And you’re not married—
CORROSSI: We’ve established that.
FLINT: Boyfriend?
CORROSSI: Beg your pardon.
FLINT: Partner then?
CORROSSI: Why are you asking me this?
FLINT: Just trying to get a picture.
CORROSSI: Of the spinster teacher?
I don’t own multiple cats if that’s of interest.
FLINT checks his notes.
FLINT: You told Constable Hanrahan in your interview last week that you would pick Hannah up and drop her back to school after the tutorial.
CORROSSI: I’d sign her in, sign her out.
FLINT: Isn’t that above and beyond the call of duty?
CORROSSI: That’s what the school expects of its staff. They pay your wage and they own your soul.
FLINT: So the tutoring was at the school’s request?
CORROSSI: Not exactly—
FLINT: Whose then?
CORROSSI: I proposed it.
FLINT: What did you study?
CORROSSI: Literature obviously. Hannah’s G.A.T.
FLINT: And what does that mean?
CORROSSI: Gifted and Talented. It’s a program for precocious students.
FLINT: Precocious?
CORROSSI: Academically advanced.
Hannah has an acumen beyond her years. I felt it was my responsibility to shine a light on that.
FLINT: I thought you didn’t have pets.
Beat.
CORROSSI: Her parents gave their written permission.
FLINT consults his notes.
FLINT: Hannah’s father says she’s fragile—
CORROSSI: That’s why he sent her to Maidstone—
FLINT: —prone to fantasy.
CORROSSI: —so she couldn’t fly the coop.
FLINT: The school chaplain supports the theory.
CORROSSI: The chaplain couldn’t counsel an amoeba.
FLINT: Hannah was taking medication for depression.
Beat.
CORROSSI: Doesn’t surprise me. Half my students are junkies. You should see the pharmacy we take with us on excursion.
FLINT: What happened at Bella Vista?
CORROSSI: The Bella Vista?
FLINT: Iris’s father’s property?
CORROSSI: He sold it to a mining company. Made an outrageous profit apparently.
FLINT: The three girls stayed there during the September break.
There’s a mention of an incident at Bella Vista in the chaplain’s file.
CORROSSI: What kind of incident?
FLINT: It’s not clear.
CORROSSI: Did you ask the chaplain?
FLINT: She couldn’t recall.
CORROSSI: She’s incompetent.
FLINT: So Hannah didn’t mention Bella Vista to you?
CORROSSI: I thought you summoned me here so you could question Iris.
FLINT: I did.
CORROSSI: Then what are you scribbling in that notebook?
FLINT: Not the first time Maidstone has been in the media.
Beat.
CORROSSI: You’re referring to Paris?
FLINT: You were one of the supervising teachers on that trip.
CORROSSI: Another teacher carelessly fell pregnant, pulled out at late notice. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the mid break supervising pubescents in Paris.
FLINT: Free trip sounds alright.
CORROSSI: It’s no picnic, believe me. Alcohol’s off limits. Imagine a trip to Bordeaux without a single drop passing your lips? And it’s not as though you can relax when you’re perpetually worried one of the students is going to deface the Mona Lisa.
FLINT: Private school girls?
CORROSSI: They go silly overseas, believe me.
FLINT: Silly enough to lie about an attempted abduction?
CORROSSI: You’ve done your research.
FLINT: You were the only teacher on that trip who believed her.
CORROSSI: I’m no stranger to dissidence.
FLINT: You think she was telling the truth?
CORROSSI: Why wouldn’t I?
Of course the school assumed she made it all up because she’d returned after curfew.
FLINT: And the girl successfully sued the school.
CORROSSI: Serves them right.
FLINT: Sounds like a grudge.
CORROSSI: I was under the impression you were searching for two missing girls not muckraking?
FLINT is silent.
The school cared more for their reputation than the welfare of a student. They failed in their duty of care. Maidstone lost a quarter of their enrolments that year and it serves them right. The Principal sacked every teacher on that trip.
FLINT: But not you.
