Bird and other monologues for young women (NHB Modern Plays) by Laura Lomas

Author:Laura Lomas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

GYPSY GIRL

Gypsy Girl was first performed by Laura Lomas at Soho Theatre, London, on 5 October 2009 as part of Paines Plough’s LATER programme.

I met Hayley in the summer. I always thought she was older than me but she wasn’t. She just looked it.

You’d see her down Sev’s by the benches, and she’d have a fag in one hand and a tin in the other. She had this look about her, like you would not fucking mess with her and if you did. She’d smack you, or get her sister to smack you. An’ her sister was older.

With massive tits.

I never knew why she spoke to me. I was short and awkward with shit clothes.

I think she liked that.

An’ I thought she was amazing.

We was always out down Sev’s.

They had these swings and this shitty old roundabout that didn’t even work, but we’d sit there, and smoke. And wait till the light was turning. And it was then you had this feeling, like, you didn’t know why you was there and this sickness like, you should probably just get yourself home now. But you always waited. It was like a test. Even when it was cold and bitter or pissin’ it down. We’d just sit there, on these swings. And pretend like we was alright with the world.

Hayley talked all the time.

She spurted the most incredible amount of nonsensical shit that you’d ever heard. It was amazing.

You never believed what she said. That’s because it was usually a lie – but you listened anyway.

You’d shut your eyes and hold your breath for the things she told you.

She was that sort of girl.

She lived on the Caxton estate with her mum and her two sisters. They kept horses. It was weird cus their house was full of all sorts of shit. Nothing matched and everything stank. I hated going round.

I felt embarrassed.

Hayley’s dad had died when she was younger and her mum was always talking about him. Stepping into the house you felt like they’d never really got over the shock of it, it was like a bomb had gone off and they’d just lived there, for years in the sort of chaos and debris of the aftermath.

They spent the money from the will on a little plot of land out near Finden. They had two horses. We used to go down on our bikes. We’d go over Sinfin bridge – and out past the canal and all of a sudden you’d be on dirt tracks and the landscape would just change, everything seemed to get massive and the colours of things would just smack against each other like they’d gotten brighter, more brilliant.

And we’d climb inside that field. There was a caravan that used to belong to her dad, it was falling into pieces, all twisted, cracked glass and broken plastic, but Hayley loved it. And it’s true, there was something peaceful about the place. You could hear the water streaming in the river half a mile off.

You could watch Hayley there, and something different in her.

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