Birthday Girl Page #7

TRAINER:

It's called Trust and Letting Go.

John nods.

TRAINER:

Trust and Letting Go.

A simple guitar theme begins, and plays over the following

sequence:

Kids playing cricket in John's Close. A boy hits the ball

and others chase it as it bounces off cars.

John at dusk tied to the bed with his two bank ties. Nadia

is on top. They are having sex.

Hands stacking bank notes into the back of a cash machine.

Fast, mechanical.

At the bank, John walks to his desk. His phone rings. He

answers it.

Silence. Then soft breathing. John listens intently and looks

around.

"Nadia...?" -- John sits there, surrounded by his colleagues,

listening to Nadia breathe.

Close up on a man's hands tying a tie tight a-round a woman's

wrist. Pull back to a close up of Nadia's face, her eyes

fixed on John.

John running by the river.

John watches Nadia rise from his bed after sex and leave the

room. He stares out the window.

Nadia's fingers, knitting skillfully.

Nadia sits on her bed alone, pulling on black stockings and

attaching them to suspenders.

The street cricketers run for cover as a thunder storm breaks

over the close.

Rain coming down in John's garden. The pair sit under the

shelter of the back porch. John has his hands out as Nadia

is winding red wool it into a ball. The jumper is half

finished.

The rabbits shelter from the rain under broad leaves.

John in a pub with a four colleagues from the bank. He sips

his half, half listening to the conversation. It all seems

so dull. He finishes his drink and looks at his watch. They

ask him if he's staying for another.

A knitting needle is drawn from a row of red stitches on the

nearly-finished jumper.

Nadia kneels over John holding the knitting needles. She

presses one to his skin and we watch it drawn across his

chest in close up, up to his neck.

His eyes are fixed on hers.

Close up on Nadia's face. Her mouth is gagged and she's lying

on her front, head half-buried in a pillow. We can just make

out John behind, on top of her. Both are lying still and

breathing hard, covered in sweat. Catching her breath Nadia

yanks the gag off and wriggles out from underneath him. She

snatches up a towel and covering herself hurries to the

bathroom.

The guitar theme ends.

INT. LANDING - NIGHT

John presses his ear to the bathroom door. The sound of

retching.

The toilet flushes. John pads back to his bedroom. Through

the gap in the door he sees Nadia coming out, go to her room,

and shut the door. He rests his head against the door frame.

CUT TO:

INT. LOUNGE - DAY

A beautiful morning. Through the patio window, John watches

Nadia in the garden, sitting on the lawn reading her

dictionary in the sunlight. In dungarees with her hair up,

she looks very young.

EXT. GARDEN - DAY

He walks warily out into the sunlight. She looks up, then

back to the big book in her lap. He places the tea next to

her on the grass.

JOHN:

Are you O.K.?

She looks at him, then down at her tome. She speaks slowly,

in a heavy accent:

NADIA:

Today is bath day.

JOHN:

Sorry?

She studies her book. Looks up.

NADIA:

Today is bath day.

He shakes his head.

JOHN:

Bath day?

She nods.

JOHN:

I don't understand.

NADIA:

Happy bath day.

The penny drops.

JOHN:

Today?

She frowns. John leafs through the dictionary.

JOHN:

Syevodnya?

NADIA:

Syevodnya

JOHN:

Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.

He puts his hand on her shoulder.

NADIA:

Party.

(pause)

Party. Syevodnya.

John nods, smiling.

JOHN:

Yes. Party. Party syevodnya.

She lights a cigarette from the butt of her last. Blows smoke.

She holds the jumper up to John, as if to try it for size,

and the theme returns.

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

John is on the telephone.

JOHN:

...It might just be a twenty-four

hour bug...

INT. BANK - DAY

Clare listens, concerned.

CLARE:

Well you just get better. I'll tell

Beaky. You just get some rest, ok?

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

John puts the phone down. He looks down the hall, where Nadia

is killing ants on the table, with her dictionary. He smiles.

EXT. JOHN'S CAR - DAY

A shot from above, of the Rover's windscreen, reflecting the

passing trees.

The roof is down. We glide up the windscreen, up Nadia's

body, in the passenger seat. Her face is upturned slightly,

she's wearing sunglasses, which reflect the passing trees.

INT. JOHN'S LOUNGE - NIGHT

Nadia sits alone at the dining room table. Suddenly the lights

go out. John enters, carrying a small birthday cake glowing

with candles.

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