Parramatta Girls

by Alana Valentine

  CORAL: Feel a bit like you’ve had a weight lifted off your shoulders.

  GAYLE: Didn’t even know I was carrying it.

  They both rotate their shoulders as if they’re sore, and then laugh. Pause.

  CORAL: I couldn’t help hearing.

  GAYLE: What?

  CORAL: When you were in the…

  GAYLE: Where the doctor…

  CORAL: Yeah. You said you had two lines on your file.

  GAYLE: That’s right.

  CORAL: So you’ve read your file, then?

  GAYLE: I have, yeah. Are you thinking of getting yours?

  CORAL: Oh, I’ve got my file.

  GAYLE: So you’ve read it?

  CORAL: I haven’t read it.

  GAYLE: Oh. [Beat.] You’ve got it but you haven’t read it?

  Pause. CORAL reaches into her bag and pulls out a stack of photocopied pages.

  CORAL: They photocopied it for me.

  GAYLE: God. They don’t usually do that.

  CORAL: I just told them they had to.

  GAYLE: Usually you have to just go and look at it in a room with an officer of the Department present.

  CORAL: I know. I just told them to copy it.

  GAYLE: Good for you.

  CORAL: And then I couldn’t read it.

  GAYLE: Well, the time will come.

  CORAL: Yeah. That’s right.

  GAYLE: Just take your time.

  CORAL: Could you have a look at it for me?

  GAYLE: What?

  CORAL: Could you read it to me? Tell me what’s in it?

  Pause.

  GAYLE: Can you read, Coral?

  CORAL: No. I can’t.

  Pause.

  GAYLE: The reason they want an officer of the Department with you is that there’s usually things in there that…

  CORAL: I’ll be all right.

  GAYLE: I know you will. I’m just saying some of the things that are written are not always put in the best way. They’re just the way that the caseworker would have written it or so.

  CORAL: The reason I wanted one of us. The reason I wanted another Parramatta Girl was because I knew a Parramatta Girl wouldn’t squib on me.

  GAYLE: Maybe it would be better if one of your friends…

  CORAL: Gayle. I’m asking you straight. Read it to me please.

  GAYLE sits and reads.

  GAYLE: ‘Committal to an Institution. Coral Dawn McGillivray. Born 25.9.1947. Charge: Neglect and E.M.D.’

  CORAL: Exposed to Moral Danger.

  GAYLE: ‘Home visit—mother seen. She stated that the girl had not been home for five weeks and that… she did not know where she was.’

  CORAL: Read that again.

  GAYLE: ‘She stated that the girl had not been home for five weeks and that she could not care less what happened to her.’

  CORAL: Keep going.

  GAYLE: I bet she never said that.

  CORAL: Keep going.

  GAYLE: ‘She stated that she had not reported her missing to the police or the Department because she was not keen to have her found.’

  CORAL: She would never have said that.

  GAYLE: ‘The mother claimed she was not prepared to have her back again, to attend court on her behalf or to take any further interest in her.’

  CORAL: And that’s a lie.

  GAYLE: Of course it is.

  CORAL: What else?

  GAYLE: ‘This is the sworn statement of Monica May Riley, Special Constable of the Women’s Police, attached to the Criminal Investigation Brank.’

  CORAL: What?

  GAYLE: It says brank, but I think it means branch.

  CORAL: If it’s coppers I think it means brank.

  They laugh.

  GAYLE: ‘At about eight p.m. on the twenty-eighth February this girl was brought to the Women’s Police office by Sergeant Sweeney of the Vice Squad. He said, “This is Coral Dawn McGillivray, she is thirteen years old.” I said, “Where have you been staying since you left home?” She said, “Residentials, usually Skipton Court of the Durban.” I said, “Who has been paying for the room?” She said, “I would go with different men and they would pay.” I said, “Have you been having sexual intercourse with these men?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “How many?” She said, “I don’t know, there were a lot.”’

  They are both sit silent.

  Are you all right?

  CORAL: I don’t remember any of that.

  GAYLE: That’s all right.

  CORAL: Fancy. [Pause.] What does it say about the baby?

  GAYLE looks in the file.

  GAYLE: It just says the date you were discharged. But just because it isn’t here doesn’t mean anything.

