Finding Audrey Read Online Free PDF Page A

(V.O.)
    And this is my mum and dad’s room . . .
    Camera focuses on a half-open door. From inside the room we hear a voice. This is MUM, Audrey’s mum. She is talking in a low, urgent voice which, nevertheless, we can hear.
    MUM (V.O)
    I was talking about it at book group and Caroline said, ‘Does he have a girlfriend?’ Well, he doesn’t! Is THAT the problem? If he had a girlfriend, maybe he’d be out more, instead of hunched over that screen. I mean, why DOESN’T he have a girlfriend?
    DAD (V.O.)
    I don’t know. Don’t look at me like that! It’s not my fault!
    AUDREY (V.O.)
    (sotto voce)
    This is my mum and dad. I think they’re talking about Frank.
    MUM (V.O.)
    Well, I’ve had an idea. We need to throw a party for him. Set him up with some pretty girls.
    DAD (V.O.)
    A PARTY? Are you serious?
    MUM (V.O.)
    Why not? It would be fun. We used to throw him some lovely parties.
    DAD (V.O.)
    When he was EIGHT. Anne, do you know what teenage parties are like? What if they knife each other and have sex on the trampoline?
    MUM (V.O.)
    They won’t! Will they? Oh God . . .
    The door closes slightly. The camera moves closer to pick up the sound.
    MUM (V.O.)
    Chris, have you given Frank a father-to-son talk?
    DAD (V.O.)
    No. Have you given him a mother-to-son talk?
    MUM (V.O.)
    I bought him a book. It had pictures of . . . you know.
    DAD (V.O.)
    (sounds interested)
    Did it? What kind of pictures?
    MUM (V.O.)
    You know.
    DAD (V.O.)
    I don’t.
    MUM (V.O.)
    (impatiently)
    Yes you do. You can imagine.
    DAD (V.O.)
    I don’t want to imagine. I want you to describe them to me, very slowly, in a French accent.
    MUM (V.O.)
    (half giggling, half cross)
    Chris, stop it!
    DAD (V.O.)
    Why should Frank have all the fun?
    The door opens and DAD comes out. He is a handsome man in his early forties, wearing a suit and holding a scuba-diving mask. He jumps as he sees the camera.
    DAD
    Audrey! What are you doing here?
    AUDREY (V.O.)
    I’m filming. You know, for my project.
    DAD
    Right. Right, of course.
    (calls warningly)
    Sweetheart, Audrey’s filming . . .
    Mum appears at the door, dressed in a skirt and bra. She claps her hands over her top half and shrieks when she sees the camera.
    DAD
    That’s what I meant when I said, ‘Audrey’s filming.’
    MUM
    (flustered)
    Oh, I see.
    She grabs a dressing gown from the door hook and wraps it around her top half.
    MUM
    Well, bravo, darling. Here’s to a great film. Maybe warn us next time you’re filming?
    (glances at Dad and clears her throat)
    We were just discussing the . . . er . . . crisis in . . . the Middle East.
    DAD
    (nods)
    The Middle East.
    Both parents look uncertainly at the camera.

OK, so, the backstory. You’ll want to know that, I suppose.
Previously, in Audrey Turner’s life
 . . .
    Except, Jeez. I can’t go into it all again. Sorry, I just can’t. I’ve sat in enough rooms with teachers, doctors, regurgitating the same story, using the same words, till it starts to feel like something that happened to someone else.
    Everyone involved has started to feel unreal. All the girls at Stokeland Girls’ School; Miss Amerson, our head teacher, who said I was deluded and seeking attention. (Attention. Irony God, are you listening?)
    No one ever quite found out why. I mean, we sort of found out why, but not
why
.
    There was a big scandal, yadda yadda. Three girls were excluded, which is a record. My parents took me out of Stokeland instantly, and I’ve been at home ever since. Well, and hospital, which I told you about already. The idea is that I ‘start again’ at the Heath Academy. Only to ‘start again’ you need to be able to ‘get out of the house’, which is where I have a teeny problem.
    It’s not the outside
per se
. It’s not trees or air or sky. It’s the people. I mean, not
all
people. Probably not you; you’d be fine. I have my comfort people – people I can talk to and laugh with and feel relaxed with. It’s just, they make up