by Fin Kennedy
And able to call in back-up at a moment’s notice.
MRS KHAN speaks into her lapel.
MRS KHAN. Budgens to HQ, Budgens to HQ. Air strike required on Whitechapel High Street. T minus five minutes and counting.
MRS KHAN makes a hasty exit.
NARRATORS. All in all
It is a world of softness
Imagination
And possibility
Where no one but Amina is in control.
NABIJAH takes out a packed suitcase.
But then
One day.
NABIJAH. I’ve had enough.
SAMIT. What?
NABIJAH. I’m leaving.
SAMIT. Oh.
NABIJAH. Yes, I’ve got a job.
SAMIT. That’s good. Where?
NABIJAH. America.
SAMIT. Oh.
NABIJAH. Yes, you remember Steve Jobs?
SAMIT. Who?
NABIJAH. Head of Apple Computers.
SAMIT. Oh yes.
NABIJAH. Well he died.
SAMIT. Did he?
NABIJAH. And I’ve been asked to replace him.
SAMIT. As –
NABIJAH. Yes, as the Head of Apple Computers.
SAMIT. Oh. Congratulations.
NABIJAH. Thanks.
SAMIT. When do you start?
NABIJAH. Immediately. I’m flying first class to Sillycone Valley.
NABIJAH takes out a silly cone and puts it on her head.
SAMIT. What’s that?
NABIJAH. A silly cone. It’s what they wear out there.
SAMIT. Oh right. When will you be back?
NABIJAH. The corporate world is very demanding.
SAMIT. Oh. I see.
NABIJAH. Goodbye, Samit.
SAMIT. Wait.
NABIJAH. What?
SAMIT. What about Amina?
NABIJAH. What about her? She’s fifteen. She needs to take some responsibility. And so do you.
SAMIT. Can you send money?
NABIJAH. Stand on your own two feet!
NABIJAH goes, slamming the door behind her.
SAMIT. But I am…
The slam echoes around the flat.
…standing on my…
SAMIT becomes unsteady on his feet.
.…own two…
The echoey door slam gets louder.
…feet.
SAMIT falls backwards. The others catch him and carry him away.
NARRATORS. And as her mother’s exit echoed around the flat
Rattling windows
And knocking against walls
Slowly
And silently
The damp Victorian box they called home
Began to express its grief.
A slow dance: the flat grieves NABIJAH’s loss.
Creaking
In place of weeping
And plaster
In place of tears.
Big chunks of plaster fall from the apartment walls, leaving gaping holes.
But as their apartment mourned
It also gave up its secret.
Inside one of the holes appears a very old box of dominoes.
AMINA picks them up and blows off the dust.
She opens them and examines one.
SAMIT. What is it?
AMINA holds them up. SAMIT frowns.
Dominoes?
Suddenly, there is a loud knocking on the front door.
Quick – hide. It’s the debt collector! Cover your eyes, he’s made of sand!
SAMIT and AMINA hide.
The DEBT COLLECTOR swirls in. He is made of sand.
DEBT COLLECTOR. You cannot hide from me!
I can pour through windows
Letterboxes
Through the tiniest cracks in the wall!
Look how much you owe;
These holes, they need fixing
These stomachs, they need filling
This rent, it needs paying.
Look at the grains as they slip through your fingers
Money
Time
Life
Tick tock indeed
Without your wife they’ve doubled in speed
You are running out of them all
And when they are gone
I will be back to claim what is mine.
I accept payment in sand
Suffering
Or SOULS.
SAMIT holds a hairdryer at arm’s length.
SAMIT. Get back – or I’ll blow you away!
The DEBT COLLECTOR knocks it out of SAMIT’s hands.
DEBT COLLECTOR. Pathetic! Pay what you owe, Mr Rahman.
Pay what you owe.
The DEBT COLLECTOR whirls off.
SAMIT. I need more time.
Amina, help me.
We must put all the clocks in the freezer.
AMINA (and the NARRATORS) helps SAMIT put all the clocks in the flat into a deep freeze.
NARRATORS. Tick tock
Tick tock
Tick tock
Tick tock
Tick… tock
Tick… tock.
The ticking slows down as the clocks pile up in the freezer.
Tiiiiiick
Toooooock
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. (i.e. A ‘freezing’ noise.)
SAMIT. Good. Well done. And now… now, I must find a job.
NARRATORS. Five simple words
But with them
Samit Rahman bid farewell to a dream.
SAMIT puts his coat on.
But before Samit can leave the flat
Eeee3
Head held high
Eeeeeee
And nobly shuffle to the Jobcentre
Eeeeeeeeeeeee
Fate intervenes.
SAMIT looks back at the freezer laden with clocks. It is groaning with the weight of them all.
SAMIT. No – no!
NARRATORS. Too late!
The frozen weight of all that stopped time
Is too much for their woodworm-riddled floorboards
Bent double
Like a brick on a twig
And with an almighty crash.
