Anyone familiar with Heartless from Action/Adventure fiction might recognise some of the guys here, but anyone who read the most recent extract might be a little taken aback by this – it’s sort of the other end of the spectrum. I love these scenes late on in the book, even if they break my heart a little. So, sorry that this is out of the blue, but it is my first attempt at writing script so I thought I’d start with the meaty bits. (ps. Raeah = RAY-ah
Characters: Cara – Protagonist who is in the middle of something of a breakdown. Mother to Raeah.
Riona – Her sister in law. Recently, the two have been at each other’s throats.
Tai – Though he does not appear in this scene, he is still Cara’s husband. While he was presumed dead (I know this may sound a little ridiculous but please stick with it) Cara attempted to move on, to move past her grief, unfortunately falling into the arms of Luca. Understandably, Tai sees this as a betrayal and has walked out. Either way, he completes a kind of family unit which is central to the story as a whole. Riona has recently been revealed that, before he met Cara, he had a son.
Setting: As a backdrop, a bigger picture, the city is in the grip of dictatorship and extremism. The characters are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the magnitude of the war beyond their walls on top of the conflict which they contain.
Scene: It is mid July, mid afternoon, but already, the late night, terse and leaden exhaustion which, of late, has become commonplace in the house has taken hold. The doors to the balcony are open. Cara sits on the end of her bed, aware that for the past few minutes, she has been watched by Riona, who stands in the doorway. Neither of them have moved in all that time, Cara in particular seeming to feign innocence of the guilty side of a two way mirror. All she has done for hours is watch Raeah sleeping. Her hands are still in the crib.
(She finally rubs her temples before turning her head to acknowledge the company.)
Cara: Why are you still trying to talk to me?
(Riona unfolds her arms)
Tai has taken against me and he’s your own flesh and blood. By the laws of humanity you shouldn’t be here.
Riona: Forgive me. (In a kind of defiance, she enters the room) I haven’t seen Raeah in eight hours. She’s the only other flesh and blood I’ve got.
(Cara returns to her stupor, facing forwards as though enchanted. Tears, by this time, are rising in her eyes but still, in hysteria, she tries to force a smile. She stands)
Cara: I was so stupid. I thought that what we had would have outlasted us. He promised me an eternity but – but forever shouldn’t even exist here. Your buildings turn to rubble in seconds. Your politics change in less than an instant. People in the street are there one minute and - vanished - off the face of the earth the next. Why should love be any different?
(Riona’s eyes follow her progress, worry written on her face. As Cara slowly crosses the room, as she talks in this desolate manner, she is moving ever closer to the balcony and a drop of two stories)
I – I slept with Luca. I betrayed him. Not just his memory, I betrayed him. And I tried to hide it; I lied to him for two days. (Now she is rubbing the tops of her arms as though driven by a nervous tick. She speaks with a new assertiveness) You shouldn’t be here. I don’t understand why none of you seem to want to leave me in peace.
Riona: It’s because we need you. I need you, and Raeah needs you. She loves you, Cara.
Cara: She’s too young to love.
(With some degree of desperation, Riona moves forwards as though to shake Cara back to common sense. Her hand is extended)
Riona: She depends on you. It’s the same thing. And you’re her mother. She has no choice but to care about you.
Cara: Don’t! (She has snapped. Her voice is raised, her eyes, bloodshot, are screwed shut, she even raises her hand. ) Don’t speak to me about loving your parents.
(Cara plants both of her hands on the top rail of Raeah’s crib as she attempts to refocus. She seems as though she might be sick. She stiffens as the moments lengthen again)
Maybe my life is falling apart because I was never living it for the right reasons.
Riona: Love – freedom – life – justice – your daughter. Those aren’t reasons enough? (She closes the balcony doors with more force than is strictly necessary)
Cara: Maybe I only threw my heart into this world because it was something to take my mind off the one I left behind. I was selfish from the outset. I was Tai’s wife and Raeah’s mother because it meant that I didn’t have to be Andreas Hart’s estranged daughter
Riona: Cara –
Cara: Please, please, just leave.
Riona: No.
Cara: Then tell me the truth! Tell me why you had to destroy everything!
(Riona stands paralysed)
It’s your fault – it’s all your fault. You told me about his child, this other child that’s been haunting me every moment of the day for the past eight weeks. You made it so that I can’t look Raeah in the face without it feeling like a kick to the chest. I couldn’t trust a word of what he said to me and it’s all because of you!
(Riona finds herself unable to turn this around, unable to point out to this woman in the grip of meltdown that, actually, she is the one to blame. Raeah has woken up and she cries brokenly. A look of fear is on Riona’s face as, with breathing ragged, Cara picks her up.)
Riona: You have to calm down.
Cara: No.
Riona: Well then give me Raeah.
Cara: No! Tell me! All these things that Tai won’t. What was his name?
Riona: Why does it matter?
Cara: He is my stepson!
Riona: (Advancing slowly) His name is Jake. And his mother’s is Gabrielle. And it happened five years ago. It was another lifetime and it was all a mistake from the start.
Cara: Why are you defending him?!
Riona: Tai is my brother!
Cara: But he walked out on me. He left Raeah after all I went through to get this far.
Riona: Give her to me!
(Cara gives in. She shrieks and collapses on the bed again.)
He loved you, Cara. I know that you can’t see that now, and I know that even before this, it was more of a ball and chain than a comfort but it’s so true. I never saw him so happy, so willing to change.
Cara: But he never did.
(With no answer to give, Riona then attempts to comfort her niece. Cara only struggles to hide the fact that her empty hands are shaking. She seems terrified by it. When she speaks again, she is broken)
Cara: I don’t understand how knowing that he loved me makes this any easier. If we were meant to be together, doesn’t that make it so much worse that we never will be again?
(Her thoughts drift then to a night a little while ago. Before Tai returned from the dead, she had contemplated having their daughter christened. She took her to church on more than one occasion)
Minister: What is it that you’re searching for?
Cara: (Smiles a little, insistent. She is dressed in a polo necked jumper and the small gold cross she which always wears hangs on top of it. It would seem that she had left it there for appearances’ sake) It has nothing to do with me.
Minister: Salvation? (He tries not to sound judgemental) Redemption? Absolution? Forgiveness?
Cara: (Firmly) It has nothing to do with me.
Minister: Normally, it’s forgiveness.
Cara: I only want to protect my daughter.
Minister: You should think about it some more. (Rises to show her the exit gently) Usually, forgiveness is the place to start.
(Back in the room, with the tension heavier around their shoulders now that the still peace has been shattered, Riona goes put Raeah back down for the night. Cara, now caressing the tarnished silver frame of an old photograph, stops her before she reaches the door)
Cara: This photograph. Of the four of you together, you and Tai and your parents. Was he a father then?
Riona: (She hasn’t turned back, she can’t face it.) Father to be. Gabby took the picture.
(The door closes behind her. Cara weeps)
(fade)
