A farmer up on the hill.
‘Keep up high’, that’s what Islwyn says.
‘Then you know where you are,
nothing in the way
between you and the sky.’
ROB is also walking to school.
ROB
My brother bought a TV this summer,
to watch the World Cup on.
Everyone came round for the final –
our front room, it was like the Mack
on a Saturday night – packed out,
TOMOS
And us all licking our lion-shaped lollies.
ROB
That’s when I knew.
I’d be a footballer too.
Start with the Martyrs, then play for Wales.
Dad’s taking me to the game tomorrow,
against Scotland, down Ninian Park.
He’s got us tickets from Merthyr Vale –
the 1.04 gets us there for the start.
DAN
And it did, the 1.04.
Though arrived almost empty.
The match went ahead.
A one-all draw,
Ron Davies scoring with a nifty hack,
the arms of the Welsh team,
banded in black.
TOMOS
That was amazing that world cup final!
When that last goal went in,
well, might have been England,
but we still all made one hell of a row –
ROB
Went crazy!
‘They think it’s all over …
TOMOS is joined on a street corner by ROBERT and DAN.
TOMOS, ROBERT, DAN
‘… it is now!’
ANNE is waiting for the school bus
with her friends SUZY and BETH.
ANNE
I love this time of year,
I think it’s my favourite.
Harvest festival, Bonfire Night.
Then after half-term,
we start rehearsing the play.
SUZY
Do you remember that Bonfire Night
when they gave us all candles?
BETH
Whole street had one,
walking in a line all through the village.
SUZY
A ‘river of lights’,
that’s what my mam said it was like.
TOMOS, DAN and ROB are passing Aberfan Road,
the high street.
TOMOS
Sometimes, if we’re early
we’ll go into Maypoles –
a grocer’s on the high street,
just past the butcher’s.
DAN
Not cos we’re hungry,
ROB
Or cos we need anything,
TOMOS
But just to watch their bobbins,
strung up on a string.
ROB
More like a zip-line it is.
One push from the counter –
DAN
– and off they go, to the register
TOMOS
Where the cashier takes the money,
puts the change back in,
ROB
then pushes it back to where it began.
TOMOS
Imagine – if we could build that
up on the farm,
a zip-line, not just a swing.
As they carry on past Aberfan Road –
DAN
That morning, though, we were late,
so didn’t go to Maypoles,
but Anderson’s instead –
a tuck shop on the hill
next to Georgie the barber’s.
TOMOS is ordering sweets at the counter –
TOMOS
Three shrimps please,
and two flying saucers.
DAN
Georgie was still in bed,
his shop sign turned to ‘closed’.
He’s always said – if it had been the other way round,
well … let’s just say he’s grateful he dozed.
As the boys leave Anderson’s –
ROB
Listen.
TOMOS
To what?
ROB
The birds. They aren’t singing.
DAN
How can you listen to nothing?
TOMOS
It’s this mist, isn’t it?
ROB
What about it?
TOMOS
Can’t see can they?
So don’t know it’s day.
DAN
It was true.
The mist was still lying heavy,
so as we walked up to school,
just a few steps apart
and we’d lose sight of each other.
If only I’d have known.
I’d have made sure to stay closer.
ANNE, SUZY and BETHAN are on the bus –
BETHAN
Do you think Mrs Jennings
will still make us go out?
Even if at break, it’s still like this?
SUZY
You know her rule –
outside, whatever the weather.
ANNE
What shall we play if she does?
Hopscotch? Tag? Stuck in the mud?
SUZY
L.O.N.D.O.N.
spells London?
BETHAN
Or Dickie five stones,
or Ginger Ginger, maybe later?
MRS JENNINGS stands at the top of the school steps.
As she watches the buses arrive
other children are left at the gate by their mothers
or walk up to the school in groups.
MRS JENNINGS
I’m sure the children think I’m tough
and probably some of the parents too.
But it’s not about governing with fear.
No, it’s about being fair.
To them, their futures.
I mean, half these boys are headed for the mine,
and most of the girls for running a house.
But whatever they do,
it’s my job to see they do it well.
Good families in this valley,
but no one here has it easy.
Sowing the seeds, that what’s done here.
Preparing the crop, year after year.
TOMOS, ROB and DAN approach the school
along Moy Road.
ROB
You know what my dad said last night,
about Mr Beynon?
TOMOS
That he’d beat him in a fight?
DAN
That he’s in love with Miss Jones?
ROB
No! That he used to play for Aberdare,
years ago.
At lock he was, and one of their best.
DAN
I could believe it. Huge he was.
I still remember, standing at his feet,
my head well under his chest,
looking up, saying ‘sir?’
and thinking, ‘Duw,
he goes on for ever!’
MR BEYNON is in his classroom, preparing.
MR BEYNON
They’ve been good to me, the kids.
I mean, I must be quite an imposition.
One minute Mr Evans is their master,
their deputy head,
then suddenly it’s me instead.
That must be hard.
A stroke. A couple of weeks ago.
He’s on the mend though, from what I can tell.
The children sent him a card.
People forget, I think, when they grow older,
just how fond a class can get of their teacher.
Can’t say I’m quite there yet.
But then it always takes time, doesn’t it?
The children arrive at the school gates.
JACK-THE-MILK is delivering in the street behind them.
He waves to his daughter.
ANNE
We had assembly that day.
The whole school, sitting cross-legged
on the parquet floor.
DAN
The whole school, ages five to ten,
singing ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.
ANNE
No. ‘There Is a Green Hill Far Away’.
That’s what we sang.
I think. I can’t be sure.
DAN
Then we went to our classes,
that I do know.
Each age through a different door.
ANNE
I sat by a window. I remember that.
Mr Davies up front, writing the date.
MR DAVIES
October the …?
Come on,
