The Piano Lesson Page #13

HIRA:

(softly) George, can I use this

comb?

BAINES nods. ADA is still watching. HIRA scrapes the inside of her

pipe with the comb.

BAINES:

It's yours, leave, go on go!

ADA is off balanced by the reversal of attitudes, surprised too, that

she doesn't want to go. FLORA is fast to leave, ADA follows to

organise and protect her piano on the journey.

Sc 83 EXT BAINES' HUT & BUSH DAY Sc 83

As she climbs out of the small valley surrounding BAINES' hut, she

stops and walks back to look down at BAINES and his hut, in the EXACT

same manner that she once looked at her piano from the cliff-top above

the beach. BAINES is throwing the scraps of his meal to his dog, he

does not look up.

Sc 84 EXT PATH TO BAINES' HUT STEEP HILL DAY Sc 84

STEWART, on his way to BAINES, sees THE PIANO BEARERS and ADA way

below him in the bush. He scrambles down a steep slope towards them.

STEWART:

(stiffly from some distance)

Stop right there'. This isn't

yours what are you doing with

the piano?

The women exchange looks.

FLORA:

He's given it to us.

STEWART:

(out of breath) Hah, you're

very cunning Ada, but I've seen

through you, I'm not going to

lose the land this way. Wait

here!

STEWART is off, pounding on down through the bush.

Sc 85EXT/INT BAINES' HUT/BEDROOM DAY Sc 85

HIRA is sitting on the front step of BAINES' place, blocking STEWART'S

easy access.

HIRA:

George sick, he don't wanna see

nobody. You got Tupeka for the

Hira?

STEWART goes around to a side window in BAINES' bedroom. BAINES is

sitting on the bed, but lies back as he hears STEWART coming about the

side of the house. STEWART opens up the window.

STEWART:

I don't think you should have

given up the piano. I will make

sure you are properly taught,

with music written on to sheets

and...

BAINES:

I don't want to learn.

STEWART:

You don't want to learn.

BAINES:

No.

STEWART:

And what does this do to our

bargain? I cannot afford the

piano if you mean me to pay.

BAINES:

No, no payment. I have given it

back. I don't want it.

STEWART:

Well, I doubt I want it very

much myself.

BAINES:

It was more to your wife that I

gave it.

STEWART:

Well, thank you, I expect she

will appreciate it.

He closes the window.

So that is agreed on?

BAINES nods.

HIRA has wandered stiffly into BAINES' room. She sits on the edge of

his bed.

HIRA:

You make BIG mistake George. In

first place you should swap

land for wife. Now look, she

gone, you no land, no music

box, you got nothing.

SCENE 86 DELETED

Sc87 EXT/INT STEWART'S HUT DAY Sc 87

At the door of the hut STEWART is distributing buttons to the piano

bearers.

One squats catching them as they fall. A commotion begins as one of

the MAORIS snatches the whole jar and runs off. Two of them give chase

while the others insist on tobacco.

11 See Note

Inside the hut ADA had lifted the top of the piano and is peering in

while playing notes to check tune and damage.

STEWART:

Is it all right? Aren't you

going to play something?

ADA pulls up a chair and seats herself at the piano. She rubs her

hands and places them lightly on the keys, she turns from habit over

her left shoulder where STEWART waits crossed armed. Quickly she

removes her hands, stands and gestures FLORA to play. FLORA proudly

takes ~p the seat, she pulls her lips in trying to control her

happiness to say in front of both her mother and STEWART.

FLORA:

What will I play?

She looks to ADA, who looks back through her not concentrating.

STEWART:

Play a gig.

FLORA:

(to ADA) Do I know any gigs?

STEWART:

Play a song then

FLORA starts a song, ADA walks past them out of the hut, STEWART

ignores her exit moving up to lean on the piano. ADA is seen through

the hut window wandering amidst the ghostly, blackened trunks.

STEWART'S attention is drawn to ADA, he interrupts FLORA'S singing

with a sudden outburst.

STEWART:

(exasperated) Why won't she

play it? We have it back, and

she just wanders off!

FLORA stops to watch her mother through the window. ADA looks towards

the house as the music stops.

STEWART:

Keep playing!

Grimly STEWART slaps the top of the piano to FLORA's playing.

ADA continues to walk, her face dark and puzzled. She stops. Her head

stiffly, irresistibly, lifts and turns in the direction BAINES' hut.

She peers deep into the bush as if attempting to penetrate a puzzle.

She thinks and walks on.

Sc 88 INT STEWART'S KITCHEN DAY Sc 88

The next day ADA and her piano face each other across the kitchen. A

slit of light falls across the piano highlighting it's rosey walnut

wood. ADA's expression is critical and distant.

Taking a cloth she begins to clean and polish the piano. Her finger

holds down one of the keys and we glimpse an old inscription on its

side, a small heart, and an arrow. Putting the cloth aside she sits at

the piano to begin playing.

She starts with wholehearted feeling, her eyes closed, but before long

she is surprised by a moving reflection across the piano and she

'starts', glancing over her shoulder. She stops and begins again. But

once more a reflex has her glance across her left shoulder and she

pauses in her playing. Disquieted she starts again and again she looks

away. She stops, confused, unable to go on, unable to getup, one hand

on the lid and one on the piano keys.

Sc 89 EXT PATH TO BAINES' DAY Sc 89

ADA carrying her cape and bonnet hurries through the narrow bush path

to BAINES' hut, FLORA has a fist of her skirt and is pulling back. ADA

turns on FLORA and snatches the skirt out of the girl's hand. ADA

signs to her and continues on.

FLORA:

Why? Why can't I?

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