NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN 353 JONESTOWN ROAD SUITE 299 WINSTON-SALEM, NC 27104 PH: (910) 777-0648 FX: (910) 777-0648 E-MAIL: nfreeman@bellsouth.net T H E C O N T R A C T WRITTEN BY NATHAN ROSS FREEMAN COPYRIGHT (C) 1990 CHARACTERS REVEREND JAMISON ... PASTOR AGE 35 OR OVER GEM ................ THE ARCHANGEL JESUS CHRIST TIME: TODAY ACT ONE HOUSE TO HALF WE HEAR THE PRESET OVERTURE: POWERFUL, ORCHESTRAL INSTRUMENTAL, A PRELUDE TO THE THEME SONG. THE PRESET LIGHTS SHINE FROM OVERHEAD ON THE HIGH-BACK OAK CHAIR EMBROIDERED IN GOLD LACE. IT IS LATE ONE WEDNESDAY NIGHT. AS REVEREND JAMISON ENTERS THE OVERTURE CHANGES TO THE THEME HYMN. REV.JAMISON PAUSES AS HE ENTERS LEAVING THE DOOR CRACKED, WALKS SLOWLY INTO THE ROOM UNTIL HE IS BATHED IN THE NIGHT LIGHT CAST FROM THE STAINED GLASS WINDOW, UC. HIS MOVEMENTS AND GESTURES INTERMITTENTLY SUGGEST THE FEELING OF ANOTHER PRESENCE AND SURPRISED EMBARRASSMENT AT HIS FEAR OF SO UNLIKELY AN EVENT HE FEELS IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE. HE WALKS OVER TO THE ALTAR, LIGHTS THREE CANDLES, WHICH REVEAL AN ORNATE DESK, LIBRARY, THE PASTOR'S PERSONAL KNEEL ALTAR WITH GOLD PLATED THREE BRANCH CANDELABRA, GOLD PLATED CROSS AND CHALICE ON IT, A BIBLE STAND WITH A LARGE BIBLE, A QUAINT STAND WITH MATCHING JUG AND BASIN, A COAT AND HAT RACK AND ASSORTED MEMORABILIA ALLUDING TO HIS THEOLOGICAL STANDING, CUTE NOTABLES GIVEN HIM BY DEVOTED MEMBERS, AND FAMILY. ALL THIS IS ARRANGED WITH EACH PIECE IN ITS OWN AREA AS IF TO CELEBRATE ITS OWN DISPLAY. REV. JAMISON ENTERS THE STUDY AS THE MUSIC ENDS. HE WALKS ABOUT THE STUDY, PRAYING JAMISON Jesus ... I have wronged you. I have prayed in vane for vanities sake, to be your special light, to SEE ... (HE LIGHTS THE CANDLES THAT FLANK THE CRUCIFIX AT HIS KNEEL ALTAR.) But why the dreams, Jesus? ... The same dream. My face bloody, why so horrible the dream. I call to you ... I don't want to see you in my fear... Are you here? Could it be? ... I am losing my faith and I called to you. (LISTENS INTENTLY). Three nights a week I come here when the whole world is asleep and wait for you. I sneak in my own church and wait. And three thousand times a day I ask myself how come so much study seems to threaten rather than strengthen my faith? So I have the need to confront divinity outside my MOCKING FERVENT faith, to actually SEE ... you ... JESUS ... You never come because I see you in my holy desire to be your chosen. A candidate to be visited by the party leader. I HAVE ONE OF THE LARGEST MEMBERSHIPS ACCUMULATED IN HIS NAME ... But in that JAMISON dream, the dream that sends me here, someone was sweeping the steps of my temple, my church with a broom made of nee ... needles ... NO! ... THORNS! A broom made of thorns. And those thorns would fly in my face, my forehead and I would bleed. And in that dream it hurt. And in that dream someone said, in a loud voice, so loud like a tornado, they said had I known not to look for his ENDORSEMENT but his INDICTMENT I could have met him so long ago. (JAMISON HEARS A NOISE, SOMETHING DROPPED ON THE DESK. HE TURNS ABRUPTLY AND SEES A HOODED FIGURE, FACE SHROUDED FROM VIEW, STANDING BY THE DESK, ON WHICH IT HAS DROPPED 3 NAILS, AND AN ANCIENT MALLET AND CROWN OF THORNS. JAMISON STARTS FOR THE DOOR.) WHO ... WHO ARE YOU? (AS HE BEGINS TO GRAB HIS COAT ABOUT TO EXIT) GEM Why do you run away now. Are you running away? (JAMISON STOPS BUT WILL NOT TURN TO LOOK.) JAMISON Who are you!? ... (THERE IS NO ANSWER. THE FORM DOESN'T MOVE.) Who are you? How did you get in here? GEM (MARVELING AT THE SHAPING AND WORKINGS OF HER HANDS, FEELING THE MARVEL OF A HUMAN FACE FORMING.) I am still taking form. I no stranger to you. I need something from you. I need to ask you a question. Question - why do you come here so often in solitude? JAMISON What is your name? GEM I am just now thinking of what I want you to call me. You thought I was Jesus, didn't you? (NO RESPONSE. GEM ALWAYS WAITS FOR A RESPONSE, EVEN TO QUESTION SHE ALREADY KNOWS THE ANSWER.) GEM I am ready. JAMISON What do you mean? (TURNING ABRUPTLY TO JAMISON AS SHE DELIVERS.) GEM For you to see me. (AS GEM TURNS AROUND AND FACES JAMISON THE ROOM ALL THE LIGHTS IN THE ROOM ARE TURNED ON STARTING FROM THE FARTHEST TOWARDS HER. JAMISON PIVOTS HIS POSTURE TO NOTE EACH ONE LIGHTING, CAUSING HIM TO FACE GEM. HE SEES THAT THE FIGURE IS A WOMAN. THE APPEARANCE OF ONE. SHE IS STATELY, EXOTIC, STERN. SHE IS A CHILD-ALIEN-WARRIOR. THE FULL AND FLOWING HOODED GARB SHE IS WEARING IS AT ONCE MAJESTIC, ANCIENT, SOMETHING FROM THE FUTURE, SOMETHING YOU COULD SEE ONE WEARING TO SOOTHE FOR PEACE OR AS A BATTLE DRESS TO WAGE WAR. SHE STANDS INNOCENT, STARING AT JAMISON AS IF TO BEG A COMPLIMENT OR AT LEAST A COMMENT.) GEM Well, how do I appear to you? JAMISON That is exactly what I would like to know. How did you get in here and what are those? Those thorns, are you responsible. GEM They are nails, hammer AND thorns. I have no responsibilities. I have duties. Duties, you will find, I perform religiously, if I may use the word, according to the word. Words you go by. Words you have written, or claimed to have copied down from His mouth in His name. (ALL THE WHILE GEM HAS BEEN LOOKING AROUND THE ROOM WITH THE WONDER OF A CHILD, THE SPECULATION OF A WARRIOR AND THE POSTURE OF AN ALIEN EXPLORING THIS MYTHOLOGICAL HABITAT OF THE LEGENDARY EARTHLINGS.) Say something else. Question. Why do you come here alone some nights and leave looking ashamed. (JAMISON BEGINS TO WALK AROUND THE ROOM, ENCIRCLING GEM WITHOUT OBVIOUSLY ENCIRCLING.) JAMISON How do you know that. No one knows I come here ... GEM ... Three nights a week, when the whole world is asleep and wait or ... JAMISON ... That is personal. Why do you ask? Who would you be to ask? GEM Your are a minister. What if I be your faithful? Then what is personal? Please answer my question. You may find that you will answer some of your own. JAMISON I don't even let my wife know I do this. That I come here. GEM Yes, but I am familiar to you. I am close to your yearning for someone to know what you are going through. JAMISON Why did you say I thought you were Jesus? GEM Because you did. But there is more you feel. You come here to tell. JAMISON To tell Jesus. GEM In the dream there is not the Messiah. C'mon, tell me you know me. JAMISON It's time I should be getting back ... GEM Where? ... Where could you go now? How will you ... sleep? Tell me why you come here and then you will remember. What do you feel right now? JAMISON I won't say! GEM WHAT IS IT ... YOU FEEL? JAMISON Frightened. GEM More! JAMISON Trapped! GEM MORE! JAMISON BEATEN, BLEEDING, SAD, SOOO SAD! GEM MORE! TELL IT! THE DREEAM!! JAMISON THE DREAM! (HE TURNS SUDDENLY AND LOOKS AT GEM AND COVERS HIS MOUTH IN SOME HORROR OF THOUGHT, THEN POINTS AT HER ACCUSINGLY, FINGER SHAKING AND TREMBLING.) JAMISON THAT VOICE ... YOU!!! ... You, you ... No It ... Was it you? Tonight the dream was so real, I was so scared, I woke up, I came here, was I sent here? Why have you come here? Who are you? GEM (FILLING THE BASIN FROM ITS MATCHING JUG OF WATER) I am an angel ... That is, an agent. One sent on an appointed appointment. I am the guardian of the circle and the pyramid. I am here to serve Jesus, for now, to serve you, in a way, and to GEM always in any thing I do fight the great prince Lucifer according to the contract set before the existence of your kind, or so you record. (BATHING HER FACE WITH PALMS OF WATER, MARVELING AT THE SENSATION. JAMISON GOES OVER TO THE NAILS, CROWN AND THORN ON THE DESK, BUT DARE NOT TOUCH THEM LEST THEY BE REAL. GEM BEHOLDS THE BIBLE ON THE LECTERN, GLARES AT IT, HYPNOTIZED BY IT. JAMISON IS NOTICING THE INTENSITY WITH WHICH SHE IS TAKEN IN BY THE SIGHT OF SCRIPTURES.) JAMISON This is a charade. This could be some evil trick. GEM (STILL BEHOLDING THE BIBLE) If it is, you have prayed for it. (DRIFTS QUICK, FORMAL OVER TO THE BIBLE. GEM IS THE CHILD-ALIEN.) So! ... This is one of them ... the Good Book. (JAMISON DRIFTS QUICKER OVER TO THE BIBLE AND TAKES IT FROM ITS PEDESTAL. GEM NOTES THE WAY HE CLUTCHES AT IT.) Do you read it often? (GEM WAITS FOR A RESPONSE THAT DOES NOT COME.) Of course you do. JAMISON (COMPOSES HIMSELF, IN THE BELIEF THIS IS SOME HOAX.) In my dreams my callings were for Jesus. This is a prank to insult my station because you are not Jesus, nor do you have wings and you have not given me the courtesy of introducing yourself. Your name, what do you call yourself? And what have you come here to do? GEM For you my name is Gem ... not the jewel, but the stone that leaves not itself unturned until the job is done, for that is the rare and true value among your kind. I am the archangel who leads the 7th to tenth legions of angels, the legions that fight the great prince Lucifer, and yet are subject to you ... It is the angel that is the most cherished of God's forces, before even the creation of your kind. We were passed over as it were. You were God's most cherished dream. But you are lost and incomplete souls. Even lost still with your claim of Jesus as the sacrifice for your immortality, your destiny to be truly in God's image as you were meant and must become. The irony of this fate may change should you fail to become yourself. I should like to reach the status of man should you fail to become yourself ... I was sent in wonder at how the history of your religions have confounded his works ... I am your interrogator. (GEM DRIFTS WAITING FOR