Read Online Bang Bang Bang by Stella Feehily - Free Book Online Page A

bathroom.
    STEPHEN. Ah – banging and barfing – those were the days.
    SADHBH. Do you want to go to bed? You look exhausted.
    STEPHEN. I want to talk.
    SADHBH. Okay.
    Oh my – Oh –
    SADHBH gags.
    STEPHEN. You okay?
    SADHBH. Jägermeister, beer – ( Gestures behind the couch. ) puke.
    She gets up.
    STEPHEN. Just leave it.
    SADHBH. I can’t have Innocent cleaning up puke.
    STEPHEN. I’m sure he’s cleaned up worse.
    SADHBH. That is not my puke.
    STEPHEN. I’m not sitting here with it steaming behind me.
    I’ve got a paper in my bag.
    He goes to his briefcase.
    Why don’t I just – Are you okay?
    SADHBH. Yeah.
    STEPHEN lays some newspaper at the back of the couch.
    He starts to pick up bits and pieces to clear a space for himself.
    SADHBH lies back on the couch.
    STEPHEN sits beside her and she puts her head on his lap.
    She holds his hand.
    Hello.
    STEPHEN. Hello.
    VIN enters – barefoot, shirtless and wearing jeans – rubbing his chest and pulling at his hair.
    VIN. Morning.
    STEPHEN raises his hand in greeting.
    VIN wanders around.
    I think – I left… my shit down here –
    STEPHEN ( to SADHBH). Not that as well.
    SADHBH starts to giggle.
    VIN searches around SADHBH and STEPHEN . He reaches underneath STEPHEN ’s legs.
    VIN. Sorry.
    STEPHEN. You alright?
    SADHBH. This it?
    SADHBH pulls a small pouch from the couch.
    VIN. Cool. Yeah.
    He wanders off and then stops.
    Do you guys want a smoke?
    STEPHEN and SADHBH. No.
    SADHBH. Thanks.
    He wanders off.
    VIN. No worries.
    STEPHEN. Mathilde’s playmate?
    SADHBH. It appears so.
    STEPHEN. What else have you been up to?
    SADHBH. What do you mean?
    STEPHEN. You’ve talked to Jerome Mburame.
    Come on. Tell me.
    SADHBH. He wanted to know if I had enough to indict him.
    STEPHEN. I’m sure he’s cacking himself.
    I wish you had a sense of self-preservation.
    SADHBH. He was not hostile.
    STEPHEN. Not to you. You haven’t got enough on him.
    SADHBH. Yet. You’re right. The women are afraid –
    Many are in terrible physical state –
    The brutality of the rapes… and then the psychological damage. But the Mama – my contact at the camp – has found witnesses who want to talk to me.
    STEPHEN. That’s a result.
    SADHBH. The thing is – I feel – in a way – he’s been warned.
    STEPHEN. No, Sadhbh – you’ve been warned.
    So how long will this investigation take?
    SADHBH. How long is a piece of string?
    STEPHEN. You said three months max.
    SADHBH. And I meant it, but I have a responsibility here.
    STEPHEN. There are plenty of other researchers.
    SADHBH. Yes but they’re local and you know they face intimidation and violence in the way that I don’t. Now that Bibi has left I’m the most senior researcher.
    STEPHEN. I came here today with an agenda.
    SADHBH. I’m a bit afraid.
    STEPHEN. Don’t be.
    SADHBH. Do you want to leave me?
    STEPHEN. You’re the one who leaves.
    I’ve been offered a six-month contract in Beijing.
    $85,000 plus per diems plus an apartment.
    SADHBH. Holy fuck. Wow.
    Does this have anything to do with your lunch / at the Dutch Embassy?
    STEPHEN. I need to be able to indicate my interest. /
    I don’t want to go without you.
    SADHBH. Oh. Oh.
    I see. I see.
    China is hardly my area / of expertise.
    STEPHEN. You were serious about stopping fieldwork?
    SADHBH. I didn’t say I’d stop working.
    STEPHEN. You’ve changed your mind?
    SADHBH. There is a little girl. Amala. I made her a promise.
    STEPHEN. You’re using that as an excuse?
    SADHBH. Fuck right off.
    STEPHEN shakes his head.
    Why are you shaking your head?
    STEPHEN. There’s always going to be an Amala, or the little boy or the fourteen-year-old or the thirty-five-year-old, or the elderly lady or the dying man –
    SADHBH. I know.
    STEPHEN. – but there won’t always be me.
    SADHBH. So you keep threatening.
    SADHBH