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It is the following day. Leif’s eyes slowly and painfully open and we see that he is laying face down on the lounge room floor. He has been out all the night before with the local rugby team, and he has spent all of Matt’s pay. A freight box sits next to the lounge conspicuously. Leif slowly stumbles to his feet, tries to walk to the fridge, but only makes it to the lounge. He lights a cigarette and immediately launches into a tirade of coughing and retching.


Matt walks into the room.

Matt: Finally awake are we?
Leif: Don’t be such a nag.
Matt: You must’ve been on some brutal turps last night, there’s vomit all along the pathway out the front. I haven’t seen that much chunder since Buzz got into the fabric softener.

Leif drags on his cigarette and retches some more, coughing up some vile looking flem into the ashtray on the coffee table. Matt sits down next to him.

Matt: Give us a durry.
Leif: Go to work.
Matt: Day off mate. Give us a fucking durry.

Leif pulls a cigarette out from behind his ear. Matt lights it up and starts smoking.

Addy comes walking in from out the back, he screws up his nose and pulls a face.

Addy: Ah, the rancid stench of the smoker!
Leif: Addy… I’m not in the best of spirits right now, so don’t force me to get up and hit you.
Addy: (Gloatingly) Alcohol does that to you!

Leif throws the ashtray at Addy, it scones him in the head and he falls to the ground whimpering.

Leif: Now, Addy, who feels better?

Addy: (sitting on the floor, not in the slightest bit deterred by the emerging lump on his forehead) You won’t be laughing when that cigarette takes ten years off your life.
Leif: Pffft, the last 10 years of your life are shitty anyway.
Matt: Besides, cigarettes keep our figures trim and taut. Like athletes.

Matt pats his paunchly stomach.
Leif pulls out another cigarette and starts smoking it, now smoking two cigarettes at once.

Leif: (Speaking between puffs of smoke, without taking the cigarettes from his mouth) You like that Addy? Lapping up all the fumes like a passive freeloader, huh?
Addy: You’re not funny! Just because I’m smarter than you! Stop it! Stop polluting my air space!

Addy starts whining.

Addy: Matt, tell him to stop!

Matt ignores him. Leif lights up a third cigarette, and inhales more between more coughing and retching.

Addy: I demand you stop now! MATT!
Matt: Fuck off. You’re disturbing my smooth, fresh Saturday morning durry.
Addy: (Shocked) Matt… I order you to stop this horrifying spectacle!

Leif slowly pulls himself to his feet and shuffles over to Addy, and begins ashing on his head.

Addy: AHHHH! Mathew Locke! If you ever want to receive another paycheck, you’ll get to your feet and remove this wretch from my presence!

The cigarettes drop from Leif’s mouth and he turns to Matt.

Leif: Paycheck?!?
Matt: (embarrassed) Er…
Addy: Oh, didn’t he tell you? I’m his boss. He does all my chores for me back at home and I pay him, so that makes him my servant. Isn’t that right, Matt?
Leif: (to Matt, stomping out the cigarettes) You’ve gotta be fucking joking.
That’s worse than changing nappies at a retirement village!

Matt breaks down, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He cannot live the lie any longer.

Matt: I know! I know! I can barely live with myself anymore. I’ve been changing his snotty sheets and changing his mum’s bedpans for a week now! (Matt looks like he is gonna cry) I even had to hand him a toilet roll once when he ran out in the dunny!
Leif: Matt, I don’t care how poor we are, I refuse to live with Addy’s slave.

Matt looks completely dejected. He sighs.

Addy: Matt… do you want your pay or not?

Matt thinks for all of two seconds and flicks his cigarette at Addy’s head.

Matt: Ah… Get fucked Addy. I’ve had enough, you can keep it! I’m sick of cleaning up after you anyway. It’s just not right. You’re 21 and you still think Agro is real and not some fat shit who likes goosing up-and-coming Channel 7 talent.

Addy: But… but… we were gonna watch Star Trek tonight!
Leif: You what?!?
Matt: Er…
Addy: (Desperate) You don’t have to do the chores any more! Just come watch Star Trek with me tonight and I’ll still pay you!
Matt: Nup! I’ve just decided - I’ve got a date with some curry, an Anne Fullwood highlights-video and a six-pack of Sheep Dip Dry.

Matt grabs Addy by the scruff of his neck and drags him to the front door, opens it, and boots him out on his arse.

Matt: Don’t come back until the image of your mum’s unshaven legs has unburnt itself from my memory!

He slams the door shut, and Leif shudders in the background. Matt shuffles back to the lounge and sits down. Leif sits down too.

Leif: Back to where we started off again then.
Matt: Nah, I’ve still got some of my pay saved up.
Leif: (Looking a bit sheepish) Not any more!
Matt: (Expressionless) What?
Leif: I took your newly acquired savings out for a good time last night.
Matt: (Trying not to get angry) You… took… my… savings… and… spent them?
Leif: Yeah.
Matt: So it’s all gone.
Leif: Not all of it. I made an investment.

