Mosquitoes Read online

  NATALIE. Where’ve you been sleeping? Have you been sleeping here?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. Weren’t you cold?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. Weren’t you scared?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. What’s Germany like?

  LUKE. Like here pretty much. Boring.

  NATALIE. You said it was frightening.

  LUKE. It was, it’s boring and frightening. Like here. Like everywhere.

  NATALIE. Your mum’s been at school every day with the police and some mental woman who shouts at everyone.

  LUKE. My Aunt Jenny.

  NATALIE. There’s pictures of you on all the bus stops. Why d’you come back? I’d never come back. I’d just keep going.

  LUKE. I didn’t want to get you into trouble.

  NATALIE. You already did. You already did get me into trouble. Your mum’s a bitch, she made them look at all the CCTV. Tried to blame it on Stefan, she got him suspended from college, and, everyone’s acting like it’s my fault. They went to the Meyrin Centre on Friday and no one even told me, and when I asked Heloise about it she was like, I don’t why you’re acting all Mother Teresa now, you started all this, you know you’re going to Hell, don’t you Natalie? She’s a Catholic so.

  But I kept thinking, what if he’s dead cos of me and that was something I just have to, like my cousin, he was in the army and he gave this order but the order was wrong and loads of kids got, actually I’m not sposed to talk about it but anyway I kept thinking, if I could just see him, then. Then I could, I’m sorry okay? I’m really sorry and I’m not just saying that so I don’t go to Hell.

  ,

  LUKE. I think some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids, don’t you?

  NATALIE. Yes I do actually. I think there’s lots of people at our school which, if you sterilised them, then in fifty years’ time the world would just be like a much better place but you’re not sposed to say that are you?

  LUKE. I’m not going home till she’s gone.

  ,

  NATALIE. Okay, well. Your skin’s like blue? You look really cold.

  LUKE. I am.

  NATALIE. You look really sad.

  LUKE. Yeah.

  ,

  NATALIE. Think you should come home with me.

  TECHNOLOGY

  ALICE at home in her pyjamas, a coat over them. She has not washed or brushed her hair for some days. JENNY has a magazine.

  ALICE. I don’t know.

  JENNY. You do though.

  ALICE. I don’t know.

  JENNY. As if you don’t, everyone knows / their

  ALICE. I don’t

  JENNY. You do!

  ALICE. Okay well then I don’t care.

  JENNY. Okay well I don’t care either.

  ,

  I’m just trying to help.

  ,

  Take your mind / off

  ALICE. Fine well just pick me a good one and read it out.

  JENNY. It doesn’t work like that.

  ALICE. There isn’t a way it works. It isn’t a real thing so there isn’t ‘a / way it works’

  JENNY. Are you Leo or Virgo?

  ALICE. I don’t know

  JENNY. Okay well you’re the end of the month so you’re / probably

  ALICE. I think I’m a Capricorn.

  JENNY. Your birthday’s in August so / that’s not

  ALICE. So what?

  JENNY. so you’re not a Capricorn.

  ALICE. It’s fiction, I can be anything I want, I can be a Hufflepuff if I want, I want to be a Capricorn.

  JENNY. Fine. Fuck it. Let’s all be a Capricorn.

  ,

  ALICE. Go on then.

  JENNY. No, it won’t mean anything.

  Pause.

  Do you want to take the coat off, / or?

  ALICE. Just go to bed.

  JENNY. I’m not leaving you on your own. I’m just trying to help.

  ALICE. Do you know where my son is?

  ,

  Jen do you know where Luke is?

  ,

  JENNY. Don’t think the worst. You don’t know.

  ALICE. Yes I do. I do know. I’ve done this before. I can predict the future, this is what’s going to happen: tomorrow the police will suggest we drag the lake which, I’ll watch them and it’ll take a long time, because Lake Geneva is a very big lake, and people like to dump old carpets in it so every couple of hours they’ll find one of these carpets and start hauling it out and every single one of those carpets will look like a body.

  And then I’ll spend five hundred Francs on photocopying and travel to various European cities to hand out these photocopies to people and some of them, the ones who actually, they’ll stare at his face for a few minutes and then forget it completely, and then I’ll come back here and I’ll wait, and I’ll wait and eventually, I mean after years, the worst possible outcome will become the best because because at least then at least then…

  Pause.

