Humble Boy (12 page)

Flora
   George –

George
   Well, Icarus and his dad, I can't remember his name but he was a boring old fart whoever he was, he probably kept bees in his spare time, well they decided they'd go for a little fly, like you do, so they made their wings of wax – ah! wax, see, from the buggering bees he kept on the side –

Flora
   I think we're familiar with the story.

George
   Don't interrupt me, Flora, not when I'm at full throttle. So they made their wings of wax and feathers and shit and then Icarus, Icky to his mates, not that he had many, Icky flew slap bang into the sun, like the stupid twat that he was.

Flora
   George –

George
   So my advice to you, Humble boy, is head for the skies. Yes, do us all a favour and keep following that star.

Flora
   I think you should go.

George
   You're a beautiful woman, Flora, but your problem is you disappeared up your own arse some time ago. You want to wake up and smell the roses. Oh dear, sorry,
faux pas.

Felix goes up to him, takes him by the arm.

Felix
   You've said your b–b–bit.

George
   Good, wasn't it? I thought I put it quite well. (
George shakes Felix off roughly.
) I'm going, I'm going.

George starts to walk away. He is calm but just before he exits he picks up a hoe from the back wall where all the garden equipment is kept. He swings round and charges at Felix. Felix at first defends himself with the gardening stool. The fight continues around the garden, over the table, round the hammock. Various garden implements get used: the trowel, the garden fork, a pair of secateurs. Perhaps at one point Flora picks up the small water sprayer and sprays George with it. The dialogue continues through the fight.

Right. Let's be having you, you bastard.

Flora
   George, stop it, stop it right now.

George
   Let's see how light he is on his feet.

Felix
   Please stop. I don't want this –

George
   Not bad for a lardy. Come on, run, come on Icky, let's see you fly.

Flora
   George, this is ridiculous.

Suddenly Felix turns round and attacks him back. George starts to overpower him.

Felix suddenly stops. He is breathless.

Felix
   Don't hurt me.

George
   I knew you didn't have it in you.

Felix
   No, you're right. I don't.

George approaches him.

Flora
   Oh no, please don't hurt him.

But suddenly George stops as well.

George
   What the –?

He is swatting his hands around him in a demented fashion. At the same time as he does this Jim the gardener comes on. Felix sees him, but Flora and George do not look at him. George is swatting away a bee that is attacking him.

George
   Get off me, you little bastard. I thought you got rid of them. Get off. (
He continues to swat the bee away and move from spot to spot to try and get rid of the bee.
)

Felix
   (
looking at Jim
) They're back.

George
   Do something, Flora.

Felix
   The bees are back.

George
   Get a spray, for Christ's sake.

Felix
   Let there be b–bees!

Flora
   You mustn't fight it.

George
   It's bloody mental.

Flora
   Don't threaten it.

George
   It's trying to bloody kill me.

Flora
   Well then, go! I've told you a hundred times to go.

George
   Jesus Christ!

George makes a very inelegant exit. He is still pursued by the bee. Flora still has her back to Jim.

Jim
   Exit pursued by a bee.

Flora reacts strangely to Jim's voice. She doesn't turn round.

Flora
   What?

Jim
   That was the queen. Lovely little thing, but don't rile her!

Flora
   Oh my God.

Felix
   You can hear him? Mother! Please tell me you can hear him.

Flora nods.

Jim
   She's probably the only one left now. The others will have dropped out of the sky.

Flora
   A finite number of wingbeats.

Jim
   That's right.

Felix
   Turn around, Mother. Look at him.

Flora
   He's here?

Felix
   All summer he has been here with me. In the garden.

Flora
   Oh my God.

Felix
   Like pointing a telescope at a blank bit of the sky and seeing a star that I have never seen before.

She turns around slowly. She looks at him. Slowly there is music.

Flora
   James.

Felix
   You can see him?

Jim
   
Bombus floratum.

Flora
   Yes!

Jim
   Flora's Bumblebee. Do you like her?

Flora
   I do.

Felix
   All summer he has been with me. But I didn't know what to say.

Jim
   Flora.

Flora
   (
to James
) The first time I saw you, I knew.

Jim
   Yes.

Flora
   I knew that no one would ever look at me like this again.

Their speech overlaps slightly as they feed each other with the lines.

Jim
   Outside the exam halls –

Flora
   – of the School of Biology –

Jim
   – I had been writing about flowers –

Flora
   – the pollination of flowers –

Jim
   – and I saw you. The sun is shining around your head –

Flora
   – and you come towards me – your gown flapping in the wind –

Jim
   – like I'm flying towards you –

Flora
   – and you look at me –

Jim
   – I look at you –

Flora
   – and you say –

Jim
   Did you drop from the sky?

Pause.

Felix
   (
quietly
) Eureka.

Felix looks at both of them. They are transfixed with each other. They come together.

Jim
   My Flora.

Flora
   James Humble. Bachelor of Science.

Felix is apart from them.

He stumbles off.

