Honey Spot

by Jack Davis

  JACK DAVIS was one of Australia’s leading Indigenous playwrights. His major works include Barungin, The Dreamers, In Our Town and No Sugar. In 1985 Jack was awarded the Order of Australia, received the Sydney Myer Performing Arts Award, an Hon.D.Litt from Murdoch University and was elected Citizen of the Year in Western Australia. He died in March 2000.

  ELLEN JOSÉ is a contemporary artist, of Torres Strait Island descent. Her work is represented in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Holmes à Court collection.

  FIRST PRODUCTION

  Honey Spot was first performed for the Come-Out Festival at the Ardrossan Area School in South Australia on 29 April 1985 with the following cast:

  TIM Michael Watson

  PEGGY Melissa Bickerton

  RANGER Leslie Dayman

  WILLIAM Shane Abdullah

  MOTHER Lynette Narkle

  Directed by Richard Tulloch

  Designed by Richard Roberts

  Choreographed by Jane McLennan

  CHARACTERS

  TIM, an Aboriginal schoolboy, aged 13

  MOTHER, an Aboriginal woman, TIM’s mother, mid-30s

  WILLIAM, a young Aboriginal man, TIM’s cousin

  PEGGY, a white schoolgirl, aged 12

  FOREST RANGER, a white man, PEGGY’s father, late 30s

  SETTING

  The action takes place in a clearing in the forest and in two forestry cottages.

  PROLOGUE

  Music plays. People appear one by one, going about their daily business.

  MOTHER, an Aboriginal woman in her mid-thirties, walks past carrying a shopping bag. The FOREST RANGER watches her go, then finds a limb of a tree lying on the ground. He picks it up and examines it, noticing that it has been cut cleanly through with an axe.

  WILLIAM, a young Aboriginal man, comes along. He is holding an axe. He hides behind the log when he sees the RANGER, then runs off as the RANGER returns to his house.

  TIM, an Aboriginal boy of thirteen, runs along bouncing a basketball. He wears a school uniform. He stops when he sees PEGGY, a twelve-year-old white girl, also in school uniform, practising ballet steps as she walks along. The two look at each other for a moment, then PEGGY runs off.

  WILLIAM comes back and he and TIM throw the basketball between them a couple of times, then leave. MOTHER returns, her shopping bag now full. She stops to rest for a moment, then moves quickly on when she sees the RANGER watching her. The mood is one of suspicion between white and black people.

  SCENE ONE

  It is a hot afternoon in a state forest. TIM arrives, eating a piece of honeycomb which he is holding on a scrap of bark. A small tomahawk is stuck in the band of his school shorts. He sits on the log.

  PEGGY arrives, returning home after a ballet class, practising a step as she walks. She is carrying a school bag. When TIM sees her he hides behind the log, but she has heard a noise and comes back to see who is there. TIM tries to bury himself in the ground but she has seen him.

  PEGGY: Hello?

  TIM: Go away!

  PEGGY: What for?

  TIM: Go away!

  PEGGY: Are you alright?

  TIM: Yeah.

  PEGGY: What’s wrong with you?

  TIM: Nothing. Mind your own business.

  PEGGY: Are you hiding from someone?

  TIM springs to his feet, threatening her with his tomahawk.

  TIM: Clear out, will ya?

  PEGGY sees that he has honey all over the front of his shirt.

  PEGGY: Yuk! You’ve been lying in something.

  TIM: Stop being a sticky beak, will ya?

  PEGGY: It’s honey.

  TIM: No, it’s not.

  PEGGY: I know what you’ve been doing.

  TIM: What?

  PEGGY: And I know who you are. You’re new at our school, aren’t you?

  TIM nods his head.

  Are you in Mr Barker’s class?

  TIM: Mrs Porter’s.

  PEGGY: Mrs Porter’s? That’s only Year Six! How old are you?

  TIM: Thirteen.

  PEGGY: You can’t be.

  TIM: I am.

  PEGGY: You can’t be thirteen in Year Six. I’m only twelve and I’m in Year Seven.

  TIM shrugs his shoulders.

  TIM: I missed some school when we lived up at Moore River.

  PEGGY: Where’d you get the honey?

  TIM: I’m not telling you.

  PEGGY: Why not?

  TIM: ’cause this is a state forest and your dad’s the forest ranger!

