Mayflower

May is an Australian eight year-old girl who is obsessed with horticulture and flowers. Her Father and Mother are avid botanists who love tropical plants, and she is the same. That doesn't just mean that she think's they're pretty; they fascinate her - the hidden dangers that you can discover while studying and keeping them add an edge to her interest in them. Forget dainty little daisies; May's determined to get some real action from her Venus Fly Traps et. al.

May has just come back from a holiday in the Amazon Basin with her parents on the ferry. We now see her jogging along with them in the carpark.

May: (Enthusiastically) And that snake was so huge! Did you see it Ma?

Ma: (boredly) Yes dear, Mama saw the snake.

Da: (Puts his hand in his coat pocket and takes out a dried flower) But look, May! Isn't this beautiful little lilly flower much nicer?

May: Oh yes, Pa, it's awfully nice, but I did like the snake and it was quite big.

Da: (Puts the flower in her hair as she plods along. Speaks slightly irately) Yes well that's what snakes are. Snakes. Nothing more. But flowers... (his eyes light up and he sounds dreamy) well there are the flora that blossom down by the creek back at the ranch, but then there're them Amazonian types which are just pure magnificent. There ain't nothin' better, ya hear me?

May: (contrite) I know, Da. Ma, did you see that big fella that I took home? It was a beauty!

Ma: (opening car and putting bags in boot) Yes. He was a beauty, wasn't he?

We now show them at home, sitting round the table and looking at the elaborate plant in front of them.

May: What do you think it'll do, Pa?

Pa: I've a strong hankerin' to find out, eh, Shirley?

Ma: Sure I do. That's one hell of a find May! You'll be a good botanist.

May: What is it?

(Noone speaks)

Ma: (Changing the subject quickly) I should make the supper.

May: I wanna biscuit, Ma

Ma: (abruptly and loudly.) Oh shut up!!! Whine, whine, whine, shut it, you little g o b s h i t e!

(May and Da stare at her amazed - Ma is usually very kind)

May: (Lip starting to quiver) Da!

(Da and Ma cover their ears; May starts screaching and wailing. Da shouts at Ma in the midst of it)

Da: What are ya sayin', Shirley? The poor kid dunno what's wrong! She's been well behaved all day!

(Shirley kicks him in the knee and he collapses, clutching it)

Ma: You shut up yourself, you son of a *bunny*!

(She turns on May)

Ma:This is all your fault! You sent him to the ground!

(May has stopped crying and stares at her)

Pa: May! How dare you kick yer Father! Yer FATHER!

(They both turn on May, shouting and flailing fists, trying to reach her. They grab her and throw her into her room.)

Pa and Ma: And don't come out, ya little squirt!

(We now switch to may who is sitting on her bed. She suddenly sees coloured roots coming through her doorway slowly. She stares at them as they slowly advance towards her bed. May stares at them, frightened. Ma and Pa walk in)

Ma: May, yer supper's ready, ya hear me?

May: Pa, what's that?

(May flinches as Ma steps towards her)

Ma: What's what, dear?

(May looks back. There is nothing by her door. The plant is still sitting on the bare wooden table. She is amazed at the personality change in her Ma.)

May: (Meekly) Nothin', Ma.

We skip to May in the field. It is dawn. She is patting Annabel the cow.

May: Ma says you give us all that milk, but she says you could never be a Daisy cow or a Lily cow 'cause that just ain't right. She says that you ain't worth a flower, Annabel, your just worth the money that we paid for yer and nothin' more. So you let me milk you and I'll give you this dandy, and you'll be over double yer worth, ya hear?

(She sits down on a smal wooden stool and begins to milk Annabel. Before she can get a drop out of her, she hears a loud bang and the cow darts away. Her Father heads up to her a few moments later.)

Pa: Sorry, May, but I'm shootin' that ruddy ol' bull. We're gonna cook 'im up for supper, see?

(Pa strolls away with his shotgun and May goes to the bull's field which is empty. She sees the bull's body but a man's body, sodden with blood draws her attention. Trembling, she examines his corpse and sees a gunshot wound. She notices a bright plant growing nearby. It looks very similar to the one in her shack.)

May: Pa, you killed that man lying out there, didn't you?

Pa: That was the bull me deary. Pa killed a bull.

(May is about to contradict him when there is a loud knock at the door. Ma opens it.)

Ma: Yes?

Pa: Who is it, Shirley?

Stranger: (Steps in through the threshold. He has a scarred face and dirty blonde hair. He looks about thirty, though his lines make him appear older.) Are you crazy man? You shot me!

(May gasps. It is the person who the body belonged to down in the field.)

May: You're not dead!

Stranger: No I ain't, but I wish that yer Father was!

(May starts crying with all the commotion and shock.)

Ma and Pa: Shut it, May!

Pa: You was stealing my hibiscus! You should have read the sign! Anyway, all I killed was that daft ol' bull! You're standing on yer two legs, ain't you?(Th stranger ignires him and suddenly turns to the plants round the wooden room)

Stranger: Yer botanists?

Pa: Why else would ya come here? They ain't for sale!

Stranger: (Turns to May's Amazonian find. His eyes widen and he starts shivering and jibbering) That... that plant! That plant's bloody evil. Get it the hell away!

Ma: What on earth's wrong with you?

Stranger: (Slumps in a chair and calms down when Ma gives him some boiled water.) That could be called serendipity, I swear to God, but heck, it could also be called hellish fate. Thank God I've found it, thank God! That plant needs to be terminated. It killed off me whole family!

Pa: You went to the Amazon?

Stranger: Nah mate. We found it by our shanty. It was there, a bright blue, and I brought it up to the house, proud as anything. I was only three at the time, so my parents said, that's a great find, Shaney, we'll yet make a chemist of you.

(Shaney sighs and sips some water)

Pa: So a... a madman came and killed yer whole family?

Shaney: Nah. There's something in that plant of yers that drives people to total insanity. They turned on each other and then themselves. I ran away at the age of four, just after being attacked by Errol, my late brother. They had no money to pay for psychological help; they had been badly hit by the Great Depression.

Pa: But we need to know what it is! We can't just destroy the thing!

Shaney: That's what me parents said before they killed their ten-year-old daughter.

It now shows thefamily sitting around the plant again.

Pa: What the hell can we do? It'd make a del fortune!

Ma: Is it worth it? What can we use the money for when we're six feet under, Jon?

(The plant suddenly grabs May's hand with a large, trap-like mouth. Ma screams and Pa shouts, struggling to pul it off.)