Flora
   James, I'm sorry – I'm so sorry –

Jim
   (
to Flora
) Hush. I have to tell you about the flowers – all the flowers I have planned for you …

Flora
   Yes. Tell me the names. The names of all the flowers.

As Jim lists the flowers, Flora slowly starts to cry.

Jim
   
Papaver dubium.

Flora
   A poppy?

Jim
   Doubtful poppy. To help you sleep.
Dianthus barbatus.
Sweet William. For peace.

Flora
   Yes.

Jim
   
Mimosa sensitiva.
For scent.
Zinnia elegans.
Elegant like my Flora.

Flora
   A sunflower, I'd like a sunflower.

Jim
   
Helianthus multiflorus.

Flora
   And some love-in-a-mist.

Jim
   Whatever you want.

Flora
   Some love-lies-a-bleeding.

Jim
   
Amaranthus procumbens.

Flora
   Some St John's wort –

Jim
   
Hypericum perforatum
– for sadness.
Lythrum salicaria
– purple loosestrife, for contentment.
Oenothera biennis
– evening primrose, for ease of heart.

Flora
   Some bluebells.

Jim
   
Campanula rotundifolia.
For the spring.

Flora
   And more scented flowers. I need more scent. I need to be able to smell them again.

Jim
   
Lavandula spica.
Blue and white varieties.
Passiflora caerulea.
Passion flowers.
Dianthus deltoides. Syringa vulgaris.
Some sweet-scented heliotrope. Clematis and honeysuckle. My bees love that. Buddleia for the butterflies. Scented hyacinths. French marigolds.
Tagetes Patula. Aster multiflorus. Amaryllis aurea.
Can you smell them all?

Flora
   Yes. Yes, I can. I think I can.

Jim
   Good. (
He goes to go.
)

Flora
   No, please, James. Please don't go.

Jim
   All the bees have gone now. It's only the queen left.
Bombus floratum.
She'll have to do the winter on her own, but she'll manage that. She's strong.

Flora
   No. No, I can't.

He leads her to the rose bush. He bends down and smells it. He gestures that she should do the same. She does so. She breathes deeply, takes in the scent.

Jim
   There.

Flora
   Yes.

He exits. As he does, the hive lights up, and then fades. She looks up.

The music changes suddenly to a humming, resonant of bees and a revving car engine. Flora reacts as if she had tinnitus in her ear.

Flora
   I can't do the winter on my own. Felix. Felix? Oh my God. Please God – Felix!

She runs towards the exit. Felix appears.

Flora
   I thought you'd gone – I thought you'd –

Felix
   I was just starting up the car.

Flora
   Suddenly I had this terrible feeling you'd … I don't know what I thought. It was stupid of me.

Felix
   No, no, it wasn't stupid. At the beginning of the summer I thought I was going to – But I'm not brave enough to let go.

Flora
   Thank God!.

Felix
   B–b–but I just want … the p–possibility … of another life, Ma.

Pause. Felix picks up the ashes.

Flora
   Say the words. You know them. You've always known them.

Felix
   (
with difficulty
) The night we watched the moon-landings together, Dad cried. And in that moment, he made me want to fly. He held my hand and he gave me the courage to defy physics and fly anyway. The day that a man landed on the moon Dad cried. And the day he died the sun cried bees. The sun cried bees. (
He takes the lid off the pot.
) I release my father to space. To the limitless quiet of space. To fly in unending silence. Through a black hole. Past the event horizon. To the state of singularity. Dust to immortal dust. And out and on and beyond. To a new universe. A parallel world.

Flora
   A better place.

Felix
   The land of milk and honey.

Felix scatters the ashes. They watch them settle in silence.

There.

Flora
   Yes.

An awkward moment between them.

Will you still be going back –?

Felix
   In a little while.

Flora
   It's getting dark, maybe you should set off in the morning, when it's light. And you've eaten next to nothing –

Felix
   (
a hint of irritation
) Mother.

Flora looks at Felix, perhaps she touches him lightly but unsentimentally.

Flora
   Well. (
She goes to go in.
) Don't expect me to wave you off.

He smiles. The sound of a bee humming somewhere in the distance.

Felix
   Let b–b–b–be.

Flora smiles and exits. He is left alone in the garden in the failing light. Felix pauses, swallows and smiles.

Let be.

Lights fade.

by the same author

IN FLAME

MARTHA, JOSIE AND THE CHINESE ELVIS

Humble Boy

Charlotte Jones' first play,
Airswimming,
was premièred at the Battersea Arts Centre, London and later broadcast on Radio 4.
In Flame
was premièred in January 1999 at the Bush Theatre, London, and revived at the New Ambassadors, London, in September 2000.
Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis
premièred at the Bolton Octagon in April 1999 and transferred to the Liverpool Everyman in May of that year. It won the
Manchester Evening News
Best Play Award and the Pearson Television Best Play Award of 1999. It was recently revived at the Watford Palace Theatre. Charlotte Jones won the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2000 for
In Flame
and
Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. Humble Boy
was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2001, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award, 2002, and the People's Choice Best New Play Award, 2002.