The Weatherman by Eugene O'Hare

Author:Eugene O'Hare
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350130043
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

Act Two

Scene One

About three weeks later.

Shutters are on the windows and three key locks on the door.

A metal framed camp bed with a side table in the main room are assembled alongside a chest of drawers and a lamp – the whole thing a shabby make-shift bedroom opposite the dining table.

Some of Mara’s things dry on a clothes horse – pink clothes mostly but also small white cotton tights, underwear and a short denim skirt. A plain grey duvet on the bed. A towel hanging at the end of the bed frame. Upon the bed is her doll’s head. At the bottom of the bed on a stand is a small portable television set.

O’Rourke is alone on his knees. His sleeves are rolled and he scrubs a patch of the wooden floor with a wire brush which he occasionally dunks into a plastic bucket of soapy water. The top few buttons of his shirt are open – no tie.

He hears the bottom door. He gets up and swiftly moves to the door – pressing his ear against it. Footsteps. O’Rourke is still but a little panicked – the same routine every time the bottom door goes.

Keys in the door un-doing each of the locks. It’s Turkey and Mara. When the door opens, Mara goes straight to her bed and pulls the covers over herself entirely.

She looks even paler and sickly. She wears a dark travel tracksuit. Her long hair has been cut into a short bob. Mara is much more at ease when it is just O’Rourke in the room with her. Much less at ease in the company of the other men.

O’Rourke What’s wrong with her?

Turkey What ain’t wrong with her. Job only lasted half an hour.

O’Rourke She been crying?

Turkey She ain’t shut up snivelling the whole way back in the van. My own girls whined like that they’d get a good what for.

O’Rourke I’m sure your girls ain’t have to go through what she has to.

Turkey They have their own tribulations. You ain’t never met their mother. Spring clean is it?

O’Rourke She must have vomited in the night – I only just spotted it.

Turkey What’s she vomiting about?

O’Rourke Well, I don’t know, do I? Three weeks she been here and I could count on two hands how many times she’s cleared a full plate. All she eats is crisps and peanuts Beezer takes back from the pub.

Turkey Where is he anyway?

O’Rourke Prancing about The Pig and Whistle most probably. Either that or he’s up the Holloway Road with the cigarette sellers. He has them teaching him bits of Romanian would you believe. Fat lot of use that’ll do – she can’t stand the bastard – she won’t speak two words to him.

Turkey Nor to anyone else.

O’Rourke Last week at least she made a sound when she wanted something. Now there’s nothing. She’s a mute. Something’s happened to her between then and now, Turkey. She keeps pressing her hands between her legs. I move them away but she puts them right back again.

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