Taking care of baby - Dennis Kelly

Lynn bursts on, clutching a sheet of paper, followed by Jim.

LYNN: DONNA? DONNA?
JIM: I can’t believe this, this is
LYNN: DONNA!
JIM: I mean this is really
LYNN: DONNA!
JIM: this is fantastic, Lynn
LYNN: it’s early days yet, Jim, so
JIM: Oh it’s early days, yeah, yeah,
LYNN: so we shouldn’t get too excited
JIM: Oh yeah, it’s early days yet and we shouldn’t get too excited but this is fantasti –
This is brilliant!
LYNN: Well, it’s good
JIM: You deserve this.
LYNN: I wouldn’t say brilliant
JIM: you deserve
LYNN: not brilliant, not yet
JIM: This is an endorsement.
LYNN: Is it?
Donna enters.
JIM: Of course it is.
DONNA: Hello Jim.
JIM: Donna, your mum’s third!
DONNA: What?
LYNN: I’m third, Donna, look, I’m third in the
DONNA: Third?
JIM: She’s third, she’s third, she’s third place in the, third –
LYNN: Calm down, Jim.
JIM: Sorry. Sorry. It’s an endorsement, Donna.
DONNA: Is it?
LYNN: Well, it’s good, it’s a good
JIM: It’s an endorsement, Lynn! It’s a mandate. I mean it’s early days but –
LYNN: It’s not a mandate it’s good, it’s, it’s the first poll, Donna, I’m in third place.
JIM: I mean we’ve only just started!
DONNA: You’re third...?
LYNN: I’m above the Tories.
DONNA: Are you?
JIM: What, two hundred, three hundred doors we’ve knocked on and you’re already
in third? That’s gonna scare them!
LYNN: Don’t count your chickens before they’re
DONNA: Ahhh Mum, that’s great!
LYNN: Well... No, it is good. Isn’t it?
JIM: It’s fantastic, Lynn!
LYNN: I mean I am quite pleased with
JIM: It’s brilliant, I mean we haven’t even started, this is, this is
DONNA: Oh, Mum! This is brilliant!
LYNN: Okay, okay, let’s not get, because all I wanted to do is give them a run for
their money and –
Donna hugs her mother. Lynn hugs back. Jim laughs.
JIM: Champagne! Champagne all round! Well, tea at least.
The hug still goes on, intimate. Frozen, gripping each other. There might be
tears. Jim stands there. (Singing.) We are the champions... He laughs. They are
still hugging. He stands there, not quite knowing what to do.
LYNN: Come on you, silly...
Lynn breaks the hug. Though she pretends she isn't, she is crying as well.
all that, don’t, you’ll get me, you’ll get me going with all the...
JIM: This is great. Great.
LYNN: It’s only third so They are all smiling. They can’t help it.
JIM: This is the community saying we accept you.
LYNN: No, I don’t think – D’you think?
JIM: ‘We accept you, Lynn!’
Pause.
‘And Donna’
DONNA: well...
LYNN: I think people are just sick of the Labour Party...
JIM: Of course they are, they’re sick of the lies, they want you Lynn!
LYNN: Oh, Jim, don’t be so, he can be so
JIM: ‘Honest Lynn!’
LYNN: Oh, stop!
DONNA: It is good, Mum.
LYNN: Yes. Yes it is.
Beat.
I’m gonna get out a bottle of wine.
JIM: Here we go!
LYNN: And you behave yourself!
JIM: Not changing the habits of a lifetime!
They laugh, Jim the most. Lynn goes. Silence between Donna and Jim.
This is good
DONNA: Oh, it’s really, really
JIM: news, it’s such
DONNA: it is, isn’t it?
JIM: Oh it really is. It really…
DONNA: Brilliant.
JIM: Great.
DONNA: Yeah.
JIM: Yes. Great.
Silence for ten seconds.
You, you, you doing, are you doing, you alright, you doing okay, you doing
DONNA: Yes.
JIM: Alright then, Donna?
DONNA: Yep.
JIM: Great, things, things good?
DONNA: Yeah, yeah, you know.
JIM: Good. Good.
Beat.
Good.
DONNA: Yes.
Silence for fifteen seconds. Donna turns to Jim, opening her mouth to speak.
Lynn enters with a bottle of wine.
LYNN: Vino...
JIM: Vino, hooray!
DONNA: Fantastic, hooray, yes!
JIM: Fantastic! In vino veritas!
LYNN: It’s not much, it’s just
DONNA: Wine, wine!
JIM: Hail the conquering hero!
LYNN: Stop, you silly...
JIM: Third place and this is just the first poll, I mean I’m not counting chickens but
this is, this is...
DONNA: Let’s get drunk.
LYNN: Let’s not get drunk!
JIM: Let’s get drunk!
LYNN: Tell you what: let’s get drunk