CORROSSI: She’d been wanting to pop me off for years—
FLINT: Why didn’t she?
CORROSSI: I’d defended the girl in court. The media would have had a field day, so I was given a stay of execution. Maidstone revamped its image after that, turned itself into a prison for wealthy, wayward young women, the tightest security in the country. You see, what most parents are paying for in a private school is a haven from the moral dangers of the modern era. And guess what? Enrolments tripled. These days the boarders at Maidstone can’t insert a tampon without asking for permission. What they don’t realise, these parents, is they can’t possibly protect them. All the security in the world won’t save them.
FLINT: Save them from what, Ms Corrossi?
Pause.
CORROSSI: I’ll bet they’re riding you.
FLINT: Who?
CORROSSI: The Principal, the parents, probably the PM. After all, he’s a father, he has a daughter he can relate.
FLINT: I think every parent can relate.
CORROSSI: Oh, you’ve a brood, do you?
FLINT: Just the one.
CORROSSI: Gender?
FLINT: Little girl.
CORROSSI: Age?
FLINT: Eleven.
CORROSSI: You’ve got four years.
FLINT: Until?
CORROSSI: They all die at fifteen.
FLINT: I’m sorry?
CORROSSI: Metaphorically.
FLINT: —
CORROSSI: It’s a quote. Diderot. French philosopher.
FLINT: You want to help me find them, don’t you?
CORROSSI: What do you think?
FLINT: Strange way of showing it.
CORROSSI: Should I cue the tears, cue the wringing of hands?
Trauma doesn’t always present the way you think it should.
It’s where Lindy Chamberlain went wrong and didn’t she pay for it.
FLINT: I would have thought as their teacher you’d take this seriously. Police and S.E.S. crews are out risking their lives. There are fires raging in the Western Ranges. I want to find these girls, but the clock is ticking. So, are you listening?
CORROSSI: Yes, Detective. I’m listening.
FLINT: You must not attempt to interrupt or answer questions. I have the right to exclude you from the interview if you unreasonably interfere. However, you are entitled to ask me to clarify a question, to challenge an improper question or to query the way a question has been asked. Is that clear?
CORROSSI: Do you mind if I mark some of this derivative dribble while we wait?
FLINT: Do you know something I don’t?
CORROSSI: I’m as in the dark as you are.
IRIS appears in the room.
IRIS: Hello, Ms Corrossi.
CORROSSI: Iris.
IRIS: Did you miss us—
CORROSSI: Did I—?
IRIS: —in English?
CORROSSI: We survived without you.
FLINT: You’ve nominated Ms Corrossi as your interview friend—
IRIS: Are we friends now, Ms Corrossi?
CORROSSI: I’m your teacher, Iris, not your friend.
FLINT: Do you still want Ms Corrossi to be present?
I need a clear yes or no.
IRIS: David. You know I do. We’ve already talked about this.
CORROSSI: You two seem very acquainted.
FLINT: —
IRIS: Oh, we are. David picked me up from the hospital and drove me here.
He told me everything. He has a daughter. I saw a photo.
His daughter or his very young wife.
FLINT: My daughter.
IRIS: Well, that’s a relief.
FLINT: Let’s begin—?
IRIS: What’s her name?
FLINT: Who?
IRIS: Your daughter, silly.
FLINT: Mabel.
IRIS: Sweet. Was that your idea?
FLINT: It was actually.
IRIS: I knew it. My father named me. You think if you give us the names of nice young ladies from the olden days we’ll act like our grannies. But how do you know what they got up to when they were our age? I bet they were bigger sluts / than us.
CORROSSI: Iris—
IRIS: A Mabel would never lose her virginity passed out on a cocktail of eccies and Bacardi Breezers, now would she? Only girls called Miley and Candy and Brittany / and—
CORROSSI: That’s enough.
IRIS: What?
CORROSSI: Let’s get on with this.
FLINT: Can you please state your full—?
IRIS: Stop!
FLINT: What?
IRIS: I just remembered.
