Episode 2: The Silent One by Isla Cowan

‘I saw the river in a waking-dream. Felt it flowing through me…’

While Pink’s sleep fractures further, an encounter with a girl that won’t speak leads her to believe her dreams may hold the key to finding Billie.
 
Performed by Karen Bartke, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Catriona Faint, Jessica Hardwick, Robert Jack, Frankie Maxwell and Rosalind Sydney
 
Written by Isla Cowan
Directed by Lu Kemp
Sound Design and Music by Danny Krass
Series concept by Oliver Emanuel
Produced by Tron Theatre and supported by Creative Scotland
 
#TheLovedOne

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello, welcome to the Loved One. This is a piece of immersive audio drama designed for listening on headphones. If you want to have a wee, lie down in a dark room, stick on a cheeky eye mask and go ahead. But wherever you're listening, please enjoy the Loved One.

Speaker 2 0:21

The witness is sitting on her bed Pink bedspread in a purple room but it's not on her bed Pink bed spread in a purple room. But it's not really her bed. It's not really her room. It's the room in the Airbnb her dad's rented in the middle of nowhere, not nowhere, somewhere near Loch Lomond. There were signs on the motorway. She could read some of them from the back seat. It's so quiet here. The witness can hear the birds beyond the window, the hum of water in the pipes, scratches of mice and bugs beneath the floorboards. But before this, before she met me, before the birds and the bugs and water, she was sitting at home on her own bed, just like this, perched on the edge of the mattress, the rain, hard at the window, listening to her parents argue downstairs.

Speaker 3 1:38

Has it gone too far now? No, she's just being stubborn. Do you think Some preteen angst? No, that's not like her. Girls start to change at that age. You know hormones.

Speaker 4 1:47

But to stop like that all of a sudden.

Speaker 3 1:50

Or to be some sort of protest or new trend at school. I'm going to book her an appointment. An appointment.

Speaker 1 1:56

This is the Loved One, episode 2. The Silent One by Isla Cowan.

Speaker 2 2:05

The witness is sitting on her bed. No, not her bed. A strange bed, green plastic, smell of alcohol and urine. She feels that her throat soars from the laryngoscopy.

Speaker 5 2:23

Now I've had a look at her throat and felt around the glands and there seems to be no obvious obstruction or swelling, nothing that could cause physical discomfort.

Speaker 4 2:32

So, what is it then?

Speaker 2 2:33

The doctor reaches for a paper towel. One, two, three. She dries her hands.

Speaker 5 2:40

It's hard to say for sure, but I think that the reasons may be psychological.

Speaker 4 2:45

So it's just in her head.

Speaker 5 2:48

Not exactly. Whatever Kim is going through, will feel very real.

Speaker 2 2:53

The witness watches the scrunched ball of paper hit the bin. The pieces slowly start to unfurl again to unwind, opening like a scream.

Speaker 4 3:04

But I mean, it's not an actual bodily issue the brain is part of the body.

Speaker 5 3:11

Mr Morrison, no, what I would suggest is a psychological assessment before proceeding.

Speaker 3 3:25

A psychiatrist you mean a therapist.

Speaker 2 3:27

The witness lingers in the hallway straining to hear.

Speaker 3 3:32

You know I don't like therapists.

Speaker 2 3:34

Mom is packing away leftovers.

Speaker 4 3:37

We have to at least try it.

Speaker 2 3:38

Dad is wiping the table.

Speaker 3 3:41

Therapists just dig and dig until they find something, even when there's nothing there, and then Kim will get into her head that she's disturbed, or damaged.

Speaker 4 3:48

It's a one off, maybe An assessment just to see, to see what. What if it's what? I don't know Deeper than we think.

Speaker 3 3:57

You mean depression?

Speaker 4 3:59

Or anxiety.

Speaker 2 4:01

The witness wobbles.

Speaker 4 4:05

Kim love, why don't you go play outside?

Speaker 2 4:08

She makes her way to the back door slowly, quietly listening what does?

