B Minor

A - A tramp

B - A black cleaner

C - A dreadlocked busker

 

A
Leicester Square .

B
March.

C
A Friday.

A
Lunchtime.

B
This year?

C
Perhaps.

A
Maybe last.

B
But less likely.

C
This week.

A
Yes.

B
Or next.

C
Possibly.

All
Yeah.

B
Sun’s out.

C
Yeah, bright it was, spring day.

A
But cold.

B
Fresh.

C
You know how it gets.

A
Like today.

B
Yes.

C
Very much like today.

A
Bright light.

B
White. Like summer’s surprised the whole city.

C
Opened it’s raincoat and flashed it with sun.

A
And I’m thinking ‘Sometimes I love this town’ -

B
And the thought stops me short.

C
Strummin me gee-tar.

A
Swiggin me can.

B
Scrubbing the grout from the office window.

C
And I think ‘What suckers are we for a bit of bright’.

A
Whilst strangers chuck me crusts and pennies -

B
High-heeled ‘colleagues’ walk on by -

C
Policemen move me on as many -

A
Times a day as reasons why.

B
And I take it back.

C
My sunny mood.

A
And wonder what to do for food.

B
For all the time, the chattering minds -

C
Of passing London ’s -

A
Office classes -

B
Murmur judgement -

C
Sneer with glances -

A
Happy people -

B
Feeling whole -

C
Schizophrenic -

A
City voices -

B
Spit my name.

A
And scar my soul.

Beat.

A
Tramp.

C
Punk.

B
Slave.

 

Beat. A guitar plays a melancholy chord.

 

C
I strum a chord. B Minor.

A
See nothing.

B
Be minor.

C
For we –

All
Are unimportant.

 

Beat. The guitar strums once more.

 

B
But something breaks my cheerful reverie -

C
A sound like nothing heard before -

A
A hollow howling desperate scream -

B
A cry of passion -

C
Fear -

A
Or war.

B
Third floor I see him, wrapped in blue.

C
And red - on fire!

A
Charging to the building’s edge.

B
He leaps.

C
Launches.

A
Arms outstretched.

B
And falls.

C
Fast.

A
Time doesn’t stop.

C
He doesn’t hover.

B
He doesn’t take an age to die.

A
It’s raw.

B
And bloody.

A
Lands on the back of the neck.

B
Top of the spine.

C
With a sound -

A
A sound -

B
That sound …

C
Like stomping on a carton.

A
Or slapping steak against a wall.

B
And he’s down.

C
Still burning.

A
At my feet.

B
Lands at the feet of some homeless guy.

C
And I’d laugh if I didn’t want to cry.

B
He kneels.

A
I kneel. And he looks at me.

B
Stock-still in that burning sheet.

C
Turns his head.

A
Opens his mouth.

B
Seems to say something.

C
Lips move.

A
Heavy accent. Somewhere distant.

B
A flicker of life.

C
Whispers.

A
To me. To the last person he’ll see. And he says -

B
He says -

C
He says -

A
‘Tell them. This is my protest.’ (Pause) And then the blood comes. Nose, ears, eyes, every hole.
Pours out of him in great torrents of red.

B
And he’s gone.

C
He’s gone.

A
It’s over.

Beat.

B
The tramp stands -

C
Staggers -

A
Drop my can. Vision panning out. Realise.

B
It’s not a sheet -

C
He’s set on fire.

A
But a flag.

B
Red.

C
White.

A
Blue.

B
Now black.

C
Stars.

A
Stars.

B
Stars.

All
And stripes.

Pause.

B
I wish it ended there.

C
Oh God.

A
Oh fuck.

B
We all wished that.

C
But the crowds -

A
The crowds -

B
The crowds swarm in.

C
Like ants to honey.

B
The sticky sweetness of horror.

C
If only they knew.

A
They are all -

All
Doomed.

B
From my vantage point up high I see the ambulance come.

C
Quickly.

A
Too quickly.

B
Had it been parked?

C
Prob’ly passed it.

B
Ticking over.

C
But the memory -

B
Didn’t make a mark.

A
I don’t like this.

B
Sick with fear.

C
Stomach rising in my mouth.

A
I scurry backwards to my doorway.

B
Something hanging -

C
Tension -

A
Static -

B
Crackly air.

C
My mum would say.

A
Backing off.

B
They’re here.

C
Okay.

A
The men are here to do their job.

B
Crowds part.

C
Let it through.

A
Fuckin hundreds looking on.

C
Watching horror.

B
Car crash theatre.

A
Unaware.

B
They’ll get their due.

C
The ambulance …

A
… stops.

B
They wait for the doors.

C
But nothing.

A
Nothing.

B
No-one.

Pause.

C
A second.

B
And then it happens.

A
A light.

B
Oh God.

C
A thousand suns.

A
The heat.

B
The thunder.

C
Ripping open.

A
Everything.

B
And everyone.

A
Imagine -

B
Imagine -

C
Imagine -

B
Being entombed in liquid lava.

A
Fisting its way into every hole.

C
Ruptured ear drums.

B
Hot and bleeding.

A
Skin -

C
The skin -

B
Macheted off.

A
Heads snapped forward -

C
Back -

B
And sideways -

A
Limbs wrenched open.

C
Limbs wrenched off.

B
And the crowd -

A
The onlookers -

C
The audience -

B
Crushed.

A
Flayed.

C
Flattened.

B
Like a bullet into dominoes.

A
And in all my days –

C
I have never felt -

B
So alive.

Pause.

A
The bomb -

C
The bomb -

B
The bomb was in the ambulance.

C
And for a moment -

A
For one moment -

 B
For one half of one second of my life -

C
The thought is there.

A
How brilliant. How brilliant.

B
And then it’s gone.

Beat.

C
Be minor.

A
See nothing.

B
Be unimportant.

 

Copyright © Fin Kennedy 2006 - Not to be reproduced or performed without permission