Humble Boy Read Online Free Page B

slowly he places it round his neck. The humming increases to a terrible pitch. He pulls the hose tight. He feels what this feels like. Time passes.
    SCENE THREE
    Mid-July.
    Jim comes on. He is carrying a tray of seedlings and some compost, and a trowel. He proceeds during the scene to plant the seedlings in pots. He is whistling ‘Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree’. He looks at Felix. Felix sees him. He is embarrassed. The humming stops. Felix looses the hose from around his neck.
    Felix    I’m sorry … I was just – I was experimenting …
    Pause.
    I often use a garden hose. As an analogy, I mean.
    Jim    Oh yes?
    Felix    Yes. Yes. With superstring theory there need to be six or seven extra dimensions. We can’t see them but it’s like with a garden hose. If you stretch it out between two posts in a field and then you walk half a mile away and look back, it just looks like a one-dimensional line.
    Jim    I’ll take that off you, shall I? ( Jim takes the hose off him and starts to wind it up again. )
    Felix    Yes. Yes. But if you look at the hose through binoculars, if you magnify it, a second dimension – one that is in the shape of a circle curled round the hose – becomes visible. So in the same way there could be extra dimensions in space but you can’t see them because they’re small and curled up, furled around one another. You see?
    Jim    Mmm … Well. Knowing my luck, they’ll ban them soon anyway.
    Felix    What?
    Jim    Hosepipes. Last time we had a summer like this, by this time in July there was all sorts of rules.
    Felix    Yes.
    Jim    I know lots of people ignore a ban, but I’m not like that. I watched all the plants flounder. And then I go next door but one and they’ve got a symphony of sprinklers going off. Drowning the plants, they were. I wanted to report them.
    Felix    Garden rage.
    Jim    But then their plants got blight and died anyway. What goes around comes around.
    Pause.
    Felix    I haven’t seen any of the bees yet.
    Jim    The drones will be out and about soon. Buzzing round the queen. Seven or eight of them joining the mile-high club. Then after they’ve done their bit she flies away with their torn-off genitals still attached to her. That’s women’s lib for you.
    Felix smiles.
    Felix    I’d like to see them. Before I go. I’d feel better, I think.
    Jim    You will.
    Felix    I just can’t seem to – I can’t seem to ask the right questions … I need to make a decision about what I should do next.
    Jim    You want to stop asking all the questions.
    Felix    But it’s so hard – with my work, I must question everything. I must –
    Jim stops what he’s doing. He looks at Felix.
    Jim    Felix, you know, bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly. Aerodynamically they’re too big, their wings are set up all wrong. They don’t obey the laws of physics. But they fly anyway.
    Mercy comes out into the garden. She looks around, although she does not address Jim directly.
    Mercy    Doesn’t the garden look lovely?
    Jim looks at Mercy. She smiles but does not look at him.
    Jim    Thank you.
    Then he works on in the garden unheeded. Felix glances at him from time to time but he is absorbed in his work.
    Mercy    Such a beautiful day. I can’t remember a summer like it. Mind you, I wish it would rain … Now I just popped round with those clothes for you. Jean says she doesn’t want any money for them. I’ve put the bag in your room. But you know I don’t think the jacket will fit you, dear. Unless you like a very snug fit.
    Felix    It’ll be fine, Mercy, thank you.
    Mercy    Because we’ve just had another