Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones Page A

words. You know them. You’ve always known them.
    Felix    ( with difficulty ) The night we watched the moon-landings together, Dad cried. And in that moment, he made me want to fly. He held my hand and he gave me the courage to defy physics and fly anyway. The day that a man landed on the moon Dad cried. And the day he died the sun cried bees. The sun cried bees. ( He takes the lid off the pot. ) I release my father to space. To the limitless quiet of space. To fly in unending silence. Through a black hole. Past the event horizon. To the state of singularity. Dust to immortal dust. And out and on and beyond. To a new universe. A parallel world.
    Flora    A better place.
    Felix    The land of milk and honey.
    Felix scatters the ashes. They watch them settle in silence.
    There.
    Flora    Yes.
    An awkward moment between them.
    Will you still be going back –?
    Felix    In a little while.
    Flora    It’s getting dark, maybe you should set off in the morning, when it’s light. And you’ve eaten next to nothing –
    Felix    ( a hint of irritation ) Mother.
    Flora looks at Felix, perhaps she touches him lightly but unsentimentally.
    Flora    Well. ( She goes to go in. ) Don’t expect me to wave you off.
    He smiles. The sound of a bee humming somewhere in the distance.
    Felix    Let b–b–b–be.
    Flora smiles and exits. He is left alone in the garden in the failing light. Felix pauses, swallows and smiles.
    Let be.
    Lights fade.

by the same author
    IN FLAME
    MARTHA, JOSIE AND THE CHINESE ELVIS

Humble Boy
    Charlotte Jones’ first play, Airswimming, was premièred at the Battersea Arts Centre, London and later broadcast on Radio 4. In Flame was premièred in January 1999 at the Bush Theatre, London, and revived at the New Ambassadors, London, in September 2000. Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis premièred at the Bolton Octagon in April 1999 and transferred to the Liverpool Everyman in May of that year. It won the Manchester Evening News Best Play Award and the Pearson Television Best Play Award of 1999. It was recently revived at the Watford Palace Theatre. Charlotte Jones won the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2000 for In Flame and Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis. Humble Boy was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2001, the Critics’ Circle Best New Play Award, 2002, and the People’s Choice Best New Play Award, 2002.

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    Copyright © 2001 by Charlotte Jones
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    Originally published in 2001 by Faber and Faber Ltd, Great Britain
    Published in the United States by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    First American edition, 2003
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    eISBN 9781466891111
    First eBook edition: January 2015