  PEGGY: Did you get the honey out of trees?

  No answer.

  Did you cut them down?

  No answer.

  ’Cause if you did you’ll be in trouble. If you cut down trees in a state forest the police can get you and—

  TIM: I don’t cut down trees. I just cut holes in ’em. If you cut down a honey tree there’d be no more honey. Look—there’s a honey tree.

  He points upwards.

  You climb up and make the opening to the hive bigger …

  He sees that PEGGY has become aware that there are bees flying around her.

  What’s the matter?

  PEGGY: Look out, there’s bees!

  She tries to swipe them with her school bag. One lands on her arm and stings.

  Ooh, ah, it bit me!

  TIM: Don’t squeeze it. You’ll squeeze all the venom in!

  PEGGY: It hurts!

  TIM: Let’s have a look.

  He extracts the sting with the blade of the tomahawk.

  There—it’s out.

  PEGGY: Rotten bees.

  TIM: I told you to clear out.

  PEGGY: If you hadn’t taken their honey they wouldn’t have bitten me.

  TIM: They don’t bite, they sting.

  Another bee circles them.

  PEGGY: Look out, there’s one in your hair!

  TIM gently picks it out and shows her.

  TIM: They don’t sting me.

  PEGGY: Step on it!

  TIM: No, they’re my brothers.

  He cradles the bee in his cupped hands, then releases it into the air.

  PEGGY: Who?

  TIM: The bees. They’re my totem.

  PEGGY: Your totem?

  TIM: When I was born a bee came and dropped some honey in my hair. Now I am brother to the plura.

  PEGGY: What’s the plura?

  TIM: The bees. That’s our law, Nyoongah way.

  PEGGY: Gee, you sure got a lot of brothers.

  TIM: Yeah, Nyoongahs got big families, eh?

  PEGGY: Thanks for getting the sting out.

  TIM: Is it swelling up?

  PEGGY: A bit, and I’ve got ballet again tomorrow.

  TIM: Here, take some honey.

  PEGGY: No, no, I don’t want any.

  TIM: Go on, try it. It’s just like a Crunchy Bar, only better.

  PEGGY tries some honey.

  Like it?

  PEGGY: Mmm.

  TIM: Then take it. I can get more, easy.

  PEGGY: Thanks.

  She takes the honey and moves off.

  TIM: Hey, your name’s Peggy Summers, isn’t it?

  PEGGY: Yeah, what’s yours?

  TIM: Tim.

  PEGGY: Tim what?

  TIM: Tim Winalli.

  The conversation is becoming a bit embarassed but both want it to continue.

  PEGGY: Hey, will I see you tomorrow?

  TIM: Maybe at the bus stop.

  PEGGY: Do you live around here?

  TIM: We just moved into that Forestry cottage down Acacia Road.

  PEGGY: Does your dad work for the Forestry too?

  TIM: Nuh. Ain’t got no dad. Forestry just said we could live there. See ya!

  He runs off. PE
GGY calls after him.

  PEGGY: At the bus stop tomorrow, okay?

  But he is gone. A bee flies around her; she waves it away gently.

  ’Bye, plura.

  SCENE TWO

  At the RANGER’s house. The RANGER is sweeping leaves away from the kitchen area when PEGGY enters, calling to him.

  PEGGY: Yoo hoo, Daddy. I’m home.

  RANGER: Hello, young lady. Where have you been all this time?

  PEGGY: Bush walking. I went the long way round after ballet, down by the falls.

  RANGER: You didn’t see a black panel van down there, did you?

  PEGGY: No, why?

  RANGER: Oh, just some young lads I found down there this afternoon. They’d got bored with swimming so they were amusing themselves throwing stones at an old goanna. ‘Just having a bit of fun, Mr Ranger, he’s only a dumb lizard.’ Makes you wonder about some people, doesn’t it?

  A bee buzzes around him.

  Get off, you brute!

  He swipes at it with a copy of a wildlife magazine, but he misses.

  Right, I’ll fix you, Mr Bee!

  He moves in to swat it.

  PEGGY: Oh, don’t kill it, Daddy. It won’t sting you if you ignore it.

  RANGER: Well, it had better ignore me then.

  The bee settles on PEGGY’s bag. The RANGER brushes it off and discovers the honey inside the bag.

