From Merthyr they are.
We helped them, after, to carry their kit
back up to the train in the Vale.
I got to carry the guitar.
He kissed me for it! The guitarist.
Just on the cheek, but, well,
I think Will Davies saw, got a bit jealous.
It’s Amen Corner tomorrow,
according to Sue,
playing down the Queen’s café.
She said Will’s planning to go, so yeah,
I’ll be going to that one too.
She looks out the window at the mist.
Wish this bloody mist would burn off soon.
Least it’s stopped raining I suppose.
Old women and sticks it was last night,
streaming black all down the gwlies.
She turns back to the mirror.
But we were used to that, see?
The colour of coal in our water, our river.
Was all we’d ever known.
Those tips were just there,
part of home.
So no, we didn’t see
any wrong in that rain.
The DAVIES family are sitting round the table for breakfast.
Jim Reeves’ ‘Distant Drums’ plays on the radio.
MYFANWY
Where in Troedyrhiw?
WILL
The Boys’ Club. Jeff’s going too.
DAI
The Bystanders? Never heard of them
WILL
Yes you have. Merthyr boys.
They played the Democratic Social?
DAI
Oh, yeah. Not my cup of tea.
MYFANWY
What time?
WILL
Starts at eight.
MYFANWY
Home by nine?
WILL
Nine!
DAI
What about training?
WILL
Eddie says we’ll be done by seven.
Howard’s in after that.
MYFANWY
Eddie! The Merthyr Marvel!
You know he used to deliver our coal?
WILL
You always say that!
Doesn’t take away his European title,
that’s still a fact.
MYFANWY starts clearing the plates.
She kisses each of her men on the top of their heads.
MYFANWY
Right, come on you two.
Will, you’d better get ready,
and Tomos – time for school.
And you, off to bed. I’ll wake you for lunch.
MYFANWY is left on her own.
MYFANWY
I reckon there’s a girl at that gig.
I could be wrong, just a hunch.
But never seen Will so keen.
Should be thankful I suppose –
that it’s only the Boys’ Club,
and not down in Merthyr.
Become like a Mecca, that place,
a jam pot for the wasps.
Every other door a pub,
and the dance halls going full swing.
The Palace, the Kirkhouse …
IRENE is in her kitchen, also clearing away, washing up.
IRENE
Like we didn’t do the same!
Remember that summer ’Fan?
Heading down Barry
with the small coal charabanc?
MYFANWY
All right, fair dos. Just saying.
Teenagers today, I don’t know, it’s not the same.
Those charabancs though,
they haven’t changed.
Six or seven buses, all in convoy.
The kids, playing on the beach.
Half their fathers up the shops, putting on bets.
Then the long drive back,
with Tomos on me, asleep,
the smell of the sea in his hair,
the grit of the sand in his toes.
Yeah, he still loves going on those,
all the kids do. I mean, it’s the ocean –
got to beat swimming down the Taff,
or like we used to,
in the streams under the tips,
hasn’t it?
BETTY, SUZY’S mother, is getting SUZY ready for school.
BETTY
Not that here isn’t a good place for them.
Loads to do! Always out on the street,
or up the mountain. That’s a playground in itself.
IRENE
Anne loves going up there to play hide and seek.
MYFANWY
And Tomos. Sits on cardboard to slide down the tips.
BETTY
We could do without those, granted.
But they’re as old as the village, aren’t they?
MYFANWY
And the cost to remove them, well,
they reckon it would close the pit,
that’s what the N.C.B. said.
IRENE
Plenty else for them down here anyway.
BETTY
The Boys’ Club cross country – they’re doing well,
beat the British champions just last Saturday.
MYFANWY
And we do all right too, don’t we?
Got our own dance hall in the Welfare.
CATRIN, ROB’S mother, is seeing ROB off to school.
CATRIN
When it isn’t flooded.
IRENE
And the cinema above it.
CATRIN
Cast a Giant Shadow showing this week.
BETTY
All the clubs – and not just for the men.
IRENE
The United Sisterhood, the Darby and Joan –
All four MOTHERS appear with other women
in a line-up for a club photo.
They speak from within the group.
MYFANWY
– and the Women’s League,
that’s mine.
IRENE
So, yeah, a good place to be, Aberfan.
And even more so now, with work in the town.
CATRIN
I know gas is pushing a decline
but my mam, she remembers the strike.
Used to tell me, how she’d spread on butter
with two runs of the knife,
once to put it on, then back to take it off again.
MYFANWY
So yes, not a bad place, and not a bad time.
Can’t complain.
All the women smile.
A flash as the photo is taken –
MYFANWY is back in her kitchen.
TOMOS comes down the stairs with his schoolbag
and leaves through the front door.
TOMOS
Bye Mam.
MYFANWY
Bye, love.
She turns from the door, her voice old again.
MYFANWY
And that’s how they went.
Out a hundred doors for their last days.
And that’s how we said our last goodbyes,
with all the luxury of easy time.
But it was already draining,
running out like sand in the glass,
like that pile of tailings and shale,
already moving, pressed to a shifting
under the weight of its own black hand.
Restless with rain, storm water.
And under it, on their way to school,
my son.
IRENE is in her kitchen, alone.
IRENE
My daughter.
MYFANWY looks back at the shut front door.
MYFANWY
Bye.
Love.
TOMOS is walking to school.
TOMOS
I used to walk to school with my mam,
but I go alone now.
Well, not alone, but with my friends,
Robert and Dan.
DAN is walking to school from another direction.
DAN
It’s my birthday soon,
the week after we’re back.
Mam’s said I can have a party,
if I keep on track.
TOMOS
Dan’s cousins have got a farm, up the mountain.
Llewellyn and Islwyn.
They let us go and play up there.
DAN
Making swings from the ropes in the yard,
picking apples from off the Plantation.
Got to be careful though.
They’ve got a bull, see. Called Nelson.
TOMOS
‘Nasty piece of work,’ that’s what my dad says.
‘Looks like he’d charge you down
if you let him.’
DAN
I find him fine. But then Islwyn says
as I’ve got the knack –
farming in my blood, he reckons,
however far back.
So that’s what I
