by Daragh Carville
excerpt from the play This Other City
Setting: a hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Time: present, night
Character: PATRICK HUNTER — age 40, well groomed, good suit
PATRICK
I’m a good man.
You have to know that, first of all, first and foremost, you have to understand that. I mean, I want you to know. This isn’t—me.
Well, I mean, it is, I know that. But.
Look, I have a family. Let me tell you about my family. See, I have a daughter. Wee girl of my own. Orla. Well, I say wee girl. She’s actually, I mean she’s actually fifteen now. It’s … But she’s, she’s such a great kid. I mean, I know all parents … But she is. She just is. She’s smart, she’s funny, she does well at school. She’s—amazing. Sometimes I look at her and I just feel so much—I mean, this is embarrassing, but it’s like I just feel so much love, it’s like I can’t breathe. And she’ll catch me looking at her and she’ll just smile. Her smile. And the way she smells. The top of her head. When she was wee.
And I’m a good man. Good father. I know I have to protect her. I mean, I know she’s growing up and she’s going to have to make her own way in the world, and the day will come when she has to go out there and, and stand on her own two feet. Out in the big bad world and. But I can’t help it. It’s like, that’s my job. Y’know? I’m her dad and I have to protect her. From everything that’s bad in the world. From all the bad people. Cos I know, I know what it’s like out there. Believe you me. I’ve seen it all. The works.
Do you understand? Cos maybe your English …
It’s just, I’m trying to explain this. Not because I have to, you understand. Because I want to.
I’m a good man. You understand me? I’m a good man.
Now come here. Come over here.
Because I want to fuck you in the skull.
copyright © 2009 Daragh Carville. All rights reserved.
___________________________________________
Daragh Carville is an award-winning Northern Irish playwright and screenwriter. His plays Language Roullette, Observatory, Family Plot, and This Other City have been produced in Ireland, Britain, Europe, and the U.S. His latest movie, Cherrybomb, was released in the U.K. in April 2010.
"I am the best judge of all things." Which is why Mr. Bexindale-Webb (knighthood pending) had appointed himself the review's Editor-in-Chief – and has been thus for the past 147 years. He is the brainchild behind The Good Ear Review and without him many urchins would be acquiring their Chimney Maintenance Certification instead of fetching his house slippers and proofing complex sentences.