  What’s this?

  PEGGY: Honey.

  RANGER: Where did it come from?

  PEGGY: That bee must have dropped it.

  RANGER: Don’t try to be funny, young lady, I want to know where you got it.

  PEGGY: My friend gave it to me.

  RANGER: What friend?

  PEGGY: Just a boy I met in the forest.

  RANGER: Peggy, I’ve warned you about speaking to strangers, especially in the forest.

  PEGGY: Dad, he’s nice. He goes to our school.

  RANGER: What’s his name?

  PEGGY: I don’t know. He’s new at our school.

  RANGER: And where did he get the honey?

  PEGGY: From his brothers.

  RANGER: His brothers?

  PEGGY: The plura. He’s Aboriginal. The bees are his totem so they don’t sting him when he takes their honey.

  RANGER: Well, I’ll sting him if he’s been cutting down trees. He could get a five-hundred-dollar fine, even go to gaol.

  PEGGY: He doesn’t cut down trees. He just cuts holes in them.

  RANGER: I find that hard to believe.

  PEGGY: Daddy, he only had a baby axe, that big.

  She shows him the size of a tomahawk.

  RANGER: Well if he had a power saw he certainly wouldn’t have shown it to you. I think I’d better go and have a word with his father.

  PEGGY: He hasn’t got a father.

  RANGER: Well where does he live, then?

  PEGGY: Daddy, you’re making something out of nothing.

  RANGER: Is he with that Aboriginal family that’s just moved into the Forestry cottage?

  No answer from PEGGY but she can see her father is reading her mind.

  Now, we warned them that if there was any trouble they’d be out on their ears.

  PEGGY: I don’t think he’s one of them.

  RANGER: What does he look like?

  PEGGY: Oh, he’s short and fat, and he walks with a limp, and he has to eat lots and lots of honey because he’s not very healthy.

  RANGER: Peggy, you’re covering up for him.

  PEGGY: No, I swear I aren’t.

  RANGER: You swear you aren’t?

  PEGGY: I mean, I swear I’m not.

  RANGER: That’s better.

  PEGGY picks up her bag and starts to leave the room.

  Where are you off to?

  PEGGY: I’m just going for a walk.

  RANGER: Dinner’s in half an hour, alright?

  PEGGY: Alright.

  She leaves. The bee buzzes around the RANGER. He swats it on the table with the magazine.

  Got you!

  SCENE THREE

  At the Winalli’s cottage. WILLIAM is putting the finishing touches on a didgeridoo. TIM comes in dressed in basketball singlet and carrying a basketball and a pair of socks.

  TIM: Cousin William, you been wearing my socks!

  WILLIAM: Your socks? I wear me own.

  TIM sniffs a sock.

  TIM: Don’t smell like it to me!

  He tosses the sock to WILLIAM who also smells it.

  WILLIAM: Nah, my feet don’t pong like that.

  TIM: They oughta be clean. I washed ’em last week after basketball.

  WILLIAM: Won’t hurt to wear smelly socks to training. It’ll keep the other kids away from you.

  TIM: Keep the other kids away? You leave them socks another week they’ll go training by theirselves!

  They throw the socks on the ground, stamping on them, making a mess.

  Look out, they’re getting away!

  MOTHER enters, carrying a bag of used clothing.

  MOTHER: Hey!

  The boys stop playing.

  Tut tut tut. I’ve been gone two hours and just look at the mess you two have left this place in! William, you get that rubbish out of here this minute. And whose socks are those?

  WILLIAM: Tim’s, Auntie, and they’re real noort! [‘… smelly!’]

  MOTHER: Well, put them in the wash trough, Tim. And William, I don’t want you making didgeridoos or boomerangs in the house again. Do you hear me?

  She rummages in the clothes bag.

  WILLIAM: I had to get this one finished, Auntie. I got a special order for it today.

  MOTHER: Special order or not, in future you make them outside.

  She finds a pair of socks in her bag and tosses them to TIM.

  Here.

  TIM holds the socks aloft.

  TIM: Hey, there’s holes in ’em.

  MOTHER: What do you expect for five cents? Brand new ones?

  WILLIAM: They’re on special at St Vincent de Paul’s, Cousin Tim.

  TIM: Special or not, I’ll make sure you don’t wear ’em.

