Josephine and I – Cush Jumbo

Tulip When she left us for good I was nine or ten.

Girl This is why I was late. I wasn't lying to you. There was the Ran off with the milkman, so Dad said. Ran off
recall and the dog situation and all the rest of it. But there was also with the man in the moon, as far as I care.
a McDonald's toilet at Charing Cross Station and I reckon this – Grew up with uncles, cousins, played rugby-football,
swapped a pram for a ten-speed drop-handlebar,
She holds up a pregnancy test. played with matches instead, flags and cars, threw
the dolls on a skip and the skates on a dustcart,
– added at least twenty minutes. But I had to do it because I did one flogged the frills and pink stuff at a car-boot sale,
last night and I did one this morning and they both said the same burnt the Girl Guide outfit in the back garden,
thing. I thought it might be the stress, you know, from the recall got kitted out at Famous Army Stores and Top Man.
making my body freak out, I hoped it would be. This particular one And Oxfam. I'll tell you something that sums it up:
is extremely high-tech, it costs five quid more, but it tells found a doll's-house going mouldy in the attic –
you exactly how pregnant you are, clever, eh? Three to four weeks. boarded it up, kept a brown rat in it.
I can just imagine his face if I told him, he'd be so happy. And that's Put it all behind now, growing out of it, Dad says, says
why I can't tell him. Because the minute I do, that look on his face I'm blossoming, and I suppose he must be right. Klondike?
will break me. So I need to decide what I'm going to do by myself. No, not a boyfriend, more like a kid brother, really,
I'm pregnant at a time when I can't be pregnant, do you get what I'm known him since as far back as I can remember.
saying? This New York job has been a long time coming and what? Kissed him? Who wants to know? I mean no, Sir,
I'm just gonna say, 'Nope, sorry, no can do, I'm afraid, I'm up the except on his head, just once, on his birthday.
duff.' Idiot. It will all have been for nothing. No … not for nothing. Him and Lucy? Well, she took a shine to him,
For something. Something wonderful. But I could regret it for ever. he told her some things and I think she liked him.
She just showed up and wanted to tag along,
I could blame the child for everything. I could be one make some friends, I suppose, mess about, have fun;
of those mothers. I can't do this now. There'll be ten, twenty, thirty she had a few tricks up her sleeve, wanted… all right,
more girls waiting in line to play this part. if you put it like that… to be one of the group.
It's not much cop being on your own. Which was fine
I don't have a problem with abortion. by us. It's not that we gave it a second thought
to tell you the truth. She just turned up that afternoon
Sometimes it's necessary. like a lost dog. She was one of the gang. Then she was gone.

But this isn't necessary, is it? Not at all.

I and The Village – Silva Semerciyan

Eclipse – Simon Armitage
Aimee Ok, fine, ok, so if I'm competing with everyone, then Aimee Dear God, I miss you. You visited me. Last year,
everyone's a threat, right? So I can't trust anybody. So friends are remember? You got in my car and told me to drive to the beach. I
just allies, just people you try not to make hate you or let stab you in chose June Klopp Beach, the one up Red Arrow Highway. When
the back. I mean, what kind of a world is that? I can't stand all the we got there, you told me to get out. You asked me if I trusted you. I
con artist bullshit – brotherly love, free country, fiscal conservative, said I did. You told me to go to the water, get in and start swimming.
liberal conscience. What does that mean, anyway? It's just a bunch You told me there was a sand bar about fifty metres from shore.
of dumbass phrases jerks hide behind so they never have to do You told me to swim out to it, stand up, and wave back at you. You
anything or help anybody. And then they go to church and act like asked if I was scared. I said no. I thought about my mom and dad. I
they're all holy and righteous and their shit smells like, I don't knew they would be scared. But I had to do it. It was you. I started
know, angels, when all they really care about is money and getting swimming. I couldn't tell how far fifty metres was. It felt a lot further,
ahead. So maybe I just want to opt out, you know? Maybe I don't heading out to nowhere. I kept putting a foot down, trying to feel for
want to be part of the master plan. The big assembly line in the sky. the sand bar, but all I could feel was that terrible chill of deep deep
I'd rather live in a shanty in the woods or something – like what's his water. I got to a point where I knew I was too far out to make it back
face. Except there aren't any woods to escape to anymore 'cause to shore. I knew I had to trust you and keep swimming. I swam
they're all owned and all the highways lead to something you've faster and faster. I was impatient to get there. Suddenly, I stopped. I
already seen and already know and, ok, swap a cactus for a panicked. I decided it was a trick. The man in the car was just a
mountain or a skyscraper, but the place you arrive at is still a dead man. He had lied to me. I was going to drown. I started crying,
ringer for the place you left. You know what? The bottom of the lake started to swallow water. I did the dead man's float, tried to calm
is the only place I'm entitled to be. myself down. Gasped each time I lifted my head. I kept thinking I'm
gonna die I'm gonna die. Then I thought of you. I got myself
together, slowed my breathing. I got up my courage, turned away
from shore and carried on swimming. I was exhausted, nearing the
end of my strength. I finally reached the point where it was now or
never. I put a foot down. And there it was. The sand bar. I stood up,
laughing with relief. I looked for you, started to wave to you but. You
were gone.

Head-Rot Holiday – Sarah Daniels (Daniels Plays: 2)

Dee I never admit it but I can't really hack it in here in the way the
others seem to. Of course I know it has something to do with that I
was locked in a room for a few weeks when I was about three. I
can't remember much about it, just a feeling, like trying to breathe
through porridge. I try to make myself sleep. But it's hard.And then
just as you're about to drop off they poke their ugly mugs through
the inspection flap or keep switching the fan off and on in the middle
of the night. Breaks the monotony for them I s'pose, having
someone screaming and shouting and carrying on. And that's when
you have to try and keep your mind going because the grey
blankness in here is like, when you imagine the universe, it's like
being in the vast empty part. So I often distract myself by imagining
my life as a film. I can see a picture of myself on the poster, a sort
of cross between Martina and k.d. only younger. With the caption
underneath. 'When the rescue services arrived, the nightmare
began.' But I said I wanted help. I don't admit that to no one now.
Oh, shit I could kill myself. Fancy admitting, in Holloway, that I
wanted help. I'd have been out months ago if I hadn't opened my
pathetic squealing gob. Shut up, shut up, shut up thinking try and
get some kip.