
You do do it?
KAT. I have it how I want it now.
MAUDIE. How d’you manage that, Captain?
KAT. If you pay.
MAUDIE. Oh! And is there delight?
KAT. Delight?
MAUDIE. I always thought it was something people go on about and really it was just a creepy way to make you scared, but she shown me a different way and there it was.
MAUDIE puts on her cap.
Delight.
MAUDIE sits on KAT’s lap.
They look at each other.
An eye for an eye.
MAUDIE kisses KAT’s eyelids.
MAUDIE gets up and counts the money.
How d’you get to Bristol?
KAT. Going back?
MAUDIE. Dunno yet.
KAT. Paddington.
MAUDIE. That’s it.
KAT. Back to Netta?
MAUDIE. There isn’t Netta.
KAT. What happened?
MAUDIE. Three thousand four hundred pound. Epic. I might have a ladies’ wash at the station and go first class.
MAUDIE puts the cash in the strongbox, then KAT’s dress, the hairbrush and some silver cutlery from the table, which she wraps in her apron.
KAT. You won’t leave me like this?
MAUDIE. Why not?
KAT. She needs help.
MAUDIE. So I turn you loose and you have the knife off me and cut my throat?
KAT. I won’t. I wouldn’t. Trust me.
MAUDIE. I don’t, though, Captain. That’s the thing, isn’t it?
MAUDIE opens the door.
A faint grey light comes through it.
Almost light.
MA stirs and shivers.
No need for that.
MAUDIE gets onto the bed.
She likes a good rub.
She rubs MA’s back.
(Sings.) Dem bones dem bones gonna walk around –
MA. Maw.
MAUDIE (rubbing). And you’ll sing to her, won’t you? She likes a verse. (Sings.) Dem bones dem bones gonna walk around –
MA. Maw.
MAUDIE. You look tuckered out, Ma. You need a long lovely lie-down.
MAUDIE puts her arms round MA, rocks her and strokes her hair.
(Sings.) Dem bones dem bones gonna walk around, now hear the word of the Lord!
MA settles.
KAT (quiet). What you done to her?
MAUDIE. Nothing.
KAT. She’s like another person.
MAUDIE. She’s just scared.
KAT. Ma?
MAUDIE. Why not?
MAUDIE kisses MA on the cheek and lays her down.
She picks up the strongbox, goes to the door, stops on the threshold.
I’d stay, you know. Can you credit it? And it hurts me that I can’t. Can you credit that?
KAT. So what’s the plan?
MAUDIE. No plan. See what turns up.
MAUDIE goes.
After a moment, MA stirs.
MA. Maw?
KAT. Can’t help you, Ma, I’m tied up right now. Ho ho.
KAT shuffles her chair towards the bed.
Gradually the light coming through the door gets brighter.
Clothèd all in green, ho ho. God, you look terrible. Migraine?
MA struggles to open her eyes and sit up a little.
I feel like a bomb went off and blew off my clothes. I thought she’d do it. She wanted to.
MA. Maw.
KAT. An eye for an eye and she sits in my lap like an apple. I mean, two of her teeth I took! And all the rest of it. And she kisses me, plump! And for a split second – there was delight.
MA. Maw!
KAT (realising what MA means). She’s gone.
MA cries out, desolate.
MA stretches out her hand to KAT, who looks at it.
I can’t imagine you and me at breakfast tomorrow. Can you? Try. You trying?
MA. Maw.
KAT. And what if we did open? What would be in us? Fear that scorches the walls? Tears that flood the street? Maybe nothing. Or maybe little horns. Tender. Waving.
MA touches KAT’s hair.
I don’t know how to live.
The sun rises.
KAT watches the sunrise through the door.
End.