Thick as Thieves
Page 2
GAIL Yeah, she said about your meetings.
KAREN I did say for you to come back another day.
Starts looking through her drawers and bag for paracetamol.
GAIL She told me to come back tomorrow.
KAREN Well, there we go.
GAIL But then when she went to the loo, I thought I’d check your appointment book, save wasting my time and coming back all this way. Good job I did cos it looked like you was out of the building all day tomorrow.
Well then I thought, you got the weekend, so we’d be into next week.
KAREN I don’t know about that.
I’m just
I just operate on a day-by-day basis at the moment.
Finds paracetamol.
Oh, thank God.
Takes water bottle out of her bag.
GAIL Oh.
I see.
Everything okay though?
KAREN Everything’s fine, thank you.
Opens bottle of water.
GAIL Monday you got a hospital appointment. So we’re into next Tuesday or whatever.
Pause.
You okay, are you?
KAREN takes tablets.
KAREN I’m fine.
Look this isn’t great for me
I need to get off so
It’s really great and everything that you looked me up but
As you can see this isn’t such a good time.
GAIL I live just round the corner from there. The hospital.
Pause.
KAREN That’s a long way from here.
GAIL I like walking. I walk for miles. Sometimes I’ll walk around all day. That’s why I’m so thin.
Look at me.
Like a gypsy’s dog, all bone and skin.
We used to walk for miles, didn’t we.
When we was kids.
We’d do anything to get out and about, me and you.
Away from that place they put us.
Remember?
It was freedom, weren’t it.
What you at the hospital for?
KAREN Really, you shouldn’t be looking at private things.
GAIL Nothing serious, is it?
KAREN Nothing for you to
It’s not important.
GAIL It’s in your book.
KAREN I was thinking of cancelling.
I’m so
I’m extremely busy.
GAIL You shouldn’t make work more important than whatever it is you was going to the hospital for, Karen.
You always was fickle.
KAREN I wasn’t. I’m not.
GAIL Couldn’t make up your mind.
KAREN I’m very decisive, actually.
GAIL You’ve changed, a lot, I know that for nothing.
KAREN Well, I’m not thirteen now.
GAIL No.
KAREN I’m a different person. Thank God.
GAIL I would have known you anywhere.
KAREN Really? I don’t know that I’d have recognised you.
Pause.
GAIL You done good though, haven’t you.
KAREN I’ve worked hard.
GAIL You been lucky, Kaz.
KAREN Is there a reason you want to see me, Gail?
GAIL Sorry, not Kaz.
Kate.
It’s gonna take some getting used to that, I can tell you…
Pause.
It’s different, Kate.
KAREN You say that like it’s something I should be ashamed of.
GAIL Goes with you though
Matches with your life.
Now.
This life.
I knew. I always knew you’d make something of yourself.
I did think you would.
I hoped you did anyways.
I hoped you was alright.
KAREN I’m not ashamed of moving on.
GAIL You shouldn’t be.
I’m dead proud of you
‘Kate’. I’ll get used to it.
KAREN Kate’s not that different from Karen. It sort of evolved.
I’m not – Proud? –
I’m not
I don’t need your pride, Gail.
My name is Kate.
I don’t hide Karen.
It’s just been that way for twenty-odd years. It took me through school and uni and
look
I’m just an average woman with a career, kids, a husband.
My life is normal.
Full of school timetables and washing and what we’re having for dinner and after-school clubs and loading the dishwasher and weekends and.
And.
It’s just turned out this way.
This is who I am.
It’s not then and
Pause.
I’m just
I’m just me.
I’m not hiding.
GAIL processes that.
GAIL Do they know about me?
KAREN Who?
GAIL Your husband? The kids?
Pause.
KAREN Not really.
GAIL Not really? You tell them about their auntie?
KAREN No.
Holds a look.
KAREN looks away.
Pause.
GAIL Is that your kids?
In that photo.
KAREN Yes.
GAIL Three.
KAREN Yes.
GAIL I thought three.
KAREN Did you?
GAIL I sort of guessed about that.
I did wonder if you’re that kind of type now.
KAREN That type?
GAIL I don’t know.
You.
You seem like.
I don’t know.
KAREN What?
GAIL All chia (Pronounces it ‘ch-eye-ah’.) seeds, avocados, three kids.
Like that.
KAREN I don’t eat chia (Pronounces it ‘chee-a’.) seeds.
GAIL Kale then, purple sprouting broccoli and all that stuff that they eats. Superfoods. They loves their superfoods.
It’s a type.
KAREN Having three children is a type?
GAIL Yeah. And ’scuse the language, Karen, but what the fuck, pray tell me, is baby yoga?
Finds herself funny.
KAREN Does that go along with the three kids, does it?
