LIVING ROOM. MID AFTERNOON. HEAVY RAIN HAMMERS AGAINST THE WINDOW. MELANIE ENTERS THE ROOM, CARRYING TWO STEAMING MUGS OF TEA. AS SHE OPENS THE DOOR, WE CAN HEAR SOPHIE AND ROWAN PLAYING VERY LOUDLY.
MEL (shouting upstairs): Keep it down, you two, or else! (she turns to her husband) The kids are driving me crazy. I know I can't expect them to play out in this, but still...
(TOM IS SITTING ON THE SETTEE, BIRO AND A4 PAD IN HAND. HE THROWS BOTH DOWN O THE COFFEE TABLE.)
TOM: I've lost it, Mel. I can't write any more!
MEL: You've been like this before. Every time you hit writers' block. It'll pass.
TOM (picking up the mug that Mel has set down on the table): I never used to imagine I saw ghosts.
MEL (shivering as she looks round): Is that what you think Katherine is? We're being haunted?
TOM: Who knows what she is? Who knows what Kelly saw?
MEL: Kelly has an over active imagination.
TOM (smiling wryly): People said that about me a long time ago. I never thought I'd grow out of it, but I have. You know, when I was a kid I'd sit for hours, scribbling anything that came into my mind. I could go anywhere, be whatever I wanted to be.
MEL (smiles): Sophie and Rowan love your stories.
TOM: You know why I stopped telling Sophie and Rowan a bedtime story? I couldn't think of any new ones! All I've done for the last few months is re-tell the old stories. All I do now when I sit down at the computer is stare into space. The characters aren't real for me any more. I used to see them, hear their conversations, feel their emotions. Now I'm reaching and reaching but they've long gone.
MEL: It'll come back, Tom
TOM: I wish I could believe that. Maybe I should give up writing. I don't have it in me any more.
(FROM UPSTAIRS, THERE IS SUDDENLY A LOUD SCREAM FOLLOWED BY A CRASH AND GIGGLING. SOPHIE THUDS DOWNSTAIRS AND BURSTS OPEN THE DOOR DRAMATICALLY)
SOPHIE (angrily): Tell Rowan!
(ANOTHER SCREAM FROM ABOVE. THEY RUN UPSTAIRS TO FIND ROWAN STANDING ON TOP OF AN OLD-FASHIONED WARDROBE. ROWAN IS VERY PROUD OF HERSELF. THERE IS NO FURNITURE NEAR THE WARDROBE AND NO CONCEIVABLE WAY SHE COULD HAVE SCALED THE HEIGHT HERSELF.)
TOM: (astonished): How the hell did she get up there?
ROWAN: I flied, Daddy!
SOPHIE: She flied, Daddy. She won't stop flying and she knows I want to play lions and tigers now.
(TOM STRETCHES TO HIS FULL HEIGHT TO LIFT ROWAN FROM THE WARDROBE. THE ROOM IS IN TOTAL CHAOS, TOYS AND PAPERS SCATTERED EVERYWHERE. AMONGST IT ALL ARE STRANGE RAINBOW-COLOURED CIRCLES THAT LOOK LIKE LARGE SMOOTH POPCORN. MELANIE IS STARING AT THEM CURIOUSLY AND PICKS SOME UP.)
MEL: Tom, this stuff, it's weird...(the circles turn to water in her hand. She picks up another handful and the same thing happens)
SOPHIE: We played coloured rain, Mummy. We sheltered in the spaceship and flew into space and had to fight off the Greenight People.
TOM (staring at Sophie in shock): The Greenight People...?
SOPHIE (nonchalantly peeling the wrapper off a bar of chocolate): They got into our spaceship and we had to leave it and fly back home by ourselves.
ROWAN: And I nearly felled but the lady catched me!
TOM (stooping down to his eldest daughter): Sophie, how do you know about the Greenight People?
SOPHIE: Katherine told us. (takes a bite of chocolate)
.
TOM: I recognise that chocolate...It's from Katherine, isn't it?
(SOPHIE NODS, HER MOUTH TOO FULL TO ANSWER. TOM WIPES BACK SUDDEN TEARS)
TOM: Mel, I think I remember who Katherine was...
*****
CHILDRENS PLAYGROUND. 1960s.