SFX: Crash!
The fully laden freezer
Plummets through the floor
And down through the ceiling of the flat below
In an explosion of splinters and springs!
They peer down into the flat below. MRS KHAN is trapped in the wreckage.
SAMIT. Grumpy Mrs Khan!
MRS KHAN. Help!
Blue lights flash.
Some PARAMEDICS take MRS KHAN away on a stretcher.
Some POLICEMEN4 appear.
POLICEMAN ONE. Samit Rahman?
SAMIT. Yes.
POLICEMAN TWO. You’re under arrest.
SAMIT. I can explain.
POLICEMAN ONE. Can you?
SAMIT. No.
POLICEMAN TWO. This way, sir.
SAMIT. Wait. Amina – take this.
SAMIT gives AMINA his antique silver pocket watch.
To keep you going. It’s an antique.
POLICEMAN ONE. Come on, sunshine.
The POLICEMEN take SAMIT away.
AMINA is left holding the silver pocket watch, and the set of dominoes.
NARRATORS. And so it was
At the tender age of fifteen
Much as she anticipated it would
The world abandoned Amina Rahman
And left her
To fend
For herself.
The NARRATORS hand AMINA a Yellow Pages; she flicks through it.
The dancers arrange an antiques shop around her.
A sign goes up, it reads ‘Artemis Antiques’.
AMINA puts down the Yellow Pages and tentatively pushes open the door.
It creaks. The antiques shop is dusty and filled with junk.
AMINA hesitantly looks around.
ARTEMIS pops up from nowhere.
She is a grand old dame.
She looks a bit like a fortune-teller.
ARTEMIS. Hello, my dear.
I know – you can’t speak
Can’t or won’t – it’s a subtle distinction
But we don’t judge here
In any case
Your thoughts speak for you
Oh yes, deafening they are
Some of the loudest I’ve heard
And there you were thinking you were quiet
Me?
Wouldn’t you like to know…
They call me Artemis
Keeper of the past
Shaper of the future
For whosoever owns the past
Controls the present
And can therefore predict the future
Now
How can I help?
AMINA holds out the silver pocket watch.
ARTEMIS takes it.
A fine exhibit
Egyptian, if I’m not mistaken
1898 – a wealthy merchant’s, no doubt
How did you come by it?
Your father?
Goodness me, and you want to sell it?
No no no no no
That isn’t what he meant at all
It has a function far more valuable than money
Because it has brought you here, of course
To Artemis Antiques
Where all possibilities intersect
Now
The true treasure you are holding beneath your arm.
AMINA indicates the set of dominoes.
Oh yes
Allow me to demonstrate
If I may?
AMINA holds out the domino set.
ARTEMIS floats over to it and picks one out.
She cups it in her hands like a dice.
The domino effect
You understand it as leading to catastrophe
And it can
But learn its secrets
And it can also lead to triumph;
For these are not just dominoes
They are ivory eggs5
What hatches from them
Is entirely in your hands.
Use them wisely…
Watch.
ARTEMIS blows on the domino.
It floats out of her hands.
It floats towards a hospital bed being assembled by the NARRATORS.
MRS KHAN lies unconscious in the bed, head wrapped in bandages.
Remember Mrs Khan?
AMINA gasps.
Ssh.
A pile of spy novels stand at the side of MRS KHAN’s bed.
A life-support machine beeps next to her.
One of the spy novels floats up and catches the domino between its pages, closing on it like a set of jaws.
ARTEMIS casts another, and the same happens.
She casts a third.
(To AMINA.) Upon waking
Grumpy Mrs Khan will find these mysterious clues
Nestled among the pages
Of her favourite spy novels.
We see this happen as ARTEMIS describes it.
Taking it as a deliberate communication
From a secret source
She attempts to break the code
And read the message concealed within.
With one domino in her hand, MRS KHAN flicks through the first spy novel, cross-referencing the pages and words with the numbers on the dominoes.
MRS KHAN. ‘Return’…
She picks up the second book and second domino.
…‘to’…
She picks up the third book and third domino.
…‘work’.
ARTEMIS. Then
She begins to cross-reference.
MRS KHAN picks up the first domino and applies it to the second book.
MRS KHAN. ‘Await’…
MRS KHAN picks up the second domino and applies it to the first book.
.…‘further’…
MRS KHAN picks up the third domino and applies it to the first book.
‘Instructions’.
MRS KHAN climbs out of bed in a hurry, her head still bandaged.
A NURSE (one of the NARRATORS) tries to stop her.
NURSE. Mrs Khan, please, your injuries –
MRS KHAN. No time for that!
My Government needs me.
ARTEMIS. News of this naturally reaches your father’s prosecutors.
SAMIT appears in a jail cell.
Poor dear man
Languishing in jail
Awaiting trial.
Two LAWYERS appears with clipboards.
