JACKY:  (laughs)    What?

HEDLEY: You’ve seen ‘em.  Just a chassis and an engine.  Buses an’ lorries goin’ to get their bodies put on. You sit on t’ driver’s seat out in t’ open wi’ a big anorak on. An’ a crash hat an’ a  pair o’ goggles. Lookin’ like a mad  Jap dive bomber.

JACKY:  (thrilled)   Was it a laugh?

HEDLEY:  Yeh

They laugh.

Them Kamikaze pilots you know;  Japs only gave ‘em enough juice for their outward journey, so there were no turnin’ back, even if they wanted to. They ‘ad to do it an’ that were it.

Slight pause.

That’s what somebody ought to do to me.

JACKY: Why?

HEDLEY: Well I mean, I allus seem to come back ‘ere. Like be drawn back some’ow.   (Slight pause.)   An’ I always think it’s goin’ to be great ‘cos people care about me. What I do. (He chuckles, self-mockingly.)    An’ ‘ere I am. Brickin’ a bloody air-raid shelter up on a Saturday mornin’ for me beer money.

Slight pause.

JACKY:  Oh dear!

HEDLEY:   Mind you, you go away; there is nowt.

JACKY:  Pardon?

HEDLEY: There’s nowt there; I tell you, you go anywhere, there’s nothin’ there. Bugger all.

JACKY: Well, that’s silly to say that.

HEDLEY: Oh.

JACKY: Well it is. I mean, you go to Blackpool, there’s the Tower. I’nt there?  That’s not bugger all.

HEDLEY: Ah. There y’are you see. The  exception that proves the rule.

JACKY: What’s that mean?

HEDLEY: Eh?

The rumble of a large diesel locomotive can be heard approaching.

JACKY: An’ you come ‘ere. I mean right ‘ere. That’s there isn’t it? The viaduct. It’s there, solid as a rock. That’s not bugger all.

(The rumble of the diesel train gets louder and passes over the viaduct above their heads.)

Look at that. Quarter past nine to Sheffield.  Sailin’ over the valley.

HEDLEY: Aye. (They watch. The sound begins to die away.)   Three people on it, an’ two o’ them work for t’ railway.

JACKY: Wonderful sight though.

HEDLEY: Big useless bloody monument

JACKY: No.

HEDLEY: It is. Who uses it now? All that brain an’ muscle power. Forty million years worth o’ stone. There’s a bloody sycamore tekken root  halfway across it. One train a day

She gives HEDLEY a withering look and goes up the steps to look off.

JACKY: Doesn’t seem as if it woke ‘im up.

HEDLEY waggles the Guinness bottle at her.

HEDLEY: Dublin Dropsy

He continues with his work.

JACKY: Do you think he’s OK?

HEDLEY:  What?  Belly like a set-pot an’ a constitution to match.

He starts to lay his first course of bricks.

JACKY:  I wish you weren’t doing that.

HEDLEY:  Uh?

JACKY:  That.  Not without tellin’ ‘im.

HEDLEY:  (deliberately)   Well, it won’t mek any difference I’m afraid luv, whether I tell ‘im or not.

He carries on working.  She looks at EMMERSON’s belongings.

JACKY: (quietly)   What’s in his tin?

HEDLEY:  ‘Alf a loaf. Bit o’ cheese, an’ a scrattin’ o’ Summer County.

(Slight pause. He carries on working.)

When I were in Warrington you know, me an’ a mate went in this cafe one night. It were a Chinky like. An’ I were comin’ ‘ome t’ followin’ night, an’ I were knockin’ about wi’ Alison Fieldsend at the time. I thought,  “I bet she’s never seen owt like this”.  Cos it weren’t a take-away like, I mean, the grub on that table! We were eatin’ some real weird-an’-wonderful stuff. Chinese stuff. So I put a few bits o’t’ most brightly coloured stuff in a matchbox to bring ‘ome an’ show ‘er. Alison like.

JACKY: Yeh.

HEDLEY: An’ when I saw ‘er,  I opened the box up like, an’ there were nowt there. It ‘ad all shrivelled up. Just tiny little shreds, like hairs. Disappeared.

(Slight pause.)

Funny Innit.

(She smiles agreement and moves to the wheelbarrow.)

(incredulous)   Aye, there’s things ‘appen you’d never even think on.

Slight pause.

What’s  matter?

JACKY:  Nothin’. Bit fed up.

HEDLEY:  Oh.

JACKY:  You’ re gettin’ to know too much you.

HEDLEY smiles, shakes his head to himself, lights a cigarette which he keeps in his mouth as he works.

JACKY:  (cont.)   I thought it were goin’ to be really great  livin’ ‘ere.

HEDLEY:  It will be. See! I look at it this way. You get to a certain point an’ you think  “Right. What do I want? Me. What am I goin’ to do?”  Chase brass all me life? Like your Peter?