Speaker 3 4:14

she have to be anxious about. She's nine years old. For God's sake.

Speaker 4 4:18

Well, with what they have access to these days on their phones and computers.

Speaker 3 4:22

This talk of climate change and Armageddon. You know, we lived through the War on Terror and our parents lived through the Cold War and there were actual world wars before that. This idea that the world's about to end, it isn't new. It isn't. Was it us? Have we? Have we done something wrong?

Speaker 4 4:46

Of course not. I will get to the bottom of this, I promise.

Speaker 2 4:59

The witness watches from the garden Her parents framed in the kitchen window like a show on TV. She sees Mom start to cry, sobbing silently into her dishcloth. Dad reaches out a hand. Mom shrugs him off. The witness turns away. She shouldn't be spying Last time she was spying. The witness watches the birds High in the trees she used to climb. They flit back and forth with their moss and worms. A crow caws circles above the birds, disperse, quick, quick disappearing into the dusk. But one is stuck in the nest, tangled in the twigs and twine. The crow swoops down, but the bird can't move. She can't move, she can't.

Speaker 1 6:12

Get in Ice cream.

Speaker 2 6:18

The witness waits outside alone. She looks up and down the corridor. The coast is clear.

Speaker 5 6:23

From my assessments, I have concluded that your daughter is probably suffering from mutism resultant from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaker 4 6:33

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

Speaker 5 6:36

Well, where the child once had no problem speaking, they can suddenly become unable to in some or all social situations.

Speaker 4 6:44

Yes, I know what mutism is.

Speaker 5 6:46

I meant has Kim recently experienced anything that might be upsetting or inappropriate in any way?

Speaker 4 6:52

What are you suggesting?

Speaker 5 6:54

Nothing, Mr Morrison. I'm simply trying to get to the root of the trauma.

Speaker 4 6:59

Kim is a normal nine-year-old girl. She goes to a nice school. She has nice friends, after-school clubs. She's not traumatised.

Speaker 5 7:08

Then, in your opinion, why isn't she speaking?

Speaker 2 7:15

The witness is sitting on her bed, hey Kimberly. Usually you'd tell me off for calling you that he's still mad at the therapist.

Speaker 4 7:34

Look, I am. I just wanted to say you know, if something is Bothering you you can always tell me, and your mum you know that right. No Like if something is anything at all, you can always.

Speaker 2 7:50

She can't.

Speaker 4 7:52

See, like your teachers say that they're concerned about your progress, like if you don't participate in class you can't improve. And You've always quite liked school, you've always been good at it. I wouldn't want you to fall behind because, well, because you aren't joining it anymore. If you could try a little to communicate in some way, you don't have to speak just in some way. You don't have to speak Just Because I am going crazy over here, like just now. I can't even tell if I mean, are you listening to me?

Speaker 2 8:35

Yes.

Speaker 4 8:35

Are you even listening?

Speaker 2 8:37

Yes, Look, if you just he grabs the witness's arm and in that moment she sees it the man, the woman, it all comes back.

Speaker 1 8:44

No, no, please, ro, let's go.

Speaker 4 8:54

We have to do something. This can go on.

Speaker 3 8:57

He didn't mean to Kimmy, he just he's worried about you, we both are Only sometimes he gets overwhelmed and, oh God, we love you. You know that, don't you?

Speaker 2 9:14

Whatever happens, the witness fiddles with the seatbelt tight on her neck, digging in. Mom passes her a packet of crisps but she doesn't eat them. She looks out the window. She likes watching the landscape change. Like the hills are moving all by themselves. The car slows as they turn a corner.

Speaker 3 9:43

Hello Kimmy, Someone's fishing in the river.

Speaker 2 9:46

And that's when I see her.