  CORAL: They got me to sign something the night I was sent to the ’ospital, she said it was to confirm that I was happy to have the baby at a certain ’ospital, and if I didn’t sign she wouldn’t be able to take me in the ambulance, and I’d end up having to have my baby at Parramatta without proper maternity facilities. But that paper wasn’t about the ’ospital. It was called a ‘Socially Cleared’ authority. I had signed a paper saying the baby was cleared for adoption. But that’s not the end of it. My mother, the one those liars reckon didn’t want to take an interest in me, she came with me to the ’ospital. And we got her back. You’ve got thirty days. You’ve got thirty days. And so we went to the ’ospital and we screamed blue bloody murder and we got her back.

  GAYLE: You went to the hospital?

  CORAL: We marched up to that ’ospital and we got her back. I mean, it was more than that.

  GAYLE: But you got her back.

  CORAL: I got her back. She been with me all these years.

  Pause.

  GAYLE: You want to know how they discharged me?

  CORAL: Yeah.

  GAYLE: You sure?

  CORAL: Yeah.

  GAYLE: Do you remember what the walls of the isolation rooms were?

  CORAL: I don’t know. They were brick, weren’t they?

  GAYLE: Raw brick. They left me in there for two days. They didn’t check on me for two days. No one will believe that, but they didn’t. And when I came out, what I had done was, I had literally, because the walls were raw brick, I had literally stood there and scraped every section, there was not a part of my body I did not scratch on that brick wall. And all they did… I was just covered in mercurochrome the next day. That’s all they did was just chuck mercurochrome all over me. [Beat.] And you know, on my file, all it says is, ‘Gayle fitted into the training situation very smoothly and has maintained a high level of behaviour throughout’.

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  SCENE TEN

  MARLENE and MELANIE enter.

  MELANIE: Won’t never see this place again, I don’t reckon.

  MARLENE: I know. And I don’t know whether to tear it apart with my bare hands or drink it in.

  MELANIE: I’m feelin’ a lot of anger.

  MARLENE: Yep.

  MELANIE: Me too.

  MARLENE is silent.

  I’ve apologised to my children.

  MARLENE: What for?

  MELANIE: I was a pretty rough mother.

  MARLENE: Rough?

  Pause.

  MELANIE: I did abuse them.

  MARLENE: How?

  MELANIE: I hit them.

  MARLENE is silent.

  Because I didn’t know any better.

  MARLENE is silent.

  But I never left my father alone with my daughter. No way. And when she had her daughter… she didn’t know… but I made sure… because he always used to favour my daughter and my daughter’s children.

  MARLENE is silent.

  You too, huh?

  MARLENE: What?

  MELANIE: You took it out on your children?

  MARLENE springs over to MELANIE and puts her hand over her mouth. She holds it there for long moments. The two women look at each other.

  MARLENE: Don’t you say that.

  MELANIE shakes her hea
d. MARLENE takes her hand away.

  Sorry.

  MELANIE holds MARLENE’s hand, but roughly by the wrist. She has had enough and it’s triggered something off in her.

  MELANIE: Don’t you dare try to silence me. Don’t you fucking dare try to silence me.

  MARLENE: I said I was sorry. I’m sorry. It’s just you were saying…

  MELANIE: I was saying the truth. The truth. I bashed my kids. You bashed your kids too. I know it. I can see it. You don’t have that much anger for that long and not take it out on someone.

  MARLENE is silent.

  We didn’t get out of here without scars. We didn’t. We didn’t survive with our decency intact. We didn’t.

  Silence.

  MARLENE: I’m just so ashamed. I love them so much and I just… used to… Oh, God. I used to scream at them and slap them and belt them with a leather strap. I had this leather strap with beads that came from Fiji and I used to belt them so hard that all the beads broke and went flying all over the place.

  MELANIE: But you regret what you did.

  MARLENE: Oh, I regret it so much. I regret it so much. And I look at this place. And I smell this disinfectant and this place.

  MELANIE: You can apologise to your kids.

  MARLENE: No.

  MELANIE: Yes. You can.

  MARLENE: And who’s going to say sorry to me? Who’s going to say sorry for all the things that were done to me and can’t be undone?

  Pause.

  MELANIE: I’m sorry.

  A long pause.

