by Owen Sheers
spread like a quilt.
A quilt of flowers for our village dead.
IRENE calls upstairs again.
IRENE
Anne! You getting dressed up there?
Never mind half day, you know the rules –
school’s still school.
She’s a dreamer that one.
Youngest of six and youngest by far.
Gets them yearning too soon.
I mean, when their brothers and sisters
are all in their teens.
But I say to her – ‘Anne, you cherish these days,
cos believe me, cariad,
one blink, and the world’ll make you old
in a hundred ways.’
Upstairs, ANNE is plaiting her hair in a mirror.
ANNE
One blink, and the world’ll make you old
in a hundred ways.
IRENE
Anne! Come on!
BARBARA pushes ANNE from the mirror.
Taking her place, BARBARA puts on her make-up.
BARBARA
Last day for me too,
so I’ll be out tonight.
The Bystanders playing down Troedyrhiw.
I saw them in the Social last month,
like the Beatles and Moody Blues, all in one.
Bit of soul, bit of Motown.
From Merthyr they are.
We helped them, after, to carry their kit
back up to the train in the Vale.
I got to carry the guitar.
He kissed me for it! The guitarist.
Just on the cheek, but, well,
I think Will Davies saw, got a bit jealous.
It’s Amen Corner tomorrow,
according to Sue,
playing down the Queen’s café.
She said Will’s planning to go, so yeah,
I’ll be going to that one too.
She looks out the window at the mist.
Wish this bloody mist would burn off soon.
Least it’s stopped raining I suppose.
Old women and sticks it was last night,
streaming black all down the gwlies.
She turns back to the mirror.
But we were used to that, see?
The colour of coal in our water, our river.
Was all we’d ever known.
Those tips were just there,
part of home.
So no, we didn’t see
any wrong in that rain.
The DAVIES family are sitting round the table for breakfast.
Jim Reeves’ ‘Distant Drums’ plays on the radio.
MYFANWY
Where in Troedyrhiw?
WILL
The Boys’ Club. Jeff’s going too.
DAI
The Bystanders? Never heard of them
WILL
Yes you have. Merthyr boys.
They played the Democratic Social?
DAI
Oh, yeah. Not my cup of tea.
MYFANWY
What time?
WILL
Starts at eight.
MYFANWY
Home by nine?
WILL
Nine!
DAI
What about training?
WILL
Eddie says we’ll be done by seven.
Howard’s in after that.
MYFANWY
Eddie! The Merthyr Marvel!
You know he used to deliver our coal?
WILL
You always say that!
Doesn’t take away his European title,
that’s still a fact.
MYFANWY starts clearing the plates.
She kisses each of her men on the top of their heads.
MYFANWY
Right, come on you two.
Will, you’d better get ready,
and Tomos – time for school.
And you, off to bed. I’ll wake you for lunch.
MYFANWY is left on her own.
MYFANWY
I reckon there’s a girl at that gig.
I could be wrong, just a hunch.
But never seen Will so keen.
Should be thankful I suppose –
that it’s only the Boys’ Club,
and not down in Merthyr.
Become like a Mecca, that place,
a jam pot for the wasps.
Every other door a pub,
and the dance halls going full swing.
The Palace, the Kirkhouse …
IRENE is in her kitchen, also clearing away, washing up.
IRENE
Like we didn’t do the same!
Remember that summer ’Fan?
Heading down Barry
with the small coal charabanc?
MYFANWY
All right, fair dos. Just saying.
Teenagers today, I don’t know, it’s not the same.
Those charabancs though,
they haven’t changed.
Six or seven buses, all in convoy.
The kids, playing on the beach.
Half their fathers up the shops, putting on bets.
Then the long drive back,
with Tomos on me, asleep,
the smell of the sea in his hair,
the grit of the sand in his toes.
Yeah, he still loves going on those,
all the kids do. I mean, it’s the ocean –
got to beat swimming down the Taff,
or like we used to,
in the streams under the tips,
hasn’t it?