JAMISON TO RESPOND, WANDERS OVER TO PICK UP THE CHALICE ON THE ALTAR. JAMISON COMES TO SNATCH IT. GEM SETS IT DOWN IN TIME ENOUGH TO TURN TO JAMISON, THEN GOES OVER TO THE MIRROR AND MARVELS AT THE REFLECTION OF HERSELF.) Say something else. JAMISON Interrogation? It is the benefit of my courtesy and my curiosity that either you or I remain in this room ... GEM I am in your dreams, a place for angels and demons to hang a mirror in your face, your dreams, a place where you can't lie ... when GEM you awake you live in the kingdom of your feeble will, a place of uncertainty, a place of conscience. Yes you will remain in this room as a benefit of MY courtesy, for as much as I have been sent, I have been summoned by your conscience, your faith that is dying on you. JAMISON Are you some devilish freak who has come to enjoy embarrassing my sanctuary. If this is the work of some occult trash, then you will just get outta here, NOW! GEM (APPROACHES JAMISON SLOW, STALKING. JAMISON BACKS AWAY, STUMBLES, STRAIGHTENS HIMSELF TO CONFRONT HER IN SPITE OF HIS FEAR) Why do you yell like that? Am I suppose go because you yell at me? With words? I came to talk like you, to confuse as well as clarify. Is that why you are suspicious, because I talk like you? Are you afraid I might use language too, and yell like you, to confuse as well as clarify? Like you use it to create distance between the knowee and the know-not? Language is such a relative thing. But then everything is relative and/or relevant. But there are some things that are absolute. What are they, Jamison, do you know? JAMISON If you are who you say you are then you know it is Almighty God ... GEM ... And oaths, vows ... (GEM, POINTS AT THE BIBLE.) GEM CONTRACTS! ... The distance between your pulpit and your congregation is confusing. You keep them so far apart ... from Jesus or yourselves? (GEM WALKS TOWARDS A VERY ORNATE CHAIR ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM. GEM CIRCLES THE LECTERN AND STRIDES TOWARD JAMISON.) You always talk of love and unity and humility, but you sit apart, far apart on high-back oak chairs ... (FEELS THE CHAIR, STROKES IT) embroidered in gold lace. Why? (GEM WAITS FOR A RESPONSE. THERE IS NO RESPONSE.) It is customary that when one is being interrogated that they sit. (GEM GESTURES TOWARDS THE CHAIR. JAMISON STANDS DEFIANT. GEM TAKES NOTE OF JAMISON'S REFUSAL, BUT DECLINES TO RESPOND IN ANY WAY.) In Rome the pope can't leave the grounds with out his armed escorts to guard him....Against what? (GEM MOVES ABOUT, CONTINUES TAKING NOTE OF JAMISON'S CONSTANT REFUSAL TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.) Is violence all you have to protect such people? Well you can't protect such a person, the contradiction is obvious. Jesus would have no body guards...Do you have watch dogs?! JAMISON What kind of question is that and who would you be to ask? GEM DO YOU HAVE WATCH DOGS?! JAMISON No! GEM That chalice over there, is it made of real gold? JAMISON Gold plated. GEM And that bible-of-the-good-book, what edition of what version is it? JAMISON King James...I didn't notice the edition. GEM (GEM FINDS JAMISON'S ROBE AND DRAPES IT AROUND HER, CARRIES IT TO THE DESK, LAYS IT ACROSS THE DESK LIKE A BLANKET..) ... How you keep yourself so distinguished while you keep your following so humble is amazing. YOU use circles and triangles as symbols, while THEY stand in straight lines offering alms, money for the forgiveness of their sins to YOU who need it to keep YOUR vestments in neat elegance, YOUR temples in repair and YOUR thrones to a mirror shine ... Don't you do that, Jamison? JAMISON Again, I ask who would you be to criticize? GEM Do you have A watchdog? JAMISON I don't have A dog. GEM Security guards... JAMISON ...This is not a bank... GEM Doors that lock... JAMISON ...Of course... GEM ...What are your hours? JAMISON Regular! GEM What are your hours?! JAMISON NIGHTS...mostly, day programs too, and of course sunday morn... GEM Yes, Brilliant! You have them believing circles of love while you only allow them to pro-cess in straight lines. And with choirs distracting, no one notices that this RAPTURE feeds on a pocket of change and this RAPTURE crescendos on the emotions of the believer whose curse can only be relieved by them laying down their clothes in your collection plate. Oh ... Bingo ... with profit sharing of course. Bingo on the temple steps? Raffles for grace? JAMISON You accuse me of exploiting my following? Who do you think you are? Where did you say you come from? (PLACES THE BIBLE ON LECTERN) Our RAPTURE rises from a human need to sing God's praises and be glad to offer tidings in sacrifice for our selfish ways. But you call me a pharisee. GEM No. I call you reverend. The question is what do you call yourself? JAMISON I live my vows. I take no money I do not earn like any man. GEM You vows say your are not, nor can ever be like any man. Your vows set you in God's earth, not in man's world. Therefore you are to be as humans were meant, before the fall of the Adam. (AS GEM STANDS ABRUPTLY, OFFERS THE CHAIR TO JAMISON IN A DEMANDING WAY. HE STILL REFUSES. SHE APPROACHES LECTERN AND SNATCHES THE BIBLE BEFORE JAMISON CAN SAVE IT.) GEM Genesis, first man, first woman, perfection, the rib, and Lucifer, the fall ... the "apple". What do you think it is trying to say? JAMISON It says what it says. Why do you ask? You tell me. You do know, don't you? GEM If tells of a man who God created and gave to him all things including his greatest gift, a woman, and together, tempted by the devil, they threw it all away and their children are still groping through eternity to get it back, with you in the name of Jesus to show them how, according to contract. Or it tells of an entire species that is only ten seconds old inside of a God that has lived beyond forever; a species child holding a loaded gun with bullets that kill billions, with you and your minister friends to guide them to the light according to contract. I understand that Genesis and the remainder of this bible this CONTRACT, is often interpreted literally, symbolically and too often conveniently. How do yo use it? JAMISON (AFTER A PAUSE) My life since my vows has been a constant study of scripture. I do not use it all. It's purposes are endless, so I can devise no plans of use. I serve the words through Jesus Christ, and I'm sure with degrees of fallibility, trial and error. But if I do use it for convenience, it is not for my sake. I do not subscribe to its convenience. More than it serves me, I serve it. I am its servant ... Now enough of this. I have to go home. You can appear and disappear in and out of this dungeon all night as far as I am concerned, and for all I know as soon as I walk through that door I will drop through the proverbial hole in this nightmare and awake JAMISON sweating in my bed. Good night! (GEM WALKS TOWARDS THE SHUDDERED STAINED GLASS WINDOWS, THE SAME IN THE DREAM. JAMISON IS PUTTING ON HIS COAT.) GEM Come here, Jamison. JAMISON GOOD NIGHT!!! (GEM IS STILL AWED BY THE SIGHT OF ETERNITY EVEN THOUGH IT'S ALL SHE'S EVER KNOWN) Come here ... please! (MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS. JAMISON WALKS HUFFING OVER TO GEM.) GEM LOOK! (GEM POINTS TO THE STAINED GLASS WINDOW. JAMISON LOOKS UP AT THE STAINED GLASS WINDOW AND IS IMMEDIATELY STRUCK WITH THE VISION OF THE TOTALITY OF HIMSELF STARING BACK AT HIM - HEAVEN. JAMISON HAS THE PRIVILEGE AND THE CURSE OF LOOKING ONTO THE FACE OF HIS PERFECTION, AND THE POWER OF THAT VISION TAKES HIS BREATH, DRAINS HIS LIFE FROM HIM. YET HE CANNOT TAKE HIS EYES OFF THE VISION UNDER HIS OWN POWER. HE LOOKS INTO THE LIGHT AS IF IT IS A WIND TO WITHSTAND. THE LIGHT, THE VIEW, THE TRAUMA OF HIS PERFECTION CONSUMES JAMISON. HE IS DYING FROM THE SIGHT.) GEM Look out there, into the heaven of your soul, beyond your miracles, rituals, possessions. Out there where I come from. Where you must return one day and measure up to yourselfwgainst the waste you make of your lives and the havoc of souls that cry to you, minister. Suppose you could only confess your sins to yourself, Jamison. Suppose you had only Yourself to ask forgiveness instead of putting GEM it off till some judgement day. Could you live through that?! JUST BEFORE JAMISON SUFFOCATES, GEM WAVES AWAY THE LIGHT THAT ALMOST KILLS HIM. AS SOON AS GEM'S HANDS EXCUSE HIS EYES FROM THE LIGHT JAMISON DROPS TO THE FLOOR, COUGHS, CHOKING, DRAWING IN GASP OF AIR TO RECOVER. GEM ENCIRCLES JAMISON. JAMISON CRAWLS ABOUT THE FLOOR. GEM STOPS BRIEFLY, LOOKS DOWN AT HIM, TEMPTED TO REACH DOWN ... MAYBE TO HELP, MAYBE TO JUST TOUCH, SOMETHING SHE MUST NEVER DO. JAMISON SPEAKS AND GEM SNATCHES HER HAND AWAY.) JAMISON What ... have ... you ... done? (GASPING FOR BREATH) What have ... you ... done ... to ... ME? (FALLS LIMP) I saw something ... terrible ... beautiful. (FLASHBACK OF VISION SUFFOCATES HIM.) JAMISON It looked something like ... like ... ME! (AGAIN CAUGHT IN THE VISION, APHIXIATES. GEM WAVES IT AWAY, AGAIN. JAMISON FALLS AGAIN, GASPS, CHOKES, COUGHS, TRIES TO DELIVER) GEM Let's get down to the business of our coming ... JAMISON (FORCES HIMSELF OUT OF THE STUPOR, ANGRY, INDIGNANT, AFRAID) You had no right ... GEM My master who is the fulfillment of the contract, who is the New Testament of the Spirit ... JAMISON ... You had no right to impose on me... GEM ... had no house but every house was his welcome ... JAMISON (JAMISON HAS GONE OVER TO THE ALTAR AND IS KNEELING TO PRAY IN HIS