by John O'Neill
NED HICKEY
I'm pleased to meet you, sir.
ROBERT PROCTOR
You look a likely lad, Ned. Had some schooling, your father tells me. But how about work? Have you been out working yet?
NED HICKEY
I help me father at times when he gets work at Ballintemple, building the new walls around the estate for Lord Butler.
ROBERT PROCTOR
Do you indeed? Maybe you can help me then to lift this brute of a stone I need to finish the course and make a corner? I was set to build a ramp and slide it up but maybe the two of us?
Ned sets himself, crouches, lifts the rock up and rests it on his knees. Then, with a smooth lift up to his chest and lowers it into its place on the wall. His father smiles. Proctor gapes.
ROBERT PROCTOR
It looks like you've got the job, lad. If we're all agreed you'd better come along and meet Mrs Proctor.
JAMES HICKEY
I'll be leaving you, son. Work well for your new master. I have no doubt he will be more than fair with you. Sure, we'll see you on the Sundays.
James turns to walk away. Then, on an afterthought, he comes back. He takes a worn wooden cross on a leather necklace from his pocket and gives it to Ned.
JAMES HICKEY
This is all I have left of your poor mother. She would have wanted you to have it.
He pats Ned on the shoulder and takes his leave. Ned stuffs the cross in his pocket in some embarrassment. Proctor leads Ned to the door of the farmhouse where his wife Rebecca is waiting with their servant-girl.
ROBERT PROCTOR
Rebecca, this is Ned Hickey who will be working for us. Will you see to him and set up a bed for him in the tackroom, seeing that it is the driest place we've got? And maybe you might find a pair of boots big enough? And maybe an extra shirt? And a trousers?
REBECCA PROCTOR
Anything else you can think of, Robert Proctor?
ROBERT PROCTOR
No, no, I don't think so. Have I forgotten something? Yes, indeed I have. Ned, this is Betsy Maher who, small and all as she is, does a power of work around the place and allows Mrs Proctor all the time she needs for her prayers and good works.
He winks cheerfully at all in turn, wins a smile at last from Rebecca and goes whistling down the yard.
NARRATOR(VO)
Seven happy years I spent at Proctors. They were kind and good people of the Quaker persuasion and although Rebecca thought all Papists were doomed, that did not prevent her from spoiling everyone around her with the love she would have spent on children of her own.
FADE OUT
EXT. - PROCTOR'S FARM - DAY
Montage of shots, unheard discussions, FX (sound effects), showing activities on the farm to accompany narrator.
NARRATOR (VO)
I learned all the arts of farming, milking the cows, handling draught horses, broadcasting the grain-seed, scything and harvesting. Mr Proctor gradually came to trust me and I him despite our differences in age, station and religion.
FADE OUT
INT. - PROCTOR'S KITCHEN - DAY (two years later)
Table set for midday Sunday dinner. Robert at head, Rebecca at foot, Ned (now 15) sits beside Betsy (13).
All seated - soup served with bread basket filled in centre of table. Robert bends his head - all follow.
ROBERT PROCTOR
We thank you, Lord, for our health and happiness and the food you have provided.
REBECCA PROCTOR
And we pray thee, Lord, to care for all those in peril and in want where-ever they may be.
(all respond)
Amen
Ned and Betsy bless themselves with the sign of the cross. They eat soup quietly.
NED HICKEY
A good soup, Mrs Proctor. What's the secret?
REBECCA PROCTOR
No secret, Ned. It's easy when you just give Betsy the run of the kitchen. She will make some lucky man a good wife some day.
NED HICKEY
(laughs) And who would be bothered waiting for her to grow up?
Betsy blushes, angry, and leaves the table abruptly, hiding her annoyance at the open kitchen fire where she takes a roast of meat from the pot, serves it on a wide dish before Robert Proctor, who admires it, savours the aroma, nods approval to Betsy and sets to carving.