BETTY, SUZY’S mother, is getting SUZY ready for school.
BETTY
Not that here isn’t a good place for them.
Loads to do! Always out on the street,
or up the mountain. That’s a playground in itself.
IRENE
Anne loves going up there to play hide and seek.
MYFANWY
And Tomos. Sits on cardboard to slide down the tips.
BETTY
We could do without those, granted.
But they’re as old as the village, aren’t they?
MYFANWY
And the cost to remove them, well,
they reckon it would close the pit,
that’s what the N.C.B. said.
IRENE
Plenty else for them down here anyway.
BETTY
The Boys’ Club cross country – they’re doing well,
beat the British champions just last Saturday.
MYFANWY
And we do all right too, don’t we?
Got our own dance hall in the Welfare.
CATRIN, ROB’S mother, is seeing ROB off to school.
CATRIN
When it isn’t flooded.
IRENE
And the cinema above it.
CATRIN
Cast a Giant Shadow showing this week.
BETTY
All the clubs – and not just for the men.
IRENE
The United Sisterhood, the Darby and Joan –
All four MOTHERS appear with other women
in a line-up for a club photo.
They speak from within the group.
MYFANWY
– and the Women’s League,
that’s mine.
IRENE
So, yeah, a good place to be, Aberfan.
And even more so now, with work in the town.
CATRIN
I know gas is pushing a decline
but my mam, she remembers the strike.
Used to tell me, how she’d spread on butter
with two runs of the knife,
once to put it on, then back to take it off again.
MYFANWY
So yes, not a bad place, and not a bad time.
Can’t complain.
All the women smile.
A flash as the photo is taken –
MYFANWY is back in her kitchen.
TOMOS com
es down the stairs with his schoolbag
and leaves through the front door.
TOMOS
Bye Mam.
MYFANWY
Bye, love.
She turns from the door, her voice old again.
MYFANWY
And that’s how they went.
Out a hundred doors for their last days.
And that’s how we said our last goodbyes,
with all the luxury of easy time.
But it was already draining,
running out like sand in the glass,
like that pile of tailings and shale,
already moving, pressed to a shifting
under the weight of its own black hand.
Restless with rain, storm water.
And under it, on their way to school,
my son.
IRENE is in her kitchen, alone.
IRENE
My daughter.
MYFANWY looks back at the shut front door.
MYFANWY
Bye.
Love.
TOMOS is walking to school.
TOMOS
I used to walk to school with my mam,
but I go alone now.
Well, not alone, but with my friends,
Robert and Dan.
DAN is walking to school from another direction.
DAN
It’s my birthday soon,
the week after we’re back.
Mam’s said I can have a party,
if I keep on track.
TOMOS
Dan’s cousins have got a farm, up the mountain.
Llewellyn and Islwyn.
They let us go and play up there.
DAN
Making swings from the ropes in the yard,
picking apples from off the Plantation.
Got to be careful though.
They’ve got a bull, see. Called Nelson.
TOMOS
‘Nasty piece of work,’ that’s what my dad says.
‘Looks like he’d charge you down
if you let him.’
DAN
I find him fine. But then Islwyn says
as I’ve got the knack –
farming in my blood, he reckons,
however far back.
So that’s what I want to be when I’m older.
A farmer up on the hill.
‘Keep up high’, that’s what Islwyn says.
‘Then you know where you are,
nothing in the way
between you and the sky.’
ROB is also walking to school.
ROB
My brother bought a TV this summer,
to watch the World Cup on.
Everyone came round for the final –
our front room, it was like the Mack
on a Saturday night – packed out,
TOMOS
And us all licking our lion-shaped lollies.
ROB
That’s when I knew.
I’d be a footballer too.
Start with the Martyrs, then play for Wales.
Dad’s taking me to the game tomorrow,
against Scotland, down Ninian Park.
He’s got us tickets from Merthyr Vale –
the 1.04 gets us there for the start.
DAN
And it did, the 1.04.
Though arrived almost empty.
The match went ahead.
