Track 9: The Dignity of Labour Part 1 by The Human League

“He was tall and strong, a handsome prince. All around us, people were happy. We hated them almost as much as we hated ourselves.”

The storybook forgotten in her lap, Laura does not know what she is trying to tell the cross-legged children. The neat scars on her arms itch and writhe underneath her cardigan, the classroom garish and overexposed, each face a question.

“I wanted to be a poet.”

She is crying as she speaks, voice wavering.

“We wore black, tried to find new ways of living. In my room, I’d read through the night then drink through the day.”

“I was cutting before I even left home, but he wanted me to stop.”

A girl asks: “Are you all right Ms. Brannigan?”

Laura cannot stop now.

“We clung like monkeys. I tried to carry him, to be his mother, but he got sad, I’d been sad forever. When he died, falling to earth from the car-park like a black star, a part of me was happy that I couldn’t let him down anymore.”

“I thought I could carry you all, but I’m not ready. I’m sorry.”

As she sobs, one by one, the children begin to shuffle uncomfortably.