MANIA) What will I do now. How shall I think, What have you done to ... GEM No belongings ... JAMISON ... Jesus, if this madness is a curse derived of ... GEM ... NO WALLS! ... JAMISON ... some misgiving ... GEM NO WATCH DOGS! ... (JAMISON, HYSTERICAL, RANTS.) JAMISON ... HEAL ME, RESTORE MY FAITH, WAKE ME!!! ... COME TO ME! ... COME! (GEM IS DETERMINED TO GET JAMISON'S ATTENTION AND NOT BEND TO CONSIDER HIS HYSTERIA, SHE IS JUST GOING TO STOP IT.) GEM Jamison ... JAMISON ... COME TO ME ... COME TO ME ... COME TO ME ... GEM Jamison ... JAMISON!!! (JAMISON AS IF SLAPPED OUT HYSTERIA CAST AN ANGRY, GROWLING GLARE AT GEM. HE SLUMPS TO THE FLOOR, MUMBLES.) JAMISON Oh, wake me, please, wake me from this dream. (JAMISON STARES UP AT GEM. HE IS A CORNERED, WOUNDED ANIMAL.) GEM (WALKS OVER TO THE BASIN AND POURS WATER FROM ITS JUG, DELIVERS, CARRIES THE BASIN OF WATER AND WASH CLOTH TO JAMISON) Your Lord went up on a mountain after quite a fast ... forty days, as a matter of fact ... in the desert. He came to this mountain prepared to confront Lucifer in a duel planned since the beginning of time. He climbed with dry burning eyes, oozing skin, knuckles bleeding, swollen tongue thirst, wrenching excretion, babbling mania, and a fear of falling ... (PLACES THE BASIN AT JAMISON'S FEET) AND YOU CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT THAT INVOLVES. TO SUFFER. I MEAN TO REALLY EXERCISE ... (JAMISON HUNGRILY DOWSES HIS FACE CUPPING WATER IN HIS HANDS) He climbed, nevertheless, to the TOP, before entering the promised land to set the conditions on Which you stand at your pulpit. And LUCIFER was there waiting for him. And he set his swollen eyes on Lucifer. And Lucifer was beautiful that day ... A beauty that GEM would burn to cinders your little remaining faith ... NOW, SIT OVER THERE IN THAT CHAIR, BACK AWAY FROM ME AN LISTEN TO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE.!!! (JAMISON HESITATES. GEM CALMS DOWN, TAKEN ABACK AT BY HER OWN EMOTION GESTURING TO THE HIGH BACK CHAIR.) Reverend Jamison, please, indulge me. (JAMISON CRAWLS OVER TO THE HIGH BACK CHAIR, LOOKING AT GEM WITH TERROR, ANGER AND AN ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE THAT GEM IS WHO SHE SAYS SHE IS. GEM GOES TO THE BIBLE AND FLIPS THROUGH IT AS JAMISON CRAWLS INTO THE CHAIR AND DELIVERS WITH INDIGNANCE.) JAMISON And we cross deserts in more than our rituals. In Christ if not with Christ, we have climbed mountains that never reach an end. So why do you ... (CAUGHT FOR A SUFFOCATING MOMENT, AGAIN, IN THE CONSUMING MEMORY OF THE LIGHT) ... show me to myself (SNAPS HIMSELF OUT OF IT, CATCHES BREATH) ... AND TELL ME THIS STORY OF JESUS THAT I KNOW BY HEART?!!! (GEM AT LECTERN READING THE BIBLE.) GEM On that mountain ... Matthew 4, verses I through 11: (GEM ACTS OUT THE SCRIPTURE AS IF TO RELIVE IT.) Lucifer challenged Jesus to TURN ROCKS INTO LOAVES OF BREAD AND CREATE A MIRACLE; Christ said NO. Lucifer tempted Jesus to JUMP DOWN ON THE ROCK AND CALL THE ANGELS TO SAVE YOU, AND PROVE TO YOUR FOLLOWING THAT YOU POSSESS MYSTERIES BEYOND THEIR REACH; and Christ said ... NO. Lucifer tried to bribe Jesus and said, WELL THEN GIVE GEM ME ALL YOUR POWER AND I WILL GIVE YOU ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD, ALL THE PROPERTY OF THE WORLD ... and Jesus Christ said NO, Jamison! Jesus Christ said you cannot use MIRACLE, MYSTERY and PROPERTY TO SHOW OFF THE POWER OF GOD ... Those were His conditions. You were not to use them. We have a serious problem here and we don't have much time to work it out. It's right here. I thought you said you read this book ... You're in trouble. (AFTER A THOUGHTFUL PAUSE) JAMISON I have no further comments. If, He shows up, I will speak with Him and He will give me my instructions. Till then, I plead the fifth. I will speak only with Him. GEM (ON THE WAY TO THE DESK AND TO SIT) Pastor, sir, you may talk with Jesus as often as you wish. But what do you think He would say that He has not already said ... And I mean for all time and afterward? What do you want from Him. He gave you His life. And what on EARTH do you think I am here for? ... What DO you think He would say? ( JAMISON LOOKS TOWARDS THE BIBLE. GEM POINTS TO THE BIBLE.) Would you like to consult the source? (JAMISON STAGGERS OVER TO THE BIBLE. JAMISON IS STILL RECOVERING FROM THE VISION, ALTHOUGH, WHILE IT STILL CHALLENGES HIS MOTOR ABILITY, IT SEEMS TO ALSO HAVE STRENGTHENED HIM IN SOME WAY. JAMISON FLIPS THROUGH THE BIBLE, SEARCHES FOR THE APPROPRIATE QUOTE.) GEM Jamison, please don't do that. JAMISON Pardon me? GEM Read out of context. Pull an ace from your trick deck of quotes. Panic! Besides, you will have time to quote enough. Am I not doing that well? (JAMISON STILL FLIPPING) JAMISON Doing what well? GEM Talking like you. (GEM WALKS OVER AND STANDS BESIDE JAMISON, WHO, AT HER PRESENCE, STOPS FLIPPING. GEM POINTS TO THE HIGH BACK CHAIR GESTURING KINDLY FOR JAMISON TO SIT. JAMISON WALKS INDIGNANTLY OVER TO THE CHAIR AND SITS.) How come you have so many versions of the same book? JAMISON You know the answer. GEM You have an endless variety like the different models of an automobile. JAMISON Man is a variety. He always was and always will be an individual. That's not our fault. I'm an individual, it's not my fault. It is our prime directive to JAMISON pursue diversity. Jesus Christ comes to us in that diversity. GEM Yes, but all your bibles are competitively titled: the "First", the "Complete", the "Most Complete", "New", "Newer", "Newest", Each edition that claims the Christ condemns all others, indeed, many times condemns them to death. And to top it off, you sell these bibles for profit, for memberships. Don't you see the flaw? JAMISON What is this? What exactly do you want to know? Why there are contradictions programmed in the very fabric of our design. Why we confuse as well as clarify, unlike you who may be of some flawless programmed mode. Ask your father, God only knows. Just Please don't flatter me with this interrogation about flaws, contradictions, failure. GEM Failure? You are becoming extinct! ... as a result of not rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. JAMISON Okay, fine, is that what this is? Repent, repent, the sky is falling. Okay, fine but why this ... (MILD FLASHBACK OF VISION, MILD SUFFOCATION) ... BEAT ME, BEAT, ME'... Castigation of my person ... (HE PUSHES VISION AWAY HIMSELF.) JAMISON ... Why me, why tonight, do you come here to tell me the sky is falling? GEM We couldn't wait till Judgement Day. You don't rate that level of critique ... All I see in your world is a repeating of history. Old Testament Blues ... You ... On YOU, personally, pastor, rest the entire weight of whether there will be a Judgement Day or not. JAMISON (AFTER A SILENT PAUSE ATTEMPTING TO CAPTURE THE IMPLICATION OF GEM'S STATEMENT) Just tell me what you want me to do. If indeed you are from my Master, because you frighten me as would Satan. But if you show me you are from my Jesus Lord, and My God the father, then I will do whatever and more, so tell me what I am to do, then GO AWAY. GEM You and the history of your ministries are here indicted for going back up that mountain and making manna ... going back up the mountain and casting down secrets and myths ... going back up that mountain and bargaining for a title to it, a piece of the promised land, a piece of the rock. Going back up that mountain the day after Easter and making another deal out-of-contract. You went back up there and deliberately accepted Lucifer's gifts of MIRACLE, MYSTERY AND PROPERTY. (TOTAL SILENCE, PAUSE, THEN ...) JAMISON The day after Easter we were in exile, persecuted. We were left with parables, riddles and catacombs to hid ... GEM It was bad enough that you crucified him because he was too good to be true ... JAMISON ... We were scared to death ... GEM ... But when you blatantly waited until you Lord was out of sight JAMISON ... We would have all been wiped out by now ... GEM ... Snuck back up that mountain to reverse the entire effort of the New Testament by renegotiating the terms of redemption ... JAMISON You have no idea what it's like down HERE! (INFINITE PAUSE) GEM Well, all I can say is, you knew there would be a second coming. JAMISON Second coming? GEM We are going to discuss these three gifts and your acceptance of them one at a time. Yes, it will take time. Forty days as a GEM matter of fact. We will relive those days that your Lord prepared himself for your doomed fate. (GEM STANDS BEHIND AND OVER JAMISON, WHO STANDS, WALKS ABOUT AS HE DELIVERS.) JAMISON Judgement Day on Me? This must be a dream. But even in my dreams, on what grounds do I warrant this visit? I don't own a luxury car. I live within the means of my congregation. I never force a collection or intimidate those who cannot afford to give. In fact, we raise funds for the needy. My church stands in firm protest of divine solicitors ... Judgement Day on ME? ... I ... We ... What alone can I say? I graduate magnum cum laude from the seminary with nothing more than an earnest desire to teach scripture and to awaken others as I have been awakened. I step out into the world with my vows air tight and I am confronted to join this society and that council, sermons become PR campaigns for building funds ... And I rush off snatching my hands from some dying woman's stiff old hands so I don't miss some eight o' clock flight to some annual conference ... (ALMOST TO HIMSELF) Dying hands laying on me. Young