They Have Oak Trees in North Carolina
Page 2
manage very well
And this place
It’s hard to find
It’s a trek
Remote
At night it’s dark
People don’t like that
Driving home in the black it’s not everyone’s cup of tea
CLAY But I found you.
RAY Yes
I don’t know how
I shall be ringing the newspaper in the morning
I’ll lodge a complaint
CLAY There are places
Up in the mountains up
Behind the cedar trees and the scrub oaks
No electricity
Just a lantern for light
The places I’ve lived
Used to terrify me when I was a kid
Pause.
RAY I’m going to count to ten.
I’m going to count to ten then I want you to go
CLAY Remember the day?
RAY One
CLAY You were wearing khaki shorts
RAY Two
CLAY You had a red face from sitting in the sun too long
RAY Three
CLAY Mom had gone to the store
RAY Four
CLAY You stayed behind
RAY Five
CLAY She left me with you
RAY Six
CLAY You said you’d look after
RAY Seven
CLAY I went outside
RAY Eight
CLAY You told me to go outside
RAY Nine
CLAY You were at the window and
RAY Get out get out get out get out!
SCENE TWO
The same room. Later.
EILEEN Your hands
CLAY The same hands
EILEEN Yes
And your eyes they’re
CLAY Green
EILEEN Like mine
CLAY Just like.
EILEEN Oh
Your hair too
You haven’t changed
CLAY You have
You look like a different person
EILEEN I’m older
CLAY Yes
EILEEN A bit fatter
CLAY No
EILEEN And my hair
It’s grey
It used to be black
CLAY That’s right, I remember
EILEEN I’ve got a slight stoop
Look
The doctor says I’ve weak bones
My bones are crumbling like a cliff too close to the sea
I get pains in my fingers
See
My hands are like claws
Hope I haven’t passed that on to you
CLAY I don’t think so
EILEEN I’d have recognised you anywhere
After all these years
If I’d seen you in the street or
walked past you in a shop I’d have shouted
I’d have screamed
I’d have torn my throat out for screaming
I wouldn’t have let you go.
Just look at you.
Come here
You’re handsome
Good looking
CLAY Am I?
EILEEN Yes
And you’re strong you’re
Like a man
CLAY Well I am a man yes
EILEEN But no ordinary man.
Not any old member of the general public you look like
an actor
CLAY An actor?
EILEEN Yes
Not some guy in the background or some fool in a soap no
You look like
a superstar!
CLAY What?
No!
EILEEN You could be in films
CLAY Really?
EILEEN You could walk the red carpet
CLAY Come on
EILEEN Be in magazines
You’d sell thousands of copies
CLAY (Laughs.)
EILEEN Or
What about an athlete?
CLAY Athlete?
EILEEN Yes
Win a gold medal
CLAY At the Olympics?
EILEEN Yes
You could be a runner or a tennis player
If someone told me you were a famous tennis player I’d believe them
CLAY Would you?
EILEEN Yes
Or you could jump hurdles or…swim
You could be a champion at swimming or
I know
a boxer.
CLAY Boxer?
You’re kidding
EILEEN You’d glow in the ring
CLAY No way, I’d be scared
terrified
too frightened I’d get hurt.
EILEEN I feel proud
CLAY Do you?
EILEEN The way you’ve turned out
I’m impressed
It’s not what I imagined.
Beat.
CLAY What did you imagine?
EILEEN A child.
Beat.
Never a man.
CLAY You thought I was dead?
EILEEN Sometimes
Sometimes that’s what I wanted
It would have been easier
Until today the
not knowing
it was like living in mist.
I used to have dreams.
You were swimming in a river
Your face was green
You had seaweed in your fingers and
fish swimming in your hair
Or sometimes you’d be in the earth
All warm and brown
An animal would come along
A bear or a dog I don’t know which and he’d snuffle the ground til he’d find you
Dig you up
Not dead
But not alive either.
CLAY That’s awful
EILEEN It didn’t feel awful
Waking up
Reminding myself
Remembering what had happened
That was horrible
CLAY I used to dream that I could walk through walls
EILEEN Did you?
CLAY I’d disappear into stone
I’d stay there til it was safe to come out
Sometimes the walls would eat me up
I had those dreams til I was fourteen
After that they stopped
Pause.
