They Have Oak Trees in North Carolina
Page 5
CLAY No.
Beat.
He was with me
Beat.
Mydel
RAY Mydel?
CLAY Robert Mydel
My new father the
Of course I didn’t know that at the time
If I’d have known that / I never would have
EILEEN Robert Mydel that was his name?
RAY For God’s sake!
EILEEN Shut up Ray!
CLAY Yes
EILEEN And
What?
He was outside was he when you were playing?
When you went out he was
CLAY There
Yes
He was standing there right there when I came out of the cabin
RAY No!
There was no one outside
I should know I was at the window
CLAY You didn’t see him
He called me over said, ‘Come over here bubba I’ll play with you’
I must have been crying, mumbling under my breath cause Dad
I mean Ray he wouldn’t play with me he didn’t want me inside
He sent me outside to play on my own
EILEEN He sent you outside?
Is that what you did?
You sent him out outside
RAY No.
Look he was crying I tried to calm him down but
He went out on his own
I didn’t know he was gone until
You know that
the police know that I’ve always
EILEEN (To Clay.) What happened next?
CLAY He got me playing a couple of rounds of tag
RAY You would have been shouting
CLAY Shouting?
RAY Yes
Patrick could never play a game without shouting
Shouting and screaming
He’d get over-excited
CLAY Well maybe I was shouting a little maybe
RAY I would have heard you
EILEEN From inside the cabin?
RAY Yes
The window was open and anyway the walls were thin
Don’t you remember?
We could hear the people next door
EILEEN Were there people next door?
RAY Yes
That woman with the red hair
We used to see her going out in the morning
We gave her a nickname
What was it?
EILEEN Oh never mind that now
(To Clay.) So, you were playing and
CLAY Yes it was my turn to count his turn to hide.
He asked me to cover my eyes
He said cover your eyes and count to ten then come look for me
But I never got to ten
EILEEN Why?
CLAY He grabbed me
from behind
Put one hand round my waist and the other over my mouth
Next thing I was pushed into the passenger side of his van or car
I don’t know which.
Next morning I saw it was a blue pick-up
EILEEN So there was a blue van
RAY This is ridiculous
EILEEN Shut up!
CLAY He swapped it next day for a saloon.
Did some deal with some Mexican in Georgia
We drove for hours
Drove through the mountains through thick forest on both sides
I don’t remember him stopping
I guess he must have but I don’t remember
RAY And you didn’t scream or shout or
CLAY No, maybe a little at first but
I don’t know
Apart from him grabbing me he was kind of ok after that.
To me it was just some sort of game, an adventure
RAY So you sat impassively in the passenger side of this van, pick-up, car whatever
While this man this
tag-playing kidnapper
he crossed the state line did he?
CLAY Yes
Yes that’s right.
RAY That would have taken hours
Patrick would never have sat quietly not even for five minutes
CLAY But I was scared I
RAY Scared?
I thought you said you thought it was all a game an adventure
EILEEN Shush!
Go on please
CLAY The next morning, I don’t know what time it was but we stopped for breakfast
We drove a few more hours and checked into a motel
He left me alone in the room while he went and got food, exchanged the car
EILEEN He left you alone?
CLAY Yes
RAY And you didn’t try to escape or
CLAY No
By this stage I thought
I thought this was all kind of cool kind of
no big deal you know.
I thought he’d take me back eventually
I thought I’d see you again
RAY You thought he’d bring you back?
CLAY Yes
RAY That’s a rather a complex thing to have worked out
CLAY Complex?
RAY Yes
What you’re saying is that you rationalised
You weighed things up
CLAY Yes I guess I did yes
RAY But our son he wouldn’t have been able to do that
He wouldn’t have rationalised
He wasn’t capable of that
CLAY But from the stuff Mydel told me
EILEEN What did he tell you?
CLAY That
Well, at first he said it was a secret adventure and when I asked him if I was
going home he said
‘Yes’ but then I kept asking, ‘when’
I was pestering him for information and
That’s when he said he’d need to talk to you.
So he used the phone in the motel and he called someone.
He had a real conversation
I saw him use the phone
EILEEN But no one called here
We were on holiday there wasn’t a phone in the cabin
CLAY I know that now.
But he was
He was pretending
He was pretty convincing too
nodding and waiting while the other person on the line spoke.
He was like, ‘Uh huh’ and, ‘That’s right ok’
It wasn’t til later in the evening
when he sat me on his knee, then he told me that I’d never see you again.
