Read Online Remember Ronald Ryan by Barry Dickins - Free Book Online

costume.
    National Grocery Store in Acland Street St Kilda. Some amateur ROBBERS and a GIRL stand around a big safe with RYAN . It is quiet and late at night.
    FIRST ROBBER : How do we blow it up, Ron, the big safe in this grocery shop here? What do you recommend? Gelignite? An A-bomb?
    SECOND ROBBER : Dynamite, is it, Ron? Big sticks. Big bang.
    He laughs .
    THIRD ROBBER : Why don’t we just put it in the ute? Put the safe in the ute? That’d be easy enough, wouldn’t it, Ronnie? If we all get a hold of it?
    GIRL : I just want to go home. I’m hungry. I want a hamburger!
    RYAN : Right now all of you listen to me. Just pack all those white bags of sugar around the safe. Do it. Come on. Pack all them sugar bags. All of ’em. Nice and tight around the safe now!
    They pack lots of bags of white sugar around the safe.
    FIRST ROBBER : Why are we doing this?
    SECOND ROBBER : What’s the point? Just blow it up, Ron. Blow it up!
    THIRD ROBBER : What a waste of time. Let’s just blow it up and get out of here. Why fuck around with bags of sugar?
    RYAN : Stand back. Don’t you know about ballast? What I don’t know about ballast is not worth knowing about. Now give us that detonator. Stand well away.
    There is a massive explosion and white sugar is sprayed everywhere. They are covered in it. Everything is covered with sugar.
    See, the sugar acts as ballast. An old breaker told me that. He did a grocery shop once and it seemed to work alright for him. Now we will divide the spoils.
    They split the loot but it’s all black cinders. They allow the cinders to tumble through their palms. They hold up notes with big holes through them. They peer through the holes.
    GIRL : Perhaps you used a bit too much gelignite? Ronnie?
    SECOND ROBBER : This money seems okay but the lock’s gone right through it. Every note’s got a hole!
    RYAN : Might have to use a bit less next time. Righto, knock-off time. Jesus, every single note. Got a bloody hole through it. You wouldn’t read about it.
    RYAN roars with mockery. The scene concludes with the thieves staring hard at RYAN with the cinders of money running through their hands. Blackout.
    Ryan’s cell.
    RYAN : They’re picking on her. They’re picking on you, aren’t they?! Good coppers! There are a few. Lot of crooked ones. God, I wish I was home. I’d love to kick your door in. Aren’t you gonna come and see me? The girls. I could be in here for keeps the way things are developing. Got the trial coming up. What hope have I got? I know I’m in for it… feels inevitable. Dorothy, contact me. I rang you when we were in Richmond, but the phone was bugged. I just said ‘Hello’, they heard that at D24. Where are you? Where are you? Was it really that hard with me? Did you suffer, Girlie? Did you? I was a good provider, wasn’t I? We had lots of excitement, didn’t we? In our old shack in Richmond.
    15 Cotter Street. We see DOROTHY , now Ryan’s wife, happily washing dishes and yelling out to their three young daughters, Pip, Wendy and Jan. The place is a mess. Early sixties music blares out on the radio. DOROTHY wears drab clothes and has just burnt the mashed pumpkin. The telephone goes off and the door is bashed, simultaneously. Both loudly.
    DOROTHY : Girls! Breakfast is on! Hurry up, girls. Pip, Wendy, Jan, tea’s on soon; mashed pumpkin. [ To the door ] Just a minute. You don’t have to boot the darn thing in!
    Another loud kick at the door as she swoops on the telephone.
    Please don’t kick it in. We just replaced it. Doors cost a fortune. [ On the phone ] Is that you, Mother? No, I don’t know what the noise is. Ron isn’t in at the moment. He’s burning someone’s property down for the insurance. [ She laughs hysterically .] I’m only joking, Mother. You know, joking.
    The door is just about kicked in.
    [ To the door, her voice loud ] Please, can you just wait a