the upper case, extended vowels, which are broken by glottal stops and consonants. The words should flow easily into each other. This quality is quite difficult to achieve at first, but with practice the sounds of the language start to make sense.
It is important to remember that this language has only recently been transcribed into a written form; there have been many attempts, and revisions, to accurately describe these sounds using symbols and letters that are, in fact, quite alien to this very complex language.
Where the Blood Mixes
Enter young native woman wearing a simple white dress.
The sound of wind blowing across hollow pipes.
A song, a soft and distant lullaby.
Underwater light pours down, diffused by the river’s surface. Projected onto the woman is a pictograph, revealed in the shimmering light. She radiates a ghostly aura.
CHRISTINE
I was born in the heart.
I was born in the deepest part.
In the middle of it all, I was born.
In the place where the rhythm beats,
Deep inside my mother,
Where the rivers meet,
My father dreamt me there.
Where blood mixes with blood and the sturgeon waits,
And the wind sings the songs of the dead.
The lights come up and CHRISTINE is gone. FLOYD is in the bar.
The wind blows. The salmon swim away. GEORGE and the bar are blown into the space by the wind. The wind fades away. A guitar plays.
GEORGE
(cleaning the table) Hey, Floyd!
FLOYD
Huh?
GEORGE
Go home if you want to sleep.
You were moaning.
FLOYD
Oh?
GEORGE
Uh-huh.
FLOYD
I was dreaming …
A pull-tab machine is illuminated up-centre. Its blue and red lights make it sparkle like a giant fishing lure. FLOYD goes over to the pull-tab dispenser, buys a handful of pull-tabs, returns to his table and proceeds to pull them open.
FLOYD
Hey, were you singing?
GEORGE
Well, since my baby left me,
Du-duh!
I found a new place to dwell!
Du-duh!
The only hole I’d never leave
The Lytton Hotel
Da-doop-ee-doobie
Da-doop-ee-doobie-Du duh!!!
Beat.
FLOYD
Jeezus Christ.
GEORGE
Any luck there?
FLOYD
No. (pulls one open)
Nope. No luck here. (another)
Nothing.
Three beavers would be nice, eh. Five hundred bucks.
FLOYD pulls open his last pull-tab.
Hey—three fish. I got three fish.
GEORGE
Two bucks.
FLOYD hands over his pull-tab to GEORGE.
FLOYD
Three fish—two bucks, then.
GEORGE
You can put it towards your tab.
Beat.
FLOYD
Oh … Okay.
How much is my tab?
GEORGE
About three beavers …
MOOCH enters.
FLOYD
I don’t remember it being that much.
MOOCH
Hey there, partner.
GEORGE
I added it up.
MOOCH
How’s it going?
FLOYD
When?
GEORGE
Just now, I added it up.
FLOYD
Sneaky bugger adds up my tab while I’m not looking.
MOOCH sits and stares at FLOYD.
FLOYD notices that MOOCH looks beat-up.
FLOYD
What the hell happened to your face?
MOOCH
I forgot to put the toilet seat down.
GEORGE
What?
MOOCH
