The Drover's Wife
Page 5
How long you been here, Jacky?
Beat.
Boy. I’m talking to you.
YADAKA: Few months.
MERCHANT: Arh, he speaks English. Few months, what?
Beat.
YADAKA: Few months … Boss.
MERCHANT: Master of the house give you permission to be here alone with his wife? You shared an intimate look with that woman, Jacky; more than what I would deem appropriate. And, you had the audacity to laugh at my discomfort. That, Jacky, is far too many liberties in the presence of a white man.
But, I’ll put that down to that dumb bitch being a little too lenient with her Jacky. They all are, a damn disgrace.
Beat.
Mr Johnson here when you started?
Jacky! Was-Mr-Johnson-here-when-you-started?
It’s very awkward between the men now.
I don’t trust myall Abos. Or those associated.
DROVER’S WIFE: [offstage] I think I’ve found something.
DROVER’S WIFE enters with a Young Ladies journal.
I’ll take a couple yards of the flannel.
MERCHANT: Perfect. For you, Mrs …
DROVER’S WIFE: Johnson. Joe Johnson.
MERCHANT: Come now fine lady, ya first name? If, it’s not too forward of me to be askin’.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: Molly. Molly Johnson.
MERCHANT: And a strong name it is. Beautiful ring to it. Molly Johnson. So for you, Molly Johnson, I’ll give you five yards.
DROVER’S WIFE: Warm nightshirts for all my children. Thank you.
MERCHANT: [going to wagon] Maybe a warm nightshirt for ya Jacky here too.
DROVER’S WIFE a little uncomfortable with the statement. YADAKA watches after MERCHANT.
DROVER’S WIFE turns and clocks YADAKA.
DROVER’S WIFE turns to watch MERCHANT at his wagon. He returns with the piece of flannel neatly folded and with a grand gesture he presents it to her.
MERCHANT: For you, fine lady, and may God protect you and yours. Keep the journal.
MERCHANT turns to YADAKA and holds out his hand. YADAKA looks at it.
DROVER’S WIFE: Shake the man’s hand.
YADAKA looks to her in protest.
MERCHANT: You offend me and defy your Mistress, Boy?
DROVER’S WIFE: Black.
Long beat. YADAKA submits and shakes his hand. It’s short.
MERCHANT: Don’t be so lenient on him now.
MERCHANT wipes his hand on his jacket.
They only learn one way. Like a mongrel dog, a good kick in the guts sits ’em up.
Good day to you, Molly.
He exits. They watch him go. We hear his wagon leaving.
YADAKA remains silent and watching.
DROVER’S WIFE watches Yadaka, concerned.
DROVER’S WIFE: That was nice of him. The extra material.
YADAKA: He’s a snake, missus. Speaks with forked tongue.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: I’d say, so do you.
She cocks her rifle, aiming it straight at YADAKA.
The Trooper and Native Policeman.
The truth. I have a right to shoot on sight.
Beat.
YADAKA: I put the final blow to the trooper, or he would’ve had my throat. And the native policeman, fuck ’im turnin’ on his own kind. But never a child or woman. I would never just kill for the sake of it.
My only true charge, missus, is ‘Existin’ whilst black’.
But fight for my life, I will, and make no excuses for it.
They hold each other’s stare.
YADAKA steps toward the axe. She steps up to him.
I said I’d chop ya wood.
He collects the axe and goes to leave.
I’ll be finished splittin’ the logs by nightfall. I won’t bother ya with goodbyes. Thank you for your help and hospit … hospitality.
He continues off to the woodheap. She watches him go and then heads inside.
We hear the chopping of the wood.
She comes out and places a change of clothes for him on the chopping block. The cardigan she was mending in Scene Four is amongst the pile.
She goes back inside.
The chopping fades away with the day.
Day becomes early evening.
YADAKA comes on. Surprised to see the gift of clothes, he places the axe in the chopping block. He is exhausted.
He gets himself water from the barrel.
He goes to leave, then stops, looks back at the shanty …
Taking the clothes, he leaves around the back.