hands searching for hope in my embrace ... Sometimes I see those hands, hundreds of hands touching my heart to steal the beat so I will stay till they see the light ... I only do house calls on thursday. (SUDDEN ARROGANCE, MILD RAGE) JAMISON Am I to stand on the corner preaching and be incarcerated for loitering? ... They say I gotta join this, raise that and sign the other if I want to be a preacher. Even a beggar's gotta have credentials. Am I to run haggard in the streets yelling beatitudes? Am I to ask you to listen to me with dried spit on a frozen beard unshaven with humility? Am I to be ... GEM Crucified? ... Is that what you are afraid of Jamison? Do you have any idea what your vows imply? JAMISON We save souls ... the best way we know how. GEM Yes, I know. But this last matter the mountain, is not a matter of the value of your efforts. The matter that warrants you this visit is a matter of contract. You must give those three gifts back of Miracle, Mystery and Property or there will be no Judgement Day. Just the anticlimactic, embarrassing trauma of extinction. Extinction as unannounced as the dinosaurs ... So, you don't want to be interrogated. Well whether you will be or not, you will re-live, reverend, I said re- live. You will not leave here in your dreams or your distorted sense of reality, hungry or not, lonely or not, until we have accomplished all that must be done. JAMISON But I have to go home! I have my work. My family. They don't JAMISON know I've gone. My wife doesn't even know I've left the bed. GEM You will stay here until I return and you will not know whether days, months, years or moments have gone by. (GEM AT THE LIBRARY SPREADS HER ARMS AS IF TO MEASURE THE LENGTH OF WOOD.) JAMISON How can I just stay here? GEM (GOES TO ALTAR AND BLOWS OUT THE CANDLES.) You will be alone to yourself, only to here the cries and messages of your own soul and to prepare yourself for your task, after your 40 day fast ... Jamison ... Build a cross. (GEM DISAPPEARS, THE LIGHTS IN THE OFFICE GO OUT. MUSIC/SOUND EFFECT. JAMISON LOOKS AROUND THE ROOM, CROSSES TO THE DOOR WITH THE INTENT TO LEAVE, STOPS ABRUPT, PAUSES, TURNS AWAY FROM THE DOOR. JAMISON Jesus, tell me what you want me to do! ( "HYMN PRELUDE TO ACT II.) END ACT I ACT II JAMISON WAKES WITH A START. HE HAS BEEN SLEEPING ON THE DESK, WRAPPED IN HIS ROBE USING A SMALL BIBLE AS A PILLOW. HE JUMPS UP FROM A NIGHTMARE. HE BEGINS TO BUTTON HIS SHIRT. IT IS COLD, AND THAT'S HIS DESERT (AS IN SAND). HE MUMBLES UNINTELLIGIBLE AS HE ATTEMPTS TO GET HIMSELF TOGETHER. JAMISON Fifteen days, fifteen years, maybe seconds, who cares? I COUNT FIFTEEN! (HE IS ALMOST COMIC IN THE WAY HE STUMBLES AROUND. HE FINDS HIS WAY OVER TO THE LECTERN, PUTS ON A SOCK AND A SHOE AND LOOKS IN THE OTHER SHOE FOR THE OTHER SOCK. HE CAN'T FIND IT. HE WALKS OVER TO ALTAR, LIGHTS THE CANDLES AND WARMS HIS HANDS OVER THEM, WALKS OVER TO THE MIRROR.) I look like a very old man who looks so young. Like the ones who come to our missions. Is that what I look like with no food. What's keeping me alive? (JAMISON REACHES INTO THE BASIN BELOW IT TO THROW WATER ON HIS FACE AND FINDS SOMETHING IN IT. IT'S HIS SOCK. HE WRINGS IT OUT AND DABS HIS FACE, THEN PUTS ON HIS OTHER SHOE WITHOUT IT. FEELING IN HIS POCKETS FOR HIS GLASSES.) Where are my glasses? (LOOKING FOR HIS GLASSES HE WALKS OVER TO THE LIBRARY AND BEHOLDS A PICTURE OF HIS WIFE.) I have a wife, imagine that ... I used to tuck her in at night ... And you know what I mean. (TURNS SUDDENLY WITH GROWING ANGER) WHERE ARE YOU? (LOOKING DOWN AT THE CROSS ASSEMBLED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR. THERE ARE PLANKS OF WOOD MISSING FROM THE LIBRARY.) SEE! It's finished. I did what you said. (PICKS UP THE CROSS AND CARRIES IT TO THE WALL SPACE, LEANS IT UP AGAINST IT, STANDS BACK AWAY AND STARES AT STARES AT IT FOR A MOMENT. JAMISON What's to keep me from walking out of here?! Fear?! (WALKS BRISKLY OVER TO THE ALTAR, ABOUT TO KNEEL WHEN JUST BEFORE HE GENUFLECTS HE SEES HIS GLASSES IN THE CHALICE AND PUTS THEM ON AS HE SPEAKS.) JAMISON Ah, my sightless friend. What could you have been doing without me for your eyes. (HE KNEELS TO PRAY.) Jesus, in trust and faith I remain here not knowing where I am, awake or in dream, dead or alive, a minister or a fool ... I am just a man, just a man, okay?! What are you doing? What do you want?! You want my resignation, is that it? ... Administer to the minister, please! I WANT TO SEE MY KIDS. (MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS. JESUS CHRIST ENTERS, LOOKS AT JAMISON. JAMISON SEES JESUS, CRINGES AWAY HIDING IN DISBELIEF. JESUS IGNORES JAMISON. JESUS SEES THE CROSS, WALKS UP TO THE CROSS, TREMBLING EXTENDS HIS HANDS, REACHES FOR, THEN RUNS HIS HANDS VERY SLOWLY ALONG THE CROSS BEAM, RELIVING SOME PAIN AS HIS BODY PROGRESSIVELY CONTORTS AND SHAKES. JAMISON CROUCHES FURTHER DOWN, PEEKING AT THIS UNBELIEVABLE CIRCUMSTANCE: JESUS CONTORTS, WRITHES: IN LITERAL PAIN, UNROMANTASIZED!!! AGONY - CAPPED BY A WORDLESS SCREAM - UNTIL HE COLLAPSES BREATHLESS TO THE FLOOR. JAMISON CAUTIOUSLY CRAWLS TOWARDS JESUS, POSSIBLY WITH THE INTENT TO COMFORT. JESUS WAVES JAMISON AWAY. JAMISON RETREATS TO HIS CRINGE. THEN JESUS ABRUPTLY THRUST HIS HAND OUT TOWARD JAMISON, JAMISON CRAWLS, REACHES; JESUS GRABS JAMISON'S HAND IN A TIGHT GRASP. JAMISON BEGINS TO BAWL IN A CRY THAT BUILDS TO HYSTERIA. IN THOSE FEW MOMENTS HE CRIES THE TRIBULATIONS OF ALL HIS LIFE. HIS TEARS COULD VERY WELL BE THE CONFESSION OF HIS LIFE. AT A POINT JESUS PULLS HIS HAND AWAY FROM JAMISON. JAMISON FALLS QUIET. THE TWO SIDE BY SIDE TO RECOVER. MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS FADE.) JAMISON You've emptied me? (PAUSE) JAMISON Why me? GEM (ENTERS MOVING QUICKLY OVER TO THE LECTERN, OPENING THE BIBLE TO THE APPROPRIATE PAGE.) Why not? Random sampling seemed appropriate. But you are special in one way, Jamison. In the sampling we have two types of hypocrites ... The first hypocrite is one who does not, nor ever really did believe in the "stuff," but approaches the clergy as a career, much like a business man approaches the sales market. This hypocrite is simply fraudulent. Simply, I say, because he doesn't' know much better. He really thinks this is what religion is suppose to be, and reads the bible after the fact ... Then there is the other TYPE. This hypocrite thoroughly believes and understands the nature of what he is doing and what religion is supposed to be. But the pressure of conformity, lack of guts, or fear of being crucified, he doesn't execute. Oh, but he does suffer ... because he knows better. Let's just call it lack of guts ... That's you, the latter, I mean. You are from that sample. JAMISON (HASN'T TAKEN HIS EYES OFF JESUS) Jesus is my master and he is here. He is your master as well, and I understand you must do your job and "... get down to the business" of his coming. (TALKING TO JESUS) I have been here, I don't know, for an eternity or an hour, with nothing but darkness, JAMISON cold, and the question of my sanity. HOW DO I TAKE ALL OF THIS IN? ... What is the purpose of it all? (CONVERTS HIS ENERGY FROM STUPOR TO ATTENDING TO THE MATTER AT HAND: GEM) And suppose I simply reject your demands, Gem. According to you I have that freedom. GEM That freedom tells you, you know better. JAMISON (TO JESUS) Oh, so you had to pick my TYPE, someone from my sample, or run the risk of rejection, is that it? (TO GEM) Sounds like a set-up to me. GEM There is an order to your world. It was set up too. Then is was upset by you and yours. Yes, you could say you were set up. (JAMISON EXCUSES HIMSELF FROM HIS SEAT BESIDE JESUS WITH SUBMISSIVE MOVEMENTS, LOOKING AT THE CROSS.) JAMISON (TO JESUS) Am I to be placed on it? Am I to be crucified? (HAS NOT RECEIVED A VERBAL RESPONSE FROM JESUS YET) Oh, yes, that's right, what would you have to say. I see the whole set-up now. You speak through Gem, and/or Gem speaks for itself on JAMISON behalf of you, 'cause I don't rate your personal critique ... (JAMISON SPEAKS TO GEM.) In any case, they find me dangling from THAT and you will see bizarre and sinister investigations of some hideous occult crime. Headlines will read: "PASTOR CRUCIFIED ... BY WHO? ... What do we do about ... GEM No one said anything about ... JAMISON ... You're right, no one said anything ... Well, what is it for? GEM You will see in time enough. GEM DRIFTS UP BEHIND THE ALTAR AND STANDS THERE, LOOKS AT JAMISON WHILE SHE POINTS TO THE EXCERPT ON THE LECTERN, SUMMONING HIM TO READ. JAMISON DOES NOT MOVE.) JAMISON You know, Gem, this "Fast" thing is really remarkable. I mean I feel good! I see clear, I smell clear, my heart beats with a more steady hum. I said my heart thumps with a new resounding! It's like a "listening." A new set of eyes bulging with insight. Oh, in church we talk about fasting, but no more than three days at a time; part time at that. I see that clear halo that surrounds your form. I see the intensity with which you could use your accursed powers to render our lord's will ... Gem ... I see your heart ... the one you haven't got. I see the heart you wish you had. I see JAMISON the envy you wish you could feel. What was it you said? Oh, yes, "I hope to reach the status of man," or something of the like ... If then I am on trial, is there a motion for an angel with ulterior motives? You don't want me to live through this, do you? GEM That is absurd. JAMISON You want my spot. My failing along with all mankind