  JENNY. Do you still think about him?

  ALICE. Of course. Of course I still. Sometimes I feel like he’s. Or I look at Luke and. Or, last year, there was a fire, they found a body, an English man with dark hair it was on the news / and

  JENNY. But it wasn’t him

  ALICE. No of course it wasn’t him. Of course it wasn’t but still there’s always a moment when your stomach flips over and.

  ,

  And but or sometimes. Whenever I feel sort of. Overwhelmed and. By fear, I mean, or. Terror, what, well, saves me is I feel his hand on the back of my neck, and he just, he squeezes it.

  She demonstrates on JENNY.

  Like that. That’s all.

  Pause.

  JENNY. By the way I never told you.

  ALICE. What?

  JENNY. I meant to tell you, Mike tried to get me arrested.

  ALICE. No.

  JENNY. Yeah, after, like the day after she, he rang the police, these two lads came round, about twelve, could smell the Lynx before they got out the car and I dunno what he’d told them but I think they thought they were gonna find like Miss Hannigan or something, toddlers under the bed but it was just me in my nightie trying to pick a coffin.

  ,

  ALICE. That’s awful.

  JENNY. No cos actually I felt relieved, actually. First thing that’d happened for ages that made sense to me. Kept trying to get in their car.

  Pause.

  ALICE. I’ve never told you this before but I really think Mike’s a cunt.

  JENNY. Yeah.

  ALICE. I’ve thought it for about twelve years.

  Will you pray with me?

  JENNY. Oh. No I don’t. I mean I don’t really believe in it / so

  ALICE. Please.

  Please.

  ,

  JENNY. What do I, what do we do?

  ALICE closes her eyes. JENNY copies, uncertain.

  ALICE. You just wait.

  They pray for a few moments.

  JENNY opens her eyes.

  JENNY. Don’t we have to say something or, from the Bible / or

  ALICE. There’s no Bible. You just make it up for yourself.

  JENNY closes her eyes again. They pray in silence.

  A long time.

  JENNY. Did you do this when Amy was sick?

  ALICE. Yes.

  Pause.

  JENNY. Thank you.

  ‘Five Years’ by David Bowie starts to play.

  ALARM

  NATALIE, in her room. Some speakers, the music coming from them. She takes the half-drunk bottle of Crème de Menthe from a pocket on the side of LUKE’s bag. LUKE enters. He’s had a shower. He’s dressed again, drying his hair with a towel.

  LUKE. Your shower’s amazing. It’s like the whitest room I’ve ever seen.

  NATALIE. Think it looks like a gas chamber.

  He gestures to the Crème de Menthe.

  LUKE. Stole it from my auntie. It’s really horrible.

  NATALIE. I stole some
whiskey from my dad when we lived in New York, topped it up with apple juice but he found out and went mental so I blamed it on the cleaning lady.

  LUKE. That’s a horrible thing to do.

  NATALIE. I know, I felt really bad she was Puerto Rican.

  They take it in turns to drink from the bottle.

  S’alright. Minty.

  She sits, accidentally setting off a personal alarm in her pocket. A piercing shriek.

  Oh my God, shut up!

  She fumbles for it, turns it off. Smiles at LUKE, embarrassed.

  Sorry. Rape alarm. My dad makes me carry it. Hate it. He thinks his only job is to make me afraid of stuff. Don’t take drugs, your brain will swell don’t drink you’ll get blisters on your liver don’t wear short skirts you’ll get raped.

  LUKE. Well. Sensible.

  NATALIE. He’s got no joy. Is your dad like that?

  LUKE. My dad doesn’t live with us.

  NATALIE. Oh yeah the agency thing / right? I forgot, that’s

  LUKE. Yeah it’s like classified.

  NATALIE. so random. You gonna sit down or?

  He sits. Long pause.

  LUKE. Do you have chlamydia?

  NATALIE. What. What?

  LUKE. Sorry.

  NATALIE. No I don’t have chlamydia! Jesus…

  Pause. She drinks.

  You can’t get it from kissing can you?