SCENE SEVEN
Early evening becomes night. The night has turned, there is an eeriness to it now.
DROVER’S WIFE wakes. She rushes out, rifle in hand. She looks around.
DROVER’S WIFE: Black. Black? Black!
No response from him, maybe he’s gone.
The shadows of the night begin to grow long; the eeriness becomes stronger. She feels the presence of something.
She cocks her rifle, aiming off into the darkness.
Black! That you?
No response.
Then it’s like she sees something that totally captivates her. She slowly lowers her rifle, resting it on the chopping block.
She stares; just the sounds of this eerie spiritual presence. She places her hands on her breasts.
[Deeply moved] Wait, don’t go.
Please. Wait!
And whatever it was, is gone.
Silence as the moment slowly returns to the reality of the night.
YADAKA runs on in the clean clothes. His hair, wet and combed back.
YADAKA: Missus?
Long pause.
DROVER’S WIFE: A gin was here … holdin’ two swaddlin’-clad babes … dead … my milk has come in.
They were my babies …
She turns to face him, wet patches through her dress top over her breast nipples.
YADAKA is not sure where to look or what to do.
DROVER’S WIFE becomes embarrassed and runs inside.
YADAKA not sure whether to go after her … he doesn’t.
[Calling from offstage] What a fool I am. Foolish, foolish woman. Cryin’ over spilt … milk.
YADAKA begins to leave.
DROVER’S WIFE appears, shawl wrapped around her.
You leavin’?
YADAKA: Yes, missus.
DROVER’S WIFE: Off into the shadows of the night, eh.
YADAKA: Said I would.
She takes him in.
DROVER’S WIFE: A pair of boots and ya could pass for a decent man.
YADAKA: [indicating his clothes] This alright? Being seen in your husband’s clothes.
DROVER’S WIFE: You worked for me and I paid ya in clothes, his clothes. Old clothes. That’s what ya say. It’s the truth.
Beat.
YADAKA: I should … [leave].
DROVER’S WIFE: Wait.
YADAKA: Yes?
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: I’ll wax ya hair so it stays straight. Water will dry and ya curls will … sit.
She gets the wax. He sits on the chopping block. She runs the wax through his hair. He closes his eyes, enjoying the pampering.
Beat.
Full moon.
YADAKA: Good to walk by.
DROVER’S WIFE: Messes with a woman’s head.
YADAKA: Interested in what ya just saw.
DROVER’S WIFE: Just a dream.
Ya features are quite fine.
YADAKA: White father.
DROVER’S WIFE: Ya know him?
YADAKA: I don’t think my mother even knew him.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: I didn’t know my ma.
Beat.
YADAKA: You got any family?
DROVER’S WIFE: No. Just my children. Before them just my da. Just me and him. Just us. My da would say, we are all the family we need.
Beat.
She died givi
n’ birth to me.
YADAKA looks knowingly at her, he knows this story.
YADAKA: It’s you.
DROVER’S WIFE: I beg ya pardon.
YADAKA: On the night you were born, Ginny May; that old woman that’s been helping you. She held you while your da cried over ya mother’s dead body.
DROVER’S WIFE: What?!
YADAKA: Ya mother, she’s black.
She slaps him!
DROVER’S WIFE: How dare you speak to me like that!
Someone shows ya a little respect and ya take all the liberties in the world!
I think ya’re done here, Black!
YADAKA: Ginny May keeps the story alive about her sister’s great love for a man of wrong skin.
DROVER’S WIFE: Black! Leave!
YADAKA: Your mother, Black Mary, ‘whitest gin around’, that’s what the district folk would call her. She worked as a cook for some drovers and your da was one of them. Only time he smiled was when he was with Black Mary. Her love for that Scotsman was real. And his for her.
They kept to themselves because no-one would accept them—
Their love was deep as the highest peak to the lowest valley and wild as the Snowy Mountain river.
DROVER’S WIFE: Stop!
YADAKA: Ngambri Walgalu, they’re your family.
Beat.