  MOTHER: [to William] And I’m going with you when you sell this didgeridoo. Our rent’s due Thursday and we need food.

  WILLIAM: Don’t worry, Auntie. Plenty of trees in the forest. I can make a thousand of these, and a thousand boomerangs.

  MOTHER: You want to watch out.

  WILLIAM: What for?

  MOTHER: It’s against the law to cut trees in the forest. You could go to gaol if the Ranger catches you.

  WILLIAM: Ah, he’d never prove I done it. Anyway, I already got a stack cut and drying out.

  MOTHER: I still don’t think it’s right. They gotta protect the forest.

  WILLIAM: Aw Auntie, what’s a few limbs off trees?

  TIM: One good thing you’ll get in gaol, Cousin William.

  WILLIAM: What’s that?

  TIM: A clean pair of socks.

  WILLIAM jokingly aims a blow at TIM. He ducks.

  WILLIAM: Smartie cousin!

  MOTHER: Come on, you two. Where we gotta go to sell this didgeridoo?

  WILLIAM: Into town. Bloke called Barker reckons he’ll give me forty dollars for it.

  TIM: Barker? He’s a teacher at our school.

  WILLIAM: That’s the fella.

  TIM: Can he play the didgeridoo?

  WILLIAM: Dunno, maybe he’ll pay me to give him lessons.

  WILLIAM and MOTHER leave. Tim pulls on his socks and gym boots. PEGGY enters.

  PEGGY: Anybody home?

  TIM goes to meet her and stands awkwardly.

  TIM: Oh, hi.

  PEGGY: Hi.

  TIM: You want to come in? Mum and Cousin William have gone into town.

  She enters and sits. There is a short silence.

  PEGGY: You play basketball?

  TIM: Just got training tonight. Don’t have to go for a few minutes, but.

  Another silence.

  PEGGY: Nice house.

  TIM: Same as y
ours, isn’t it?

  PEGGY: Sort of.

  TIM: Better’n Moore River. At least I got my own room here. Up there I had to share with Auntie May’s kids. Three in one bed. Foot to foot.

  PEGGY: Oh.

  TIM: And they’d do farts all night. And sometimes little Shane peed in the bed. You’d wake up in the morning and you’d be soaked!

  He mimes being wet. They laugh together.

  You wanna see my room?

  PEGGY: Tim?

  TIM: Yeah?

  PEGGY: My dad found the honey you gave me. Look, I didn’t tell him it was you that got it, but I think he knows and he reckons there’s a fine of five hundred dollars.

  TIM: But I never cut down no trees.

  PEGGY: But he says ’cause you’re living in a Forestry cottage he could get you all thrown out.

  TIM: He can’t do that! I never cut down no honey trees!

  PEGGY: He says he’s coming round here. I’ll cop it if he finds out I warned you.

  TIM: Well, if he comes round I won’t tell him.

  MOTHER returns carrying an armful of logs cut to didgeridoo length.

  MOTHER: Timmy!

  TIM: What?

  TIM goes out to meet her.

  MOTHER: Take these and hide them under your bed!

  TIM: What for?

  MOTHER: Because your stupid cousin had them all stacked out by the front gate where anybody could see them! Phew they’re heavy.

  She stops when she sees PEGGY.

  Hello.

  TIM: My mum, this is Peggy.

  MOTHER: Oh, yes, I’ve seen you down at the shopping centre a few times.

  TIM: She came to tell us about her dad. He’s the Forest Ranger and—

  WILLIAM enters with another armful of wood.

  WILLIAM: Gawd they’re heavy.

  TIM and MOTHER try to stop him saying too much in front of PEGGY.

  TIM: It’s Cousin William!

  WILLIAM: Still another armful out there.

  MOTHER: William!

  WILLIAM: Next time I won’t cut so many.

  MOTHER: William!

  WILLIAM: What?

  He sees PEGGY and is immediately hostile.

  Eh, gneean baal? [‘… who’s that?’]

  MOTHER: That’s Tim’s friend, Peggy.

  PEGGY: Hi, William.

  TIM: Hey, Cousin William, you know that Forest Ranger?

  WILLIAM: What, that ugly old one with the big nose and specs?

  TIM grins.

  TIM: He’s her dad.

  WILLIAM: Nietj baal nitja nyinnaling? [‘What’s she doing here?’]