JACKY:  That’s not fair. (She turns away.)    Look, if you’re goin’ to…

HEDLEY: No, no, ‘ang  on,  I’m just sayin’.  Or am I goin’ to go after beautiful women? (pointed)   Like your Peter?

JACKY:  Huh!

HEDLEY:  (quickly)   Or am I goin’ to be a racin’ driver or summat famous? Ploughin’ champion,  summat like that?

JACKY:  What’re you on about?

HEDLEY: No,  an’ t’ way I sorta see it is this.   I’ve got a decent motor car, a steady away sort’n a job.  A reasonable enough lookin’ lass that ‘ud prob’ly  wed us if I asked ‘er…

JACKY:  Oh aye, who’s that?

HEDLEY:  Nina Holmes.

JACKY:   (exaggerated surprise)   Oh!

HEDLEY: Shut up.  An’ I mean, that’s more or less what any ordinary sorta chap could want, in’t it?  A trip to t’ seaside when you want. Yorkshire Post full o’ fish an’ chips on a Friday night. What more could you wish for?   If you’re ‘angin’ about, bring us some bricks up ‘ere.

She softens a little and throws him a brick from the wheelbarrow.

JACKY: Oh dear. No, no, it’s not right this.

HEDLEY: What?

JACKY: This! It’s like, chuckin’ ‘im out an’ messin’ with ‘is stuff while ‘is back’s turned. I’m goin’ to wake  ‘im up.

HEDLEY: Nay, wait till I’ve finished.

JACKY: No. It’s wrong.

She goes off up the steps.

HEDLEY:  (calls)   Give ‘im a shake an’ run

JACKY:  Shut up

She has gone.

HEDLEY looks off after her.   He picks up the Guinness bottle and waves it.

HEDLEY:  (shouts)    Tell ‘im ‘is breakfast’ s ready!

He chuckles to himself and stubs out his cigarette.

JACKY appears at the top of the steps.

JACKY:  Hedley.

HEDLEY:  What’s up?

She starts to come down the steps.

JACKY:  Hedley he’s not asleep, he’s dead.

HEDLEY:  Eh?

JACKY:  He’s dead. (She stands still and buries her face in her hands.)  Oh God, it’s awful.

HEDLEY cuts across to the steps and takes hold of her.

HEDLEY: Yerwhat luv?

JACKY: He’s all broken. And crushed and bruised. It’s terrible.

She starts to cry.

HEDLEY: (soothing) Hey, hey.  Hey, come on luv.

She pulls away from him.

JACKY: Go an’ ‘ave a look.

HEDLEY: Eh?

He pulls away from her uncertainly, then goes off up the steps.

She follows for a couple of steps, then waits.

She finds a tissue in the pocket of her jeans.

HEDLEY returns, slightly stunned.

They look at each other.

HEDLEY: ‘Ell fire.  Looks as if he’s fallen.

JACKY: Oh my God!

She breaks down again.

HEDLEY moves to her and cuddles her.

HEDLEY: Ey steady on Jacky!  Come on luv. (He rocks her.) He must ‘ave gone up on the viaduct an’… well…

JACKY: What?

HEDLEY: (quickly)  Lost ‘is balance or summat. (She sobs)    Jackie. Come on lovey. Calm down.

She wipes her eyes and nose.

JACKY: What can we do?

HEDLEY:  Nay love it’s too late.  An’ if e’s gone to all that bother it were too late some time sin’.

JACKY: What do you mean?

HEDLEY: Well…

PETER enters from stage right, he is wearing his suit and a tie.

They do not notice him. Her sobs subside.

HEDLEY: Ey, come on, look up.  Let’s ‘ave a look at you!

He holds her away from him.

He grins and kisses her nose.               

HEDLEY:  (cont.)  Bit better?

PETER: What the hell’s going on here?

HEDLEY:  Eh?  (JACKY turns to face PETER)   Oh it’s you Peter. By gum, I thought it were a gentleman

PETER:   Jacky, what the hell are you doing?

She breaks away from HEDLEY and moves to PETER.

JACKY:  Peter, it’s Mr. Mathers.

PETER:  Mathers? What’s ‘e been bloody doin’?  I’ll give ‘im Mr. Bloody Mathers!

JACKY: (tearful)  Peter, for goodness sake!

PETER:  I’ll get rid of Mr. Blasted Mathers right sharp. (He sets off purposefully towards the shelter.)   ‘E’s staying here not a moment longer.

JACKY: (loud)   Yes, well you’re too bloody late, you little sod. ‘Cos ‘e’s already gone.

PETER: What?

JACKY:  He’s dead.

Slight pause.

PETER:  Dead?

JACKY:   (tearfully, quickly)              Yes, an’ you’d never ‘ave caught  ‘im anyway you. Too quick for you,  you rotten little sod.