I haven’t eaten in a million years.
FLINT: You’re hungry?
IRIS: All they feed you in the hospital are little white pills.
FLINT: What do you want? Anything you like?
IRIS: Cake.
FLINT: Yeah, what kind?
IRIS: Black Forest.
FLINT: Okay.
IRIS: In a heart shape.
FLINT: Okay.
IRIS: With lots of frosting.
FLINT: I’ll see what I can do.
Back in a second.
IRIS: Second’s up.
FLINT exits the room.
CORROSSI and IRIS stare at each other for a moment.
CORROSSI: For God’s sake, Iris, where have you been?
The others? Where are they?
IRIS: You see, Ms Corrossi, that’s the strangest thing.
I don’t remember.
CORROSSI: Is this a game, is it?
IRIS: Do you know how it ends?
CORROSSI: / You have to stop this.
IRIS: You have to stop this.
FLINT returns.
CORROSSI: Whatever it is I’m not playing.
IRIS: But you started it.
FLINT: Everything okay?
CORROSSI and IRIS are silent.
Take a seat, Iris.
IRIS considers the options at painstaking length.
Wherever you feel comfortable.
CORROSSI: It’s not a life and death decision, Iris.
IRIS sits.
FLINT presses record on a small device.
FLINT: Can you state your full name for me please?
IRIS: Iris. Elizabeth. Hocking.
FLINT: What were you doing in Deer Park?
It’s a long way from Maidstone.
IRIS: Once there were deer.
FLINT: Did you see one?
IRIS: There used to be a hunting club.
FLINT: In Deer Park?
IRIS: In the past. Now it’s just a povo suburb. Do you know what venison is?
FLINT: It’s the flesh of a deer.
IRIS: Ever tasted it?
FLINT: Have you?
IRIS: We’re vegan.
FLINT: Who’s we?
IRIS: Hannah and Ava and I.
FLINT: You’re pretty tight, you three.
IRIS: We’re a circle. I told you.
FLINT: Do you remember how you got there?
IRIS: Where?
FLINT: Deer Park.
IRIS makes an effort to recall.
Car, train, bus?
IRIS: No.
FLINT: Do you know someone who lives in the area?
A friend? Relative?
Pause.
IRIS: I don’t think so.
FLINT: You ran into a police station at five in the morning. You were highly distressed. Can you remember why that was?
IRIS: No.
FLINT: Did something frighten you?
IRIS: Like what?
FLINT: You tell me.
IRIS: What do you want me to tell you?
FLINT: The truth.
IRIS: Oh.
Pause.
FLINT: Why don’t we take a step back? Rewind the clock.
IRIS: How far? A million years?
FLINT: How about the day you and your two friends disappeared.
IRIS: It’s all foggy.
FLINT: This might help jog your memory.
We’ll go slow. Okay?
IRIS: Okay.
FLINT: So, what did you do that day?
IRIS: —
FLINT: It was a Sunday, if that helps.
IRIS: —
FLINT: What do you normally do on Sunday afternoons?
IRIS: —
FLINT: What’s your usual routine at the boarding school?
CORROSSI: Iris?
IRIS: Well …
There’s chapel at eleven … Lunch in the hall at one … Study from two to six. Dinner at seven. Free time from eight to ten.
It’s the same thing every Sunday. Isn’t it, Ms Corrossi?
At Maidstone every event has a time and a place.
FLINT: So you went to chapel. What happened after that?
IRIS: I suppose we went to lunch.
FLINT: What’d you eat?
IRIS: We fast on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
FLINT: That’s a lot of fasting.
IRIS: Hannah says eating defiles the body. Every little tiny piece of food you digest corrupts all the millions of little cells inside you. It makes you old.
FLINT: Old?
IRIS: Like you and Ms Corrossi.
FLINT: If you don’t eat, you die.
IRIS: ‘In theory.’
FLINT: No, it’s been proven.
CORROSSI: Quite a number of times.
IRIS: Everyone at Maidstone does it.
