We Are Shadows

Script sample

Monologue Four

Tom enters. He holds a baby.

It’s funny seeing night from the other side
The dawn light peeping through
Soft
Shy
Baby pink
Like candy floss
Coming home from the garage
It’s one thing I like

I park my bike
Taking care with my bundle
Breathless
Feelin like that kid out of E.T.

But my heart sinks as I approach the house
Patrol car outside
Means Dad’s home
Thought I might’ve beaten him to it
But he must’ve put his siren on
Got home from the night shift in double quick time

(Indicates baby)

I hold my precious bundle with one arm
Rattle around for my keys
And creep inside

In the front room
Mum’s getting ready for work
While Dad stomps up and down
Moaning about the freaks and losers
That a front desk copper
Working the graveyard shift
Has to put up with in this part of town
Try working in a 24-hour garage, I wanna tell him
But I don’t

Instead
I’m creeping down the hall
Bursting
Holding my breath
Praying my newfound little friend doesn’t blow our cover
Before we get to the fridge

But when I hear
What Dad’s telling Mum
I freeze

Some girl
Some junkie
Some young black junkie girl
Off her face on whatever
Screaming and crying in the station reception
Kicking and punching
The front desk
Her own face
Trashing the place
Turning over chairs
Howling that she’s lost her baby
Her sanity
Her baby
Lost
Can’t remember where
Can't remember what
The shit that she’s smoking
Had made her forgot

I’m halfway down the hall
Stone cold frozen
Like some fucked up statue
Of Madonna and child
Praying he stays in the lounge
The contempt in his voice
For this young mum
For this wild eyed junkie scum
Sickened by what she’s done
Saying maybe a dead baby might teach her some
Recognise and realise what she’s become
Mum staying silent, everything numb
And I am not my father’s son
This boot-wearing
Sirens blaring
Uncaring
Copper
Salt of the earth
Guinness girth
Ten pints down the Dog and Duck
Bar stool expert
Like anyone gives a fuck
"The only party what gives a shit
Bout people like you and me
Can't no-one talk me out of it
I’m voting BNP"
Like coming here from Belfast in 1983
And working down the station
Don’t count as immigration
No, I am not this man
I am not his son
I am not a fan
Of what he’s done
With his bigoted blinkered fag end of a life

Dad, I’ve never liked Guinness
I’ve never liked you
My girlfriend’s Asian
You ain’t got a clue
As if I could ever tell him
Get more than a night in the cells for that

But right now
I am just praying
That this beautiful brown bundle doesn’t wake up
Before I get it some milk
Inches away from the fridge door
Grasping the handle
Creaking open slow as you like
But the light inside
Fluorescent white
Pinging on
Wiping the sleepy shadows
From those peaceful eyes

The baby starts to cry

Ssh ssh ssh
Stop it
Please stop it
Please

Too late
Dad stomping through
Uniform half hanging off
Mum scurrying behind
"‘Thomas!"
Clapping eyes on me
The milk
The baby
An insane moment thinking maybe
He won’t see it

An icicle second
Two
Three
Then all hell breaks loose

Dad bellowing at the top of his lungs
Baby screaming in pain
Mum gasping like she’s been stung
Me trying to explain

The baby cries loudly for the rest of the scene.

I found him at the garage Dad
I found him round the front
Lying on the bags of coal
I didn’t steal him Mum

Advancing on me steady now
Back door at my back
"S’alright son, just calm it down
There ain’t no need for that"
But I know what he is
I know what he wants
I’m second guessing
His blessings of hate
The lesson he wants to inflict
On the pretty young black girl
Who came into my garage
For twenty Regals and a king size Mars

And with my best Bobby Zamora back heel
I am through the back door and into the yard
Screaming bundle tucked under one arm
Slipping through the gap in the fence
As this half-dressed policeman and his dressing gown wife
Lurch after me like some domestic double act
But I am out of there
A decade of night-time pen-pushing on his front desk
Ain’t no match for my cyclist’s legs
Voom!

Sun’s almost up
The last of the night’s shadows
Slithering back to their holes

Ashima enters.

Ashima’s surprised to see me
To say the least
Sleepily
Getting ready for college
Still gorgeous
Hands on my face
Telling me to calm down
Catch my breath

He was gonna kill it!
Dad was gonna kill it!

Ashima puts a finger to Tom’s lips.

I thought
I thought
I thought we could keep it
Me and you
Bring it up
It’d be nice
It’d be happy
It’d be ours

Ashima takes the baby.

Tenderly
Taking him from me

Ashima rocks the baby. It begins to stop crying.

Calming me
Ssh ssh ssh
Tom
Tommy
It’s alright
Safe now
It’s over
It’s finished
It’s done.