Mosquitoes First Scene - JENNY LINES

lights up

JENNY: Just it’s like waves.

ALICE: And but which part in particular is worrying you?

JENNY: It's the part which, I think it’s mainly the part where it comes out.

ALICE: This is very natural Jenny.

JENNY: Mike says millions of women do it every day. He says ‘look at the animal kingdom’.

ALICE: Don't worry about Mike. He's just feeling powerless and redundant.

JENNY: I want a cigarette.

ALICE: Well okay but that's not / going to

JENNY: Mom smoked 20 a day when she was pregnant.

ALICE: Both of us?

JENNY: No just me Alice that's why I'm Forrest Gump and you're the Wizard of fucking Oz.

ALICE: That's not / what I was

JENNY: 20 a day. Marlboro, not light. Red. And we're alright.

ALICE: What?

JENNY: No it's just. It doesn't kick. I don't feel it, kicking, I think it might be in the wrong position. I think the cord might be round its neck.

ALICE: Okay. Okay. But you've had the ultrasound? Jenny you've /had 

JENNY: Yeah, it's not, it's not something we felt comfortable doing.

ALICE: But. Okay but so because it's completely safe.

JENNY: Um, no, not, actually, not completely

ALICE: In what way? Jenny in / what

JENNY: No because you're going to shout at me.

ALICE: I won't shout at you, when / have I ever

JENNY: They've done animal studies.

ALICE: Which animals?

JENNY: Mammals.

ALICE: Which mammals?

JENNY: Rats.

ALICE: Rats. Okay. And what did they find in / these

JENNY: Oh you know, just brain injuries. Dyslexia

ALICE: How can a rat be dyslexic?

JENNY: epilepsy (don't do that) mental retardation, an increased incidence in left handedness in boys

ALICE: Luke is left-handed.

JENNY: well there you go, listen to this:

ALICE: Jenny, we've talked about this.

JENNY: No, I know 

ALICE: Googling is

JENNY: Bad, / I know, but just

ALICE: What did we, just because you can access the information doesn't mean you're equipped to understand it.

JENNY: okay, okay but - 'a World Health Organization report warned that ultrasound can cause reduced fetal weight, neurological changes’, this is from a journal by the / way like a proper

ALICE: Millions of women do it, every single day and

JENNY: So? Millions of women drink diet coke.

ALICE: What's wrong with / diet coke?

JENNY: In 2001 an ultrasound transducer placed in a woman's uterus recorded sound as loud as a train coming into a station’.

As loud as a train.

ALICE: It's safe.

JENNY: As loud as a f*cking train.

ALICE: In America, you can get it done in a shopping centre.

JENNY: Yeah well in America you can buy a gun at a shopping centre can't you, just cos something happens in America / doesn't mean

ALICE: (oh my God) it's safe, it's safe, it's less dangerous than a hot bath

JENNY: Yes, well I'd like to believe that Alice / but

ALICE: It doesn't matter whether you believe it, it's a fact.

JENNY: Says who?

ALICE: The doctor, and he's an expert, / so

JENNY: She.

ALICE: She's an expert / so

JENNY:Yeah well I think actually what I feel, as a mother, might be stronger than a a a a just a... fact don't you?

ALICE: No.

JENNY: Okay well there's not like a single version of

ALICE: Yes there is. There is, absolutely / there is

JENNY: Well that's a very Western way / of

ALICE: A what?

JENNY: I'm just / saying.

ALICE: Western?

JENNY: I'm just saying!

ALICE: You live in Luton.

JENNY: Don't, shouting at me, it doesn't kick. It doesn't move. I think it might be dead.

ALICE: I promise you. I promise you, there is nothing to worry about.

JENNY: yeah well there's a higher rate of Down’s

ALICE: From an ultrasound?

JENNY: No, in IVF babies

ALICE: Statistically?

JENNY: statistically, yes, statistically in IVF babies there is a higher rate of Down’s and and and and death.

statistically, yes, and all I'm saying is I'm allowed, actually I am allowed to make my own decisions about what's best for my, without being me to feel like I'm constantly feeling some f*cking cosmic exam, like I might actually be capable, grown up woman you know? Who can be trusted to, not just some sack of skin with a pair of tits for people to to examine and and inject and monitor and and stick their fucking fingers in because actually at the end of the day who's in charge? Who's in charge? 

f*cking statistically, who’s in charge, / Alice?

ALICE: You are.

JENNY: Thank you. Not them. Not you. Me. That's all I'm. Thank you.

Didn't you ever feel like this?

ALICE: I'm sorry, I wish I could.. but I actually I felt. Sort of amazing. Like, tuned in to some weird frequency, because I understood for the first time. This is what my body is for, and it was like. Wow! / And

JENNY: Yeah and your boobs got really big, and then one day you sneezed and out popped Luke, and he trotted off the bed and cut his own umbilical cord. I bet you didn't even shit yourself / did you?

ALICE: Stop it. You know that's not

JENNY: That's not?

ALICE: no, you know that's not 

JENNY: Tell me then.

ALICE: I already told you.

JENNY:  So tell me again.

The contractions started, go on. Please. Please Alice.

ALICE: The contractions started at about 10 p.m.

JENNY: But which this worried you because it was too early.

ALICE: Yes it was much too early. I hadn't even packed my case so instead I put some things

JENNY: Knickers, nightie, inhaler.

ALICE: I shoved them in a plastic bag and I called the ambulance.

JENNY: You get to the hospital, then - no I forgot, this is the best bit, go on.

ALICE: The midwife / was a 

JENNY: The midwife was a man!

ALICE: I nearly said No. I don't want you, I want a woman this is a very exposing process and also

JENNY: and also he was really fit, you said.

ALICE: yes and also he was problematically good looking, but then he said is your husband or partner on his or her way?

JENNY: And you said no actually he's in Geneva watching protons collide cos that apparently is more important than the birth / of his

ALICE: No I just said no and he understood because Javier was a very understanding person in married with a girl of his own that he delivered in a beautiful ceremony in a Donald Duck paddling pool.

JENNY: And you're still just on the gas and air at this point.

ALICE: No Pethidine too, I was six centimeters.

JENNY: The Grand Canyon!

ALICE: But then his heartbeat slowed down. And they said we'll have to do a Cesarean. I didn't wake up till later. I thought, Luke wasn't there so / I thought

JENNY: Course you did, baby's not there, of course you thought

ALICE: Nurse comes in, she says: You can see him now

JENNY: no but before that she says.

no but before that she says.

ALICE: yes she said do you have a Faith? She said do you have a Faith? Because if you have a Faith and / it I just

JENNY: no then you said what kind?

ALICE: literally didn't understand the question

JENNY: and then you did

ALICE: and then I did I understood it completely I started crying ran out, well not ran, I couldn't run

JENNY: Waddled.

ALICE: And then I found him.

JENNY: Go on.

ALICE: He was in a closed air bassinette. That's what they called it / but

JENNY: But it was an incubator

ALICE: Yes. A plastic box, you could see through the sides.

JENNY: You couldn't touch him.

You couldn't touch him, could you?

This is making me feel a lot better, you couldn't touch/him

ALICE: I couldn't touch him, I had to put my hands into these gloves to touch him.

JENNY: His head.

ALICE: His head was the size of an apple.

JENNY: It kicked.

Feel then.

Wait. might do it again in a minute.