When the Crows Visit (NHB Modern Plays) by Anupama Chandrasekhar

Author:Anupama Chandrasekhar [Chandrasekhar, Anupama]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788502757
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Scene Eight

JAYA’s room. It’s noon, but the curtains are drawn. It’s dark. A shadow of a man. The man is AKSHAY.

JAYA. Is that you, kanna?

AKSHAY. Sorry –

JAYA. Why are you standing so far away? Come here.

AKSHAY. Go back to sleep. I’ll come back / later.

JAYA. No no no, don’t go, don’t go. I’m wide awake. Stay with me. I’ve been expecting you.

AKSHAY. Have you?

JAYA. Yes. I had a feeling this morning, deep in my bones. I knew you’d visit me. You always do when you’re upset, since you were a little boy. You know you can tell me anything.

Silence.

AKSHAY. I… It’s such a horrible, mangled mess. I wish I could stop feeling this, this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. There’s been no arrest, not one, which makes me very very afraid.

JAYA. Is it the girl? She is lying.

AKSHAY. She hasn’t said anything. She’s still unconscious.

JAYA. Then she’ll wake up and tell everyone the truth.

Pause.

AKSHAY. Or she may wake up completely mixed up, she may not recognise the real culprits. I mean, I look ordinary. I look like any man on the street. What if she wakes up and says I did it?

JAYA. She won’t.

AKSHAY. We don’t know that. I don’t know what to wish for any more. That she wakes up or that she doesn’t.

JAYA. We’ll make her tell the truth. We always do.

AKSHAY. What do you mean?

JAYA. You’re innocent. She’s lying. Your father will take care of everything.

AKSHAY. My father.

JAYA. He’ll solve everything. You’re just a boy, you have your whole life ahead of you.

Pause.

AKSHAY. What are you saying?

JAYA. Your father knows people. He knows the police. Don’t worry. He’ll talk to Gopi’s father. Everything will be alright. You’ll see.

AKSHAY. Whose father?

JAYA. What?

AKSHAY. You said ‘Gopi’s father’.

JAYA. Did I?

AKSHAY. Why did you say Gopi’s father?

Pause.

Who am I?

JAYA. What?

AKSHAY. What is my name?

JAYA. Kanna, what’s the matter?

AKSHAY. What’s my damn name?

JAYA. I don’t understand. Why are you angry with me?

AKSHAY. Screw that.

AKSHAY draws the curtains back, letting in a flood of intense noon light. JAYA cringes uncomfortably. She is half-asleep, half-awake.

Wake up!

JAYA. Aah my eyes! Too bright! Close the curtains!

AKSHAY. Who am I? Look at me, look at me.

AKSHAY shakes her lightly by the shoulders. JAYA wakes up but screws her eyes shut.

Come on! Who am I?

RAGINI enters.

RAGINI. Hey hey. What’s going on? What happened?

AKSHAY. She thinks I’m my father.

RAGINI. Who is he, Patti? This man here.

JAYA. Won’t tell you.

RAGINI. Why, is it a state secret?

JAYA. Go away, girl. Call your, whoever-it-is-you-call-every- other-minute, and get out of my hair.

RAGINI. Me, she recognises me with her eyes closed.

AKSHAY. Open your eyes.

JAYA. Won’t, won’t.

RAGINI. Why not?

JAYA. Because if I do, he’ll go away.

RAGINI. Who will?

Pause.

Who will go away, Patti?

JAYA. Jagan.

AKSHAY. Shit.

RAGINI. Patti, he’s dead. He’s been gone seven years.

Pause.

JAYA. I know that.

RAGINI goes to the side table and looks at the bottle.

RAGINI. Sleeping pills. Patti! How many did you take?

JAYA lifts one finger.

There’s a reason why the doctor said you should take it only at night.

JAYA. It is my night.

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