  MARLENE: Thank you.

  Pause.

  MELANIE: The old hankie’s been gettin’ a work out today, hasn’t it?

  MARLENE: Sure has.

  MELANIE reaches out and shakes MARLENE’s hand, a strengthening.

  MELANIE: Come on, I hear there’s gonna be sandwiches.

  MARLENE: I wasn’t told to bring a plate.

  MELANIE: No, DOCS are providing it.

  MARLENE: [with a laugh] Good old Coral, eh. Got the Department to spring for sandwiches.

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  SCENE ELEVEN

  MAREE and LYNETTE enter.

  LYNETTE: I didn’t recognise you.

  MAREE: Like Mary.

  LYNETTE: Who?

  MAREE: Mary. At the tomb. She didn’t recognise Christ. At first. When he was resurrected. Not until he touched her and said her name, ‘Mary’.

  LYNETTE: Maree. [Beat.] I’m glad you came back.

  MAREE: I didn’t get to say goodbye.

  LYNETTE: I wasn’t worth it.

  MAREE: I wasn’t.

  LYNETTE: I let you down.

  MAREE is silent.

  I didn’t know the first thing about the kind of life you’d had.

  LYNETTE touches her own face.

  MAREE: Don’t touch me.

  LYNETTE: Will that make you disappear?

  MAREE: No, I don’t want you to get any of my bad luck on you.

  LYNETTE: It’s not catching.

  MAREE: Oh, I think it is.

  Pause.

  LYNETTE: I loved you, Maree. I loved you and I miss you.

  MAREE: You shouldn’t say that.

  LYNETTE: I loved you.

  MAREE: I was just a waste of space.

  LYNETTE: Not to me.

  MAREE: All of us were. Rubbish.

  LYNETTE: I would have loved you.

  MAREE: What a waste that would have been.

  MAREE exits.

  CORAL, MARLENE and JUDI enter with a trolley of tea and sand-wiches. KERRY enters from the other side of the stage. She calls MARLENE over.

  KERRY: Marlene.

  MARLENE: Kerry. You right?

  KERRY: Just a bit nervous. About the speech.

  MARLENE: I didn’t know you were giving a speech.

  KERRY: No. No one else does neither.

  MARLENE: What d’ya mean?

  KERRY: They’re gonna have the speeches in a moment.

  MARLENE: And?

  KERRY: And I wanna talk about how it got closed down.

  MARLENE: So. Who’s gonna stop ya?

  KERRY: The Department.

  MARLENE: What?

  KERRY: The Reunion Committee.

  MARLENE: Why would they?

  KERRY: I asked them can I tell about the closing down and they said, ‘If we let you speak everyone will want to, and you do go on, Kerry.’ [Pause.] Well, do I?

  MARLENE: What?

  KERRY: Go on?

  Pause.

  MARLENE: Just grab the microphone.

  KERRY: Really?

  MARLENE: I better see you making that speech, sister.

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  SCENE TWELVE

  GAYLE takes her seat. She looks at JUDI but then moves away. JUDI goes over to LYNETTE.

  JUDI: [indicating GAYLE] There she is.

  LYNETTE: Who?

  JUDI: The one who recognised me.

  LYNETTE: So go speak to her.

  JUDI: No.

  LYNETTE: There’s only today. You have to do it now. You’ll never, never get the chance to see these women again.

  JUDI: So. I can live with it.

  LYNETTE: You’ve been living with it. All these years. Put it down. Put it down today in this place.

  JUDI is silent.

  There’ll be good intentions. There’ll be talk of staying in touch. But you won’t. This is it.

  JUDI shakes her head.

  Then I dare you.

  JUDI: What?

  LYNETTE: You’re a Parramatta Girl. You know what a dare means.

  JUDI: I’m not going to respond to that. I’m not sixteen.

  LYNETTE: Then you won’t mind if I call you a gutless little whore.

  There is a long silence where they look at each other. JUDI goes over to GAYLE.

  JUDI: I am the one who… did what you said I did.

  GAYLE: I know.

  Pause.

  JUDI: I changed my name to Judi. My name when I was in here was Fay McKell.

  GAYLE: Never forget a face.

  JUDI: Right.

  GAYLE: Come to offer me your confession, did you?

  JUDI: No.