He said you didn’t love me no more
I said, ‘No they do love me they’
But he said, ‘No, you’ve been a bad son Patrick.
You’ve upset your Mommy and Daddy and now you have to live with me.’
I cried when he said that.
Then he took me to the sink and cut my hair and then he dyed it.
He must have known that the cops would release a picture
I remember looking in the mirror and I didn’t recognise myself.
I knew then that my life had changed forever
But worse was still to come.
EILEEN Why, what happened?
CLAY Well…that night
Pause.
that night he he….undressed me and
EILEEN Oh God
CLAY He asked me to sleep in his bed and
RAY No I’m sorry but just spare us! /
EILEEN Ray!
RAY No no sorry but he abused you did he?
That’s what you’re going to say isn’t it?
CLAY I think the word abuse is a very general term
RAY Really
CLAY Yes it doesn’t begin to / describe
RAY Christ!
You really have thought about this haven’t you?
EILEEN For God’s sake!
RAY This is for the newspapers is it?
You think this is what they want?
If there’s…what?
you get more column space is that it?
; They’ll pay more I suppose
EILEEN Ray!
RAY It’s all lies Eileen!
CLAY (To Eileen.) I’m not lying I promise
RAY You know, I remember reading an article once
’bout some murderer some guy who’d killed
I don’t know how many hundreds of old ladies.
But the thing was he hadn’t abused them.
Not raped them
Not had sex with them after they were dead nothing like that
EILEEN Ray for
RAY No listen.
But he’d killed a lot of people, this man
In fact he was quite prolific.
And this journalist she said her fellow reporters they weren’t that interested in this
particular case because the story didn’t have any sex in it.
But ‘Boy gets kidnapped and abused comes back to tell his sensational tale’ that’s
got it all hasn’t it?
And he knows that
that man that whoever you are.
He knows that’s what they really want
And you know what?
It fascinates you too Eileen
Cause they’ve got you all programmed
all set up
You don’t want the truth, the real story no
You want the souped up movie version lie!
CLAY It’s not a lie why would I lie about
RAY (To Clay.) What is it you actually want?
It must be the money
It could only be the money or is this just something you do?
It’s your thing is it?
You arrive at people’s houses make up stories ruin people’s lives
Well you won’t ruin mine.
Beat.
Patrick was taken by a woman
A woman who wanted a child was desperate for a child or or
could offer our son more attention more love more
CLAY You fucking asshole!
RAY What did you call me?
CLAY I called you a fucking asshole
Are you that heartless that
RAY Heartless?
You’re heartless coming here and spinning your
This happened to us
This is our life!
CLAY I’ll prove it
I’ll get a test
A DNA test
RAY You can’t lie on a test
Do you actually think a test would come up positive?
EILEEN What do you mean ‘more love’?
Beat.
RAY What?
EILEEN you said someone who could offer Patrick ‘more love’
RAY (To Clay.) I want you out of my house
You’re crazy
Go on get out
Get out!
EILEEN You think someone else could have been a better mother to Patrick?
RAY No no not a better mother no
EILEEN Then what?
RAY Look I don’t know I don’t
EILEEN You think that what happened was for the best?
Is that what you think?
RAY No no but
CLAY You don’t know how I’ve lived
EILEEN Ray?
CLAY No one to mind that I don’t have shoes to walk in
RAY I don’t care
EILEEN Ray?
CLAY A trailer
cooking fat all over the the door the ceiling dog hairs clinging to
RAY Shut up!
CLAY Every night, I was sodomised
RAY (Laughing.) Jesus! Sodomised?
(To Eileen.) He says this with a straight face!
CLAY He forced me to suck his cock
RAY NO!
CLAY And he did the same to other kids
He used me as the bait
I was his live in sexual partner / from the age of five!
RAY You weren’t!
CLAY But these things happened to me!
RAY Ok well maybe they did happen to you maybe
But they didn’t happen to our son!
EILEEN How do you know?
RAY Because that’s not Patrick Eileen
You know it’s not
Whatever you might want to believe whatever
it’s not him!
EILEEN What makes you so sure?
Beat.
What makes you so sure Ray?
What do you know?
What do you know that I don’t?
Beat.
What happened between you and Patrick after I left for that shop?
RAY NOTHING!
EILEEN Ray?
Beat.
Oh God
Did you hurt him?
Beat.
Did you
Did you kill him?
RAY Kill him?
Patrick?
No Christ how can you
I gave our son a chance that’s what!
I gave us a chance
Clay suddenly violently grabs Ray. He pushes him up against the table with the food on it. Eileen screams.
