The Railway Man Page #3

You can't come in here.

Eric. No!

(SCREAM)

Drop it! No, please!

Drop the knife!

Drop it, sir!

Eric!

Eric, stop!

Please, why won't

you talk to me?

Eric!

(MUSIC SLOWS DOWN)

Eric, we can't live like this.

No, leave me. I'm fine!

(BRAKES LIGHTLY SQUEAL)

Fourteenth

of next month, Burton.

Same time. Alright.

Put it in your diary.

Aye, thank you Uncle.

Mr. Finlay.

Mrs. Lomax.

I want to know

what happened to Eric.

You have to talk to Eric.

I have.

And he changes the subject...

whenever we get close to...

He gets as far as the fall of Singapore

and then he just... he shuts down.

(SIGHS)

And then he won't...

he won't talk about the railway.

There's...

I don't know.

(TAKES DEEP BREATH)

I was a nurse.

Twenty years.

I've seen... a lot of suffering.

You can do something

if you know what's wrong.

I'm sorry I can't help you

play Florence Nightingale.

But a lot of men went through something

you can't even begin to imagine.

You're going to have to let us

just get on and cope with it

as best we can.

My husband isn't coping.

He's a mess.

War leaves a mark, Mrs. Lomax.

But I don't believe in this

code of silence that you have.

I really don't.

And you may be determined to stay

screwed up and suffer for the rest

of your life, but I don't want

that for Eric. And I can't live like that.

He's a wonderful man.

I've seen it.

I love him and I want him back.

When we came home,

Eric couldn't handle it.

So he joined

the Colonial Service,

and built a dam in Africa.

(CHUCKLES)

He wrote to me saying

they had a narrow gauge

railway system and badly needed

more engines and rolling stock.

But only the Japanese

had the right kind,

so he was going to do without.

When he came back, he'd...

he'd come to these meetings

and just sit there.

Didn't talk at all.

He did anything

to avoid people.

Went round and round the country

collecting railway memorabilia.

I think that's how he met you.

His whole life has been trains.

(TRAIN SLOWLY RUMBLES INTO MOTION)

(FAST PACED MUSIC)

(BREATHES HEAVILY)

(TRAIN THUMPS TO A HALT)

(LOW STEAM HISS)

BRITISH SOLDIERS: Here! Here!

Here!

Water!

Here!

(LOW CHATTER IN JAPANESE)

Here! Water, please!

(YELLS IN JAPANESE)

(CRASH)

(TRAIN SQUEALS INTO MOTION)

(MUSIC BUILDS UP)

(STEAM HISS, WHEELS SQUEAL, TRAIN STOPS)

(DOOR OPENS, JAPANESE SOLDIER YELLS)

(ORDERS IN JAPANESE)

Fall in, men. Don't lag behind.

(MUSIC PAUSES)

(JAPANESE YELLS)

(SOUNDS OF DIGGING AND HAMMERING)

(FOREBODING MUSIC)

(THUD, YELL)

(THUD)

(MUSIC STOPS)

- (ORDERS IN JAPANESE,

- THEN:
) Attention!

(SHOUTS IN JAPANESE)

You very lucky boys.

You engineers.

You here to help us.

If you help good,

you will have a good war here,

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