  GAYLE: ’Course you did.

  Pause.

  JUDI: Well, what would be so wrong if I did want to talk about it?

  GAYLE: Wouldn’t be wrong. Just be typical.

  Pause.

  JUDI: This is not possible.

  GAYLE: Well, thank you, Your Highness, the arbiter of what’s possible.

  JUDI: How can you be so hard?

  GAYLE: Me? I’m harder than the inside of a nun’s mattress.

  Pause.

  LYNETTE: Come on, Judi.

  JUDI: What?

  LYNETTE: Maybe I was wrong to suggest it.

  GAYLE: So you needed prompting, then? To own up?

  JUDI: I just wanted to speak to you.

  Pause. JUDI begins to leave.

  GAYLE: When you played the role of Portia, that’s when we knew.

  JUDI: You remember that?

  GAYLE: I remember you never came to any of the auditions, or the read-through, and then there you were, large as life, with the lead role. You knew your way around a wrinkly, old dick before the rest of us knew our way around a box of tampons.

  JUDI: Wheras you wouldn’t say dick if your mouth was full of it.

  GAYLE: You thought you were so good in them bloody plays.

  JUDI: I was good.

  GAYLE: You were shit. Wooden shit.

  JUDI: I was not. The ABC taped us.

  GAYLE: The ABC thought you were shit.

  JUDI: They did not.

  LYNETTE: Come on, Judi.

  Pause.

  JUDI: What else do you remember?

  LYNETTE: Judi.

  JUDI: Nothin’. She remembers stuff, that’s all.

  LYNETTE raises her eyebrows.

  Yeah, well maybe we’ll never be best friends.

  GAYLE: You can take that as gospel.

&n
bsp; LYNETTE: Fine.

  JUDI nods. LYNETTE exits. Pause.

  JUDI: Do you remember the Hungarian matron?

  GAYLE: My good girl jest.

  JUDI: My good girl jest. What the hell did that mean?

  GAYLE: It meant you were in trouble.

  JUDI: To this day I don’t know what it means.

  They fall into a silence.

  GAYLE: Two squares of toilet paper for a piss and six for a shit.

  JUDI: What was your number?

  GAYLE: Nine-seven-six. You?

  JUDI: One-one-five.

  Pause.

  GAYLE: Louise Ferino. Came in at the same time as little Ilona Verona.

  JUDI: Ilona Verona. I remember her. She was the little Italian girl who poisoned her parents.

  GAYLE: Louise Ferino took me under her wing. She told me, you’ve gotta have a bit of guts, you’ve gotta fight back, because I’d just stand there and take it. Anyway… I started to. One night in the toilets… two girls got me in the toilets and I fought back and I beat them. And that’s when I started to get a little bit of power myself. I had that experience of ‘It’s me against the world’. [Pause.] Go on, then.

  JUDI: What?

  GAYLE: Say it.

  JUDI: Say what?

  GAYLE: Say, ‘And ya still do’.

  JUDI takes her card out of her bag and hands it to GAYLE.

  Changed your name. Why’d you do that?

  JUDI: Too many people knew me from working.

  GAYLE: Tarot reader, clairvoyant, astrologer, numerologist, rebirther, counsellor. Professional psychic since 1973. Psychic, eh? Did ya know I was gonna be here, then?

  JUDI: Not really.

  GAYLE: Eh? Come on.

  JUDI: Or someone like you.

  GAYLE: True?

  JUDI: You or someone like you. I hoped.

  GAYLE: ‘It is better to light candles than to curse the darkness.’

  JUDI: Don’t you think?

  They stand, awkward, not knowing how to take their leave of each other. JUDI puts her hand out. GAYLE looks at it, long and hard. JUDI drops her hand. But GAYLE doesn’t leave. They stand there, awkward.

  JUDI: Did you find the dungeons?

  GAYLE: Yep.

  JUDI: Is that what you called the showers?

  GAYLE: No. Other side from the showers. Vacant rooms from when it was an orphanage. If you were never taken there you would have never known. [Beat.] So why’d you do it, why’d you go with the Super?

  JUDI: I was out for myself. And I knew it was coming. So I brought it on myself.

  GAYLE: That’s how they get you. There’s this little doubt, this little fear that you did something to bring it on yourself.