The Hanging by Angela Betzien

Author:Angela Betzien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Currency Press

* Direct quote from the novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay.

FLINT: Safe from what?

IRIS shudders.

What is it?

IRIS: Tight squeeze, cool breeze, now I’ve got the shiverees.

I shouldn’t have told you that.

FLINT shows IRIS two photos.

FLINT: Do you know these boys?

CORROSSI looks up, alert.

CORROSSI: / What boys?

IRIS: No.

FLINT: You might want to take a look before you answer.

IRIS looks.

Their names?

Their names please, Iris.

Pause.

IRIS: That’s Xavier. That’s Sebastian.

FLINT: How do you know them?

IRIS: They’re Princes boys.

FLINT: Sebastian is Hannah’s boyfriend / correct—

IRIS: No he’s not.

FLINT: Didn’t she tell you?

IRIS: Did he say that?

FLINT: They’re in love.

IRIS: He’s a nasty little liar.

FLINT: I’ve evidence.

IRIS: No / you don’t.

FLINT: Videos she sent to him.

IRIS: He stole them.

FLINT: She says she loves him.

CORROSSI: / What?

IRIS: She did not.

FLINT consults his notebook, reads from it.

FLINT: Oh, my Sebastian, I still have the hope to touch you, to feel you, to love you, to seek you, to blend with you when we no longer exist! Leave me this hope, this consolation. It’s so sweet. / It assures me of eternity in you and with you.

CORROSSI: / It assures me of eternity in you and with you.

That’s Diderot.

IRIS: It’s not true.

FLINT: He’s lovesick.

CORROSSI: Sebastian?

FLINT: He can’t eat, he can’t sleep.

IRIS: It’s a lie.

FLINT: Hannah was pregnant.

CORROSSI / IRIS: —

FLINT: She had a termination.

CORROSSI: How do you know?

FLINT: Chaplain’s report.

IRIS: No.

CORROSSI: Hannah confided in the chaplain?

FLINT: Six months ago.

IRIS: She can’t have been.

CORROSSI: That’s confidential.

IRIS: You’re lying.

CORROSSI: You shouldn’t be saying this.

FLINT: I’m breaking the rules.

CORROSSI: On what grounds?

FLINT: I need to find those girls.

CORROSSI: By violating her privacy?

IRIS: It’s impossible.

FLINT: What about the porthole. She must have met Sebastian under the moonlight.

IRIS: While we were dreaming?

FLINT: Sounds like Hannah didn’t tell you everything.

IRIS: —

FLINT: You met them. The Princes boys.

IRIS: No.

FLINT: Yes. At Flinders Street Station. The night you disappeared.

IRIS: We’re not allowed to meet Princes boys outside school hours.

FLINT: You’re on the security cameras, Iris. The three of you in school uniform.

You remember, don’t you, meeting under / the clocks.

IRIS: The clocks.

FLINT: That’s right.

IRIS: Hannah counted them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Different places, different times.

CORROSSI: What did you say?

FLINT: What were you doing at Flinders Station? Where were you going?

IRIS: How do you know when the time and place is right?

CORROSSI: Who said that?

IRIS: Hannah …

CORROSSI: Right for what?

FLINT: On the security footage we can see Sebastian giving something to Hannah. What was it?

IRIS: Why don’t you ask them?

FLINT: I want to know the truth, / from you, Iris.

IRIS: The truth?

FLINT: What did the Princes boy give you?

IRIS: Three …

CORROSSI: What was the time right for, Iris?

IRIS: … little … white …

An echo of the landscape, the mouth, the abyss opening up.

FLINT: Three little white what?

IRIS: … holding hands and …

IRIS sees a vision in the space. She screams.

FLINT / CORROSSI: [together] Iris?

FLINT: Look at me.

IRIS returns to reality.

You remember.

IRIS: No—

FLINT: Yes.

IRIS: —a dream.

FLINT: Three little white pills, that’s what you were about to say.

Sebastian’s been suspended twice for dealing at school.

Traces of MDMA were found on your clothing and bag.

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