1
(man) Mother, Father, what's afoot?
Only Possum, black as soot.
Mother, Father, where to tread?
Far from Possum and his head.
Here's a bag, now what's inside?
Does he seek or does he hide?
Can you spy him, deep within?
Little Possum, black as sin.
- (boy 1) Did you hear about it?
- (boy 2) I know where that happened.
(boy 1) Where?
- (boy 3) He doesn't know.
- (boy 2) All right.
- (boy 1) Where, then?
- (boy 2) Fallmarsh Woods.
(boy 3) Liar.
They ain't even said who it was.
- Besides, it was the old army barracks.
- (boy 1) Whereabouts?
(boy 2) Fallmarsh Woods,
the police said.
(boy 3) Liar.
(boy 2) Well, my uncle told me,
and his neighbour's a policeman.
(boy 1) Bollocks is he.
- (boy 2) He knows all about you.
- (boys laugh)
(boy 1) Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Stop! Why you hittin' me? Stop.
- Stop, both of you. Stop.
- (driver) Fallmarsh, next stop.
What were you drawing?
(lock turns)
(shuts door)
Maurice?
(clattering)
(man) Bag is open, growing wider.
What's inside, man or spider?
Little boy, don't lose your way.
Possum wants to come and play.
(water runs)
(turns off tap)
(man) Going in?
No.
Mind of its own?
The legs are impressive.
- What exactly is it?
- It's a puppet.
You show that to children?
- (pours tea)
- I'm destroying it.
Even the head?
I heard about your performance.
An old teaching colleague of mine
wrote to me.
A scandal, by all accounts.
They'll take me back, once that's gone.
(spits)
Now you won't get something
from the jar.
May I have a demonstration?
I wanna see how the legs work.
Before you kill it.
Can't kill it, it's a puppet.
Burn it, will you?
This place is disgusting, Maurice.
King of the castle.
Remember, a demonstration.
(man) Look at Possum, there he lies.
Children, meet his lifeless eyes.
See his nasty legs and tongue.
When he wakens, watch him run.
(man in distance) Philip!
(Maurice) Come in.
I want to borrow the tools.
Please?
- Hungry?
- No.
Roast fox.
Funny.
Dismantling it, are you?
- In my own time, yeah.
- Pity.
Puppetry's the one thing
you were good at.
Staying, are you?
For a while. My house.
Remember this one?
Well made.
My father taught me, you know.
- Runs in the family.
- You're not my father, Maurice.
Bring 'em back.
(white noise)
(woman on TV) Police are investigating
the disappearance of a 14-year-old boy
near Fullmarsh, in Norfolk.
Officers are searching
local woodlands and waste ground
in an effort to find the teenager,
who was last seen on his way home
from Marshwood Secondary School
- in the area of Full...
- (white noise)
(turns off TV)
Is that you, pervert?
Come on.
(teacher) Can I ask what you're doing?
Nothing.
Why are you waiting there?
Used to be my school.
Move on, will you?
Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.
(Philip exhales)
- (man in distance) Philip!
- (Philip gasps)
(breathes heavily)
(Philip) Wait awhile, my little child,
for what is playing dead.
Possum, with his black balloons,
will eat you up in bed.
Waking up, is it?
Wants to get out.
Something from the jar?
What's in them?
Same as always.
No, then.
All grown up now.
Tell me again about the fox.
Why?
Why not?
No.
Tell me.
We were on the marshes,
me and the other boys.
I'd built a den there.
Out by the bridges there.
I wanted to show 'em.
When we got there, we found a fox.
Thought it had swallowed something,
'cause it was pantin'.
Whole body was shakin'
like it was dyin'.
They started to kick it.
All of 'em. Yeah.
Kicked it around like it was a ball...
Then stuck things in it,
till it was dead.
Then what?
Wanted me to pick it up.
Made me.
They grabbed my head,
pushed my face inside
where it was rotten.
I started to cry.
They laughed.
Ran off and left me.
And then after a while...
the fox...
opened its eyes and stared at me.
Stood up and walked away.
There.
(chuckles)
(laughs)
(coughs)
Sly bugger.
Playin' with ya.
Yours, I believe.
Like this house, Maurice.
They're demolishing the old barracks.
About bloody time.
Black as sin, it is.
Going in?
(door opens)
(breathes heavily)
(gasps)
Maurice?
(Maurice in the distance) "Possum.
How he came into the world. 1978."
"By Philip Connell."
(Maurice in the distance)
"After the fire. Possum."
"Was it he who blackened
the very sun above our town?"
"Possum. Does his stare not seem
like the face of waking death?"
"Behold how he came into the world."
"Mother, Father, what's afoot?
Only Possum, black as soot."
(Maurice's voice grows louder)
"Mother, Father, where to tread?"
"Far from Possum and his head."
"Wait awhile, my little child,
for what is playing dead."
(Maurice's voice grows louder)
"Possum, with his black balloons,
will eat you up in bed."
"Look at Possum, there he lies."
"Children, meet his lifeless eyes."
"See his nasty legs and tongue.
When he wakens, watch him run."
"Here's a bag, now what's inside?"
"Does he seek, or does he hide?"
"Can you spy him, deep within?"
"Little Possum, black as sin."
"Bag is open, growing wider."
"What's inside it,
man or spider?"
"Little boy, don't lose your way."
