Page 51 - WTP Vol.IX #3

‘Remember when you were 10, night before SATS? ‘Yes.’
‘She gave you the stupid present and how upset you were?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you made that big marble run thing with just six pieces and a load of junk?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, you are not just cardboard tubes and old gutter- ing and falling dominoes; you are a complete thing that, against everything, works. Beautifully works.’
“I
And she wipes away my tears with her soft fingers and puts her lips on my cheek and says: ‘It’s not all about being tough.’
So I ask her in return: ‘What is it all about then, Kirsty?’
Mum and Dennis walk in; she is red in the face; he’s got his shoes on the wrong feet.
Kirsty turns her back on them, not wanting to let them into our world, and whispers in my ear, tells me what it is all about.
Mum and Dennis still hold hands. Mum thinks some- how she can have it all—him and me, both of us spin- ning round her like moons, separate but always there.
‘Can I come sleep at your gran’s?’ I say to Kirsty. ‘Yes.’
‘Just till I get myself sorted out?’
‘Yes.’
We stand up. Walk out the door. Happy.
Stealing Away To Safety.
And Mum...
I don’t care what the end of that sentence is.
Dyer is Artistic Associate at Farnham Maltings and Associate Writer for Action Transport Theatre. He writes, directs, and works as a dramaturg. Some of his plays are published by Aurora.
at this moment of parental epiphany. A sort of slow-motion thing that would right every wrong.”
think of embracing her
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