2007 07 13

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

The purple car stops decisively by the side of a quiet road in the middle of nowhere. Dawn thinks for a moment. Ian, assuming they’re lost, peers at a map.

DAWN
You’re looking at this wrong, Ian.

IAN turns the map round.

DAWN
No Ian. You’re looking at the Jamboneau situation wrong. Everything happens for a reason. We helped those people.

IAN
We helped damage their house.

DAWN
See? Wrong. We taught them the meaning of family. Do you remember what he said? He said we were boring. That’s the exact word. We. Were. Boring. It’s the same in French. A cry for help and we were there.

IAN
And his beds? His carpet? His petrol tank?

DAWN
We’ve opened his eyes, Ian. And he’s opened ours. He’s met nearly… ten per cent of the siblings he never knew. They’ve lived in his house. Treated it like their own.

Behind them a French car pulls in to a jerky halt, spluttering and smoking. A couple with small children emerge and look around, distraught.

DAWN
Even if this trip means nothing else, it confirms me as a helper of my fellow man. In a funny way, the world is now my family. That’s how I feel. Europe, at least. Not Africa. It’s different there. I’m like St Francis, the Samaritan of travellers. I’ve changed, Ian, and you have to change too.

The father of the stranded family has been politely trying to attract Dawn’s attention. He bends and knocks quietly on her window. DAWN is jerked from her reverie. She glances at the man and starts the engine.

DAWN
Lock your door, Ian. We’re in the middle of nowhere.

IAN, infected by the urgency, does so. DAWN revs shamelessly. IAN peeks in the mirror, sees one of the kids howling next to the dad. He winces and with his worried eyes popping he frantically waves Dawn on. As Dawn lurches onto the road and drives off. The man raises his arms sadly behind them.

IAN
That was close.

DAWN
Ian you have to help me. If we’re going to survive this as a family you have to watch out for me. I’m a single woman alone on the continent. These people are lunatics. And Jonti, would you help me or film it all?

JONTI
Um, film a bit of it and then help you, I think. Not that we could use the footage.

DAWN (pleased)
Thank you.

A pause.

DAWN
Ian, what was that about a petrol tank?

IAN
Oh. It was while we were sugaring the garden. There was a big Citroen in the garage. The other, the first Jamboneau said we’d never need to use it as we were so happy there. I poured it all in.

After a beat IAN, then JONTI snigger. DAWN joins in.

DAWN
Is that bad?

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