Humble Boy Read online

  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.

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  Copyright © 2001 by Charlotte Jones

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  Originally published in 2001 by Faber and Faber Ltd, Great Britain

  Published in the United States by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  First American edition, 2003

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  eISBN 9781466891111

  First eBook edition: January 2015

 

 

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