LAWYER ONE. Apparently the victim has made a full recovery, sir.
LAWYER TWO. In that case we must reduce the charges.
LAWYER ONE. Yes, sir.
LAWYER TWO. Delete bodily harm. Put criminal damage.
LAWYER ONE. Right you are, sir.
We return to ARTEMIS and AMINA.
ARTEMIS. Pray
Hope
Love
And it shall be so
Your turn.
ARTEMIS hands AMINA a domino.
AMINA takes it and cups it as ARTEMIS did.
Choose a target.
STANLEY TROUT appears, homeless and dishevelled, slumped asleep in a shop doorway, a begging cap in front of him contains a few coins.
Ah, very good.
Now close your eyes
And blow.
AMINA does so and the domino flies out of her hands. It floats over to STANLEY and lands in his begging cap.
NARRATORS. Ssssssh
Awaking one morning
From a night’s cold winter slumber
Local alcoholic and tramp Mr Stanley Trout
Fishes through the coins in his begging cap
As he does every morning
In the hope that providence may have intervened as he slept
And deposited a gift;
A fifty-pound note perhaps
A meaningful job offer
His ex-wife Tina
Or even the spirit of Clara, his beloved baby girl
Whose loss remains
The aching hole at the heart of his life;
And where this all began.
Today, there is something there
Though not what he expected
A lone pair of dominoes…
Although not a religious man
Stanley Trout takes their mysterious appearance in his cap
As some sort of sign
And so, gathering his small change
Instead of buying his usual daily scratchcard
And can of lager
Stanley opts instead for a Lottery ticket
A chance to use the domino numbers
And see if his luck might change.
STANLEY fills in a Lottery ticket.
He hands it to MRS KHAN at her till, her head still bandaged.
STANLEY. What happened to your head?
MRS KHAN. Shut yer face.
The Lottery draw appears on a screen somewhere; STANLEY watches it intently, clutching his ticket.
NARRATORS. Alas not a single one of Stanley’s numbers comes up.
Disgusted, STANLEY screws his ticket up and throws it away.
But the need to find a TV shop showing the draw
Has taken Stanley away from his usual begging route
And he finds himself standing next door
To Spitalfields City Farm
Which is currently hiring workers.
A ‘Staff Wanted’ sign appears.
Venturing inside
The former domestic-heating engineer Stanley Trout
Is so bewitched by the baby animals
Lambs
Chicks
Piglets
Even a foal
And so horrified by their freezing cold barns
(A condition with which Stanley himself is all too familiar)
That he is moved to offer his services
And designs an ingenious heating system
Fo
r the network of stables and outhouses
Powered entirely by the methane
Produced by the animals themselves.
STANLEY holds up a complicated diagram of how the system works to an interview panel. Animals moo and fart. The interview panel give STANLEY the thumbs-up.
This first taste of meaningful employment in over ten years
Infuses Stanley’s life
With a warm rush of newfound pride and purpose.
And while nothing can replace the loss of his baby girl
All those years ago
Something about being around baby animals
New life
Every day
Connects him to a greater cycle of life
Death
And meaning
Which, slowly but surely
Ignites a pilot light
In the frozen boiler of his soul
And with it
Stanley’s heart begins to thaw.
He holds down the job
He gives up the bottle
Finds himself a little bedsit
Until one day
He is even brave enough
To pick up the phone.
STANLEY dials a number.
STANLEY. Tina? It’s me. Stanley.
STANLEY wipes away a tear.
I was thinking we could maybe… try again.
We return to ARTEMIS and AMINA.
ARTEMIS. Beautiful. You’re a natural, my girl. Who’s next?
JOYNUL UDDIN appears, in his butcher’s overalls, cutting some meat.
Aha. This one I have been waiting for. About time.
AMINA blows on another domino and it flies towards JOYNUL and lands on his chopping board. He doesn’t notice it at first.
NARRATORS. Early one morning
Digitally challenged halal butcher Joynul Uddin
Is chopping chickens into quarters
(Dead ones obviously)
While thinking about his ex-wife.
JOYNUL strikes at the chickens with his cleaver with some force.
When all of a sudden his cleaver strikes an extra-hard chunk of bone
He cleaves at it with extra force
And again
And again
And again!
Before finally the obstruction breaks in two.
JOYNUL examines the domino, now broken into two halves right down the line in the middle.
On closer inspection it appears to be a domino
Now perfectly split down the middle;
The mysterious appearance of which inside a chicken
Gives him pause
And makes him wonder what his supplier has been feeding his birds.
A customer enters – LAILA BEGUM.
His first customer of the day
(One-armed Laila Begum;
Former Bow Gasworks engineer
Now retired since her tragic accident and amputation)
Catches Mr Uddin
Examining the domino pieces with a frown.
LAILA. Good morning, Joynul.
NARRATORS. On looking up
He spies behind her
His beloved piano
Long since silent
Since his own tragic accident all those years ago