offers the only possibility for your promotion. GEM The only one? Your humankind is such a presumptuous entity. Do you have any idea how many forms of life may live, exist in the space you stand? And why would my promotion be contingent on such as the likes of what you presume to be the only "mankind"? I could care less whether you live through this or not. That's your ego. I have no ego. I stated that my name is only for your reference. I have no ego, no name, no individuality. JAMISON Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer ... these angels have been highly individualized. GEM By your myths. Our names are for you in your imperfection. JAMISON Our free will is the flower of the root of our imperfection. You JAMISON have none. We can also choose to be perfect like your master. Can you choose to have free will? GEM (TURNING HEAD TOWARDS JESUS) Stop this. I insist that we proceed. (JAMISON HAS RETREATED TO AN AREA STRATEGIC IN RELATION TO THE DISTANCE FROM GEM AND CLOSER TO JESUS.) JAMISON Can you make a choice? Can you feel? GEM I know what your are trying to do! JAMISON WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND SATAN? ... Good angel and bad ... both whose only ambition is to sit at the right hand of God with Adam, our Lord and ME? ... Yes, with all my sins, I am still in his image ... WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU, OH GOOD ANGEL, AND LUCIFER? GEM (JESUS TAKES A STEP TOWARDS GEM. SHE MUST ANSWER.) You Are! ... You are the difference. The only difference between heaven and hell is earth. You ARE Satan ... or can be. You are Christ-like, or can be. Outside of you we deities make no difference among one another. Your free will, your imperfection, makes us into whatever you want us to be ... or whatever you desire, or are AFRAID to be in yourselves ... So, you see, it's still on you, Jamison ... ALL OF IT! (OVER THE LECTERN POINTING AT THE SELECTION) Can we get started? ... We will discuss the INDICTMENTS concerning the misuse of Miracle, Mystery and Property, in that order. For this visit we will discuss Miracle. THE FIRST BREACH OF CONTRACT AS HERE INDICTED IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF LUCIFER'S FIRST OFFER: THE MISUSE OF MIRACLE. SO BE IT. (JESUS WALKS OVER TO THE LECTERN. JAMISON STARES AT JESUS WHO RETURNS THE GLARE. JAMISON WALKS OVER TO THE LECTERN. JESUS POINTS TO THE EXCERPT AND WALKS AWAY.) JAMISON "And when the tempter came to him he said, 'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 'But he answered and said, 'It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'" GEM So be it. When he performed a miracle you got the credit ... for your faith ... the wonders you could perform for yourselves without your conjurings. He will not allow himself to become your shortcut to happiness. Seducing his faithful, offering them instant remedies and side-show demonstration. Otherwise, why would he bleed? I mean, why bother? JAMISON What about the mercy we teach? Your mercy, Lord, for those unable to bear the unrelenting drudgeries of this mad world without the JAMISON possibility of a miracle. And we, your ministry, ME, I am here ... It takes a miracle or two. (GESTURES FOR JAMISON TO SIT IN THE HIGH BACK CHAIR. JAMISON DOES. JESUS WALKS OVER AND SITS BESIDE JAMISON ON THE FLOOR.) GEM (GOES FOR A CONFESSION) You admit, then, that you climbed back up that mountain, on Peter's rock, so to speak, and seized the first offer of the other Prince. That gift being the packaging, marketing of miracles to spare your congregation from coming to God without bait! JAMISON No! GEM Aw, come on, Jamison! JAMISON What specifically are you referring to? GEM Look at him! He left the grave so that no monuments, statues, prayer cloths, bottled liquids, canned relics, toll free petitions, post office nickel-and-dime cons, INCENSE, would blaspheme his word. He ascended, not just so you could freak-out on Easter eggs and plush parades, but, so that you could know, finally, that he was leaving you to nurture yourselves with the example of his works ... GEM LOOK AT HIM! JAMISON (STANDS ABRUPTLY.) What do you want from me? You look at him. Just leave me alone. (JESUS STANDS IN RESPONSE CONCERNED FOR JAMISON'S REACTION. INFINITE PAUSE) GEM Look at him . That is god-Man or Man-God. He is you, inside, beneath the flesh ... Yes, I wish I had a heart so that I could know him as you know him.... Look at him and see yourself ... what you were meant to be. JAMISON (TO JESUS) What is going to happen to me? GEM Miracles, put them away. For surely the miracle is not that man can be healed. The miracle is that man can exist for so long outside of God's intention. You want to heal? Then love your enemies. The ones you still cling to hating because of the color of their skin. The ones who are not welcome to visit Jesus in your temples because they do not look, act or worship like you. Your whole earth is apartheid. How do you live with yourselves? That's the miracle. For surely the miracle is not the life he came to show you capable of. The miracle is the death you chose in spite of the power of his presence. Church vs Church! Catholic vs Protestant - WAR! Protestant vs. Islam - WAR! Islam vs. Catholic - WAR! Zion vs Islam - WAR! Protestant vs. Zion! - WAR! GEM Hindus vs. Buddhist - WAR! Islam vs. Buddhist - WAR! Dutch vs. Zulu - WAR! Crusades - WAR! Holy WARS! Overt WARS! Covert WARS! Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iraq, South Africa BOSNIA VS BOSNIA ... Tens of thousands of men, young men from the land of milk and honey died in a lands raped and pillaged for generations called Korea and Viet Nam - WARS that one still finds no cause, CHAPLAIN! So, you see, the MIRACLE is not your freedom, your life, your redemption. The miracle is your suicide! (GEM DISAPPEARS. JESUS AND JAMISON SILENTLY CONFRONT ONE ANOTHER. JESUS WALKS OVER TO THE LECTERN AND CLOSES THE BIBLE, KNEELS, KISSES JAMISON'S FEET. JAMISON REELS FROM THE GESTURE. JESUS DISAPPEARS. SOUND EFFECTS/MUSIC) GEM Don't eat, drink or leave. You have 25 more days to go. Or was it years. You won't know. BLACK OUT END OF ACT TWO ACT III PRELUDE (JAMISON IS SITTING IN THE HIGH-BACK CHAIR. AN OVERHEAD LIGHT EXEMPLIFIES HIS MELANCHOLY.) JAMISON Woman! Are you there? Do you hear me? We soul mates claim to be so clairvoyant in our aspirations towards love. When we touch, you and I, when we touch, however, we are so quiet lest we disturb the spirits of blaspheme and pleasure. Yet, I tell you now, hear me, please, for no more silence in loving you. I will touch you and in the penetration, inside you, a thought so awesome, when my body is inside you I will ring and shout God's pleasure and anoint myself with the flavors of your skin wet and clinging in a celebration dance that now only brings tears to my eyes ... in memory ... in fantasy ... I fantasize about you, woman, in so many acts of intimacy that I know God's love is at the heart and we are one with him! ... I love you in a place that beguiles my person. I love you with all my heart, unconditionally. Be good, woman, don't wait up for me. BLACK OUT ACT III JAMISON ROAMS THE ROOM. HE IS BAREFOOT WITH HIS SHIRT UNBUTTONED. HIS ATTENTION IS SUDDENLY CAPTURED BY THE CROSS. HE MUMBLES MANIACALLY. JAMISON TAKES THE BELT FROM HIS PANTS, WALKS UP TO THE CROSS AND MEASURES HIS ARM SPREAD AGAINST ITS WIDTH, TIES THE BELT AROUND HIS NECK AND TRIES TO HANG HIMSELF. HE STOPS THIS SUDDENLY AND THROWS THE BELT TO THE FLOOR AND BEGINS TO SCREAM. JAMISON WE CAN'T STOP THE MADNESS! YOU COULDN'T IN ALL YOUR RESPLENDENT GLORY. TO HELP YOU, we have them pay us money when the magic isn't there to follow your act. They enslave themselves, willingly, gratefully, by selling their freedom, in exchange for their precious redemption, to us when your magic isn't there, so that we will continue to take responsibility for their conscience, YES, by performing miracles that we convince them only we can perform, using your name. It maybe our sin, but we have to save their souls; they can't do it alone, and we can't save ours without their salvation. We have to get them there anyway we can ... (TO AN ABSENT CHRIST) And you knew it! ... Well, it is in our hands. So you must grant us your precious freedom to do YOUR will OUR way ... So why do you come? To hear what you already know? You knew that they, your FLOCK ... our HERD, could not, would never bear to walk around with nothing to look forward to but another day ... YES, YES, we make them magic, manna, miracles ... with their money and their desperation to believe anything. And we make it in your name. And with governments we will even create a cause, an enemy, a war to bind the mobs together to follow blindly behind us as we JAMISON miraculously slay their dragons. We compromise our oaths and make deals with governments for economic favors to keep our temples miraculously in repair so THEY can sit comfortably inside. Or else they will not come to you. We turned Peter's rock into loaves of bread and built gold temples to serve THEM. (JAMISON TURNS TO FIND GEM STANDING THERE. JESUS STANDS AT THE LECTERN.) GEM That's sad ... You have confessed to the misuse of Miracle. Now let us talk about the misuse of Mystery ... Begin! (SHE POINTS TO THE BIBLE) JAMISON (PLAYING WITH BELT) Touch ... It's the touch I want. Earthy, smelling, imperfect touch. There is ... is something solemn in this much purity, cleanliness. It has ... (TO JESUS) Christ, look at me. Am I to be your