Fever Dream: Southside

Douglas Maxwell

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781783194957
• eBook ISBN: 9781783194964
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

High summer in Glasgow's Southside and a heatwave bears down on the residents of Govanhill, driving them off the streets. Tensions are running high and fantasy and reality are becoming blurred. Fighting to reclaim their neighbourhood, the lives of a sleep-deprived new parent and his civic-minded wife begin to unravel. Meanwhile an ambitious Hutchie boy, a pair of young missionaries, a performance artist and her alter ego and an unscrupulous property manager, are forced to confront their monsters. Fever Dream: Southside is a surreal comic thriller and major new production by Glasgow-based writer Douglas Maxwell.

THREE

The next day.

The Govanhill Baths in daylight. It has been dressed and prepped for tonight’s rally – banners, stacked chairs etc. JULIA’s stuff has been cleared away. There is a lectern set up with a microphone.

JOE pops his head up from the darkness of the pool.

JOE TWO: They’ve gone. Joe, they’ve gone.

JOE ONE appears from his hiding place. His clothes are covered in dried blood. His face shows the marks of his fight with DEMI. He’s frightened and pretty out of it…

JOE ONE: For sure?

JOE TWO: I thought they’d never get done.

JOE ONE: We can’t be here. We have to go, Joe. People are coming. They were setting up for some kind of event. (Points at a banner.) Look. That’s tonight. We have to get out of here, man.

JOE TWO: We can’t go back to the apartment.

JOE ONE: No.

JOE TWO: They’ll be looking for you there.

JOE ONE: Maybe we could…maybe we need to run?

JOE TWO: To the States? How Joe? We have no money. You’re a wanted man. We need some food, is the first thing.

JOE ONE staggers a bit and sits on the edge of the pool. He puts his head in his hands and cries.

JOE TWO: Hey. Don’t cry Joe. I’ll get us out of here. Don’t you worry, Joe. I’ll find a way.

JOE ONE: I… I can’t remember it. Can’t remember anything.

JOE TWO: That’s the concussion Joe.

JOE ONE: No Joe. No it’s deeper than that. It’s been weeks, man. (Shaking his head.) I can’t remember where I come from. I can’t remember my parents. My house. I’ve tried. But there’s nothing there.

JOE TWO: That’s all in the past anyway Joe…

JOE ONE: I heard Brother Kyle saying I had ‘substance issues’ but…

JOE TWO: You had an unsettled home life, Joe, that’s all you need to know. This wasn’t your fault. It’s best that you don’t remember. Block it out. No court in the land could blame you for what happened yesterday. That woman attacked you with an iron! She wanted to kill you! Look at your face Joe! If Terry hadn’t led us here…

JOE ONE: Brother Kyle said it was my medication confusing me. So we threw it in the park. That’s as far back as I can remember.

JOE TWO: Praise Jesus for that Joe. Can I get an Amen?

JOE ONE: Where do I come from, man?

JOE TWO: Let me hear an Amen!

JOE ONE: Why can’t I remember?

JOE TWO: Just say Amen, Joe!

JOE ONE: What’s making me do this? What is it!?

JOE TWO: (Shouting above him.) Amen! Just say it. Say it!

JOE ONE: Amen.

JOE TWO: Thank you. Gosh. It’s just simple manners is all. Say, talking of manners…you probably don’t want to hear this now Joe, but I think you owe Terry an apology. If it weren’t for him you’d be done for. He turned up when the going got tough and led us to freedom. He led us here. Whether you remember it or not, that’s what happened.

A beat. JOE ONE looks at JOE TWO.

JOE ONE: Where is he?

JOE TWO: Say again?

JOE ONE: Where is he Joe?

JOE TWO: (Defensive.) He’s resting.

JOE ONE: I thought he’d vanished?

JOE TWO: He returned. Thanks be to Jesus. You saw him!

JOE ONE: I saw nothing man.

JOE TWO: Well… I don’t know what to tell you Joe. He came back. We followed. He saved the day, whether you believe in him or not.

Beat.

JOE ONE: Go get him then Joe.

Big pause. A standoff.

JOE TWO: (Shrugs.) Whatever you say Joe.

JOE TWO jumps down into the darkness of the pool.

#

A hospital room in the New Victoria Infirmary. PETER lies, unconscious, in a hospital bed.

Baby Al is asleep in his buggy. DEMI is pacing up and down. Adrenalin still pounds through her veins. She’s reliving her battle with JOE and KULDEV, blow by blow – not for the first time – and she is loving it!

DEMI: I knew I’d win. The fact that Al was in the next room made it seem like a foregone conclusion. You cannot get past me! I will fight to the death! And I did. Well, not to the death but you know what I mean. I went for the little American guy first. BOOSH! A hard sweep from me and down he goes. The guy in the balaclava turned to run and I was like that ‘no way!’ Ran to the door, kicked it shut and threw him to the floor. I had super strength. He was like a doll. BAM! The American ran, blood streaming from his face. Out into the close and away. Then the balaclava boy tries to run too, but I’m on him. Pounding him. Punch, punch, punching him. I pull the balaclava off and it’s stuck to his face with all the blood. There’s wool in his wound. And it’s a kid! Just some Asian kid. I hold his throat with one hand and call the cops with the other. It took them… I dunno…ten minutes to get there…but that whole time I just held his throat. We never spoke. Not one word. He just seemed to get younger and younger, under my hand. And I’m just smiling at him. Happier than I’ve been in… I dunno.

I was attacked. I fended. I fought. I defended my child… with violence! Jesus…it feels so… I did what I was supposed to do. Know what I mean? And Al went straight down! It was a miracle. In a quiet flat he screams the place down, but when Mummy’s next door battering two assailants he’s spark out. I don’t remember reading about that particular wind-down technique in my Gina Ford book. Mind you I threw my Gina Ford book in the swan pond so… God.

Everything’s great now.

Pause.

DEMI checks to see if there’s any change in PETER. No. She looks out the window. Filling the silence…

DEMI: I remember when this hospital wasn’t here. Just ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• One
• Two
• Three