Hope and Glory Page #12

DAWN thrusts a brass regimental hat badge in BILL'S face.

DAWN:

(whispering)

I'm starting my own collection.

BILL:

(impressed)

It's Canadian. Where'd you get

it?

She pockets it and creeps out of the door, smiling smugly.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - DAWN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

DAWN pulls back the covers and slides into bed, fully

dressed. She is asleep as her head hits the pillow. A

distant SIREN starts-up,warning of an air-raid.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - GRACE'S BEDDROOM - NIGHT

GRACE is instantly alert as the SIRENS call to one another,

coming CLOSER. She throws on her dressing-gown, pulls on

her fur-lined boots, picks up the ever-packed bag at her

bedside and hurries out of the door.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - CHILDREN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

GRACE shakes BILL and SUE awake.

GRACE:

Bill, Sue. Air-raid!

They tumble out of bed and into their dressing-gowns like

automata.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - DAWN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

GRACE enters, shakes DAWN who does not respond. GRACE pulls

back the covers and is surprised to see DAWN fully dressed,

wearing make-up and with slightly crooked seams down the

back of her legs.

GRACE:

Dawn, what have you been up to?

DAWN murmurs her protest. GRACE pulls her out of bed, but

DAWN crawls back in.

DAWN:

I'm not going to that shelter.

I'd sooner die.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - STAIRS - NIGHT

BOMBS are already falling. GRACE switches on a light and

hurries down the stairs leading her two children through

the familiar routine. She calls back. BILL bumps down the

stairs, on his bottom, half asleep.

GRACE:

Dawn! Come down here!

Shew starts back up the stairs, but is halted by a BOMB

dropping close by. She runs down again, scoops up the two

little ones and heads from the living room.

INT. ROHAN HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

As they approach the French windows, another BOMB EXPLODES

very close by.

Before its sound is heard, there is a tremendous BLAST,

which rips off the blackout curtains and sends them

floating into the room. The WINDOWS are TORN OUT and most

of the fragmented glass hangs limply from the brown paper

that criss-crosses the panes for just this eventuality.

Every loose object is hurled inwards. The room light

flickers on and off and shell-bursts illuminate the room

from without. GRACE and the children are thrown back

against the wall, but before they hit it the process is

reversed and the blast is sucked out again. They are pulled

back towards the windows together with the glass and loose

fragments of the room. This all happens slowly as though

the room is filled with water and the windows were a

reversible sluice gate. SUE'S long blonde-hair is first

blown, then sucked across her face. Then comes the SOUND of

the EXPLOSION itself, Which seems to have the effect od

draining water from the room. The People and the bric-a

brac all drop to the floor, dead weights once more.

The children clutch their ears, SCREAMING. GRACE has one or

two cuts. She gathers up the children, spreading her blood

on them, and frightens herself, confused as to whom the

blood belongs. She wipes it away, crying out a desperate

prayer.

GRACE:

Please, God. Take me, but spare

them.

She carries SUE and drags BILL through the shattered French

windows, out into the garden and towards the Anderson

shelter.

EXT. ROHAN HOUSE - GARDEN - NIGHT

Two more BOMBS EXPLODE, further way, but still close enough

for the blast to force them off balance. They stumble and

fall, covering their ears against the pressure. They tumble

into the SHELTER, stepping into several inches of water.

The ack-ack keeps up the barrage, and the EXPLODING SHELLS

intermittently LIGHT UP the SKY. GRACE, mumbling Dawn's

name, clambers out of the shelter to fetch her.

GRACE sees DAWN coming down the garden. She looks dazed as

she staggers quite slowly with one arm wound around her

head. As she gets closer, GRACE sees that her eyes are

glazed and she is MOANING. GRACE leads her into the SHELTER

and covers her with a blanket. SUE is fast asleep already

in spite of everything. DAWN looks at her mother

accusingly.

DAWN:

You don't care if I die. How

could you leave me there? Even if

you don't love me?

DAWN desperately wants her mother to take her in her arms,

but GRACE sits stiffly upright, unyielding.

DAWN:

Tell me the truth. You had to get

married, didn't you? Because of

me.

GRACE:

The ideas you get in your head.

DAWN:

That's why you never liked me.

I'm different from you. Well,

everything's different now, so it

doesn't matter. So there.

Finally DAWN bends forward and puts her head on her

mother's lap and cries, at first softly, the more bitterly.

GRACE holds her and rocks her at last. BILL watches this,

perplexed, as perhaps he always will be, by the complex

emotional interplay that passes between women.

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