SHINING SOULS

EXTRACT

(In the second half of the play two spaces are simultaneously present - a tenement back-yard where an abandoned wardrobe is lying about; and, beyond that, a boys' bedroom. In the boys' bedroom is a wardrobe in which two boys have hung themselves. Both of the men who love the heroine Ann are called Billy; in the extract below Billy 2, having despaired of winning Ann's heart, enters the tenement back-yard, where Ann's daughter Mandy is.)

BILLY 2. I'll say my goodbyes then, Mandy, then (ahch) exit is the best thing. - How y' doing anyway, wee man?

MANDY. Och -

BILLY 2. Because you tend to get a wee bit forgotten at times. Eh, how's it going?

MANDY. Och -

BILLY 2. Ahch, I'm no too bad. Some ways (now it's happened) I feel more calmer, or more tranquiller, or more serene, like when I walked out of my bus-crash into that field of cows. How you feeling?

MANDY. Och -

BILLY 2. Yeah, I know. I'm as bewildered as you are.

MANDY. Listen, if I don't see y' again, all the best.

MANDY exits in the direction of the house.

BILLY 2. I'll miss y'.

Billy 2 goes to the wardrobe that's been abandoned in the back-court, opens the door. Then he takes off his tie, begins to tie it into a noose. The other wardrobe - the one in the boys' bedroom where two boys hung themselves - begins to shine.

BILLY 2. Was it the sex, Ann? Was the sex TOO good? Did it mibbe scare y'? It scared me sometimes how high we got. Your nipples are the highest I've been. Or is it because I'm too ordinary? If I could only get out of my (I'm in a lift. I'm in a high-rise. I get out at different floors. Four doors. Back in the lift. I wish I was a horse on glue, I'd kick more pints of blood out of that lift than it knew it had!) If I could only get out of my - mind. Would you love me then? I try. I want to. The views would be something else. I nearly can. I can hear but I can't see. A screaming flock of voices? You calling, "Billy! Billy!" - The horse is true, Ann. These kids found it in a field. They put some of their glue in a plastic-bag, Ann, used it as a nose-bag. Then they stuck the horse in our lift. They BOTH got broken, Ann. Why I'm doing this, Ann...because I'm broken, Ann... And...just to be the closest to you I can be.

He goes inside the back-court wardrobe to hang himself.