…continuing on from HONEY # 7…
DANIEL drives. JASPER, in her school uniform, sits in the passenger
seat, deep in thought.
JASPER
Dad?
DANIEL
Mmmm…
JASPER
What’s the difference between a secret and a lie?
DANIEL looks at JASPER, shakes his head, smiles.
DANIEL
Bit too complicated a question for this early in the day, Jas.
JASPER looks at him. She wants an answer. DANIEL looks away.
DANIEL
Wanna go fishing this arvo?
JASPER does not answer but looks out the window, thinking.
DANIEL
Jas?
JASPER
I might be a child but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid.
186 EXT. BACK YARD. GRANNY FLAT. DAY
HONEY walks our the back door, stopping when she sees:
HELEN inside the granny flat, painting a wall. The bed and furniture
have been covered in old sheets.
187 INT. GRANNY FLAT. DAY
HONEY walks up, stands in the doorway. HELEN turns, smiles, her face
flecked with paint.
LATER
HONEY, dressed in old clothes, paints alongside HELEN.
HELEN
I wrote lots of poetry when I was your age.
HONEY
I’d love to read it.
HELEN
I burnt it all.
HONEY
Burnt! Why?
HELEN
Because it was crap.
HONEY
Do you think my poetry is crap? (A BEAT) You can tell me the truth.
HELEN
The truth! What’s the truth? We’re born, we get old, we die! (A BEAT)
No, your poetry is…is…is you.
HONEY smiles.
HELEN
Does anyone really want to know the truth?
HONEY
Beautiful lies beat ugly truths any day, eh?
HELEN laughs, looks at HONEY - intrigued and puzzled.
HELEN
Beautiful lies?
HONEY
You know…the story you tell yourself… about your life.
HELEN
I’d like to be able to rewrite some bits of mine.
HONEY
Which bits?
HELEN shakes her head.
HELEN
You have your secrets, I have mine.
HONEY laughs.
HONEY
What if I guessed one of your secrets?
HONEY smiles.
188 INT. DINING ROOM. DAY
CLOSE ON the page in one of Helen’s photo albums that includes the
photo of Jasper with the violin tucked into her neck.
HONEY (voice off)
You at Jasper’s age, right?
HELEN nods. HONEY slips the photo out of the album, hands it to HELEN.
She takes it reluctantly, looks at it wistfully.
HONEY opens another album, takes out a photo of Helen in her late
teens, formally dressed, her violin at her side, smiling proudly – a
formally dressed orchestra behind her.
HELEN shakes her head. HONEY smiles, stands, takes HELEN’S hand, leads
her out of the room.
189 INT. DANIEL AND HELEN’S BEDROOM. DAY
HONEY leads a HELEN into the bedroom.
HONEY
Sit.
HELEN sits on the bed, watches HONEY walk to the closet, disappear
from view for a moment, walk out with the red suitcase. Her face
reveals a mixture of emotions – trepidation being the most dominant.
HELEN
Did Daniel tell you?
HONEY shakes her head, places the suitcase beside HELEN.
HELEN
How’d you know?
HONEY
I’m psychic. (A BEAT) Psycho and psychic.
HELEN smiles, watches HONEY open the suitcase, take out sheathes of
sheet music to reveal a battered violin case. HONEY opens it, lifts
out an old violin. It has only one intact string. The others are
broken. HONEY hands the violin to HELEN. She plucks the one string. It
emits an off-key note.
HELEN
Mum bought this for me when I was six…
HELEN looks at the violin lovingly.
HELEN
How did you… (know where I kept it?)
HONEY shrugs.
HELEN
Did Daniel tell you?
HONEY shakes her head, looks away; evasive.
HELEN
How? (A BEAT) Honey!
HONEY
I promised I wouldn’t say…
HELEN
Promised who?
HONEY
You promise you won’t tell if I tell you?
HELEN
Promise.
HONEY
Jasper.
HELEN
Jasper!
HONEY (nods)
“Mum keeps her dreams hidden in a red suitcase.” (A BEAT) That’s what
she said. (A BEAT) You won’t tell her I told you, will you?
HELEN shakes her head.
HELEN
It all happens so fast…one minute you’re a little girl with big
dreams…next thing you know you’re falling in love, having babies…and
you look in the rear vision mirror and see all this stuff falling off
the back of the truck…good stuff, bad stuff…so you stop looking in the
mirror and…(A BEAT)…forget your dreams…
189 INT/EXT VARIOUS. MONTAGE. DAY/NIGHT
- HONEY sits in class in her school uniform, listening attentively.
JASPER (voice over)
That was the beginning of the ‘honeymoon’…
The TEACHER asks a question. HONEY’S arm shoots up.
JASPER (voice over)
That’s what Rebecca called it…
- HONEY teaches HELEN to cast a rod from the rocks HELEN, all thumbs,
laughs at her lack of fishing skills.
JASPER (voice over)
She said it wouldn’t last…
JASPER and DANIEL, fishing nearby, look on and laugh.
JASPER (voice over)
…but I didn’t believe her. Nor did mum and dad.
- REBECCA, in her office talking with DANIEL and HELEN, shrugs, shakes
her head, holds up her hands: “Beat’s me!”
JASPER (voice over)
Rebecca couldn’t find any trace of Honey’s family…
HONEY, JASPER, DANIEL and HELEN sit at the table in the dining room.
JASPER (voice over)
…and Honey was not going to help with any clues.
HONEY laughs, shakes her head, as HELEN, jug of crepe mix in hand,
prepares to pour it into the flambé pan.
JASPER (voice over)
I figured…we figured…it was because she didn’t want to go home.
HONEY picks a packet of long stem matches up from the table.
JASPER (voice over)
And I didn’t want her to go home.
HELEN picks up a bottle of Crème de Menthe.
JASPER (voice over)
I liked having a sister – even if she was a bit weird sometimes.
HONEY watches HELEN’S movements with a ‘strange’ intensity.
JASPER (voice over)
But as long as she took her medication…
HONEY takes a long-stemmed match from the box.
DANIEL
Have you taken your pills?
HONEY
Yes dad!
HELEN laughs, splashes a liquor into the flambé dish. HONEY strikes a
match, hands it to HELEN, who lights the liquor in the pan.
HONEY is mesmerized by the flames.
- JASPER and HONEY in bed together.
JASPER (voice over)
Honey taught me to think about things in a different way.
HONEY
Happiness is just a station along the way, ay!
JASPER
On the way where?
HONEY
To your destination.
JASPER
And what’s the destination?
HONEY
To sing with the angels.
JASPER thinks about this for a long moment.
JASPER
So its OK to be unhappy?
HONEY
Not okay, Jas. Just the way it is. A station along the way.
JASPER listens, wide-eyed, snuggles closer to HONEY
HONEY
One of heaps of stations and you’ve got to stop at them all.
HELEN appears in the doorway, taps her watch.
HONEY kisses JASPER on the cheek, leaps out of bed, kisses HELEN
quickly on the cheek as she walks out the door.
190 INT. KITCHEN AREA. DANIEL’S STUDIO. DAY
HONEY, in her school uniform, an iPod at her hip, fills an electric
jug with water, turns it on. As she waits for it to boil she takes a
vial of pills from the backpack at her feet, unscrews the cap, tips
two into her hand, looks at them.
191 INT. TOILET. DAY
HONEY tosses the pills in her hand into the toilet; upends the rest of
the vial into the toilet; flushes it.
...to be continued...
...
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