Leif reaches into the box sitting next to the lounge and rummages about in the Styrofoam. A sock puppet with two pathetic eyes drawn on it peaks up over the edge of the cardboard.

Leif: (In a bad attempt at ventriloquism) Hello Matt! I’m Jake, Jake the Trouser Snake. We can be good friends, very good friends!
Matt: (On the verge of going mental) That’s an investment?
Leif: Yep! Bought it down the pub last night.
Matt: From…
Leif: (thinks) From… Buzz.
Matt: It’s my fucking sock!!!!

Leif pulls his hand out of the box and looks at the sock puppet.

Leif: Could be.
Matt: I’m gonna iron your balls to your thigh you cunt!!!!!!
Buzz comes strutting in with a big box under his arm.
Matt: (Furious) WHERE’S MY MONEY YOU RETARD!!!!
Buzz: My money has been spent.
Matt: On what!
Buzz: On this.

Buzz puts the box down on the table, and opens it up. They all look inside it.
Buzz looks incredibly pleased with himself.

Matt: (quietly) My God.
Leif: Well I’ll be a horse-straddling porn star!

THE END.
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It is the next day. Matt has gone out to ‘work’. Leif slouches on the lounge, his eyes glazed over as he watches TV. Buzz comes shuffling in.
Buzz grunts at Leif and collapses on the lounge next to him.

Leif: Having a good day?

Buzz grunts again.

Leif: What’d you get up to?
Buzz: Ate some plants. Chased a dog. Took a dump in a plastic bag and left it on Addy’s doorstep.
Leif: Good day then?
Buzz: The best.

They watch TV for a bit longer.

Leif: I wanna get up, hey? But there’s just no reason to.

Buzz nods, slack-jawed. The theme song to “Play School” can be heard coming from the television. Buzz starts nodding his head to the music.

Leif: You reckon Matt’s got any money around?
Buzz: Of course.
Leif: I’m gonna raid his room!

Leif, with as much effort as he can muster, peels himself off the lounge and walks off toe Matt’s room.

Leif slowly pushes the door to Matt’s room open, peering in as if expecting someone to be in there. When he sees it is empty, he strides in and looks all around. Leif jumps up on Matt’s bed, jumps up and down on it for a few moments, and then seems to remember why he came in. He goes to the poster above Matt’s bed, and peels the top half down to look behind it. He pulls out a page that has been cut out from a magazine. He holds it up to the light with a confused look of interest and disgust.

Leif: (quietly) Tonia Toddman?

Leif grimaces and replaces the picture behind the poster. He jumps down off the bed and opens the wardrobe, ignoring the mannequin painted in Braveheart-style warpaint. He rummages through Matt’s things but finds no money. He shuts the wardrobe doors and leans back against them, thinking.

Leif: Ah!

Leif bends down and searches under Matt’s bed. He pulls out a used tin of baked beans and empties it out onto the bed. A collection of notes and coins topple out.

Leif: Merry Christmas Leif!

Club Cesspool. This is the local pub… a dingy, pathetic and barren graveyard of day-time drunks. It is perpetually dark inside, bad 80s rock plays the jukebox and dodgy-looking members of various marginalized groups of social outcasts cluster around the bar, tables and stained pool-tables. Leif pushes the door open triumphantly, standing the daylight that pours into the darkened room. Some of the barflies squint and huddle away from the light, trying to see who has come in.

Leif: Lads, a most glorious day has arrived. I, Leif Potter, have had a quite fortuitous piece of luck.

Leif holds a big bundle of notes, waving it braggingly in the faces of some drunks sitting at the closet table. He walks up to the bar.

Leif: Hey, wench!

The barchick looks at Leif witheringly.

Barchick: Didn’t we bar you Potter?
Leif: No, no… it’s okay, I have money!
Barchick: You won’t try and drape your undies on the bouncer’s face again?
Leif: (crossing his fingers behind his back) I promise.
Barchick: What d’ya want then?
Leif: Schooner of Sheep Dip Dry thanks!

The barchick pours the drink into a dirty glass and Leif pays for it. One of the drunks at the bar eyes the wad of cash in Leif’s hand. Leif notices.

Leif: Old timer, stop staring you’re making me sick. You won’t ever see money like this again unless you rob someone.

The drunk scowls and looks away.
Leif sits down on a stool and turns to a drunk on the other side.

Leif: Fun times matey?

The drunk is unable to speak, he just moans lowly and a big string of drool cascades down onto the beer mat.

Leif: Yeah… fun times.

Leif starts ogling the barchick, who is down the other end of the bar watching the TV.

Leif: (to drunk) I’d like to glaze her face in my sugar-shot… I should try and splash some beer up on her shirt.

Leif starts leering at her really obviously. This goes on for a while until the doors burst open noisily, and about 6 or 7 guys come in. It’s the local school rugby team. They raucously make their way over to the bar, one of them knocks Leif’s massive hat off his hat and messes up his hair.

Rugby Player: Hey Leif! Taking a break from the TV?
Leif: (sarcastically, though it’s actually true) Yeah… What are you guys doing?
Rugby Player: We just had a win! (The team cheers) Time to celebrate.