Speaker 2 9:49

Something led me here to the river, another week without sleep. I saw the river in a waking dream, felt it flowing through me. Something in the water, a reflection, a face, a body, my belly, I don't know so. I am knee-deep, hands numb from searching in the cold of the current. When I see the car pass, the girl's face pressed against the glass, and suddenly I know why my dreams led me here. The girl, the witness, peering out through her window, out through time, something about her eyes so much like my baby girl's, my Billy. Now she's all grown up and God knows where. But it wasn't just that, this girl here now in her car. I knew her already. I'd seen her a thousand times before. She was the key. I had to reach deep into my dreams to find her, and then I'd find Billy.

Speaker 4 11:19

See, this is exactly what we all need A few weeks in the trosser, some fresh air, peace and quiet. Be careful near that water, kim. What are you aiming for, kimmy? What's the target? That rock, no, up there in the trees? Crow, did you just? Oh my God, what is it? She spoke what. Go on, kimmy. Say it again for Mummy Crow. She said crow, it's OK. Say it again, kim. No, no, don't Look away.

Speaker 3 11:51

Sweetheart, I don't think she said anything.

Speaker 4 11:52

I heard her.

Speaker 3 11:53

Maybe it was the wind and the trees or the river.

Speaker 4 11:57

She spoke. Ok, she was trying to scare. I am telling you she spoke.

Speaker 2 12:03

Weeks pass in silence. I thought you said coming here would help. Only the sounds of the house, the birds. It's been two months, knives and forks scraping plates at dinner. These things take time, but they're at it again.

Speaker 3 12:24

We don't have time, Rob.

Speaker 2 12:26

And things are about to change.

Speaker 3 12:29

We have to go back to Glasgow Forever, back to work, back to the house, our lives, we can't give up on her. I'm not saying give up that day in the woods. You imagined it. I know what I heard. You're mad. You know that this whole thing is mad. It's nothing even better. No, it's not.

Speaker 2 12:58

Can I come in?

Speaker 4 13:01

Sorry, who are you?

Speaker 2 13:04

I'd like to speak to your daughter. What's this about? I'm a private investigator.

Speaker 4 13:10

I'd like to see some ID please.

Speaker 2 13:12

It's about a woman's disappearance. What's that got to do with Kim? I think she might have witnessed something. If you let me in, I can speak with you and Kim about why I'm here.

Speaker 3 13:21

But if you're a private investigator, then who hired you?

Speaker 2 13:24

I'm afraid I'm not allowed to disclose it.

Speaker 4 13:26

Who mentioned Kim, let's just let her in first.

Speaker 3 13:29

She could be anyone she could help.

Speaker 2 13:33

The witness is sitting on her bed Pink bedspread in a purple room. But that's not really her bed. It's not really her room.

Speaker 4 13:43

Can I get you a tea?

Speaker 2 13:44

No thanks Right.

Speaker 4 13:48

Kim, this woman's here to speak with you.

Speaker 2 13:52

The witness looks up at me and I know she's the one I've been searching for. She doesn't yeah, she doesn't speak, yeah yeah, I know, but she speaks to me in dreams Her face, her eyes. She led me here.

Speaker 3 14:09

It's so quiet here I don't know how she could have witnessed a crime. Kim's either at home with us or at school or a club.

Speaker 2 14:16

It would surprise you how much of our time is spent in between things the walk from the leisure center to the car, the house to the corner shop, what can be seen from the school fence, the bus window. And young people are perceptive. They still look and listen. They see things we don't. She was probably with one of you. When Is that?

Speaker 4 14:37

why she won't speak. Something to do with this case? It could be connected yes, the doctor said it was some sort of trauma.

Speaker 2 14:45

Well, she might feel more willing to talk without you here, you think?

Speaker 3 14:49

we're going to leave you alone with her Mayday. She's a stranger. It is worth a try. Do you think anything's worth a bloody?

Speaker 4 14:53

try If it will cure her. Yes.

Speaker 2 15:05

Kim, kim. I'm looking for a young woman and I think you might have seen what happened to her and without words, she tells me everything from the beginning. I see it in her eyes. We're dreaming together and without words, she tells me everything from the beginning. I see it in her eyes. We're dreaming together, together in the nightmare Fireworks night, shivery, cold, dark November sky. The witness takes my hand and together we run as one Ahead of mom and the others, further and further down the street. Our breath hot against the chill light spills from an open door. We shouldn't go in, but we do.