EILEEN We tried to look for you
You know that don’t you?
CLAY Yes
EILEEN We had posters made
Went on TV
But things over there they were different.
The people
The money
The sound of them
It was so fast.
They talked fast, moved fast
Not like here.
Police said it happened all the time.
In the next state five little girls in two years
What was so special about us?
What was so special about you?
I said he’s my son that makes him special
They said could you get a cuter photo.
CLAY I’ve seen that picture
Who took it?
EILEEN A friend of ours, Bill
CLAY It looks nothing like me
EILEEN I liked it
You look…thoughtful
Truth is it was the only one I had
It was the photo I used to keep in my purse
CLAY They didn’t do a very good job
EILEEN The police?
CLAY Yes
EILEEN No
But then there were no systems, no special people to call
Not like now
Now they dredge the lake
Dust up fingerprints
Alert the helicopters
But they took statements
looked for witnesses
In the end only two people came forward
Do you know this?
CLAY No
EILEEN One w
as a teenager
Little girl really
One was eighty-three
Mentioned the same van
Blue
it was.
So they put out calls
Pulled people over
They were obsessed with that van, the police
They were on a mission:
Find the blue van with the number plate that no one could remember.
But a week later the teenager changed her mind
Well she was only young
Said the van might not have been blue
That on second thoughts, it might have been white or black
In fact
it might not have been a van at all
And in all that time I don’t remember getting dressed, waking up or going to sleep
I lost two stone
I got old
Pause.
Then the money ran out
CLAY How long?
EILEEN Did we stay?
CLAY Yes
EILEEN Three months
We had no choice
We had to go back
We knew no one.
You do understand?
Clay nods.
Ray had to work
We had to
go on
And there was nothing you see
Not a hint or
We were only supposed to be there two weeks
CLAY A vacation
EILEEN That’s right
Our first abroad
With you
We were having a lovely time
Do you remember?
CLAY Bits of it
EILEEN Two weeks in Disney World
It was my idea.
The flat rock camping ground.
CLAY Right in the middle of the woods
EILEEN Yes
CLAY I remember that
There were people next door but that was it
I remember there was a little lake and a shop
EILEEN That’s right
Looked beautiful in the brochures
Wood cabins and
CLAY Pine trees
EILEEN Yes yes
Smelt like Christmas in June.
Pause.
I was gone ten minutes
Fifteen tops
CLAY I know
EILEEN That stupid shop
One shop for the whole campsite
for all those woods
I’d only gone for a few bits
nothing special it could have waited
Just food and a couple of toilet rolls
And it wasn’t as though I’d left you alone
was it?
CLAY No
EILEEN It must have happened in a minute
CLAY Yes
EILEEN He closes his eyes or
turns the page in the newspaper
Thirty seconds of washing up
or a trip to the loo.
As soon as I realised
soon as we knew
I went crazy
running about
I didn’t know where
No plan
Up into the woods
Down to the river bank
We ran into people’s cabins
Barging into people’s rooms
I was screaming your name
I was screaming Patrick! Patrick!
I remember standing in the middle of the woods with my arms in the air
screaming
Patrick! Patrick!
Pause.
Could you hear me?
CLAY No
Pause.
I was miles away.
Pause.
EILEEN The person who took you?
Did they
Did they treat you well?
CLAY They’re dead
EILEEN But
Did they look after?
Treat you as their own?
CLAY Yes
Pause.
They treated me as their own.
EILEEN We always hoped
Was she
someone who didn’t have children?
That’s what the police
Someone who’d lost a child or
Is that why?
CLAY No
Pause.
No.
SCENE THREE
The same place, later.
RAY Look
Look!
Take a good look
See
See this picture this
EILEEN Put it away
RAY This boy
This boy is blond
See
See!
His hair
His hair is so white you can see his scalp
See the skin underneath the
Don’t turn away
Look
Look!
He is dark
Dark hair
Dark skin
But this boy this one our one
He’s fair
White
His skin’s so white it’s almost blue!
EILEEN Some babies are born fair
Their hair gets darker as they get older
RAY No
Not this one
No
EILEEN Yes
RAY No!
