Jimmy
I’m seeing it again.
Petra
Jimmy,
Stop.
Jimmy
But I can’t stop.
I can’t stop!
Leon
He’s got a phone out.
And he’s shouting
He’s wetting himself.
And there’s this shut gate in front of us
So what are we going to do now?
But for some reason it opens,
I mean, the gate opens for us!
It’s like Ali Baba!
Well, we’re away, aren’t we,
Down the road,
We’re flying,
We’re on a jet plane –
Freddie beside me:
‘Go on mate!’ he says,
‘Let’s see what you can do!
Go on!’
Cos this is our chance:
One fat fucking chance
To take something back!
(Beat.)
Then all of a sudden
I’m overtaking
Blind corner
Knew you shouldn’t
But the adrenalin
It’s just pumping me up.
I’m so excited,
I’m so excited
I can’t explain.
And then we hear the siren./
Jimmy
God.
Leon
Freddie says:
‘The pigs!’/
Jimmy
Oh Christ.
Leon
‘We got to lose the pigs!’/
Jimmy
I know what’s about to happen,
I know exactly what’s about to happen.
Leon
And he’s laughing,
And I’m laughing
Cos we know
We can do it.
We just got to get to the strip.
If we can get there
We’d be all right.
We’ll torch it.
So what’s going to stop us now?
It’s our lucky day,
It’s our lucky night, isn’t it!
So I start accelerating,
Move down into third,
Like you do.
And I’m surging past this Toyota
When out of nowhere – /
(Simultaneously.)
(Pause.)
Jimmy
(as someone falling from a cliff edge)
Slow motion.
It’s how you remember it.
When everything,
The whole world
Starts plunging,
Plunging.
And I’m plunging too,
I’m falling too.
Till there’s nothing between me
And what’s coming up.
Till
Almost:
Almost the moment,
The moment before I hit the ground
That moment:
That’s the moment
When I stop –
When I stop falling.
(Beat.)
But where am I?
I don’t know where I am.
I’m just –
(Beat.)
I’m just hanging.
(Small pause.)
Petra
Jimmy.
She slipped like a little doll through the safety belt,
And there was nothing you could do.
Nothing!
(Beat.)
And her body when I saw it –
It was like the day she was born to us, Jimmy,
She was
A little baby again,
All bound up with cloths!
Jimmy
(consciousness reviving)
But when I come to,
I’m not noticing my pain,
I’m hearing this incredible noise,
This blaring noise.
And when I look round to see:
Petra
So I put her on my breast
And I remember now –
I remember feeling
Among the grief –Among this incredible pain,
This love, Jimmy!
Jimmy
(vivid with fear)
Charley!
Charley!
Oh for the love,
For the love of God!
Leon
And then I come round.
Maybe two.
Maybe five.
Jimmy
I’m in the seat again.
And everything’s moving up,
Moving up so fast,
I’m shouting – /
Leon
I don’t know
I don’t know
Where I am./
Jimmy
‘Stop!
Why doesn’t anyone stop!’
Leon
So I try to get out.
But I can’t.
Jimmy
And I’m shouting but there’s nobody there.
Except this other voice,
This boy’s voice
Shouting back:
Leon
(screaming, terrified, emasculated by fear)
Freddie!
Freddie!
Jimmy
And that’s when I look over my shoulder
And see this
Hole in the windscreen –
Christ!
This red hole
Where Charley was sitting.
Oh God!
Oh my Christ God!
Pause. He’s done it. He’s broken entirely; but he’s reached the place. There’s nowhere to go now, but towards where she is. And Petra takes him to her now.
Petra
It’s the love that hurts, Jimmy.
It’s only the love that hurts now.
So let it come back to you.
Oh, let it come back!
Long pause, signifying the end of something that has been far too long in the coming: something like a real death, at last.
Scene Twenty
Epilogue.
Leon stands in the presence of Mr E.
Leon
Think I’ll do a picture.
Think I’m ready, Mr E.
(Beat.)
I’ve got this piece of rubbish.
This steaming pile of crap.
I want to get it down while it’s still hot.
Petra, as before Charley’s shrine now. Beyond her rooted sadness, there is a new note, a new compassion for herself which allows her the necessary distance. This speech, too, is a kind of leave-taking. She is to all intents and purposes alone.
Petra
She’s five when we move house.
You remember things at that age.
You lay down memories like a new wine.
Leon
I’ve got these words,
These last words to say to Freddie
While I still remember them.
Leon too gets out a chair. Places it with great deliberation. This is Freddie. Now, angrily, and without any irony at all:
Leon
You stupid fucker.
You stupid fucking fucker.
(Beat. Then, anger giving way to remembered fondness.)
Go, Freddie –
Please go.
Go and don’t ever come back.
Pause. First Petra moves off, taking her chair. Then Leon packs up his chair, with a nod to Jimmy, who sits alone on his.
Jimmy’s leave-taking is different. He’s scared, mainly of the loneliness he senses; but at the same time, anxious to make the journey.
Jimmy
There’s been this late frost.
This patina of frost all over the back garden.
And I’m thinking:
I’m not going into work on a morning like this.
I know this hill where there’s bluebells.
I’m going to take my shoes and socks off.
I’m going to get my toes wet.<
br />
(Small pause.)
Petra?
(Beat.)
Petra?
But she doesn’t come, and he stands alone, and brave, as the lights come down.
Julian Armitstead trained as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, before becoming a teacher of English and Drama in his late twenties. Julian first developed After the Accident while on attachment at the Birmingham Rep, and subsequently with the help of Arts Council England. The play was the winner of the 2008 Amnesty International ‘Protect the Human’ playwriting competition, and an adapted version was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 for the Friday Play, in a production starring Jack O’Connell and Lia Williams. Julian currently works as a writer in residence in a prison.
Published by Methuen Drama 2011
Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Methuen Drama
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First published by Methuen Drama in 2011
Copyright © Julian Armitstead 2011
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and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
ISBN: 978 1 408 15533 2
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After the Accident Page 6