"Possum wants to come and play."
- Where'd you get that?
- Fell. From there.
Liar.
(chuckles)
(laughs)
(laughs loudly)
Didn't know you could draw as well.
Private.
Is it dead yet?
Mind your own business.
(Maurice) Perhaps it's still playin'.
- You won't see me again, Maurice.
- Won't I?
Train line's down.
Home for the holidays, you are.
But I'd watch
where you're treadin', lad.
- People are talkin'.
- Talkin' about what?
Don't you read the papers?
Why didn't you burn, Maurice, eh?
Hmm?
Why wasn't it you?
(chuckles)
(laughs)
(continues laughing)
(coughs)
Maurice?
Maurice?
(runs upstairs)
(Philip) Happy valley, painted black,
all the children in a sack.
Wave goodbye to sun and moon.
Say hello to black balloon.
Happened before, I recall.
Your time. After the fire.
Your school, wasn't it?
I taught you there once, remember?
- I remember.
- That business with the fox...
A colleague asked me in
to teach them all a lesson.
Remember their faces.
We showed 'em, didn't we?
Petrified, they were.
Stuffed 'em inside a bag, didn't he?
Wore a mask so they couldn't see him.
There, there, lad.
I had no idea.
I'm sorry. Here.
(Philip whimpers)
- (Maurice) I had no idea.
- (gags)
(gags)
(breathes heavily)
(knocking at door)
(knocking continues)
(car engine starts)
(car drives away)
Maurice?
(white noise on TV)
(woman's voice on TV)
(white noise)
(woman on TV)
Police are widening their search
for missing teenager Michael Browning
who disappeared on his way home
from school on Tuesday afternoon.
Officers are investigating reports
of a man acting suspiciously
near woodlands and waste ground,
close to a former military barracks
in the area of Fullmarsh.
The suspect,
who was wearing a beige raincoat,
was seen several times with a boy
matching Michael's description.
Police are warning members of the public
not to approach the man,
and urge anyone with information
to contact the police on this number...
(Maurice) What are you lookin' for?
I wanna talk to you.
- (Philip knocks)
- (Maurice) Come.
Someone come 'ere for you.
Who?
Law, I reckon.
- What did they want?
- None of my business.
Said you were out.
Did you find him?
- Who?
- Who you're lookin' for.
- No.
- He'll turn up. They always do.
We burnt it.
You and me, we burnt it, the puppet.
You look confused, lad.
You don't look well.
Your face.
Maybe you best lie low for a while.
I'm goin' away.
Where you goin'?
My business.
You'll have this place to yourself.
Don't bring trouble home.
Bloody kids.
(woman) Wait there, please.
Can I see him then, please, miss?
Will I... Will I see him, Mr Grant?
He's my form teacher.
He knows all about it.
He knows what's happened.
Said he'd come with me.
- Come where?
- Police station, miss.
Wait there, please.
(indistinct talking)
(man) OK, will you call them?
And I'll keep him here.
(Maurice) The parcel opened,
out it sprang,
the black long-legged Possum man.
Children, run! He'll eat and smother
any child without a mother.
(Philip) Maurice!
Maurice!
(Philip breathes heavily)
(clattering)
Maurice!
(whimpers)
- (thud)
- (groans)
- (thud)
- (screams)
No, no, no!
No!
(gasps)
(exhales)
(Philip yells)
(Philip moans)
(breathes heavily)
- Come to see Mummy and Daddy?
- No, no, no.
- (groans) No.
- Dirty boy.
- (Philip) No. No.
- Playing with the dead.
(whimpers) No.
- No. (groans) No, no, no.
- Poor boy.
Poor orphan boy.
- Mummy and Daddy all burned away?
- No.
There, there. Uncle's here, lad.
Uncle Maurice with his fingers.
(whines) No.
No!
No... No, no, no.
- (Maurice) Do you like my fingers, boy?
- No.
Have you missed them?
Please... Please, Uncle Maurice, don't.
Please, don't.
Do you want my fingers,
you dirty, filthy boy?
No!
Open up, then!
(groans)
Open up, I said!
(gags)
- Filthy boy.
- (Philip moans)
Leave home, would ya?
Leave your poor, wicked uncle all alone?
- (groans) No, please.
- Poor Philip.
Poor, broken Philip.
All grown up.
(Philip whines) No! No.
- Home for a hidin'.
- No.
- Turn over.
- No, Maurice. No.
- Trousers down.
- No. No!
You knew it was me, didn't you, boy?
Out by the barracks.
You knew it was me...
(shouts) Didn't ya?
- Yes.
- It's where I worked.
Worked everywhere, I have.
But you said nothing. Silly boy.
Now they're huntin' you.
- Now you'll get what's comin'.
- (groans)
- Six of the best, then.
- No!
(yells)
- If you cry, I'll start again.
- (moans)
- (yells)
- If you cry, I'll start again.
- (muffled scream)
- One!
- (muffled scream)
- Two!
- (thudding)
- Three!
(belt cracks)
- (Maurice) Four!
- (thudding)
- (Maurice) Five!
- (thudding)
- (Maurice) Six!
- (thudding)
(groans)
Oh, a man now, are ya?
(coughs) A man now, are ya, boy?
You can't fight me.
(Maurice laughs)
Can you feel that, boy? (laughs)
(laughs)
(laughs louder)
(neck snaps)