A one-all draw,
Ron Davies scoring with a nifty hack,
the arms of the Welsh team,
banded in black.
TOMOS
That was amazing that world cup final!
When that last goal went in,
well, might have been England,
but we still all made one hell of a row –
ROB
Went crazy!
‘They think it’s all over …
TOMOS is joined on a street corner by ROBERT and DAN.
TOMOS, ROBERT, DAN
‘… it is now!’
ANNE is waiting for the school bus
with her friends SUZY and BETH.
ANNE
I love this time of year,
I think it’s my favourite.
Harvest festival, Bonfire Night.
Then after half-term,
we start rehearsing the play.
SUZY
Do you remember that Bonfire Night
when they gave us all candles?
BETH
Whole street had one,
walking in a line all through the village.
SUZY
A ‘river of lights’,
that’s what my mam said it was like.
TOMOS, DAN and ROB are passing Aberfan Road,
the high street.
TOMOS
Sometimes, if we’re early
we’ll go into Maypoles –
a grocer’s on the high street,
just past the butcher’s.
DAN
Not cos we’re hungry,
ROB
Or cos we need anything,
TOMOS
But just to watch their bobbins,
strung up on a string.
ROB
More like a zip-line it is.
One push from the counter –
DAN
– and off they go, to the register
TOMOS
Where the cashier takes the money,
puts the change back in,
ROB
then pushes it back to where it began.
TOMOS
Imagine – if we could build that
up on the farm,
a zip-line, not just a swing.
As they carry on past Aberfan Road –
DAN
That morning, though, we were late,
so didn’t go to Maypoles,
but Anderson’s instead –
a tuck shop on the hill
next to Georgie the barber’s.
TOMOS is ordering sweets at the counter –
TOMOS
Three shrimps please,
and two flying saucers.
DAN
Georgie was still in bed,
his shop sign turned to ‘closed’.
He’s always said – if it had been the other way round,
well … let’s just say he’s grateful he dozed.
As the boys leave Anderson’s –
ROB
Listen.
TOMOS
To what?
ROB
The birds. They aren’t singing.
DAN
How can you listen to nothing?
TOMOS
It’s this mist, isn’t it?
ROB
What about it?
TOMOS
Can’t see can they?
So don’t know it’s day.
DAN
It was true.
The mist was still lying heavy,
so as we walked up to school,
just a few steps apart
and we’d lose sight of each other.
If only I’d have known.
I’d have made sure to stay closer.
ANNE, SUZY and BETHAN are on the bus –
BETHAN
Do you think Mrs Jennings
will still make us go out?
Even if at break, it’s still like this?
SUZY
You know her rule –
outside, whatever the weather.
ANNE
What shall we play if she does?
Hopscotch? Tag? Stuck in the mud?
SUZY
L.O.N.D.O.N.
spells London?
BETHAN
Or Dickie five stones,
or Ginger Ginger, maybe later?
MRS JENNINGS stands at the top of the school steps.
As she watches the buses arrive
other children are left at the gate by their mothers
or walk
up to the school in groups.
MRS JENNINGS
I’m sure the children think I’m tough
and probably some of the parents too.
But it’s not about governing with fear.
No, it’s about being fair.
To them, their futures.
I mean, half these boys are headed for the mine,
and most of the girls for running a house.
But whatever they do,
it’s my job to see they do it well.
Good families in this valley,
but no one here has it easy.
Sowing the seeds, that what’s done here.
Preparing the crop, year after year.
TOMOS, ROB and DAN approach the school
along Moy Road.
ROB
You know what my dad said last night,
about Mr Beynon?
TOMOS
That he’d beat him in a fight?
DAN
That he’s in love with Miss Jones?
ROB
No! That he used to play for Aberdare,
years ago.
At lock he was, and one of their best.
DAN
I could believe it. Huge he was.
I still remember, standing at his feet,
my head well under his chest,
looking up, saying ‘sir?’
and thinking, ‘Duw,
he goes on for ever!’
MR BEYNON is in his classroom, preparing.
