M.A.D. by David Eldridge

Author:David Eldridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408117262
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

Three

The next morning.

All of the stock is cleared from the room except the large carton, the contents of which are now in a bin bag. Kelly is sorting and putting his IPs and singles into the carton. Alice sits at the dining table, smoking. John has the Subbuteo pitch spread out on the carpet in the middle of the room. He has drawn a rough map of Europe on the pitch. He has his soldiers and tanks nearby. John studies his parents. John is still wearing his West Ham shirt and pyjama bottoms.

John Are you going to put out the stall?

Kelly Not today.

John Why’s she smoking?

Pause.

Kelly If your mother wants to kill herself that’s her lookout. Why aren’t you ready for school?

Pause.

Alice Why don’t you ask me?

John turns away from her.

Alice Who’s she?

John I’m going to make breakfast.

John ignores her and arranges the soldiers and tanks on the map: red on one side and blue on the other.

John Dad?

Kelly What?

John Come and look.

Kelly stops what he’s doing and crouches by John. Alice stubs out her cigarette and exits.

John It’s not poofy.

Kelly What’s not poofy?

John This.

Kelly I know it’s not, boy.

John The red ones are the Warsaw Pact and the blue ones are NATO.

Kelly Can you show me this later, son?

John No.

A slight pause.

This is the Second Guards Tank Army. That’s going to go up there to capture Denmark.

A slight pause.

This is the Twentieth Guards Army. This one’s going to cross the river and capture Hanover. The British army will fight this one.

A slight pause.

This is the Third Shock Army. This one’s going to go towards the capital of West Germany.

A slight pause.

This is the Eighth Guards Army. This one is going towards Frankfurt.

A slight pause.

This is the First Guards Tank Army. This one is going to try and capture Stuttgart.

A slight pause.

It’s not a game. It’s a history of the future. It’s what’s going to happen. I’ve got a book about it.

A slight pause.

In the Threads it said everything would start in the oilfields but in my book it says that it starts in Yugoslavia.

John looks round. He exits. Kelly thinks. He goes to the video recorder. He fiddles around with it until eventually the tape ejects. He sees that it is The Jazz Singer and thinks. John enters.

John Mum’s coming back in when she’s finished smoking.

Kelly What?

A slight pause.

John I said I’d make us breakfast, Dodo.

Kelly I’m not hungry, John.

John clocks the tape and Kelly puts it in the box with the records. John goes to the video and looks through the tapes.

Kelly I told you we’ve not got Star Wars.

John finds one, turns the TV on and puts a video in.

Kelly I think its broken, John-boy.

He presses ’play’. An episode from the first series of’Only Fools and Horses - ’The Second Time Around’ - plays. John sits on the sofa.

Alice enters and watches Kelly. Kelly sits on the sofa next to John. They watch for a couple of minutes. Alice watches too.

John Come on, Dad.

Kelly is restless and stands.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.