Probert Alva - Diving For Pearls

BARBARA has been running. She arrives up on the hill. She stumbles, it is uneven and rocky. She takes off her shoe and examines it. There is a hole right through to the cardboard inner-sole.

She takes a cigarette out of a packet, but after three or four attempts, it is obvious that the lighter is not going to work. She throws it behind her and finds a book of matches in her bag. Only one match is left however, and she almost burns her finger, then it disintegrates without lighting the cigarette.

The funeral which she has just attended is the final straw in a long line of events. Still no luck with the cigarette. She wears a uniform dress with a cardigan over it.

BARBARA: Unbelievable honestly to God

She continues to fumble with the shoe.

Dont tell me funerals arent a waste of time. Felt like seeing two people in the entire church and one of them was in a box.

She searches again for a match, then looks down towards the church.

And dont put yourself out. Dont bother getting a persons name rightbloody priests, probably didnt slip him enough. John this. John that. Jacko. Jacko. I didnt know who he was talking about. Not a mention that he hung himself, of course. Start up a trend.

Sound of a coal truck going by. Later we hear it returning.

You live next door to someone eighteen years, youd know if anyone ever called him John. Which they didnt.

DEN arrives. He has followed her up the hill, unsure as to whether he should have come. She acknowledges him; she thought he would probably show up.

Well, you wont have a light.

There is the sound of a coal truck and they wait for it to pass.

I thought that was you. Thought that was you at the back of the church.

DEN: Yes. [ A nervous smile ] So

BARBARA: Then I thought it wasnt. [ Pause .] I mean I didnt come up here expecting you to follow me. Im not thirteen. I have been up on this hill without you, you know.

DEN: Just to see how you were. Just to see how youre getting on.

BARBARA: Oh, well brilliant of course. Getting on brilliant.

DEN: Bit of a shock. [ Looking back down towards the church ] All very sudden. Heart I thought someone said You wouldnt think

BARBARA is silent, and DEN produces a lighter in a leather case. He gives it to her and she hangs it around her neck. Pause.

Didnt know if you realised you left it. [ Pause .] I came back from getting the chips and it was where youd been sitting, on that bench. And of course you were Quite a few months old, might be dried out by now

BARBARA lights a cigarette.

You look nice.

BARBARA: Well, how was I supposed to know youd be there? And all them. Everyone Ive ever known practically, all having a gawk. God, funerals are stupid. [ Pause .] You wouldnt have been mates with Jacko.

DEN: Well, workI used to see him.

BARBARA: But you wouldnt have known him. You wouldnt have played cards with him at lunch for instance.

DEN: I told you what Im likea quiet corner with a cowboy novel and a couple of devon sandwiches.

BARBARA: No, youd steer clear of any troublemakers.

DEN: Kept him pretty busy, shaking things up.

BARBARA: Someone has to.

DEN: Fills in the time.

BARBARA: Someone has to. People rely on people like him to give things a shake-up. You probably never spoke to him.

DEN: Theres a lot of men in that plant.

BARBARA: Used to be.

DEN: Yes.

BARBARA: Opposite of you, he was. He didnt let that place get to him. He got to it.

Pause. DEN longs to talk to her and doesnt know what to say. BARBARA looks down the hill.

DEN: His old man knew mine. Miners Federation. Why I came. [ Pause. ] I was hoping Id see you. I remembered once that you said you knew him.

BARBARA: Why that church? Very woggy if you ask me. Couldnt be woggier if they tried. [ Looking ] And that bloody mob from the Northern Beaches. [ To them ]

Sorry you had to drag yourselves south of the steelworks. Still hanging round. Yap yap yap yap. All kissing each other. [ She draws a line in the air. ] You could divide this city in half, I reckon. Theyre getting everything up there. [ To DEN] We used to feel sorry for them, stuck out on bloody cliffs, living in their poky little shacks. Oh, Barbara, people are coming down and paying a quarter of a million dollars for our little miners cottages! They used to be bloody communists.

DEN: Ive been thinking about youquite a bit.

BARBARA: Shocking bloody viewlook at that.

DEN: Oh well.

BARBARA: Oh well what?

DEN: No smoke from the steelworks and wed all be in trouble. [ Slight pause. ] And our joint always looks bigger from up hereout there on the point Never minded those roofs. That shape.

BARBARA looks at him.

Jagged like that. You know what I mean.

BARBARA: They want to find a way to cover it all up.

DEN: Just look over it and you can see the sea. I wondered if

A coal truck. She looks down to the church.

BARBARA: Fifty, he was. Bugger of an age.

DEN: Same as me.

BARBARA: Bugger of an age to be retrenched.

DEN: Yeah.

BARBARA: Dont tell me the whole country didnt watch him on telly, storming Parliament House. [ Pause. To DEN] I bet you never even went.

No reply from DEN . More proof to BARBARA that he is just not right for her.

Pride. Lifts up other people, pride. He was on every channel. And I taped it. You wouldnt still be working there except for that.

DEN: They were always going to keep fifty per cent of us. [ Pause. ] Theres talk of running us more like a business, not so much like a government enterprise.

BARBARA: Very hopeful I dont think. Bit late for him however it goes.

DEN: Probably just a rumour.

BARBARA: And they say it doesnt affect people. Ill tell you something he told me and he never told anyone else. Oh, I suppose you think there was something funny going on.

DEN: No.

BARBARA: [ looking back down the hill ] Because unlike some, I dont root my next-door neighbour, not when hes a mate. Not in my books anyway.

DEN: You could come and have a cup of tea.