Betsy, meanwhile, grabs the soup dishes off the table and serves out the vegetables on four plates for Mr Proctor to add the slices of meat.
Betsy resumes her seat beside Ned and, without looking up, she remarks -
BETSY MAHER
From what I hear about the dances and ceilis, Ned doesn't seem to be interested in the girls or they in him.
NED HICKEY
(seething) And what would you know, little brat? You aren't even big enough to go out at night.
REBECCA PROCTOR
Enough, I say. Betsy doesn't go only because I say no. Dancing and frivolity is not what we do in the service of the Lord. And if you're not careful, Ned Hickey, you will stay home at nights too and see how that suits you.
Robert Proctor throws a warning glance at Ned and attempts to cool the argument.
ROBERT PROCTOR
This is no way to enjoy a Sunday dinner and you should be ashamed to have started it, Ned, especially with Betsy so fond of you ... and all of us..
(he added hastily)
There was a long silence, broken by Ned, turning to Betsy.
NED HICKEY
I'm sorry, kitten. I was only teasing.
Ned puts his arm across Betsy's shoulders in a brotherly way to which she smiles forgiveness.
Robert and Rebecca exchange smiles. He, brightly (problem solved). She, hesitantly, (problem looming).
(Later, table cleared of dinner dishes)
ROBERT PROCTOR
Well, you two, I expect you are away to your people for the rest of the day? Go carefully and get back before dark for the roads are not safe with all the rogues about.
NED HICKEY
Sure I'll just go across the fields and up the Mass-path to see my father and Andy. I'll be safe as houses.
BETSY MAHER
Tom and the rest of them will be waiting for me at the river crossing, and from there sure it is only a step across the bogs.
REBECCA PROCTOR
God be with you then.
(as they hurry away out the door)
FADE OUT
EXT. - HICKEY'S COTTAGE - DAY
Ned's father, James, stands at the door, obviously waiting for Ned. Ned approaches.
NED HICKEY
Good day to you, father.
JAMES HICKEY
Failte romhat, Eamon. I thought you might not get away.
James turns and calls in to the cottage.
JAMES HICKEY
Andy, your brother is here.
Andy Hickey appears, blinking in the sunlight. He is a slighter member of the family. He carries a book in his hand, one finger marking the page.
ANDY HICKEY
Would you look at this, Ned.
The book is a translation of the 'The Social Contract' by Rousseau. Andy is excited and voluble.
ANDY HICKEY
This is the way, Ned. Some day we will all live this way, all equal under the law, with equal rights and opportunities and obligations to each other. No more bowing and scraping to the gentry and hiding our religion and education for fear of what they may do to us.
NED HICKEY
Is this what you're teaching the children who pay you the odd penny or sod of turf for their chance to read and write?
JAMES HICKEY
You're dreaming again, Andy. There is no justice here and never will. There was no recourse when Bully Dysart evicted us from our little farm as your mother gave birth to your sister. No one we could turn to then and none now. I'm glad they died for I've never made a decent living since.
NED HICKEY
Didn't you do all you could for us, father. Haven't I got a good position at Proctors and Andy
a well-respected schoolmaster.
Ned looks at Andy and shakes his head. Their father's obsession with the past is wearing him down. His health and strength are obviously failing.
JAMES HICKEY
Well, there's a rabbit stew on the fire and maybe you would come in and share it with us?
NED HICKEY
(hesitates briefly) I will and gladly, father, and thank you for it.
James goes inside. Andy turns to Ned with a smile and a wink.
ANDY HICKEY
Sometimes the children catch more than the sod of turf along the way.
They go inside.
FADE OUT
INT. - PROCTOR'S TACKROOM - DAY
Ned's bed is in one corner with few possessions. The cross hangs on a nail. Horse tackle hangs neatly on pegs from the walls of the long, narrow building. There is a bench under the window.
Robert Proctor enters with Ned, carrying two guns of the period, (flintlocks and muzzle-loaders), and a pistol-case. They place the guns carefully on the bench.