Hannah says it’s infectious.
CORROSSI: Like chlamydia?
IRIS: Hannah’s the best by far.
CORROSSI: Competition, is it? What’s the prize?
IRIS: Hannah’s period stopped. All the girls at Maidstone were jealous.
FLINT: Why?
IRIS: Hannah stopped time.
FLINT: How’d she do that?
IRIS: Menstruation is the ticking of a clock.
Isn’t it, Ms Corrossi?
And Time flies faster than the weaver’s shuttle.
Pause.
CORROSSI: The motto at Maidstone. Too domestic for a girls’ school in my opinion.
IRIS: There’s other ways to stop time.
FLINT: How?
IRIS: The girl who jumped from the clock tower at school.
FLINT: Who was this?
CORROSSI: A myth, a horror story the girls made up to scare the younger grades.
IRIS: Hannah says Maidstone covered it up. She says the Principal paid the janitor to bury her body under the hydrangeas.
FLINT: Do you think that’s likely?
IRIS: Hannah swears it’s true.
FLINT: Do you believe her?
IRIS: Are you calling her a liar?
FLINT: I think Hannah has an active imagination.
IRIS: Oh, like you?
FLINT: What are you referring to?
IRIS: You like pretending. Don’t you, David?
FLINT: Why do you say that?
IRIS: Something’s eating you. I can just tell.
Pause.
FLINT: You skipped dinner, then what?
IRIS: Free time.
FLINT: From seven until ten, right?
IRIS: I guess.
FLINT: You guess?
IRIS: Yes.
IRIS: I don’t know, probably reading.
FLINT: Where?
IRIS: In the dorm, in my underwear, on my bed.
Graphic enough?
FLINT: Alone?
IRIS: No.
FLINT: Who were you with?
IRIS: My friends.
FLINT: What were you reading?
IRIS: A—book.
FLINT: What was the name / of it?
IRIS: You wouldn’t know it.
FLINT: Try me.
IRIS: Saddle Club.
FLINT: My daughter loves that series.
CORROSSI and IRIS snort simultaneously.
Then what happened?
IRIS: What happens every single night.
FLINT: What’s that?
IRIS: Lights out.
FLINT: What time?
IRIS: Same time as always.
FLINT: What time?
IRIS: Time doesn’t matter. None of this matters.
FLINT: Two of your friends are missing. Does that matter?
IRIS: You’re asking the wrong questions.
FLINT: Why don’t you tell me what questions I should be asking?
IRIS: —
FLINT: You realise this is torturing their parents? This waiting, not knowing.
IRIS: Sad face.
CORROSSI: Iris.
FLINT: In this heat? Without water. Fires burning. Wherever your friends are, they’re at risk. You don’t care?
IRIS: Ava’s father never even paid her fees. They kept ringing him in Hong Kong but he never answered. Maidstone was going to make her leave.
FLINT: So you ran away? Because you didn’t want to break the circle?
IRIS: Happy face. You’ve solved the mystery.
CORROSSI: Spare us the emoticons.
IRIS: Now we can all go home.
FLINT: No-one’s going home.
IRIS: / You said—
FLINT: You went to bed at around eleven.
Pause.
IRIS: No.
FLINT: No?
IRIS: At exactly eleven.
Beat.
FLINT: At exactly eleven p.m. you went to bed. At six a.m. the following morning the housemother reported you missing. Do you remember leaving the school grounds?
IRIS: Not really, no.
FLINT: Not really or / no?
IRIS: No.
Pause.
IRIS gasps suddenly.
Wait.
FLINT: What?
IRIS: There was a man.
FLINT: Where?
IRIS: I opened my eyes and there he was, standing over my bed.
IRIS is in another state, reliving the moment.
FLINT: Did you recognise him?
IRIS: He smelt of musk and sweat.
I dry-retched as he put his hands around my neck.
I wanted to scream but I couldn’t.
I wanted to run but he held me down.
Then he started to swallow me slowly piece by piece until I was gone.
The Hanging Page 3