JESSICA: You already are.
SIMON: No. No Jess.
I’m not.
JESSICA: You are!
And more than that my love.
A worthy father-to-be.
SIMON: Not now Jess. /
JESSICA: I rushed there to the courts to tell you something.
SIMON:—
JESSICA: As soon as the test came through.
SIMON: But you’re on the pill!
JESSICA: I must have missed a few days.
SIMON:—
JESSICA: You’re happy aren’t you, for us?
A baby!
SIMON: But we said not yet.
JESSICA: What are you saying?
I’m not getting rid of it!
SIMON: We’re not ready.
JESSICA: I am.
Simon, tell me you’re happy about this.
Beat.
SIMON: [very, very unsure] Yes, yes.
Yes of course I am.
JESSICA: I knew you would be when it happened.
She embraces a stunned SIMON.
The door is banged loudly.
CAMILLE: Simon, Jess, it’s Camille.
The search party.
They found something.
A shoe belonging to the Pritchard child.
It’s in our patch.
The police are all over it.
Searching.
Matt wants our team there
You have to come in to work.
With me.
Now.
SIMON grabs his forestry coat at the door and leaves.
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
SCENE ONE
Very late, after the search.
CAMILLE and SIMON drinking beer.
They drinking outside in the bush near their work headquarters.
CAMILLE is slightly drunk.
Their shift is over.
It’s hot.
CAMILLE: I should feel more.
SIMON: Sometimes it’s easier not to… /
CAMILLE: Do you feel more, or can you block it out?
SIMON: It’s been a shit night.
CAMILLE: All that searching and nothing else.
Not another sign of him.
Where the fuck is he?
It was our patch Simon, yours and mine.
Makes me shudder.
SIMON: You should be home.
CAMILLE: No.
Definitely not.
Not the answer.
SIMON: Truth is you should go, Camille.
CAMILLE: The truth.
Who wants the damn truth?
SIMON: Come on.
I’ll drive you.
CAMILLE: Me.
That’s who wants it.
Without the truth, what are we Simon?
Simon? What are we? Go on then, what?
SIMON: I don’t know.
We’re all just trying to get by.
CAMILLE: I don’t believe you.
You don’t believe that.
SIMON: Let’s go.
CAMILLE: Without the truth we’re just animals.
Like the prick who lured the boy out here.
That’s what we are. /
SIMON: No. /
CAMILLE: Just lying stinking animals.
All of us. /
SIMON: You’re drunk. /
CAMILLE: Aren’t we? Aren’t we all? /
You, even you. Aren’t we?
SIMON: Okay yes.
Without the truth we are just lying stinking animals
You happy?
CAMILLE: Yes.
You bastard.
CAMILLE laughs.
He reaches out to throw his arm around her, an act of drunken camaraderie.
So now you want to fuck me?
SIMON: No. Of course not. /
CAMILLE: Because that would be a nice twist wouldn’t it?
My husband is trying to fuck your wife and you’re trying to fuck me.
Beat.