  LUKE. I don’t think so.

  NATALIE takes out her phone. Googles this. Is reassured. Puts her phone away.

  NATALIE. I’ve only kissed twelve people anyway. So pathetic, right?

  LUKE. No. Not. Did you know, neurologically speaking, women are completely emotionless at the point of orgasm? Must be amazing just to be, for your mind to be, blank for half an hour or whatever

  NATALIE laughs. He laughs too. Pause. She moves half a foot closer to him.

  NATALIE. You know all that stuff about your dad?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. All that stuff yeah, you don’t really believe that do you?

  ,

  LUKE. No.

  NATALIE. Just it’s not very attractive, like it’s a bit immature? Cos my mum left, she met this guy at a Snow Patrol concert and that’s like shit but people leave, don’t they? That’s just something people do, isn’t it?

  Pause.

  LUKE. He was ill. Mentally, he was mentally ill.

  ,

  NATALIE. Well there you go. Is it like hereditary?

  LUKE. I don’t know.

  NATALIE. Does that freak you out?

  LUKE. Yeah it does actually.

  NATALIE. Yeah it would freak me out too.

  Pause.

  This house is built over the Collider. They had to get permission from like two thousand people to drill under their houses. Cos we’re over the border of France here. In Switzerland, you only own like a hundred metres below your house. But in France, you own everything below your house, all the way to the centre of the earth, that’s yours. The pipe’s running right under us now. Beams of light, or not light is it but

  LUKE. Protons.

  NATALIE. Einstein.

  LUKE. My mum.

  NATALIE. Must be amazing. I’m not clever enough to do a job like that. I’m probably just gonna end up being like a doctor or a lawyer can I ask you a question? Your mum doesn’t shave her armpits.

  ,

  LUKE. What’s the question?

  NATALIE. No just it’s really disgusting. Anyway that’s why Heloise put that razor in your locker, did you get that?

  LUKE. No.

  NATALIE. Yeah I thought it was a bit fucking oblique. Heloise is so random!

  LUKE. She says it’s her body.

  NATALIE. Yeah but we have to look at it.

  NATALIE takes a long drink of Crème de Menthe.

  You know how people hate you cos you’re clever?

  LUKE. Okay.

  NATALIE. I think that’s why people are afraid of scientists. Cos it’s like power, isn’t it. It’s like when Heloise and Celeste speak really fast in German when I’m standing right there. Makes me nervous.

  LUKE. Do you want to hear it?

  NATALIE. What?

  LUKE. The Higgs.

  NATALIE. You can’t hear it. It’s just numbers and graphs and shit.

  LUKE. No, this is brilliant actually, because you can use the ATLAS software to process the data which, you can make an algorithm which – you can listen to it, to the sound of the Higgs decaying. You can hear what’s happening under your house.

  NATALIE. Like a song?

  LUKE. At first it’s just sounds, but I’ve. It’s not even any good but I can. If you want.

  LUKE takes his laptop out, starts it up. NATALIE turns off the Bowie. He plugs in headphones, NATALIE puts them on. LUKE plays the track. Only she can hear it. She closes her eyes and listens. LUKE watches her.

  She takes the headphones off.

  This is just, it’s not finished properly / and

  NATALIE. I don’t really get it.

  I mean I’m sure it’s good but, I’m just… not clever enough / to

  LUKE. Don’t say that. Why d’you keep saying that? Just cos everyone you hang around with’s thick as shit doesn’t / mean

  NATALIE. Okay well you’re talking about my friends now so

  LUKE. Okay well your friends are stupid. And a bit racist, actually. And Heloise told everyone you had pubic shorts.

  NATALIE. What?

  LUKE. It’s like when your pubic / hair

  NATALIE. I know what it is.

  Long pause. NATALIE drinks.

  They’re not racist. They just.

  ,

  I’ve never even been to India, so.

  Pause. She checks her phone. Puts it down. Checks it again. Puts it down.

  So do you wanna have sex or what?

  LUKE. Yes. I mean… yes. I mean… yes. I mean yes only

  NATALIE. It’s fine if you don’t fancy me

  LUKE. No I do. I do but. It just seems like / quite a

  NATALIE. oh my / God this is so awkward.

