Max has killed someone with his car, but wasn’t driving. What follows is a downward spiral as we watch the visceral relationships of characters implode from the prints they leave intentionally and accidentally.
Lights up on scene.
It’s morning, a warm wash.
Esther is sitting on the counter, watching over Max on the ground.
The sound of static.
ESTHER: I always wondered about death. Thought about it, like not in a macabre way. I’m not depressed or anything – it’s just so fascinating! Like, the thought of it – your body – it just breaks down, cell-by-cell until you disappear, flaking away.
Not your fingerprints though – they stay. They’re the last to go if they ever do. First to come, last to leave – sounds like an annoying party guest.
Esther drops a pot on the ground
Max wakes.
When he realises where he is, he’s confused, uncomfortable.
ESTHER: What always struck me though was about what happened after we left. People don’t just…forget you. You still linger like some smell in the air.
It takes him a moment to notice there is blood on his hand. There’s some on his shirt.
Silence.
She watches him as she continues to talk.
ESTHER: Not really. They grieve and think about you and keep your things and do all sorts of sad things just to cling onto you a little longer. How do we make someone feel so much towards us? I think…I think it has to do with the ideas. They don’t miss us – not really. They miss the images they created of us.
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I always wondered what it’d be like to clean out someone’s room after they died. All their things left as they were last used – or forgotten. Are those things we leave behind that makes them love us? The little, forgotten things.
He stands slowly, looking around. He moves to the window, lighting a cigarette and smoking it. He looks out the window.
ESTHER: Who would miss someone with bad breath in the morning and freckly skin though? Why would you miss someone you constantly fought with? You, they, wouldn’t.
He opens the door.
His cat is dead, covered in blood.
ESTHER: They miss this idea of someone who watched movies with them, the one they laughed with. They block out the memory of being mad that they were forced to watch the movie, and they wanted to see something else. They forget the little things.
Max slowly walks back into the room.
He pauses, seeing Esther.
MAX: You. You can’t –
Flash of light off.
Flash back on.
Max is alone in the kitchen.
MAX: SAMMI! OLLIE!
Max stands in the kitchen, looking down at the blood.
He stumbles into his bedroom.
He walks past his TV, pacing in front of it for a moment before turning it on.
SAMMI, OLLIE and ESTHER walk into the room, standing around in different places.
Lighting change.
SAMMI: It was early Sunday morning that Miss White’s body was found. A truck saw suspicious items of clothing strewn across the roadside.
OLLIE: Upon investigating, Miss White was uncovered in the bushes to the side of the road. She had already passed away from a severe head injury and blood loss.
OLLIE: She was a year out from finishing her degree.
SAMMI: Very talented. Such a waste. Apparently a quiet girl who excelled at everything she tried and was loved by many.
ESTHER: Her family held a private vigil last night. Pink teddy bears have been placed where Esther was discovered.
SAMMI: Friends and fellow students have come out saying she was a ‘bright’ girl and friends with everyone. She excelled in sports.
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OLLIE: She was able to make anyone smile. Friends have stated she was ‘a force to be reckoned with in art’
ESTHER: She was top of the class. She loved studying and doing the best she coud. An ‘all-rounder’ her father stated in a tearful interview last night.
SAMMI: An ‘all rounder’ who had been planning a trip to Italy where she was applying for a scholarship.
OLLIE: So much potential wasted.
SAMMI: A life wasted.
ESTHER: A life taken too soon. Back to you in the studio.
Max sits at the foot of his bed, his hands on his ears.
MAX: Ollie? Sam!?
SAMMI and OLLIE leave the room.
ESTHER remains, and goes to sit by MAX at the foot of his bed.
ESTHER: You shouldn’t watch it.
MAX: I’m so –
ESTHER: Sorry? Don’t bother. (a beat) You should get your shirt cleaned up.
MAX: I think I did something bad.
ESTHER: Well –
A beat.
MAX: God, does it feel weird hearing about yourself like that?
ESTHER: In past tense? At first it’s actually kind of funny, then it’s just sad. I don’t know half the people they interviewed.
MAX: What were you doing on the road?
ESTHER stands and begins to pretend to walk a tightrope.
ESTHER: Walking.
MAX: At three am?
ESTHER: So?
MAX: I didn’t see you.
ESTHER: Obviously.
MAX: I don’t even remember it happening. Too many things, they don’t add up.
ESTHER: You’re sitting in your bedroom covered in blood and talking to me. I’m no psychic but I’m pretty sure on paper I’m legally deceased. There seems to be a reoccurring thread.
MAX: I didn’t do it.
ESTHER: You should clean your shirt.
Chloé Eckert, Flinders creative arts student and winner of the State Theatre Company’s 2012 Young Playwright Award, and Flinders first-year Bachelor of Arts student Hannah Fallowfield will present a reading of their new play (finger)prints at 7pm, this Saturday 19 October,at the Goodwood Institute. Admission: $5
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