The red hand, p.33
The Red Hand, page 33
GARY: No, mate. It’s your club too. You’re in the history now. Kick it for Cardigan.
Jimmy hesitates. We see the faces of all the supporters. Jimmy’s eyes meet Ben’s. There is absolute silence around the ground. Then Jimmy walks back, turns, looks at goal, runs three paces and puts the ball right through the middle. The ground erupts. From a height, we see Gary embrace Jimmy, spectators converging on the players from all sides, Jimmy being chaired by Cardigan players, prominent among them Gary, Wayne, Luke, Beak and Robber.
Stump and Donkey make their way through the crowd, everyone trying to pat and hug Ben. Ben embraces players, ruffles hair and they do the same to him. The players put Jimmy down and Ben is hoisted onto Wayne’s and Gary’s shoulders. Mel gets to Jimmy and they embrace. In the stand, Claire and Rick are embraced by Muriel and Jessie, Max and Sid.
INT. TOILET. NIGHT
Ben and Dermie, side by side, pissing in silence.
BEN: So?
DERMIE: So what?
BEN: Didn’t dob me.
DERMIE: Dob you?
BEN: Dob me.
DERMIE: Never dobbed anyone in my life, mate.
They finish, zip up, go to the washbasins.
BEN: Thanks. It’s over, you can do it now.
DERMIE: Me? No, mate, not me.
They finish. At the door, Dermie turns to Ben.
DERMIE: They needed a Ben Valentine, they got one.
Dermie extends a hand. They shake.
INT. CARDIGAN CLUBROOM. NIGHT
A packed room, Claire and Rick there, the end of the medal presentations by Kevin Flynn.
KEV: It’s been hard, the hardest best-and-fairest I can remember, and it goes to the oldest member of the side, Robber Harris. (tumultuous applause) And to present it, I’d like a certain man…(applause goes on) You know who I’m talking about. Tomorrow, when we wake up, we’ll still have a football club. O blessed day! We owe that to our heroic players and to the man who stood between this great club and the unthinkable…(massive applause and shouting) I give you the man: Tigers champion and our coach, the man to whom Cardigan owes its very life, Ben Valentine.
More applause. Ben hangs the medal around Robber’s neck, puts out his hand. Instead, Robber embraces him.
ROBBER: Thanks, mate. For everything.
BEN: Just a few words, something I have to say before I leave. Ben Valentine didn’t save this club. The players saved it. And all of you saved it because you believed in them, believed they could…Ben Valentine couldn’t save it because I’m not that Ben Valentine. I didn’t play for the Tigers. I haven’t played a game of footy since I was fourteen. I lied to all of you. I’m sorry.
Long silence, everyone wide-eyed with disbelief.
WAYNE: Scuse me, scuse me. Your name Ben Valentine or not?
BEN: It is.
WAYNE: So you never lied to me. Any player here like to say Ben lied to him?
THE TEAM (one by one): Not me.
WAYNE: So we don’t care about the other Ben Valentine. We don’t need that Ben Valentine. Got a Ben Valentine who turned a bunch of no-hopers into a team, made them believe in themselves.
Stump begins to clap. Everyone joins in. Not a dry eye in the house.
INT. PUB. NIGHT
The celebrations are in full swing. The band assembles onstage and begin to play. It’s their anthem, ‘I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight’. This time the entire number is performed as we near the end of our story. (Intercut closing song with following scenes.)
INT. DICK’S PIE FACTORY. DAY
Claire and Bruce are walking towards Clarrie’s office. Mel is on the phone.
MEL: What? Paid off when? 1969? Jesus, so that’s, what…
Mel tapping on a calculator.
INT. CLARRIE’S OFFICE. DAY
Claire, Bruce and Cromie in Clarrie’s office.
BRUCE: Well, we’re all here. All that remains is for you to sign the paperwork. (produces a fountain pen) Where the little flags are, that’s where you sign.
INT. MEL’S OFFICE. DAY
MEL: You owe Dick’s $129,000 plus compound interest over thirty-odd years…that’s a lot of money. Come and see you? I reckon you should come and see us.