Judas? ... I have no saliva. I have become a prayer ... a silly little prayer dwindling into a mere saying. (JAMISON KNEELS BEFORE JESUS) You know Jesus, I eat dust like wise old sayings hanging from a wall ... I smell death ... GET ME OUTTA HERE ... GEM It is how your death completes your life that is important. And GEM you don't have much time to make yours worth more than it is. JAMISON Is that why you rush me? You want me to hurry and confess to the sins of my kind before I create a miracle and DIE in the midst of all this eternity you two bring? (GOES BEFORE JESUS WRAPPING THE BELT AROUND HIS NECK.) You know, jesus, I should die like Judas hung himself. (JAMISON SQUEEZES HIS NECK UNTIL HE GASPS FOR HIS BREATH. JESUS AND GEM WATCH UNTIL HE BECOMES EXHAUSTED AND LETS HIMSELF GO. THEN JESUS TAKES THE BELT, CARRIES THE BELT TO THE CROSS AND BUCKLES IT AROUND THE INTERSECTION OF THE NAILED PLANKS.) GEM In any case, Judas died before the fact, and I don't care what you do. But unlike Judas, if you die, you'll die climbing. So cut the rhetoric, wipe the sweat of your self pity, stop eulogizing your condition and begin. JAMISON What do you mean, before the fact? Judas died before the fact. What do you mean? GEM Before the crucifixion, the signing of the contract of the New Testament of the spirit. Before the Old testament of an eye for an eye was to be amended by the law of love, Jamison, the law that your vows imply your only recourse. Now, let's begin. JAMISON I just don't feel up to it, Gem. No. (GEM STANDS OVER JAMISON. JESUS RISES AT THIS REFUSAL.) GEM It seems we have reached an impasse, as when in your societies a stronger nation is forced to influence a weaker nation towards a desired behavior, by some sort of display. Do I have to resort to such a display? (JAMISON PONDERS THE QUESTION, THEN LOOKS UP AT GEM.) JAMISON Yes! a spectacle would be nice. I am stoned to the bone with this fasting. I should deserve some entertainment. TAKE IT AWAY! GEM Jamison, choice demands two or more alternatives. If you leave now you will be left hanging in a world to which you can no longer relate. To remain without completing our task would surely drive you insane. You will not commit suicide because you believe in the trial and error of life and faith, which is obvious because you are still alive. To finish what we have started is your only real alternative. You have no choice! ... He (Jesus), as you claim, is your only way out. See! How did you like that display? Was it enough? (JAMISON GETS UP AND WALKS TOWARDS GEM.) JAMISON (TO JESUS) If I leave here now, where will I be and when? (JESUS WALKS SLOWLY TOWARDS JAMISON, PAST HIM, AND STOPS CLOSE TO THE DOOR, STARES AT IT.) GEM I think you know. JAMISON (TO GEM) I want you to say it. GEM In bed, beside your wife. JAMISON The moment I left her? (NO RESPONSE. JAMISON REFLECTS, PONDERS THIS AWESOME REVELATION.) She hasn't awakened all this time. She still sleeps by my side ... So this is a dream and I can't die? (NO RESPONSE) But if I do die, where will I be dead? (NO RESPONSE) She will awake and find me dead, then. (GEM AND JESUS BRIEFLY COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR EYES.) GEM As you well know, death can come in any state of consciousness. Yes, you can die beside her ... in your sleep. (FIRST DUMB STRUCK, THEN HIS BEHAVIOR SUGGEST A TRANSITION, FORCED RECOVERY. HE CHANGES THE SUBJECT, WALKS OVER TO JESUS.) JAMISON We give, or, rather, act as mediums through which God bestows indulgences on our laity - invisible graces for good deeds. Is this a good deed that I am doing? What will be my grace? (GEM RESUMES HER POSITION AT THE LECTERN AND PAGES THROUGH THE BIBLE.) GEM The indulgence here is work. The completion of a goal. For you to be all that we need when we are through. We don't have much time, Jamison, can we get started, please, Jamison? THE SECOND BREACH OF CONTRACT AS HERE INDICTED IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF LUCIFER'S SECOND OFFER, THE MISUSE OF MYSTERY. JAMISON Sure, sure we can. What choice have I with no alternatives. Anyway, I lack the guts to do anything else. Yes, let's begin. (JAMISON GOES TO THE BIBLE. GEM RECEDES, JESUS COMES UP TO JAMISON'S SIDE, POINTS TO THE EXCERPT AS JAMISON BEGINS TO READ.) " ... and saith unto him, 'If thou be the Son of God, cast yourself down, for it is written: He shall give His angels charge of Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up lest at any time Thy dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, 'It is written again, thou shalt not temp the Lord thy God." GEM It is not to be excused. You shall not solicit man's faith with the very things that tempt him: SECRETS! Secret people, places and things, secret symbols, secret tabernacles, secret chambers, secret titles, sanctuaries, vaults, rituals, secret agendas, magic words, magic sticks, politicians tricks ... USING HIS NAME! (GEM WALKS UP BETWEEN JAMISON AND JESUS; JESUS IS BREATHING HARD, TENSION SPREAD THROUGHOUT HIS POSTURE, STARES AT JAMISON ALMOST WITH MENACE. GEM GESTURES FOR JAMISON TO SIT IN THE HIGH BACK CHAIR. JAMISON WALKS OVER TO THE CHAIR CASTING GLANCES AT JESUS, A BIT STARTLED AT THIS, THE FIRST THREATENING POSTURE HE HAS WITNESSED FROM HIS SAVIOR. JAMISON SITS LOOKING WORN.) GEM The distance. Secret societies, brotherhoods, sisterhoods who control the world and use ancient symbols of ancient people who died the same way you all are going to die. Why do these groups exists? Why the secrets, the inner circles who hide behind your faith, who even decide who will run your governments. (GEM ENCIRCLES JAMISON IN THE CHAIR. JAMISON SITS BRACED LIKE SOME PRISONER MUNDANELY PREPARED FOR THE ALL TOO ROUTINE TORTURE OF INTERROGATION.) GEM Do you belong to one of these mysterious societies. (NO RESPONSE) Question. Why hide the holy things and whisper secret words? JAMISON (RAPID, ARTICULATE) To keep their meaning properly interpreted by those responsible for the teachings and their messages unforsaken. GEM Who can change them? JAMISON (RAPID, ARTICULATE) They can be changed to tear down all that we have built and all that has safe guarded us from self destruction. GEM Now what does that mean? What has that to do with Jesus, with scripture? They believe that crap? What can they change, whoever GEM THEY are, the relics and words or what they represent? JAMISON You know the answer. GEM Lock a church? Angels fear to tread? ... Are you afraid of God? JAMISON (OUTRAGED) This is the world, not your pure law place! GEM (AS GEM ORATES AROUND THE CHAIR AREA.) Come on, you threaten people ... You corner them with fear of the unknown ... You make them afraid of God with your cloak and dagger protocol ... Some of you use the power of your faith to cross over to the dark side! ... You chant evil secret words, confusing them, telling them that God is unreachable, and THEN turn around and tell them THEY can be gods, and THEN tell them, but not without YOU, who have the secret that you WON'T tell them ... Some of you with degrees of IN- fallibility serve the other side USING HIS NAME! (PAUSE, TRANSITION, CONFRONTATION POSTURE. INTERROGATION BECOMES SEVERE) JAMISON I am hypocrite number two, remember! (KNEELS ON FLOOR TO CONFRONT JESUS) Jesus, you know better than that of me!!! GEM SIT BACK DOWN? (BOTH GEM AND JESUS POINT TO THE CHAIR FOR JAMISON TO SIT. JAMISON, A WORN PRISONER FRANTICALLY SITS BACK IN THE CHAIR.) Well, as for you, hypocrite number two, of the true faith, you are even more dangerous. If you had something ... FREE WILL! ... that could last forever ... LOVE! ... that no one could harm or change or steal, would you find it necessary to lock it up? JAMISON You know the answer. GEM (NO RESPONSE) But you do. Why?! JAMISON You know the answer! GEM (NO RESPONSE. GEM LEANS OVER JAMISON FROM BEHIND THE CHAIR) You are known by your works alone, did you know that? (NO RESPONSE) DID YOU KNOW THAT? ... They come to know him buy their works alone, did you know that? ... Of course you do. You teach it all the time. When they come to you, oh, true believer, when they come to you with discoveries through art, you suppress it, through science, you call it blaspheme, through education, you limit it. Where did Christ go and who did not follow, invited or not, to go with him, GEM without conditions except that they leave behind their conditions. Who do you think you are that you holy men, claim that only you can fly? ... Well, let me tell you something, sir, they can know anything they want ... Do you deny that you ministers have cast yourself down upon the rocks to show that you are the keepers or removers of Christ? JAMISON I do deny it ... GEM ... Jamison, if you admit that you do cast down, then you realize you must tell them exactly how you did it so they can fly too? JAMISON I said I don't cast. GEM Ingenious! If the miracle manna don't get 'em, then the awe, the subliminal seduction will. You pass out REPENT! REPENT! brochures, and they gotta guess who will walk the water this time ... (JAMISON CAN TAKE LITTLE MORE OF THIS. IT IS ALL HE CAN DO TO BEAR LISTENING.) ... Secret plots behind their backs, talking in riddles, T.V. It has to stop, YOU are going to stop it ... HERE! ... NOW! (THERE IS AN INFINITE PAUSE.) JAMISON Well when I wake up, I'll look into it, Gem ... If I don't oversleep. GEM (TO JESUS) Oh, what's the use. (TO JAMISON) You hate this place, don't you? Wanna go home? Had enough of confronting divinity outside your own fervent faith? Wouldn't