Summary
Mid-afternoon, next day.
Lights fade up as the choral voices continue, then slowly fade out.
The bright sunlight through the blinds makes neat horizontal patterns across the empty office. Off, through the open door to the workshop, we hear the sound of a welding machine, the buzzing noise is unmistakeable. With each buzz an eerie blue light strobes the workshop. This stop-start process goes on for a short while. Then the sound ceases completely.
Looming in the doorway and entering from the workshop is a startling apparition. DWAYNE resembles a creature from the lost lagoon in his huge welding mask and thick leather apron. He heads for the fridge, opens it, takes out a bottle of cold water and drinks deeply. He glances at Jonas's locker, has a thought about the horn and moves to his desk, picking up the telephone.
He reaches for a small, tatty notebook. Flipping through it he locates the number he is after. Halfway through dialling he hears the familiar sound of his wife's car returning and pulling up outside. He drops the phone onto the desk and ambles back into the workshop.
No sooner has DWAYNE disappeared than SHANELL enters through the downstage ‘exterior’ door. She is dressed in an overthe- top flashy outfit that appears to have been newly acquired and breathes heavily under the weight of several large, bursting, plastic shopping bags she carries in both hands.
SHANELL [calling out, tentatively]: Dwayne!
She places the shopping bags down beside the car seat and adjusts her new dress, tugging it down. Off, in the workshop, the welding sounds have given way to the sound of a heavy hammer on metal … a few lusty blows.
SHANELL digs into one of the bags and takes out the first in a set of matte-painted metal kitchen containers. The quintessence of kitsch, it reads UGARS. She places it on the coffee table, stepping back to admire it. She moves towards the workshop, keen for her husband to see her new purchases.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Suddenly the Storm , pp. 12 - 29Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2017