Mel puts down the phone and runs out of the office and up the stairs.
INT. CLARRIE’S OFFICE. DAY
Claire takes the pen from Bruce, prepares to sign. Loud knocking at the door and Mel comes in without being invited.
MEL: Claire, don’t sign anythin. The bank owes Dick’s more than $300,000, you don’t have to sell.
Claire looks at her in astonishment.
CLAIRE: Bruce?
BRUCE: Um, Melanie, who told you that?
MEL: A bloke in Melbourne. High up. They admit it. They’ve been takin out money for thirty years after the loan was paid off. Administrative error he says.
Claire caps the fountain pen, hands it back to Bruce.
CLAIRE: I’m afraid Dick’s is no longer for sale. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.
CROMIE (to Bruce): You stupid prick.
INT. DICK’S PIE FACTORY. DAY
Cromie walking the length of the production floor. Claire, Mel and Bruce come out of Clarrie’s office.
MEL: Tell em, Claire.
CLAIRE: No, you tell them. You’re the new manager.
The workers clap as hard as they can, hands above their heads, they know the town is saved. Cromie and Bruce face their defeat ungraciously.
INT. PUB. NIGHT
The last verse of ‘I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight’.
END
2007
THE JACK IRISH NOVELS
Bad Debts
Black Tide
Dead Point
White Dog
OTHER NOVELS BY PETER TEMPLE
An Iron Rose
Shooting Star
In the Evil Day
The Broken Shore
Truth
Born in South Africa in 1946, PETER TEMPLE is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. His novels—among them the Jack Irish series, Truth, and The Broken Shore—have been published in more than twenty countries. He was the first Australian writer to win the UK Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, and the first crime writer to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Peter Temple died on 8 March 2018.
MICHAEL HEYWARD is the publisher at Text Publishing.
PRAISE FOR PETER TEMPLE
Winner of the UK Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, the Miles Franklin Literary Award and five Ned Kelly Awards
‘Temple is a master.’ Michael Robotham
‘As dark and as mean, as cool and as mesmerising, as any James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard with whom you might kill the small or sad hours.’ Age
‘Peter Temple has been described as one of Australia’s best crime novelists, but he’s far better than that. He’s one of our best novelists full stop.’ Sun-Herald
‘Temple is the man—the lay-down misère best crime writer in the country.’ Advertiser
‘The top hard-boiled crime writer on the local scene.’ Courier-Mail
‘Peter Temple is, quite simply, the finest crime writer we have…He has set a standard internationally that few come near. His Chandler-like ability to capture the dark corners of our sunniest places is as good as it gets.’ Mercury
‘Temple’s work is spare, deeply ironic; his wit, like the local beer, as cold as a dental anaesthetic.’ Australian
‘One of the world’s finest crime writers.’ The Times
‘This bloke is world-class.’ Washington Post
‘Peter Temple is an addiction. Read one book and you will want to read them all.’ Val McDermid
textpublishing.com.au
The Text Publishing Company
Swann House, 22 William Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia
Copyright © Estate of Peter Temple, 2019
Introduction © Michael Heyward, 2019
The moral right of Peter Temple to be identified as the author and Michael Heyward as the introducer of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
Some of the pieces in this book were first published in the Age, Best Australian Essays, Best Australian Stories, the Bulletin, Mystery Readers International, The Broken Shore (FSG, 2007), Truth (FSG, 2010) and Griffith Review. ‘Ithaca in My Mind’ was first published by Allen & Unwin in 2012; ‘A Novel of Menace’ was first published in the Text Publishing edition of Wake in Fright in 2001. ‘Reading the Country’ is an edited version of the Miles Franklin Oration which Peter Temple delivered at the University of Melbourne on 7 June 2011. Peter Temple’s original script for Valentine’s Day is published courtesy of December Media. Many thanks to Jason Steger for his help in retrieving Peter Temple’s extraordinary contribution to the review pages of the Age.
Published by The Text Publishing Company, 2019
Book design by Text
Cover photograph by Candy Bryce
Typeset by J&M Typesetting
ISBN: 9781922268273 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925774986 (ebook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
Peter Temple, The Red Hand