CLAY You fuckin’ bastard
RAY Get off me get
EILEEN Clay!
CLAY You think I’m going to listen to this
Listen to this crap from a shitty little man like you
EILEEN Clay!
CLAY I’ve come all this way and all you can do is mock me?!
RAY Let go you’re hurting / me
CLAY Hurting?
You don’t know what hurt is you fucking
I’m big now
I’m a man
I can do whatever I want!
EILEEN Stop!
RAY Let me go!
CLAY Look at these arms
Can you feel me?
Feel?
He tightens his grip again. Ray calls out. So does Eileen.
RAY Ahhh!
CLAY I could be a boxer
See
She said that
EILEEN Stop!
CLAY I’m gonna to get what I want here do you hear?
Do you hear me?
RAY Help me! Help!
EILEEN Please
CLAY Now you are gonna sit with me and her you’re gonna tell these TV people you tell them I’m your missing son!
RAY (Struggling.) No no
Clay shakes Ray.
CLAY Say: ‘You Are My SON’
RAY (Choking.) No
CLAY Say it say it!
RAY No!
Ray manages to break free. He cries out and pushes Clay with real force.
EILEEN Patrick!
Clay falls against the table, he lands hard. Cuts his head. After a moment he puts his hand to feel his forehead.
CLAY Oh…
With all his strength and rage Ray now makes to attack Clay.
RAY You fucking
Clay is in a corner and puts his hands up. He immediately looks defenceless.
CLAY No! No! No! NO!
Eileen drags Ray off Clay.
EILEEN Leave him leave him / you’ll hurt him you’ll
RAY It was him
You saw
He tried to kill me!
As she pulls Ray off they both notice the blood which is now coming from Clay’s head. The next section of dialogue should run fast and can at times overlap.
EILEEN Look what you’ve done
RAY That’s it blame me blame me
Take his side
Do what you always do
Clay looks at the blood on his hands. He reacts to it like a child.
CLAY Blood
EILEEN (She goes to Clay.) Oh God
RAY Don’t help him
EILEEN Leave us!
CLAY I wanted
I need this
I need
Fuck fuck!
EILEEN Let me see
Clay touches his head again.
CLAY Blood
EILEEN (She takes his hand.) It’s okay, you’ll be alright
CLAY FUCK!
EILEEN You’re ok
C
LAY (To Eileen.) But what about my son what about
EILEEN I know
It’s ok
I know
CLAY (Holds out his hand to her.) Blood
EILEEN You’ll be ok
She takes his hand.
CLAY Hurts…
Clay starts to cry.
EILEEN (To Ray.) What have you done?
What have you done to me
What did you do to my Patrick?
RAY Oh yes that’s right
Your Patrick your son your boy never mine
EILEEN You didn’t want him
RAY I didn’t get a chance to want him
EILEEN You were pathetic
You never knew what to do
RAY You never let me near him
In the beginning I tried to help but you wouldn’t let me
EILEEN What did you do with him Ray?
What happened after I left for that shop?
Beat.
RAY I want you to know that what I did I
I didn’t plan it or
EILEEN Ray
RAY It was to save to
EILEEN Tell me
RAY go back
EILEEN Tell me.
Silence.
RAY Remember what he was like just before you left?
Beat.
Well do you?
EILEEN Yes.
RAY Well he got worse
Much worse
This was a whole new level of kicking, screaming
I tried to calm him down but he bit me
There was blood
I got cross I told him, ‘Go outside’
EILEEN So you did tell him to go outside?
RAY Yes, but I was watching at the sink I promise he
Pause.
He was out there no more than ten minutes
Pause.
I don’t know where she came from
One minute he was alone and the next
It was like a magic trick.
She just appeared
Popped up
Like she’d arrived through a trap door in the earth
She had dark hair, was about our age maybe older
When I thought about it later I realised I’d seen her before.
She’d talk to Patrick, hang around smile and
Well, she had a way about her
I could tell
she was good with him.
Not like me not like
She was wearing a blue dress
White shoes
She was bent down talking to Patrick right at his level
She was whispering in his ear
I think…he was holding her hand
Now he’d never do that with us, would he?
Do you remember?
He’d always shrug us off or pull away.
And as I watched them I saw that she was starting to move
Just a little, slowly
Looked like nothing
Looked like she was his mother and this was her son and they were just innocently moving on, going home or
But they were getting further and further away
Slipping off the surface of
When I realised what was happening
When I saw what she was doing I went out there, rushed out
I was about to say –