Agnes and Bim
Agnes and Bim :: 9
Here is the final installment of Agnes and Jim. I've been away re-opening my adaptation of Moll Flanders, which is why I have not written for a week. Rehearsals were great and our opening week at the Winchester Theatre Royal was fantastic - totally sold out and a rapturous reception. I'm finally pleased with show so, if anyone fancies it, you can get to see the production on tour - tour dates are here http://www.kaostheatre.com/molldates3.php. It's a very funny, filthy and ultimately touching piece.
I'll have some more of the Jimmy story sometime this week.
Agnes and Bim
32
Bim is woken by the doorbell ringing. It rings a couple more times.
He looks at his mum. Her breathing is very weak. He takes hold of her hand.
The doorbell rings again.
He ignores it.
33
Later. Agnes is asleep. Bim is on the phone.
"Hi, Mrs. Johnson. Yeah, I know it's late. I just needed someone to talk to that's all. Is that alright? It's mi mum. She's not well."
He listens to Mrs Johnson.
"I'm with her now."
Her voice is concerned for him, "are you coping alright?
"I reckon. I could do some company is all. She don't look so good. Won't be long. It's better this way, her being with me.
She asks him what his mum looks like.
"Her eyes are like puckered up plum sockets, kissed by the Reaper."
Mrs Johnson has a warm voice all the way down the other end of the line. She says she knows a Grim Reaper, that he comes round ever now and then. He's a client.
"Well, he lives in a room next ta me," he says.
Mrs Johnson asks about his mother's breathing.
"Her breathing? Kind a slow. She's got a rasp."
"A rasp?"
"Yeah, she's breathing like a ghost."
"A ghost?"
"Yeah, she might haunt me. I think that would be nice."
Mrs Johnson knows all about that because her own mother is a ghost.
"Your mum haunts you? And what's that like?... A pain in the ass?"
He laughs.
He listens some more and starts laughing. He starts to get an uncontrollable fit of the giggles.
"Stop it, I'm sitting right next to her."
He can't stop himself from laughing so he hides his face from his mother.
34
An hour or so later Bim is holding his mother's hand.
35
Bim is in the kitchen. It's the middle of the night.
36
It is early morning. Bim is in Agnes' room looking out of the window.
A flock of birds fly over head, they can see Frank working in his garden, the street, an old car pull away, a main road jammed with traffic. Streets slowly dissolve into countryside to coastline to sea.
Bim looks round to his mum.
37
Later that morning Bim is sitting beside Agnes' bed, holding her hand. The doorbell goes. He doesn't move. It goes again.
"Don't worry Mum," he says, "it can't be that important."
38
Bim is still sitting beside Agnes' bed in his wheelchair. Her breathing is very weak. Her eyes are shut. Bim is holding her hand.
"There ya go mum. You just breathe. Nice an slow, don't rush, there's no need."
He looks at his mother. Her breathing is long and slow and heavy.
"You want I should call the doctor?.. No... no, I won't leave ya."
"Hey? No, you just takes your time. Don’t worry about me, I'm fine here."
"Would ya like me to... to hold ya? Is that what ya wants?"
He gets up onto the bed and cradles her.
"There you go mum. There's no need to be afraid, no need at all. Did Dad hold you like this? Yeah, I spects he did. Held ya close. Bet there was nothing like it, not a thing."
"Yeah?... I thought so. I bet it was beautiful."
He can feel that she is beginning to go.
"Go on then Mum. Go on. I loves ya more... more than... Oh, I don't know really... I just does, that's all... I just does."
She dies by relaxing into him, a gentle letting go through a nuzzle.
He continues to hold her and after a short while he falls asleep.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.