PETER:  Jacky, for goodness sake…

JACKY: You couldn’t catch t’ last bus you. Oh!

She goes off stage right.

PETER:   Jacky. Where’re you going?

JACKY: (off, calling)  Ambulance. Telephone.

Pause.

They look after her.  PETER turns to HEDLEY, they are both embarrassed.

PETER:  Well… er…

HEDLEY:  She was very upset. I was just…  er, tryin’ to…

PETER:  Oh yes. Absolutely. (Slight pause.)   What er… where is he? Math…  Mr. Mathers?

HEDLEY:  Under t’ first arch there.

PETER:  I suppose he is definitely dead.

HEDLEY:  They don’t come a lot deader!

PETER:   No, it’s just that my father’s friendly with Dr. Ashwell.  Apparently he saw Mathers once. It’s a long time ago of course. He diagnosed diabetes.

HEDLEY: Oh?

PETER: Yes, it was after he’d collapsed once in a pub… The Gardener’s I think. Spark out!

HEDLEY: Oh, well it’s not that.

He takes out his cigarettes.

PETER: Couldn’t be a coma?

HEDLEY: No.  Do you want one?

PETER: No thanks.

HEDLEY: (quietly, lighting his cigarette) He’s jumped off t’ viaduct actually.

PETER: Oh Christ!  Well, it’s a devil is this, isn’t it?

HEDLEY: (exhales) Aye, it is.

He moves towards the shelter.

PETER: Deliberate then, suicide you think?

HEDLEY: Aye. Must ‘ave been.  Unless e’d gone barmy. You don’t overbalance over a bloody great retainin’ wall.

PETER: No.

PETER moves up the steps as if to head towards the body.

HEDLEY: Er..... ‘e’s a right mess, actually.

PETER  stops, turns back.

PETER: Oh. Right.

Slight pause.

HEDLEY: I was just brickin’ up the old shelter an’ all.

PETER looks across at the doorway.

PETER: Those his things?

HEDLEY: Yep. They were just inside.

PETER: Have you looked at them?

HEDLEY: Not really, no.

PETER: I wonder if he’s got relations somewhere? Still I suppose the police or somebody will…  er, take care of that.

HEDLEY: Don’ t think ‘e ‘as.  Owd man Bower knows a feller from Richmond who knew Mathers when ‘e wor a lad. Only child ‘e said.

PETER: Oh.

HEDLEY: Supposed to ‘ave been a right quiet, sulky lad. Nicknamed ‘im Dick Dully.

PETER: Oh well he didn’t change much then. But I mustn’t speak ill of the… er…

HEDLEY: No.

HEDLEY knocks the old mortar off a brick.

PETER:   Are you…  still playing cricket for the village.

HEDLEY: No. Couldn’t  see eye to eye wi’ most of ‘em.

PETER: Oh? (He bites at the thumb that had the splinter.)   I was in the second team when we won the league cup. Big silver two handled thing! John Morley filled it up with a mixture of vermouth and good scotch. Not many people liked it.

HEDLEY: Oh.

PETER: I must admit that I liked it though. Which is just as well. He filled it absolutely brim full and passed it round the team. They were spitting it back. By the time it got to me it had been right round the pavilion, but now it was actually slopping over.  (HEDLEY looks blank)

HEDLEY: Oh.

PETER: (chuckles, wry)   “My cup runneth over”, I said, and I supped it!

HEDLEY: Story of your life that, isn’t it?

PETER: Pardon?

JACKY returns, carrying a woollen blanket.

JACKY: Ambulance is coming from Wakefield. They’re going to tell the police as well.  (She heads the steps.)  I got this out of the cupboard Peter. It’s one I brought from me mother’s.

PETER: (quickly) Yes, right. Er…  I’ll do that if you…

JACKY: I’ll do it.

She disappears up the steps.

PETER starts to follow her and stops.  HEDLEY watches.  PETER turns and sees this.

PETER: She’s er…  it’s obviously upset her quite badly this.

HEDLEY: Yes. You’ve got a good lass there.

PETER: Yes. (Slight pause.)   Where are you living now then Hedley?

HEDLEY: Still wi’ me parents. Down  Stones Wood.

PETER:  You’re not wed yet then?

HEDLEY: No.

He knocks at the mortar on a brick.

PETER looks at his watch.

PETER: Don’t suppose the ambulance’ll take long.

HEDLEY: No.

Pause.

JACKY returns. She comes down the steps.

PETER:  OK?

JACKY: Yes thanks. (He goes to her, she keeps him at arm’s length.)  Why are you all dressed up?

PETER: Oh, I went to get the van and mother asked us to go into Leeds with her and dad for lunch.

JACKY: (quietly) Oh. You’d better go then. Have a nice time.

Slight pause.

PETER: Well, I don’t suppose there’s much more we can do here love.

<  >