No Sugar Read Free Page B

Awright.
    CISSIE : Joe, come on!
    CISSIE stands by the fire holding the dough. JOE uses his doak to make an impression in the ashes. CISSIE puts the damper in and covers it with ashes.
    DAVID : [ spinning ] Woolah! Heads!
    JOE : Let’s have a look.
    DAVID : Moorditj, unna ?
    The dogs bark.
    CISSIE : David, git me some more wood. [ DAVID spins .] David!
    DAVID : Wait till I’ve finished spinnin’.
    CISSIE : Shoo-i , tail them.
    DAVID spins them high.
    DAVID : Have a look at them, Ciss.
    He looks. They’re tails.
    See what you made me do.
    He goes for the wood.
    CISSIE : Joe, better chop some more wood up.
    JOE : Yeah, okay.
    He spins.
    Bastard.
    He picks up the axe and goes to the woodpile. DAVID returns with a load of wood. He puts it down and begins to count his bottle tops.
    DAVID : Boy, look at my boondah .
    JIMMY enters.
    JIMMY : Wait till I see him tomorrow. I’ll give him no soap.
    SAM and FRANK follows JIMMY . The men are slightly drunk. Finally, GRAN and MILLY enter.
    CISSIE : About time.
    DAVID : Took youse long enough, got any boiled lollies?
    GRAN : No. No lollies.
    MILLY : Ain’t even got no soap.
    JOE : [ indicating FRANK ] Gneean baal ?
    JIMMY : He’s our friend.
    SAM : Ay! Mate! That’s me eldest boy Joe, and that’s Cissie and that’s the youngest, David.
    FRANK : Hello.
    The children don’t reply.
    CISSIE : Ay, Mum? Why isn’t there any soap? I wanna wash my hair tomorrow.
    GRAN : What you got in the camp oven?
    She looks.
    MILLY : Don’t git soap in the rations no more.
    GRAN : [ Peering into the camp oven ] No onions or taters.
    CISSIE : Why? What for?
    She feels her hair.
    MILLY : Just what I said, darlin’, Sergeant ain’t giving no soap any more.
    GRAN : Don’t worry, we can use tjeerung bush. I know where some growin’.
    JIMMY : Don’t worry about Sergeant, I’ll give him a piece of my mind.
    GRAN : You know what he’ll give you? Six months.
    JIMMY takes a drink.
    JIMMY : Six months.
    He laughs.
    Mother, I can do that standing on my head.
    He passes the bottle to FRANK .
    Here, mate.
    DAVID : Ay, Dad, fixed my bike today. Wanna see it?
    SAM : Yeah.
    DAVID runs off, followed by CISSIE .
    DAVID : It’s goin’ real good.
    GRAN puts onions and potatoes in the camp oven. JIMMY produces turnips from his pocket.
    JIMMY : Here, Mum, chuck them in.
    MILLY : Ay! Where d’you git them from?
    JOE : He never growed ’em and I bet he never bought ’em.
    MILLY takes them, prepares them and adds them to the rabbit stew. JIMMY produces a mouth organ.
    MILLY : You lookin’ for gaol awright!
    JIMMY : [ to FRANK ] You been inside?
    FRANK : Inside? Inside where?
    JIMMY : Gaol. You been in Freeo?
    FRANK : No.
    GRAN : You’ll be in gaol if Chergeant catch you here.
    SAM : Ne’mine ’bout Sergeant, Mother-In-Law; give him a feed.
    MILLY : Won’t be long; stew ain’t proper cooked yet.
    JIMMY takes a drink.
    JIMMY : Ay wetjala . You know how many time I been in gaol? [ Holding up four fingers ] That many times.
    FRANK : [ shyly ] What for?
    JIMMY : Aw, drinkin’, fightin’ and snowdroppin’.
    SAM : You know what snowdroppin’ is?
    MILLY : Pinchin’ things off other people’s clothes lines.
    JIMMY : Hey, wetjala , mate, you know when I was a little fella, ’bout twelve, thirteen years old…
    JOE : Aw, here we go…
    JIMMY Shut up, you. [ To FRANK ] You know what I was?
    FRANK : Ah, no.
    JIMMY : Choir boy. I tell you I was the leadin’ choir boy at New Norcia Mission; wasn’t I, Mother?
    SAM : Didn’t do you much good.
    MILLY : He used to sing ‘Ave Maria’ solo, real good.
    JIMMY : Yeah! [ To SAM ] ’Ow do you know? You wasn’t even there.
    SAM : ’Course I was there. [ To FRANK ] That’s where I met her, unna Mill?
    FRANK : Did you get married at New Norcia?
    SAM : Too right.
    GRAN : In the church too.
    JIMMY : An’ engaged under a