The barchick leans over the bar and admonishes the rugby players.

Barchick: Hey! I don’t want none of those homoerotic rugby rituals in here this afternoon!

The team groans.

Leif: What are you talking about?
Barchick: You know full well what I’m talkin’ about… nudey runs…

Another groan.

Barchick: …Pouring beer down a pyramid of naked arsecracks and sweaty roid-shrunken ballbags into a schooner and then getting some mug to drink it…

A louder groan.

Rugby Player: Alright, alright! We’ll just have a round and then we’ll be off. (Turns to teammates) We’ll go somewhere else boys. You up for it Leif?

Leif looks around, looks at the wad of cash in his hand, and shrugs.

Leif: For sure!
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Matt sits on a bench outside the main plaza of town, he looks dejected from losing job after job. Addy, a rather weedish and annoying acquaintance of Matt, sits next to him.

Matt: (sarcastically) What do you ‘have’ for me?
Addy: A job. I’ll pay you.
Matt: I’m sorry, but I draw the line at selling my body… to you, anyway.
Addy makes a low groaning sound at being insulted and shakes his head.
Addy: No! NO! A proper job.
Matt: A proper job?
Addy: Yeah.
Matt: Like Columbo?
Addy: (Getting stressed out) NOOO! I’ll pay you to do all my household chores.

Matt raises an eyebrow.

Matt: Ah, fuck it. Why not?

Leif sits at home on the lounge. A week or so has gone by. It is woefully apparent that no housework whatsoever has been done in the already crappy-looking house. Leif’s clothes are un-ironed. He is also unshaven and appears to be completely at one with the lounge and TV.

The door unlocks and Matt comes walking in. He is wearing a suit, his tie is loose and his hair messy. He looks beat. He collapses onto the lounge next to Leif.

Matt: Hey.
Leif: Ooh baby, check out the wool on that one.
Matt: What are you watching?
Leif: Sheep dog trials.

Matt grunts in acknowledgement. He looks around the place and then scrunches his face up.

Matt: Leif, this room smells!
Leif: It was fine until you came home.
Matt: (not biting) What’s for dinner?
Leif: I had to improvise, so I made a ‘special’ soup.
Matt: What’s so special about it?
Leif: I ate it all.
Matt: (angry) Fuck you! I go out and work all day, earning us money and you don’t do a single bit of housework! And on top of that you can’t even make me dinner! And this room does smell, and it’s not me!

Leif seems unmoved, his eyes are still glued to the TV.

Leif: Relax. I made you a sandwich.
Matt: (still angry) Where is it?
Leif: Under the lounge cushion.
Matt: Which one?
Leif: This one.

Leif leans over and farts. Matt goes berko, he picks up a beer can from the floor and pelts it at Leif’s head. He then picks up some more and does the same. Leif cowers and then looks at Matt, annoyed.

Leif: Hey! Go and get yourself something to eat you lazy turd-burglar.

Matt gets up grumbling and walks off to the kitchen. Leif watches him.

Leif: What exactly is this job of yours anyway? You haven’t mentioned it at all.

Matt looks embarrassed. He is ashamed of his working for Addy.

Matt: (lying) I work in an office. Why else would I wear this suit?
Leif: Doing what?
Matt: Um… I oil the wheelie chairs.

Matt winces. That was a bad lie. Leif seems unimpressed though, and goes back to watching his TV.

Leif: That softcock joyous carrybag sugar-boy Addy called for you this afternoon.

Matt freezes.

Matt: Yeah…?
Leif: He said he’d call you back.

Matt breathes a sigh of relief and then walks into the kitchen.

The kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it. There is food and flies everywhere. A rat scuttles across the bench, and there are cockroaches clustering around the over-filled bin. Buzz is crouched on top of the sink, for easy access to the cupboard, and is eating mayonnaise out of the jar with his hands.

Matt: You fucking animals!!!
Leif: (from the other room) What?
Matt: That’s it, I’m sick of your sick. While I’m out earning the dosh in this house, you’ll live under my rules. All you ever do is sit at home and watch TV. Well, from now on you’ll clean this house and clean it good! When I get home I don’t wanna see any unwashed clothes, food scraps or wildlife!
Leif: Settle down.

Buzz laughs and throws a glob of mayo at Matt. It splatters all over his jacket.

Matt: And you! I’m sick of your freeloading. Get down from there and get out!
Buzz: No!

Matt starts trying to pull Buzz down, who retaliates by scooping the mayo out all over Matt’s head.

TO BE CONTINUED…
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Matt is back at home, he sits at the kitchen table, his head buried in his hands and his tie undone. Leif sits opposite him, annoyed and agitated


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Leif: …Matt, it’s time for you to get a job


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Matt races to the front door, earnest in his effort to answer the knocking. He fumbles with the door handle, have a hard time working it due to the spoon he is still holding in his hand. Finally he opens the door. It is not the Mailman as he had hoped, his face falls in dismay.

Matt: Oh, it’s you


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THE GROOVY ADVENTURES OF MATT LOCKE: JOB - PART 1


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