EILEEN My brother was born blond
When he was three his hair turned black
You look at old photographs you wouldn’t think it was the same child
RAY But Patrick was five
Five when it happened
So any chance of going dark
That would have passed
EILEEN No
RAY Yes!
EILEEN No!
RAY Ok.
Ok ok
So now
Now
I want you to look at this
Look
Look!
Ray physically forces her to look. He has a copy of a missing poster. The child in the poster is the same blond child in the photograph but he’s aged up. He looks about twelve.
Had you forgotten?
You must have seen this a hundred times and yet
She snatches it from him.
EILEEN Where did you get that?
RAY Where it’s always been
See.
Nothing
Nothing like
EILEEN Put it away
He takes the poster back.
RAY Hair
Still blond
Skin
Still white
EILEEN So?
RAY So?
EILEEN That’s an artist’s impression
Someone’s taken licence that doesn’t mean
RAY But you always thought this was very good
this picture, this man’s idea of
We were pleased with this because look
shape of the nose
Long
like mine
Lips
a bit thin
yours.
And look at this child
his build
Here he’s supposed to be what?
Twelve? Thirteen?
But he’s small for his age our son he’s
puny
tiny
like my father
Would grow maybe what?
Five-four, five-five, six at a push?
The sort of boy who’d who’d
be a jockey or
EILEEN A jockey?
RAY Yes
Maybe or
I don’t know
But he’s a lightweight, featherweight
a wiry kind of guy a
Sammy Davies Junior
EILEEN Sammy Davies Junior was black
He had one glass eye!
RAY The American is six foot
He’s got shoulders
Muscle
Arms like boulders
He’s got concrete bricks growing up inside his skin
He’s never Sammy Davies Junior.
He’s…Brando in
The Wild One or
Gregory Peck
EILEEN He’s my son!
RAY So where has he been all these years Eileen?
Where did he live?
Who looked after him?
EILEEN He didn’t say
RAY (Mimicking her.) Didn’t say?
EILEEN No
RAY Did you ask him?
EILEEN I didn’t want to upset him
RAY No no mustn’t upset him.
A stranger comes here unannounced, to our home, says he’s our son and you don’t ask where he’s been for twenty years!
EILEEN I couldn’t
I told you he was upset
RAY He’s upset?!
EILEEN I think
What happened that day that
I think we got it wrong
RAY Wrong?
EILEEN Yes
It wasn’t
some girl who’d lost a baby
any of that
RAY Of course it was
EILEEN No.
I said to him, I said was it someone who didn’t have children?
Some desperate woman or
he said no
RAY then what did he say?
EILEEN Nothing
He was upset
I told you
RAY But what about the witnesses?
EILEEN They must have been mistaken
RAY No!
They weren’t mistaken
That’s what they saw
EILEEN One of those witnesses was eighty-three years old Ray
RAY So so?
She always seemed very sharp to me very
So, what is he suggesting this stranger this
EILEEN A man
I suppose
RAY A man?
EILEEN Yes some
Oh I don’t want to think about it
RAY There was no man
EILEEN Says who?
RAY Everyone
No one has ever mentioned a man
EILEEN All these years we’ve created a picture of what happened but it’s not based on anything known
Just bits of scraps of things
Well what if none of it was true?
Maybe, what happened was much worse than we wanted to imagine.
RAY But that girl she said she saw a woman
and the police said that was the most likely
always said that didn’t they?
They did checks
EILEEN Of people who were known to them
That’s all
I’ve heard about this happening, read about it
Poor mothers of missing daughters hoping their kid will one day come through the door say, ‘Hello mum I’m fine,’ when in reality they’re lying in a back garden somewhere waiting to be dug up.
RAY Jesus
EILEEN And when the police come and tell them the truth the mothers they never say,
‘Well that’s no surprise. I’d been expecting that,’
cause you don’t think the worst you hope for the best.
Otherwise it’d kill you.
Pause.
RAY He tried to tell me you worked in the pub
EILEEN What pub?
RAY In Nettlebury
The George
He tried to tell me that
EILEEN What did he say?
RAY That you used to go out in the dark
Come home late
Bring back crisps or something
EILEEN He said that?
RAY Yes