IT IS A COLD DAY AND THE CHILDREN ARE WEARING OUTDOOR CLOTHES. THE PLAYGROUND IS CROWDED, KIDS RUNNING AND PLAYING, BOYS PLAYING FOOTBALL AND GIRLS SKIPPING. THERE IS A HYPNOTIC CHANT TO THE SKIPPING GAME. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROPE, WEARING A TOO-LONG GREY WINTER COAT, IS A TALL THIN GIRL OF ABOUT FIFTEEN, HER BLACK HAIR, THE COAT AND THE COLD WEATHER COMBINING TO MAKE HER LOOK EXCEPTIONALLY PALE. KATHERINE.
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: No-one knew much about Katherine. She was creepy somehow, like even the teachers were scared of her. She always got what she wanted, like she didn't have any friends but all the kids were too scared to say no to her so if she wanted to play skipping or something she got to play skipping and she got to stay in the rope just as long as she wanted. Anyhows, it was just a day at school as usual. 'Cept it was soooo cold all the kids wore their coats and gloves when they went to play out.
Katherine, she had on this long grey coat that was so big for her it nearly touched the ground like it belonged to her Mum or something. Well, there was this kid and he thought Katherine looked stupid skipping in that big grey coat that smelled of mothballs and had torn pockets, and he started calling her names, then we all joined in, laughing and pointing. Katherine, she looked upset and started crying which made us laugh more, but we only meant as a joke. All of a sudden she jumped out the rope but she didn't see the patch of ice...
(KATHERINE FALLS BACKWARDS, BANGING HER HEAD AND LYING VERY STILL, HER EYES STARING UPWARDS. THE ROPE HAS STOPPED AND CHILDREN ARE SCREAMING. TEACHERS GATHER ROUND THE BODY AS THE DAY BECOMES SHROUDED IN A NOVEMBER FOG)
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: There was nothin' they could do. They sent us kids back inside the school cos of the fog and the ice and they tried to contact Katherine's Mum and Dad. But when they went to the house...
(AN OLD DERELICT BUILDING COVERED IN FOG. BROKEN WINDOWS AND IVY GROWING ON THE WALLS).
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: So they buried her on top of the hill next to the old haunted church with the wind howling round. But the next day one of the kids who'd been laughing at her was found dead in the lake. They said he drowned while swimming and it was an accident but nobody knew. People kept seeing Katherine's ghost and lots of scary stuff began happening that no one could explain. She wanted revenge...
MEL (shouting upstairs): Keep it down, you two, or else! (she turns to her husband) The kids are driving me crazy. I know I can't expect them to play out in this, but still...
(TOM IS SITTING ON THE SETTEE, BIRO AND A4 PAD IN HAND. HE THROWS BOTH DOWN O THE COFFEE TABLE.)
TOM: I've lost it, Mel. I can't write any more!
MEL: You've been like this before. Every time you hit writers' block. It'll pass.
TOM (picking up the mug that Mel has set down on the table): I never used to imagine I saw ghosts.
MEL (shivering as she looks round): Is that what you think Katherine is? We're being haunted?
TOM: Who knows what she is? Who knows what Kelly saw?
MEL: Kelly has an over active imagination.
TOM (smiling wryly): People said that about me a long time ago. I never thought I'd grow out of it, but I have. You know, when I was a kid I'd sit for hours, scribbling anything that came into my mind. I could go anywhere, be whatever I wanted to be.
MEL (smiles): Sophie and Rowan love your stories.
TOM: You know why I stopped telling Sophie and Rowan a bedtime story? I couldn't think of any new ones! All I've done for the last few months is re-tell the old stories. All I do now when I sit down at the computer is stare into space. The characters aren't real for me any more. I used to see them, hear their conversations, feel their emotions. Now I'm reaching and reaching but they've long gone.
MEL: It'll come back, Tom
TOM: I wish I could believe that. Maybe I should give up writing. I don't have it in me any more.
(FROM UPSTAIRS, THERE IS SUDDENLY A LOUD SCREAM FOLLOWED BY A CRASH AND GIGGLING. SOPHIE THUDS DOWNSTAIRS AND BURSTS OPEN THE DOOR DRAMATICALLY)
SOPHIE (angrily): Tell Rowan!
(ANOTHER SCREAM FROM ABOVE. THEY RUN UPSTAIRS TO FIND ROWAN STANDING ON TOP OF AN OLD-FASHIONED WARDROBE. ROWAN IS VERY PROUD OF HERSELF. THERE IS NO FURNITURE NEAR THE WARDROBE AND NO CONCEIVABLE WAY SHE COULD HAVE SCALED THE HEIGHT HERSELF.)