you like to tear down all the walls, knock down all the doors, and open, Jamison, open wide and walk without your collar choking your neck. Leave! Now! Go ahead. Take your free will and GO! THE DOOR CREAKS OPEN. THERE IS A LONG PAUSE AS JAMISON STANDS AND STARES AT THE DOOR, THEN TURNS TO STAND CONFRONTATIONAL IN FRONT OF JESUS. GEM WALKS QUICKLY OVER IN ANTICIPATION OF SOME POSSIBLE VIOLATION. JESUS LOOKS JAMISON IN THE EYE. JAMISON TURNS AWAY, CROSSES OVER TO THE DOOR, STARES OUT AT THE LIGHT WITH A STRANGE CURIOSITY, THEN STARES AT THE CROSS, THEN SPEAKS TO JESUS.) JAMISON Here is a sign, full of mystery. You made it, we took it, so what do you want? This sign, like a mother's caress, like a pain killer in many a dark hour has stood between the force of Satan and many a stern man when all the laws, and scriptures and truth itself could not save us from him. With its mere presence, as a medallion or good luck charm, I have seen this sign save sanity in an insane world where there was no brace against the force of Satan. (TO GEM, IN A RAGE) What did you let me build this for if you are so against mystery and relics? (JAMISON CROSSES BACK QUICKLY TO THE INTERROGATION CHAIR AND SITS) GEM It is not the relics, or their memory. It is how you use them to GEM solicit memberships, MEMBERSHIPS, I say, instead souls, that proves disgusting. AND YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! (POINTS TO THE CROSS) That's no sign. The Christ died on it, paying for your sins in this life before he went to the next. But you tell them how they can perform weird rituals for the forgiveness of their sins without the red tape of forgiving themselves or each other. I dare you to tell them they can only pay for their sins by paying for them. (JAMISON LOOKS AT JESUS, IGNORES GEM.) JAMISON Let me ask you a question. How did you let us all get so out of hand? Man is corrupt by nature, original sin, right? (TO GEM) RIGHT?! (BACK TO JESUS) To Pay! To come to God of our own free will? You and your apostles set up one of the biggest public relation campaigns in the history of man. And they were all dead, or murdered before we even got started. How could you blunder like that, Jesus? GEM Jamison .. JAMISON ... I didn't ask you, I asked him ... GEM ... I'm sorry, Jamison, you know I answer the questions ... JAMISON ... I don't want to hear nothing from you. I asked him! ... Why can't he talk to me out of his mouth, why, Jesus, why? What have we done to you, have I done, that you no longer represent yourself. My faith is weak, but it's clean, Lord, CLEAN ... You know that. Talk to me! (NO RESPONSE) Well, I can't understand this ... this interrogator ... I mean (TO GEM) what EXACTLY do you want from me and what is your position anyway, that it has to be any of your business? Why can't you leave us alone? GEM (FEIGNED POSTURE OF ATTENTION, ANNOUNCING) I am the tender to the throne, the 7th to 10th levels in and on which the almighty resides ... JAMISON (MOCKING) ... What does THAT mean?! ... GEM ... The guardian of the circle and the pyramid, entries to levels of heaven and hell. The messenger to beings of trial and error ... JAMISON ... Sounds like a MYSTERY to me! GEM ... Look, you, I can carry babes on the wings of your polluted air, GEM I can take their sacred breath back to the void before they old enough to cry. I can stay your side and protect you from death AND life. I could be the sword of Democoles and smite you into pieces ... (GEM IN A RAGE STALKS JAMISON. JESUS SHOWS INTENSE CONCERN AND IS PREPARED TO INTERVENE. JAMISON STANDS HIS GROUND, FEARLESS TREMBLING.) Oooh, I could smite you! (GEM RAISES HER HAND AS IF TO STRIKE JAMISON. JESUS COMES TO HER, SHE FREEZES, CALMS.) I could and most simply be your fairy tale mirror, mirror on the wall. But for your purpose and task, Jamison, I AM THE LEADER OF THE 7TH TO 10TH LEGIONS OF ANGELS! ... JAMISON Okay ... GEM ... THE LEGIONS WHO FIGHT ... JAMISON ... OKAY! ... GEM ... THE GREAT PRINCE ... JAMISON OKAY, OKAY, FINE, FINE!! ... Well, now, oh fearless leader of the legions, suppose you tell me how so many sins could have been committed when the New Testament was suppose to bring about cutbacks in man's bad habits? ... (TO JESUS) Did you actually believe we could carry out the spread of your God forsaken freedom. That homeless spirituality your precious twelve could not bear 20 centuries ago when they were laying down their clothes? So! We made a deal with Rome and England, and the Americas and Biafra and Tibet, Nigeria, Russia and the whole freakin' missionary world, all societies, all religions, all frauds all! ... So! We are here battling like your angel here ... SO COME DOWN OFF YOUR CROSS, MAN! ... (GEM STANDS AT READY, JESUS WAVES HER QUIET) and you tell everybody how difficult it is to bleed of your own free will. To come to God without bait, a plan, a career, a secret society and a preacher when none of these work. Reveal that mystery to me. GEM Are you willing to pay the price, Reverend Jamison? (JESUS PICKS UP THE NAILS, AND HAMMER THORNS, EXTENDS THEM TO JAMISON HANDS. JAMISON STARES AT THE ARTIFACTS.) Are you willing to pay the price, Reverend Jamison? JAMISON I never knew how dearly you were still paying, until you shared yourself with me at that cross over there when we first met ... I'm YOUR secret, aren't I? This place, this dream, the time we are JAMISON spending. Another ritual born. (REFUSES TO TAKE THE ARTIFACTS) They are yours, sir. You can keep them. You take these ... (POINTS TO THE CROSS) and that and carry them for the rest of eternity if you dare. You paid your dues your way. Now let me pay mine, my way. You gave yourself to save them, and I sold my soul to help you. You did it with what you were given and I continued with what was left ... anything necessary ... Now ... Get out. (MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS UP/INTRO TO THE LORD'S PRAYER ARRANGED AS JESUS TAKES THE NAILS AND HAMMER AND SLAMS THEM ON THE DESK. GEM GOES TO CONFER WITH JESUS, BUT HE WAVES HER AWAY, APPROACHES JAMISON EYE TO EYE, AND DISAPPEARS. GEM IS VISIBLY ENRAGED. GEM GIVES JAMISON A LONG LOOK, DISAPPEARS. JAMISON WALKS OVER TO THE DOOR, HESITATES, THEN REACHES OUT TO THE KNOB AND PULLS THE DOOR SHUT. JAMISON WALKS OVER TO THE ALTAR AND SPRAWLS FACE DOWN BEFORE IT.) SLOW FADE TO BLACK OUT END OF ACT III ACT IV A SOLOIST SINGS A VERY DELICATELY POWERFUL RENDITION OF "THE LORD'S PRAYER" AS JAMISON LIGHTS A CANDLE, WALKS DOWN STAGE. AS HE SITS SQUAT AND CONTINUES TO SIT ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF THE LIT CANDLE AS THE RENDITION PROGRESSES TO ITS ZENITH. JUST BEFORE THE AMEN, JAMISON STANDS TO RECEIVE JESUS BY STRETCHING OUT HIS HANDS. JESUS WALKS TOWARD HIM, TAKES HIS HAND IN CLASP, THEY EMBRACE, THEN JAMISON GESTURES FOR JESUS TO OCCUPY THE HIGH BACK CHAIR. JAMISON SITS BACK DOWN BEFORE HIS CANDLE. HE AND JESUS ENJOY THE MOMENT OF THE HYMN'S DENOUEMENT. THE HYMN ENDS AS GEM ENTERS AND LIGHTS THE THREE CANDLES ON THE ALTAR AND BEAHVES IN REVERENT REGARD FOR THEIR MOMENT BEFORE SPEAKING. GEM Were you meditating? JAMISON No, But I'm still here. Aren't you surprised? GEM No. JAMISON I've written a little poem, Gem, right here in the palms of my hands. Just a silly rhyme actually. Listen: MIRACLE, MYSTERY AND PROPERTY, MISUSED BY THE CHILD MAN. HAS STRIPPED US OF ALL INNOCENCE AND THREATENS TO WIPE OUT OUR SPAN. WHERE WE WERE MEANT TO RISE ABOVE TEMPTATION AND EVOLVE BEYOND AGGRESSION, MIRACLE, MYSTERY AND PROPERTY HAVE BUILT A MONUMENT TO SIN. AND AS WE BREAK OUR BOND WITH GOD WITH OUR TRICKS AND OUR MYTHS AND OUR DEEDS, ANOTHER HAS BEEN SENT WITH MALICIOUS INTENT. THE ANTICHRIST AND HIS BREED. WHERE? ... WHO IS THE ANTICHRIST? COULD IT BE IN HERE? COULD IT BE IN ME? GEM Jamison, we are here to go through the final ... (JESUS GOES OVER TO THE LECTERN, AND FLIPS THROUGH THE BIBLE. JAMISON IS LOOKING AT HIM AND FOLLOWS OVER WITH HIM.) We are here, finally to talk about property, the nine tenths of your fruitless encounter with give and take. THE THIRD BREACH OF CONTRACT AS HERE INDICTED IS THE ACCEPTANCE OF LUCIFER'S THIRD OFFER, THE MISUSE OF PROPERTY. JAMISON (ALMOST CUTTING GEM OFF) Ah, yes, you still need a confession. (BEGINS TO READ FROM SCRIPTURES) "The devil taketh him up to an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; ... and saith unto him, 'All these things will I give thee if you will fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said unto him, 'Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and only him shalt thou serve.' The devil leaveth him and, behold, Angels came and ministered unto him." Come here, Gem. (GEM'S EXPRESSION BECOMES HUMAN AND TAUT FROM THE IMPACT OF THE VISION.) Look out there ... beyond your seventh to tenth legions. Out there into the soul of man, whose only link with immortality is inheritance, possession, power. We will covet, slander, steal, kill, to protect our earnings from redemption itself with weapons that destroy planets. How's that for a confession to the misuse of JAMISON property? (JESUS WALKS UP TO THE CROSS, TAKES THE ROPE THAT TIES AT HIS WAIST, AND BEGINS TO LASH IT FIRMLY TO SECURE THE CROSS TO SOME STRUCTURE. GEM TURNS TO JAMISON WHO IS CONFUSED. GEM GETS THE BASIN, SETS THE BASIN DOWN BY JESUS WHO IS KNEELING AT JAMISON'S FEET. JESUS BEGINS TO ROLL UP JAMISON'S PANTS AND BEGINS TO STROKE HIS LEG WITH SLOW POWERFUL STROKES. JAMISON SEEMS ALMOST TO FALL INTO A TRANCE FROM THE POWER OF THE STROKES. THE