No shame in that.
DROVER’S WIFE: Take ya filthy talkin’ mouth and get the fuck off my land!
Pause.
Go!
He grabs his stuff and turns to go.
Then …
In walks SPENCER LESLIE, a trooper, looking a little worn. He wears spectacles.
LESLIE: Evening. I heard yelling, is everything alright?
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: Yes, thank you.
YADAKA steps back, quickly doing up the top button on his shirt.
LESLIE clocks him.
LESLIE: Is this the property of a Mr … Joe Johnson?
DROVER’S WIFE: Yes it is. I’m Mrs Joe Johnson.
LESLIE: Where is Mr Johnson?
DROVER’S WIFE: Town, gettin’ supplies.
LESLIE smiles and give her a curt nod. Nervously, he looks to his notes, very aware of YADAKA’s presence.
You alone.
LESLIE: There was a group of us. Others have headed north on a lead. I lost my horse a day back. Snake sunning itself … on the track …
Very wary now of the questioning.
[To YADAKA] And you are?
DROVER’S WIFE: He’s my worker. My Joe be here in the morning. If you care to come back.
Back to his notes.
LESLIE: A peddler … a Mr … Donald Merchant.
Met along the track.
Very concerned for your safety, Mrs Johnson. Said there was a ‘… heathen savage’, here.
That couldn’t be you, could it?
LESLIE smiles nervously at YADAKA, hand firm on his pistol now.
YADAKA: Missus, I’ll attend to my work out back.
DROVER’S WIFE: Off you go.
YADAKA turns to go. LESLIE aims his pistol at him.
LESLIE: Don’t move!
YADAKA turns back around.
Fall to your knees and place your hands on your head please.
YADAKA does as he is told.
Routine check. With one hand, unbutton your shirt and show me your collarbones. Slowly.
YADAKA hesitates, but then he reluctantly obliges. LESLIE sees the red markings on his collarbones.
In the Queen’s name I arrest you, for the murders of Trooper Phillips and native policeman Dempsey Buckskin.
For the rape and murder of Mrs Hossnaggle and the drowning of her children.
DROVER’S WIFE is horrified. YADAKA shakes his head, no.
And you, Mrs Johnson, I’ll need you to accompany me to the lockup, for questioning—
DROVER’S WIFE: I can’t go anywhere. My children be home soon—
LESLIE: Regarding the whereabouts of your husband—
This silences her.
There has been some concern from fellow work colleagues. He didn’t make the drive.
DROVER’S WIFE holds his stare.
DROVER’S WIFE: If I come with you, what will happen to my children?
LESLIE has no answer. She walks around to get back to her rifle.
My children, they’ll be back soon.
LESLIE: Mrs Joe Johnson, please! Calm down.
YADAKA begins to get up.
DROVER’S WIFE: If I come with you. What’ll happen to my children!
LESLIE sees YADAKA.
From here on the dialogue is rapid-fire and overlapping.
YADAKA: Take me, Boss.
LESLIE: Stay down or I’ll shoot!
DROVER’S WIFE: I can’t leave my children!
YADAKA: Take me, Boss.
LESLIE swings his pistol nervously between them both.
DROVER’S WIFE: My children, they’ll be back soon.
YADAKA continues slowly on.
LESLIE: I’ll shoot! Put down the gun!
DROVER’S WIFE: My children need me! They need their mother.
YADAKA: Take me, Boss.
DROVER’S WIFE: My children! My children!
LESLIE turns sharp, bearing down on her, pistol aimed straight at her.
LESLIE: Shut! Up! Woman!
A shot rings out!
LESLIE falls, face-first, dead.
DROVER’S WIFE lowers her rifle. YADAKA looks at her, shocked.
Long silence.
YADAKA: They’ll come here lookin’ for him.
DROVER’S WIFE: I’ll tell them I sent him on his way.
YADAKA: He came to take you in for questionin’.
DROVER’S WIFE: I’ll say he never got here. You need to go. Please, take his body and bury him deep.
Don’t come back. You are done.