TOM: (astonished): How the hell did she get up there?
ROWAN: I flied, Daddy!
SOPHIE: She flied, Daddy. She won't stop flying and she knows I want to play lions and tigers now.
(TOM STRETCHES TO HIS FULL HEIGHT TO LIFT ROWAN FROM THE WARDROBE. THE ROOM IS IN TOTAL CHAOS, TOYS AND PAPERS SCATTERED EVERYWHERE. AMONGST IT ALL ARE STRANGE RAINBOW-COLOURED CIRCLES THAT LOOK LIKE LARGE SMOOTH POPCORN. MELANIE IS STARING AT THEM CURIOUSLY AND PICKS SOME UP.)
MEL: Tom, this stuff, it's weird...(the circles turn to water in her hand. She picks up another handful and the same thing happens)
SOPHIE: We played coloured rain, Mummy. We sheltered in the spaceship and flew into space and had to fight off the Greenight People.
TOM (staring at Sophie in shock): The Greenight People...?
SOPHIE (nonchalantly peeling the wrapper off a bar of chocolate): They got into our spaceship and we had to leave it and fly back home by ourselves.
ROWAN: And I nearly felled but the lady catched me!
TOM (stooping down to his eldest daughter): Sophie, how do you know about the Greenight People?
SOPHIE: Katherine told us. (takes a bite of chocolate)
.
TOM: I recognise that chocolate...It's from Katherine, isn't it?
(SOPHIE NODS, HER MOUTH TOO FULL TO ANSWER. TOM WIPES BACK SUDDEN TEARS)
TOM: Mel, I think I remember who Katherine was...
*****
CHILDRENS PLAYGROUND. 1960s.
IT IS A COLD DAY AND THE CHILDREN ARE WEARING OUTDOOR CLOTHES. THE PLAYGROUND IS CROWDED, KIDS RUNNING AND PLAYING, BOYS PLAYING FOOTBALL AND GIRLS SKIPPING. THERE IS A HYPNOTIC CHANT TO THE SKIPPING GAME. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROPE, WEARING A TOO-LONG GREY WINTER COAT, IS A TALL THIN GIRL OF ABOUT FIFTEEN, HER BLACK HAIR, THE COAT AND THE COLD WEATHER COMBINING TO MAKE HER LOOK EXCEPTIONALLY PALE. KATHERINE.
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: No-one knew much about Katherine. She was creepy somehow, like even the teachers were scared of her. She always got what she wanted, like she didn't have any friends but all the kids were too scared to say no to her so if she wanted to play skipping or something she got to play skipping and she got to stay in the rope just as long as she wanted. Anyhows, it was just a day at school as usual. 'Cept it was soooo cold all the kids wore their coats and gloves when they went to play out.
Katherine, she had on this long grey coat that was so big for her it nearly touched the ground like it belonged to her Mum or something. Well, there was this kid and he thought Katherine looked stupid skipping in that big grey coat that smelled of mothballs and had torn pockets, and he started calling her names, then we all joined in, laughing and pointing. Katherine, she looked upset and started crying which made us laugh more, but we only meant as a joke. All of a sudden she jumped out the rope but she didn't see the patch of ice...
(KATHERINE FALLS BACKWARDS, BANGING HER HEAD AND LYING VERY STILL, HER EYES STARING UPWARDS. THE ROPE HAS STOPPED AND CHILDREN ARE SCREAMING. TEACHERS GATHER ROUND THE BODY AS THE DAY BECOMES SHROUDED IN A NOVEMBER FOG)
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: There was nothin' they could do. They sent us kids back inside the school cos of the fog and the ice and they tried to contact Katherine's Mum and Dad. But when they went to the house...
(AN OLD DERELICT BUILDING COVERED IN FOG. BROKEN WINDOWS AND IVY GROWING ON THE WALLS).
YOUNG BOY'S VOICEOVER: So they buried her on top of the hill next to the old haunted church with the wind howling round. But the next day one of the kids who'd been laughing at her was found dead in the lake. They said he drowned while swimming and it was an accident but nobody knew. People kept seeing Katherine's ghost and lots of scary stuff began happening that no one could explain. She wanted revenge...