Scene 1
[Amongst the occasional sound of birdsongs and tree leaves rustling in the good times of September, Jo’s footsteps are heard as she tentatively walks through the long grass of Mr. Lamb’s garden.]
Mr. Lamb: Mind the apples! Crab apples those are.
Jo: I…I thought this was an empty place. I’d not come to steal anything…I’ve got to go!
Mr Lamb: nothing to be afraid of, it’s just me girl.
Jo: But I’m not afraid, people are afraid of me…it doesn’t matter who they are, or what they say or look. It’s how they pretend, I know, I see.
Mr.Lamb: I make jelly. I’ll get the ladder and get those crab apples down.
Jo: What’ve you changed the subject for? People always do, they’re hypocrits and that’s the only reason I don’t like being with them. You didn’t ask me, but judged me thinking perhaps that’s the ugliest thing that can ever happen to anyone!
Mr.Lamb: I should say…to look at it…you got burned in a fire.
Jo: Not in fire. I got acid all down that side of my face and it burned it all away. It ate up my face, it ate me up. And now it’s like this, it’s never gonna be any different!
Mr.Lamb: Just look around girl, what do you see?
Jo: Flowers, weeds, and stuff. Rubbish.
Mr Lamb: look girl look..some call it weeds if you like, then a weed garden. Why is one green growing plant called weed and other flower? Where’s the difference? It’s all life, glorified in its own way. Same as you and me.
Jo: we’re not the same, I’m fourteen and you’re sixty, you’ve got tin leg. But… why don’t you put on trousers and cover it up, no one will stare and comment.
Mr.Lamb: Some do, some don’t. There’s plenty of things to stare at. It’s all relative. Beauty and the Beast.
Jo: But I just don’t like being with people. They talk about me downstairs. What’ll she ever do looking like that, with that on her face? That’s why I just want to ebb away from reality, into a utopian world, created by me, lived by me. Cause people are just nothing!
Mr.Lamb: People are never just nothing. You’ll do more harm to yourself this way than a bottle of acid did like a bomb only blew up my leg. The world’s got a whole face, and the world’s there to be looked at. You could get on better than the rest with two legs, hands, brain, ears, eyes, and tongue. Explore it and you’ll get what you want.
Jo: I don’t know what I want. But I want something which nobody has or will ever have. Something just mine. But I don’t even know how to get it.
Mr.Lamb: Watching. Listening. Thinking.
Scene 2
Her mother, shrieking out for Jo, got over a piece of paper depicting a girl wearing a crown standing atop the globe.The lower margin read, ‘I want it and I will get it!’
Mother: What’s this girl behind proving? What’s going to happen to her? How will she catch up being alone? Why doesn’t she understand her limits and stop there?This went on for over 2 hours after which the doorbell ranged and she found Jo standing right before her, but this time, not the Jo which she had been rearing for the past fourteen years.
Mother: You think I don’t know about him. Being told and warned. There’s nothing to know and you’re not getting there again!
Jo: What are you afraid of? I want to listen to him, listen to things nobody ever told and I’m better out of here. Signing off FOREVER, because if I don’t get there right now then I’m never gonna get anywhere in this world again!
Scene 3
Mr.Lamb’s garden
Mr lamb: stay steady…got it….and….
[ A creak. A crash. The ladder falls back. Mr. Lamb falls back. Joanne opens the garden gate]
Joanne: Mr. Lamb look I’m here again. You said I won’t come back but I did come. Mr.Lamb, Mr….You’ve….Pls come back.