GAIL It’s like two isn’t enough.
They wants to show everyone how much they loves being a mother so they goes for three.
And big cars.
They loves their big cars, don’t they.
KAREN Do they?
GAIL And on these roads.
We’re not America though, are we, Kaz?
KAREN Perhaps they do love being a mother.
Perhaps that’s a thing.
GAIL Maybe.
Maybe they do.
Ah, ignore me.
I’m only messing with you.
Too much time on my hands is the problem.
It does seem like a thing though, don’t it.
KAREN It’s not a thing, Jesus, Gail.
GAIL It’ll all change again soon enough, anyway. When the likes of me starts eating kale and chia seeds they won’t do it no more then.
They’ll find something else.
KAREN Will they. Right, well that’s sorted out the middle classes then.
Look
Gail, I’m sorry but
I really do need to go home.
GAIL Bet those three girls of yours don’t have to share like we did.
KAREN gathers her things together.
KAREN The little ones share. They’re very close.
GAIL Remember though.
Me and you in that room.
KAREN Not really.
GAIL starts doing a funny version of ‘My Baby Just Cares for Me’.
GAIL ‘Ba doom da boom da boom, boom, boom, boom…’ Remember, Kaz?
Does a silly dance as she sings – tries to engage an awkward KAREN.
She sings the first couple of lines of
the song.
We used to do that dance? That one. With the feet thing. And you used to nod your head like you was…
I dunno, like…
Shows KAREN.
My baby just cares for me
Like this, remember?
Exaggerates the dance – tries to get KAREN in it.
Sings the next two lines of the song.
We loved that song. We’d sing it to each other? You remember?
KAREN No, I’m not sure I do.
KAREN’s really not into the song or GAIL, very uncomfortable for her.
GAIL stops.
Shrugs.
GAIL We was always. Playing it. Singing it.
GAIL picks up photo.
Your kids are pretty.
GAIL smiles at the photo, maybe touches the glass.
KAREN stops.
Watches GAIL.
They’re beautiful, Kaz.
They look fresh.
That their school uniform?
KAREN Um.
I don’t know. Probably.
GAIL Not like us. We looked like scraps, didn’t we?
Right scruffy scraps we was.
I never had any new clothes, remember.
Always had your hand-me-downs.
And they come from God-knows-where before you had ’em.
That coat I had. That parka. With the fur and all that quilting in the inside. I thought I was Liam Gallagher.
And the hood zipped right up over my face. Looked like an alien or something. Like an old-fashioned diver.
I never took the hood down. Even in the summer. I thought I was going to pass out half the time but I still wouldn’t take it off.
I loved that coat.
Back to the photo.
They are cute though, your girls. With the pigtails and that.
I’d like to meet them.
KAREN Would you.
KAREN takes the photo back.
GAIL I would, yeah.
I got time on my hands.
I could meet them.
KAREN puts the photo in her drawer.
Are they like you?
KAREN They’re very bright, thriving at school. They’re good kids. Amazing actually.
GAIL They look like you a bit I think.
KAREN They look like my husband.
GAIL I could come round yours?
No response.
The little one there.
She looks like she’s got a bit of cheek to her, if you ask me.
Like her mother, I bet.
What’s her name?
KAREN She’s like her father. She’s a joy. Very sweet.
GAIL They say that about girls, don’t they? That it’s some sort of nature thing that they look like their dads.
Pause.
The little ones are special though, ain’t they. The baby.
I just had two.
Boys.
The oldest was a mistake. He’s a little sod.
The little one was a mistake an’ all but.
I wanted him anyways.
I really wanted him.
I grew into the oldest. Too much like me, that’s his problem.
The two of them though.
Thick as thieves they are.
They’re my world though.
KAREN They’re all special. It’s an absolute privilege… well…
GAIL Yeah. There’s nothing quite like it is there. Being a mother.
Pause.
KAREN Why are you here, Gail?
Pause.
GAIL After you went.
I looked for you.
Couldn’t find you.
It was like you just disappeared.
I didn’t stop, though. Looking for you.
They tried to stop me but.
You know me, when I get something in my head.
KAREN I didn’t know.
GAIL And I know, you know, I know we was kids when it all happened.
They didn’t want us kicking up a fuss. I know that now.
They made it impossible for me to find you.
But
You just went.
Like that.
And I thought.
It wasn’t your fault. I know it wasn’t your fault but.
There was no trace of you
KAREN I don’t want to talk about it, Gail.
GAIL I thought you could have let me know where you was.
Pause.
Just a note I thought.
Anything really.
KAREN Look, I don’t remember much about it.
I
I don’t remember
They told me they sent you away.
GAIL They tried.
KAREN Scotland or somewhere, I think they said.