POWER OF THE STROKES INCREASE AS GEM DELIVERS.) GEM But you, minister, are the teacher, and more than the wise you know the law of giving. You have so many teachers who know. Know of sharing a planet that could be bountiful for all. But for you what does the power of property do? ... What of the catholics? The jesuits reigned supreme in a world wrapped in an ice age of Roman Catholic morality ... JAMISON ... THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS, who for property sent missionaries riding point in the battle field ... (THE RHYTHM AND POWER OF JESUS'S STROKES AND JAMISON'S REACTION TO THEM INCREASE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS CONFESSION.) GEM ...In Africa, they brought them the bible ... JAMISON ... and took their land ... GEM ... The Jews ... JAMISON ... Israel returned to the promised land only to create another land promised to kill in the name of God ... Islam ... GEM ... God blessed the Moslem world by returning their oil only to have the blessed curse themselves with endless war ... JAMISON ...Self destruction ... GEM ... Spend thrift greed ... TOGETHER ... In the name of God ... JAMISON The protestants ... Anglo Saxons won the fruits of a new land overpopulated by Indians ... They in their divine right decided to domesticate what was left of them after years of slaughter, in the name of the King, then the constitution, and now the New World Order, all in the name of God. Millions of African slaves, their righteous laws found to be less than men, so they let them be slaves and used the bible to justify the rest ... JAMISON, BREATHES BEYOND PHYSICAL CAPACITY, WRENCHING, FILLED WITH THE REALITY-PAIN OF HIS WORDS STROKED BY JESUS WASHING OF HIS FEET WHICH IS FRENZIED. JAMISON It's our tradition and it hasn't stopped from crusades to caste systems, slavery to genocide, terrorists attacks to masons and JAMISON soldier-priest of rome, all in the name of god and in defense of territory ... IN THE NAME OF GOD ... DEFENSE OF TERRITORY ... NAME OF GOD ... DEFENSE OF TERI...TOR...EE...NAME ... GOD ... TERRITOR ... (JAMISON FIGHTS TO GET AWAY FROM JESUS AND THE WASHING. HE SNATCHES AWAY HIS LEG, RUNS TO A CORNER OF THE ROOM. HE IS ANGRY AND AFRAID.) STOP! ENOUGH! Your job here is finished. Get off my back and get on with the finale. I want to know when I get crucified. GEM (GEM IS TAKING AWAY THE BASIN.) Within the span of your life it is likely the Middle East will rock with a nuclear blast that will send three religious nations, the Masons, or USA, the Zionist, or Israel, the Moslems, or Arab nations into a holocaust of extinguishing warfare. Extinction! If you escape that fate then there is the ozone, oil spills, diseases of greed in your sex drive, manufactured genetics, ... you are all going to die ... What would you be willing to do, Reverend Jamison, if the challenge be yours, personally to have the world make peace with the earth? JAMISON (TO CHRIST WHO BENT ROCKING ON THE FLOOR AS DOES JAMISON IN THE CHAIR) It didn't work! The crucifixion didn't work. GEM It's not about what worked or didn't work. It's about what you GEM are willing to do. JAMISON (TO CHRIST) Then it would only be fitting that those meant to represent you, but instead betrayed you should swing this time. Give me a couple of days and maybe I can round up a couple of bishops, a few Rabbi, an Imam or two, some Brahmins and several Buddhist monks. We could have a bonafied international burning at the stake. The Kristnas would love it. I don't know what good it would do for world peace and the environment, but ... GEM You only serve to betray yourselves. That is not the issue here. JAMISON Miracle Mystery and Property, okay, I take them back up the mountain, God only knows in whatever form, fine, then what. What IS the Issue? (JESUS WALKS BRISKLY OVER TO THE DESK, GRABS THE NAILS, CROWN AND THORN AND THROW THEM JAMISON'S' FEET. JESUS IS BREATHING HEAVILY AND WITH MUCH ANGER.) GEM (CALMLY, INTENSELY) I just told you. Didn't you heAR me. You are all, all going to die an unnatural death ... And it doesn't have to be. To behave like you? To crucify you? You will wish it so. (GEM LOOKS AT JESUS AND NODS.) GEM But maybe if you were shown what it's like to be crucified, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to answer my QUESTION! What are you, Jamison, you, gonna do to stop the madness? JAMISON I'd be willing to do every ... GEM Wrong answer. Be specific. JAMISON What do you want me to say? GEM What you have to say. JAMISON I would say I'd give my life. GEM There will be enough dying for your death not to make one bit of difference. He gave His life so that you could live and take care. And you keep crucifying Him, and crucifying Him, and crucifying Him ... JAMISON ... What can one person do? ... GEM ... AND CRUCIFYING HIM ... JAMISON ... WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DOOO?!!! ... GEM ... AND CRUCIFYING HIIIMMM!!! ... JAMISON ... WHAT-CAN-ONE-PER-SON-DO?!!! GEM NO MORE!!! (TO JESUS) I am finished here. I am sorry. (THERE IS A MOMENT BETWEEN JESUS AND GEM: HER SORROW, HIS UNDERSTANDING AND FEAR OF THE ALTERNATIVE, THEIR KINSHIP AND REGARD.) As for you Jamison. You must and will fulfill the terms of the contract and return those gifts of Miracle, Mystery and Property back to the evil part of yourselves that went sliming back up the mountain whispering to Lucifer. Today you will relive the end of the Carpenter's mission as you have relived his crossing of the desert. I hope you will survive what you have cleansed yourselfto do on this the fortieth day. (ASSUMES A FORMAL STANCE) ONCE THIS DAY IS OVER AND THESE TERMS ARE FULFILLED, IN THE STRICT ORDER OF CHRISTIANITY, YOU WILL WAKE UP AND LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, THE DEMONS OF MAGIC, MYTH AND POWER TO DEATH ... AND ENJOY A JUST AND FRUITFUL TRIAL HAVING WON BACK YOUR JUDGEMENT DAY ... SO BE IT. (JAMISON LOOKS AT GEM QUISICALLY HEARING THIS COMMAND) Now ... I'll leave the two of you alone. (GEM WALKS OVER TO JESUS. WITH EACH THEIR HANDS EXTENDED, FINGERTIPS ALMOST TOUCHING AND SHARED WARMTH, PRIVATE BEYOND HUMAN PERCEPTION, SHE PARTS WITH THIS QUIET, INTENSE SALUTATION. GEM DISAPPEARS. MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS UP/CRUCIFIXION HYMN.) THE CRUCIFIXION JESUS PICKS UP THE NAILS CROWN AND THORN, LOOKS UP AT THE CROSS, THEN HANDS THE NAILS AND HAMMER TO JAMISON. JESUS THEN BEGINS TO DISROBE DOWN TO THE WAIST. WALKS UP TO THE CROSS, TURNS AND FACES JAMISON. JAMISON UNDERSTANDS, SUDDENLY, THAT THIS MEANS THAT JESUS IS THE ONE TO BE CRUCIFIED. JAMISON SHAKES HIS HEAD IN DISBELIEF, DROPS THE NAILS, HAMMER AND THORNS. JAMISON GEM! ... GEM! ... GEM! ... ARE YOU CRAZY?! I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT! ... OK, OK, AH, WHAT WOULD I DO? WHAT WOULD I DO? AH, AH, ... GEM! ... COME BACK HERE! Gem! I'll do anything. Tell me the answer. Please! Gem! GEEEMMMM! (GEM IS GONE. JESUS GRABS HIM AS JAMISON GOES FOR THE DOOR. JAMISON TEARS HIMSELF AWAY CRAWLING ABOUT THE FLOOR, RUNNING ABOUT THE ROOM AS JESUS STALKS HIM.) (MUSIC: THEME TO THE CRUCIFIXION) JAMISON HEAD FOR THE DOOR IN THE TERROR THAT HE MUST CRUCIFY JESUS CHRIST. JESUS BLOCK HIS WAY. STRUGGLES TO SUBDUE JAMISON, FINALLY THEY BOTH LAY BREATHLESS ON THE FLOOR. JESUS FIRMLY LIFTS THE LIMP JAMISON AND STANDS HIM ERECT, PICKS UP THE THORNS, FORCES THEM INTO JAMISON'S HANDS. JAMISON SQUEEZES HIS OWN HANDS ON THE THORNS IN PROTEST TILL BLOOD COMES FROM HIS PALM. JESUS MAINTAINS HIS HOLD OF JAMISON'S HANDS AND THE THORNS. HE TAKES JAMISON'S HANDS STILL WRAPPED AROUND THE THORNS AND PLACES THE THORNS BRUTALLY ON HIS OWN HEAD, WRENCHING IN THE PAIN. JAMISON CRIES OUT IN HORROR AT WHAT JESUS HAS JUST MADE HIM DO. JESUS PULLS JAMISON TO THE CROSS, PLEADS WITH HIM IN GESTURES THAT HE MUST CRUCIFY HIM AS HE SPREADS HIS ARMS IN PREPARATION. JAMISON SNATCHES AWAY, RUNS AND IS CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT THAT WAS FIRST INFLICTED UPON HIM BY GEM, IS BROUGHT TO THE POINT OF AFFIXATION, RAISES HIS ARMS WITH ALL HIS STRENGTH AGAINST THE POWER OF THE LIGHT, PULLS THE LIGHT INTO HIM WITH A ROAR, BECOMES STILL, STARES INTO THE LIGHT WITH A CALM AS HE SEES THE FACE OF THE FATHER. THERE IS A TRANSFORMATION IN JAMISON'S DISPOSITION LIKE ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED IN HIS STAY IS SUDDENLY COMING TO LIGHT. HE BRIEFLY RESIST THE COMMAND HE IS RECEIVING, SOMBERLY GOES OVER TO PICK UP THE HAMMER AND NAILS, LOOKS AT HORROR OF THEM, DRIFTS BACK TO THE LIGHT, FALLS TO HIS KNEES, LOOKS UP AS IF TO AWAIT A RESPONSE FROM THE HEAVENS TO GRANT HIM A REPRIEVE, INDEED, AS IF TO REFUSE TO MOVE AGAIN IN LIFE UNTIL HE GETS ONE. THE EXPRESSION ON HIS FACE TELLS US HE MUST. HE RESIGNS HIMSELF IN A GROWL THAT VIBRATES IN ALL OUR SOULS WHILE HE RAISES HIS ARMS IN THE AIR WITH THE HAMMER AND NAILS. JAMISON FAAAAATHERRRR!!! HE RISES QUICKLY, WALKS UP TO JESUS AT THE CROSS WITH HAMMER AND NAILS. STILL REFUSING JAMISON GRABS JESUS AROUND THE WAIST AND CLINGS TO HIM. JESUS TAKES JAMISON'S HAND WITH THE NAIL, HELPS JAMISON PLACE THE NAIL IN HIS PALM. JAMISON DRAWS BACK THE HAMMER WITH SWIFT POWER, AND ONE LAST GROWL. FREEZES. ALL FADES TO BLACK EXCEPT A PIN SPOT ON JESUS' FACE, THAT SLOWLY FADES TO BLACK. CURTAIN TO BE PRINTED ON THE BACK OF ALL PROGRAMS: POEM OF A CHILD I'd like now to say Who God chose to call It wasn't the prophet, but the sinner who saw That the promised land Holds but one kind of man The one left behind in the desert sand.