Speaker 2 15:53

We've always liked these tenement stairwells like we're anti-gene, the old greens or pinks, and swirly iron banisters up and up to different levels and doors. We move further into the entryway, the foot of the stairs. I know we shouldn't, but we're here now. We follow the mosaic roses up and up the top floor. We didn't know a door would be open. Something seems to beckon us inside Wooden floors, walls stained with yellow and brown, a thick must of dirt and dust, old crisp packets, plastic bottles, pill packets. We creep along the corridor. The door to the kitchen is ajar.

Speaker 4 16:43

Someone's in there.

Speaker 2 16:45

A woman. She's crying. We peek around the edge of the door. We can't see her face, but she's tied to a chair, rope around her feet, her neck digging in. We want to help her. We're about to help her too, and we see him, a man in black coat of feathers. The woman pleads please, please, please. We should help her, we should do something. He holds the knife to her cheek but we can't move, we can't speak, we can't breathe, we can't. She screams. He warns her one more time, she screams again. He grabs her jaw, fuzzes open her mouth and then he, then he the knife, her tongue, quick as that. We gasp out loud. He hears we run and run and run and run, tumble down the stairs, out through the stairwell, out the front door which door Seven? Out onto the street. A glimpse of the sign, the street. Remember Rose Street? Mom is there.

Speaker 5 17:50

Where did?

Speaker 2 17:50

you go, we can't, we can't. Mouth dry, tongue tied, she says Don't wander off like that, kimmy, especially at night. And we carry on towards the hilltop with the others to watch the fireworks, but we can't stop thinking seeing. We can't, I have to go.

Speaker 3 18:20

Did you say something to that woman, kim? Did you tell her something, something about? Because you know, that day in the park, when I left you in the car and out, I don't know what you think you saw, but that man was Mummy. He was just a friend and, oh God, it's not that that's upset you, is it? The man was Mummy. What man.

Speaker 2 18:42

She was still there, number 7, rose Street, all tied up, bloody mouth hands. She Is she. No, not my girl, not my Billy. Thank God Breathing.

Speaker 4 19:10

Alive. You see, there's been no necessity, no imperative all this time. But now, if you want to be saved, you'll have to call for help, you'll have to speak, otherwise I won't come to get you. Do you understand? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't cry, don't cry. Hey, hey, hey, shh, do you understand? Don't cry, don't cry. In years to come, you'll remember that it was me who cared, not your mother. She abandoned us, but it was me who cured you, and you will be grateful.

Speaker 2 20:03

I rush to untie the missing woman and I see it. Not a dream this time, not a distant memory, a premonition. The witness, the woods. She's tied to a tree. I see her struggle with the ropes and it starts to unfurl to unwind. The witness slides, can't get her grip, her footing, she falls down down down into the river. She struggles against the current mouthfuls of water and twigs water and twigs water. And that's the thing about dreams A glitch, a fractal, a space between words. Time slips, twists back on itself. I didn't see what was really in front of me. I call the police. Leave the police, leave the woman. I tell her everything's going to be alright. I start the car, I drive fast, drowning, drowning, all the way there. I get out and I run, fall, scramble, crawl, wade my way towards her and I don't know if I'm sleeping or dreaming, but whatever world I'm in, I have to get to her. I have to get to her before I follow the river right back to the start and she's there, the witness. She's.

Speaker 5 21:56

Your witness Jeez.

Speaker 1 22:12

You've been listening to the Loved One, episode 2. By Isla Cowan, featuring Sharon Duncan Brewster, robert Jack, jessica Hardwick, karen Barkey, roslyn Sidney and Frankie Maxwell, directed by Lou Kemp. Sound design and music by Danny Crass, made in partnership with Tron Theatre Glasgow, supported by Creative Scotland. Next time on Episode 3 of the Loved One, live action role play A delivery uniform, a missing boyfriend and an enormous moussaka Pinkies along for the ride.