GAIL Everyone’s so nice up there. Friendly. Clean air.
Fucking hated it.
Couldn’t keep me there. Kept running away.
I missed the hall. Even missed fucking Rocking Roberts, remember him, Kaz. He used to get off on belting the shit out of us. And his sidekick. Nasty bitch. She was. It’s a joke innit. But I missed her an’ all.
Then they chucked me over the water to Belfast for a bit.
Thought the sea would stop me.
But I’m like that thing. That what’s-it-called from Australia. A boomerang.
Water couldn’t stop me.
I was back soon enough.
I liked Belfast better than Scotland.
Belfast was more like here.
I worried about you.
KAREN I was with a good family.
GAIL I can see.
You’re talking all posh and dressed all nice.
KAREN A proper family.
In Wales.
GAIL Wales.
Fucking hell.
KAREN I loved it there.
GAIL I would never have looked in Wales.
KAREN They looked after me.
Properly.
Gave me a life.
Pause.
I loved the clean air.
Everyone so friendly.
Being nice.
I thought to myself. I remember thinking to myself you would have hated it.
We were surrounded by sea.
Beaches.
I thought about how you hated the sand. Remember.
That time they took us on that trip to the coast.
I think it was the first time we’d ever seen a beach. Sand.
You had that coat on for most of the day.
GAIL laughs.
GAIL I took it off when they buried us.
KAREN That’s right. I forgot that.
GAIL The sand got everywhere.
KAREN Two heads popping above a blanket of sand.
GAIL There was a photo of that, I think.
KAREN You moaned the whole day.
The sand hurt your feet.
Got in the fur of your coat.
GAIL We had egg sandwiches.
I remember that.
Egg sandwiches…
KAREN …that crunched with sand…
GAIL …and warm squash.
Rocko Roberts told us to bury the bottle, remember.
KAREN Bury the bottle to keep the squash cold.
GAIL It was warm.
KAREN It was warm.
GAIL And covered in grit and sand.
KAREN And that game? What was it?
GAIL Rounders.
I hated that game.
KAREN You and your coat stood as far away from the game as you could.
GAIL I was fielding.
KAREN Is that what you call it?
GAIL I was thinking ahead in case of a huge strike and then I’d be in place to stop a sixer.
KAREN You were sat far enough away so that no one could see you smoking, is what you were doing.
KAREN laughs.
GAIL He’s dead.
KAREN Who?
GAIL Rocko.
I went to his funeral.
He died last
year.
KAREN I didn’t know that.
GAIL His wife was there. And his son. His daughters.
Grandchildren. They were devastated. Hundreds of people were there.
I had a thought that I might go to the front of the church and punch his photo off his coffin. Tell everyone what a wanker he was.
But.
I was late. I went in.
Sat at the back.
His coffin was small. I remembered him being so big.
I thought. He must have been ill. For it to be so small. He must have been ill.
I hope he suffered.
I thought about you.
KAREN You shouldn’t have.
GAIL I did.
I thought about you a lot, as it happens.
Over the years.
I never stopped thinking about you.
KAREN Jesus, Gail.
GAIL You was always in here. (Head.)
They look at each other.
I found you now though.
Pause.
They hold a look.
I thought, Kaz.
I thought,
you know,
us,
I thought we could.
I thought we could start over or something.
Lets that settle.
KAREN doesn’t respond for a while.
In that silence GAIL notes the rejection of that idea.
KAREN I think you should leave now, Gail.
It’s been nice catching up but I need to go.
GAIL processes everything.
GAIL Karen.
KAREN I’m going to phone down to let Bill know we’re finished here and the office is clear.
GAIL Karen. There was something, Kaz.
KAREN picks up a phone and buzzes to reception.
See, I wouldn’t ask unless I was… I need your help, Kaz.
KAREN (To phone.) Hi Bill,
GAIL Karen?
KAREN (To phone.) Yep. On my way.
KAREN watches GAIL.
Actually, Bill, there’s someone here with me so
there’ll be
two of us leaving.
That’s right.
No. Everyone else has gone.
GAIL I just. There’s something I need to ask.
KAREN (To phone.) Thanks, Bill.
Puts down phone, waits for GAIL to speak.
GAIL So.
Yes.
Yeah, well
It’s awkward a bit
I just
KAREN What?
GAIL I dunno now, feels a bit…
See the thing is.
Pause.
I wanted to see you. I did. I told you I looked for you.
I didn’t give up. I just.
Life throws things at you.
I had kids of my own.
And time flies, don’t it.
Years go by.
I really wanted to see you.
KAREN Well, you’ve seen me, Gail.
GAIL Yeah.
KAREN Okay.
GAIL Yeah, okay.
The thing is…
Takes a breath.