Waters - The Contingency Plan

JENNY (off). What? ROBIN. On the marsh. Jen! JENNY (off). Where are you? ROBIN. Down here.

Its clearly on the marsh. JENNY appears, breathless. Shes a sixty-year-old; face devoid of make-up bar a little eyeliner; snowy long hair, dishevelled, piled up on top and held with a bandanna. JENNY. What are you talking about? ROBIN. JENNY. JENNY.

I have no idea what youre talking about. ROBIN. Way out of its range. JENNY. Why, why are you listening to this out here? Why are you out here listening to this old rubbish? JENNY silences the stereo. ROBIN. ROBIN.

Look, look, out Brancaster way. Governors Point. JENNY. I thought there was a trespasser or something. ROBIN. You can see it.

On Governors Point. JENNY reluctantly looks through the eyepiece of the telescope. You see it now? JENNY. No. Nothing. ROBIN.

You must see something. JENNY. Nope. ROBIN. See it now? JENNY. No.

ROBIN refocuses it. ROBIN. You surely see something. JENNY. See my eyelashes. Here then. He adjusts the focus. He adjusts the focus.

Lift it a little, a little. You see Governors Point, okay? JENNY. Hang on. Okay. I see Governors Point. ROBIN.

What do you notice about it? JENNY. I notice as usual that Governors Point is a great big lump of sand in the North Sea. ROBIN. Ah. Maybe its maybe its already can I see? He moves her aside. JENNY. Okay. Okay.

This is about birds. ROBIN. Clearly not a grey heron. JENNY. Up since God knows when because of a bird. ROBIN.

The phone woke me at five. JENNY. And you didnt answer it? Have you even had any breakfast? ROBIN. Little egret. They sense the warming. We know that.

But also they come inland as the seas get more turbulent. JENNY. I dont have time for ornithology, Rob, I need to get to Lynn ROBIN. Is he there already? JENNY. He left a garbled message from RAF Lyneham saying he might be there mid-morning, it being Will, nothing more forthcoming than that. ROBIN.

So hes finally here. Everythings converging. JENNY. Oh, Robin, Wills simply coming home for a refuel, it means nothing especially portentous, I doubt hell stay longer than Monday. ROBIN. JENNY. JENNY.

The forecasts a cloudless day. ROBIN. That bird knows it. Blown several latitudes north looking for landfall. When it leaves again, itll be time. JENNY.

Robin, any storm tonightll be the accidental meeting of hot and cold air fronts, and if a little egret decides to patronise our marsh, a little egret patronises our marsh and those two matters are entirely unrelated. Id better get off. Could you get his bedroom ready? Ive laid out something for lunch and, please please, when he comes, please, no talk of storms and birds and phases. She looks at ROBIN. God, itll be good to see him. Mmm. JENNY. JENNY.

Were incomplete. Without him. And I worry about him. Stuck on that base in the middle of that nothingness. Never meeting anyone, never travelling anywhere. ROBIN. ROBIN.

He has his work. JENNY. Oh, hes got that all right. ROBIN. Work of that urgency is pitiless. God, when I was at that pitch JENNY.

Were you really the best of role models? ROBIN. What? JENNY. I sometimes wonder whether we harmed him, bringing him up that way? ROBIN. Oh, Jenny, dont be daft. Hes a magnificent specimen. JENNY.

Given he was always so bloody biddable. If hed had a sibling at least. ROBIN. Hes just focused. Full of purpose. From the start it was clear what he was.

This is the lad who classified his toys into organic and inorganic matter right? JENNY. Oh God. Fossils set out in the correct chronology. The egg museum. ROBIN. JENNY. JENNY.

Had to take that telescope out of his bedroom, he barely slept. ROBIN. If I said such things were God-given, Id say he was God-given. JENNY. I just feel his whole life, our whole life has been a preparation for an event that never arrives. ROBIN. Well. Okay. Okay.

Maybe if Id had half his tenacity, his application, letting nothing stand in the way of the work, nothing, wed not be where we are now. JENNY. Oh. Sorry. Did I stand in your way? ROBIN. Come on. JENNY. JENNY.

I hope I didnt. Stand in your way. ROBIN. You know you JENNY. Because if I ever thought do you actually think that? ROBIN. JENNY. JENNY.

Dont I? ROBIN. Jenny, hes coming home. It can only mean one thing. His works complete. And if his works complete, then my works complete. Right. Right.

What work is that, Rob? ROBINs back at the telescope. ROBIN. No, thats no spoonbill, the beaks all wrong. Look at him, mincing across the tidal mud. JENNY looks at him. Okay. Fine. Fine.

Ill drive to Lynn. Pick up a few things. You get his room ready. She looks at him; then goes. ROBIN. Yes, the forecasts clear.

Ridge of high pressure. We can eat out here. Watch the weather come in. ROBIN puts on his glasses, picks up his notepad. He waits