  LUKE. quite a sudden, yeah, sorry.

  NATALIE. We don’t have to like touch each other or anything.

  LUKE. Sure. What?

  NATALIE. Like, you stand there and I’ll stand like far apart and we can just like, have you got an iPhone?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. Okay cool cos I did it with Celeste once? It was really hot but then she went properly weird about it and told everyone I was a lesbian even though it was her idea in the first place, what d’you think, does that sound?

  LUKE. It sounds weird.

  ,

  I mean I don’t see the point.

  ,

  Shall I stand here?

  NATALIE. Bit further away.

  They stand far apart. NATALIE strips down to her top and pants. She finishes, looks up at him, makes a face: ‘go on then’. LUKE strips down to his pants.

  Pause. They look at each other.

  NATALIE takes her bra off under her top, puts her phone under it and takes a picture of her breasts. She sends him the picture. Pause.

  You gonna look at it or?

  He takes out his phone.

  LUKE. Right, yeah… just have to turn it on.

  NATALIE. Who turns their phone off?

  LUKE. So they couldn’t triangulate my location through the cell towers.

  NATALIE. Wow. You’re like an evil genius.

  LUKE. Thanks.

  Pause. The phone is on now. It dings. He looks at it. Breathes.

  ,

  NATALIE. Okay, delete it.

  LUKE. Right, yeah.

  LUKE deletes it.

  NATALIE. Did you?

  LUKE. Yeah.

  NATALIE. ’Kay. Now you.

  LUKE. Like…?

  NATALIE. Like, stop being a virgin and put your phone down your fucking pants Luke.

  Awkward, LUKE pulls out his waistband, puts his phone down his pants. Takes a picture.
The flash goes off. He sends it. Her phone dings. She looks at it. Smiles. Her thumbs start flying.

  LUKE. Are you deleting it?

  NATALIE. Yeah yeah yeah.

  Pause. Her thumbs keep flying.

  LUKE. Natalie.

  NATALIE. What?

  LUKE. Delete it.

  NATALIE. I am.

  LUKE. No you’re not.

  NATALIE. I am! Just give me a –

  LUKE. No, delete it. Delete it now.

  LUKE grabs at the phone, she moves it out of the way.

  NATALIE. Oh my God! Fucking, calm down.

  LUKE. What are you doing?

  NATALIE. Oh my God calm down. It’s just a joke.

  LUKE. What is?

  NATALIE. I’m sorry okay but you need to think about how you / affect people

  LUKE. What’ve you done?

  NATALIE. cos I’m not being funny but you really embarrassed me and you hurt Stefan. You really hurt him.

  She puts her phone away. LUKE’s phone pings.

  LUKE. What? I don’t… what’s happening? / What is happening?

  NATALIE. You broke his nose. He got suspended. He’s my best male friend.

  LUKE’s phone pings again. Again. Again. Again. He looks at it. Ping. Drops it like it is toxic. Hyperventilating. Ping. NATALIE ignores him, puts on her trousers. Ping.

  You better go. My dad’ll be back soon.

  Pingpingpingpingpingpingping, LUKE’s body buckles, he crumples to the floor, folding his arms round his head.

  LUKE. Get rid of it. Get rid of it.

  She laughs. The pinging continues.

  NATALIE. ‘Get rid of it’?

  Um, yeah. No.

  That’s not really how the internet works?

  She surveys him, as his phone pings almost continuously now.

  THE NUCLEAR STRONG FORCE

  JENNY is brushing ALICE’s hair. Throughout the scene she gets the tangles out and plaits it. KAREN in a chair, eating a sandwich. ALICE is reading aloud from JENNY’s magazine.

  ALICE. Venus, the planet of love and beauty, slides into your zone of intuition. When the sun unites with powerful Pluto pull the trigger on a big decision regarding relationships. If it doesn’t feel right, move on. Fitness goals will finally stick this month.

  Pause.

  KAREN. How is Venus the planet of love and beauty? If you went to Venus it would kill you in ten seconds.

  JENNY. I think it’s more of a / spiritual

  KAREN. You’d be instantaneously cremated.

  JENNY. Yeah, I don’t… that’s good about the fitness goals though.