He picks up the trooper’s rifle and hands it to her. She disposes of it in the water barrel. He drags the body off. DROVER’S WIFE covers the trooper’s blood. She goes and sits on the stool.
YADAKA: I’ll come back for you.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: I plan to tell them, you killed him.
You killed my Joe too.
This halts YADAKA.
YADAKA: Joe is dead?
DROVER’S WIFE: So you could have your way with me.
You just didn’t go as far as you did with the Hossnaggles …
Beat.
YADAKA: You believe I could do that?
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: Please.
You will be my saving grace … if I can blame you … for all of this …
YADAKA can’t believe what he is hearing.
I’m sorry, but my children, they need me. They need their mother!
I’d never just kill for the sake of it either.
But fight for my life, my children’s, I will. Make no excuses for it.
YADAKA: Is that what you did? With your Joe.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: His boots are buried beside him, under the woodheap. Ya can’t bury a man without his boots.
YADAKA: Joe is under the woodheap?
DROVER’S WIFE: The children were gonna be up soon … it’s shallow, that’s why the mound’s there.
Just stacked the last of the wood on top.
Alligator fought the wild dogs off that came diggin’ … smell wasn’t too bad … depended on which way the wind is blowin’.
There’s always somethin’ dyin’ around here.
So, he’s buried there, under my woodheap with his boots beside him.
Beat.
Take ’em.
YADAKA: No …
DROVER’S WIFE: Less attention to ya if ya wearin’ boots. Might give ya a chance if ya’re stopped.
Use ya white name.
YADAKA looks at her disapprovingly.
YADAKA: … thank you.
DROVER’S WIFE: Whatever ya gotta do or say to stay alive. That’s h
ow I see it.
YADAKA: Your secrets stay with me. I care for Danny, he’s a good lad and I’ll care for the others.
She turns to look at him quizzically.
Birthed ya daughter and buried her …
DROVER’S WIFE: It’s Danny that has fallen in love with ya.
YADAKA: I’m talkin’ about survivin’!
DROVER’S WIFE: Like I’ve always done.
YADAKA: There’ll be a lot of talk around, missus.
DROVER’S WIFE: What’s happened here will be heard as I intend it to be heard.
YADAKA: Come with me.
Beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: Become a black?
YADAKA: You are. And you know it.
Silence.
What you saw tonight, was Black Mary, your ngamoor wawu, your mother, holdin’ ya children.
That’s why Ginny May has been here for you.
Ginny May is your family.
Your children’s family.
There is safety amongst family.
She goes to head inside.
There’s a cave. Ginny May’s people … south-east, two and a half days walk from here.
You’ll come to the Great Water Hole, keep to the right, then you’ll hit a bald patch, like someone cleared a perfect circle, keep to the left of that. A little further on there’s a big boulder, the one they call the Holy Boulder Rock, it juts out like a nose on a face, it’s there.
Food, blankets, shelter, and in the spring … people. Your mother’s people. Your people.
He starts to go.
DROVER’S WIFE: The boots, please take them, for ya safety.
You’re a good man … please.
He leaves toward the woodheap. She watches him go.
To the left. The boots are there.
YADAKA: [calling back] Clear this front. Widen ya boundary, you’ll see who’s comin’.
DROVER’S WIFE: Will do.
She watches for a second more and then she hurries inside.
After a moment, YADAKA returns, but wearing the boots.
YADAKA: [calling] Can I call on Danny, say in six months’ time?
DROVER’S WIFE: [calling back] Black, please, it’s too dangerous—
DROVER’S WIFE comes out, without her rifle for the first time.
YADAKA: [calling] Take Danny for his first kill with his spear—
DROVER’S WIFE: There’s been enough killin’ around here to last us all for a very long time.
YADAKA: Thinkin’, Men’s Business.
And if I could take you and Miss Delphi on a walk? Where the Snowy starts to widen, there’s these beautiful wild flowers … should be bloomin’ by then.
They hold each other’s stare. Long beat.
DROVER’S WIFE: Yadaka …