ACT 1

Scene 1

SETTING: Morning of Day One. We are in a

jail visiting room. Between the

prisoner and the visitor is a

thick window. The wall it is in

runs from stage front to back,

with chairs on either side, for

the prisoner stage left, and the

visitor stage right. The rear of

the stage is suitable as a screen

for projecting text or video.

Short phrases from the King James

Bible are shown

AT RISE: Jeremiah sits stage left. Paul

enters from right and sits. There

is a screen stage rear that allows

text to be projected so that the

audience might read it easily.

(Projected text: Romans 8:1 There

therefore is now no condemnation for

those who are in Christ Jesus.)

JEREMIAH

Thank you for coming. This means a lot to me.

(The projected text changes to: Rom

8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life

has set you free in Christ Jesus from

the law of sin and death.)

PAUL

I don't even know why I came. I didn't think I even could, or would. I don't think I'll ever come again.

JEREMIAH

I've been expecting that this might be the last time we will talk face to face. For weeks I've been trying to rehearse what I would say to you; and yet I haven't been able to settle on anything. I am sorry about what I have done being used to ruin your life. I just want you to know I am sorry.

PAUL

You should be sorry for all the lives you've wrecked.

JEREMIAH

I am. Every day I am more sorry.

PAUL

You should try making that statement when you get a chance.

JEREMIAH

I am going to someday. I hear that you have changed your name. I don't blame you.

PAUL

Having the same first and last names as you just wasn't working. I changed my name to Paul B. Fleet about a year ago, a few days after you were arrested.

(pauses)

Everybody wants to know why you did it.

JEREMIAH

I can't say why.

PAUL

Until you can say it, I am left stuck with the role of trying to fill the vacuum. I try to figure out how things could seem to be one way, and really be another way. How you could quote the Bible, say grace and go to church. You've ruined religion for me, along with everything else.

So I don't want to even suspect that you are going to say Jesus' name. I'll leave if you do.

JEREMIAH

For that as well I am sorry.

PAUL

If you don't have anything besides I'm sorry to say, I might as well get back to what is left of my life, my life as Paul Fleet. You know, it's kind of sweet being able to

push your buttons with this piece of bullet proof glass between us.

JEREMIAH

Are you afraid of me?

PAUL

I can't believe you even have to ask that question. You must be one of the most egotistical men on earth.

JEREMIAH

The shrinks call me narcissistic, among other things.

(The projected text changes to:

Rom 8:3 For God has done what the

law, weakened by the flesh, could not

do.)

PAUL

You have to at least try to tell me why.

JEREMIAH

You know, I came up with a new reason why almost every time I did it, as well as for hundreds of times I didn't.

(He stands and moves generally

stage front, pacing somewhat.)

I actually remember the rationalizations better than their

faces and names. But even the rationalizations tend to blur together. I've never let myself write them down, out of fear that it would provide witness against me.

PAUL

As of last Thursday, that is no longer a consideration.

JEREMIAH

That still leaves the blur. Today all I can do is try to listen to what is on my heart. Today I feel that I am possessed by a demon who reports directly to the Devil, to Satan. Lately I pray almost constantly to be delivered from this demon; but it hasn't happened yet. I can't deliver myself, and I am so repulsive that nobody wants anything to do with me. Which reminds me that I feel sorry for myself that people ignore me, or worse, laugh at me. My first impulse, I suppose, with all these rationalizations is to put the blame someplace outside myself. The devil is the ultimate example of that. For sure, though, it won't work at all for all those who don't believe in the Devil. I would say to them, whatever their beliefs, forget about having another reason to detest me. You only need one reason or 48. If you will hear me say one thing - I have met the Devil, and he exists as surely as I do. People today laugh at the Devil. Not a good idea. I won't go so far as to say that the Devil rules the earth. But a very sizeable hunk of it, definitely, yes!

(The projected text changes to:

Rom 8:3 By sending his own Son in the

likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

he condemned sin in the flesh...)

PAUL

Tell me about the day that the Devil's spirit took possession of you. Do you remember it?

JEREMIAH

Do I? Like it was yesterday. I was thirteen. It was the middle of the night. I suddenly woke up, so suddenly that I wasn't sure whether the dream kept going after I woke up, or whether I just dreamed I woke up and was really still dreaming. The spirit was starring me straight in the face. The spirit had a face like a wolf, except red, a face with black eyes, and a white tongue hanging out. The tongue slipped in and out a few times, and it said, "From now on I will be living inside you." No, I countered, shaking my head like I was in a grade B horror flick. I never even felt anything when it took me over. Until a few years ago, I mainly wondered what to make of it. And then one day I had a second encounter with the spirit. Scoffing at the Devil is almost as stupid as scoffing at God.

PAUL

And yet you made the choice to let that spirit possess you. It couldn't have done it otherwise.

JEREMIAH

But I hardly knew what was happening.

PAUL

Bull. By thirteen you had been busy opening doors to the devil for three or four years. You took drugs when you were ten.

JEREMIAH

I stopped that.

PAUL

Later. You beat off like a rabbit. You tortured animals. You day-dreamed of killing things. Before she died, grandma told it all to me. How you always, grade in grade out, became obsessed with the most popular girl in your class. How you would stand outside their houses in the dark for hours trying to see if you could see them through the curtains, hoping they would open their bedroom window and wave at you.

(The projected text changes to:

Rom 8:4 ... in order that the righteous

requirement of the law might be

fulfilled in us, who walk not

according to the flesh but according

to the Spirit.)

JEREMIAH

Tissue and time bonds all. String theorists think nothing of imagining 6 or 7 more dimensions right next to ours, no matter that we will never photograph or map them. How different is that from how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? While relativity theory, which is proven, is seen as somehow predisposing us to moral relativism. The obvious truth stares us in the face for centuries before one or two vigilant watchers see it, the truth, for what it is and cry out. People just agree to ignore a lot of the basic stuff. From Emerson to Einstein, everybody likes a simple theory. I am prepared to find my truth a little rougher around the edges. Like, I don't want to tell anybody but you and Sharon that I am possessed. I would never try to use that as a defense. I can see that it is relevant and not relevant at the same time. I can see that it is very important to believe in the devil; and yet I can laugh at other people who do. I think it is critical to transcend neurosis yet don't even know how to define it. You can tell a lot about a person by their Bible. Nobody ever stopped laughing about me reading mine at work on breaks long enough to ask themselves what I was finding in there. Maybe if just one other person had figured that out, it would have stopped me short. The first one was fun, and a few after that. Soon the fun fled, to be replaced by something a lot like work. I always was fighting getting impatient. I spent hundreds of hours cleaning my trucks. There are two sides to my psyche, the light and the dark. I have never understood why there are so many prostitutes. God should have been able to create a world without prostitutes. With no prostitutes, no adulterers, think of how much less sin there would be. So I had to have an incredible amount of sex. But what a crash when it was done. The sex I had with the whores was way different than the sex I had with my wives. My wives I always dominated. The whores I let dominate me, until just before it was over. Just, ... you know. I had to show them that side of me but then hated that they might laugh or tell. I didn't want them to tell the other whores. I wanted each whore to approach me like a blank slate. The spirit that has possessed me hooks me in by encouraging me to think of myself as He would be when come again. When I am under the spell of the spirit, I feel that I am a god. But since this is the result of twisted spirit, I become the god of hate rather than the god of love. The feeling of being a god, even a twisted one, is so sublime that it is really difficult adjusting to reality. I suppose that's how I would define neurotic: difficulty adjusting to reality. It is still very depressing to face a future with no room for that god.

(The projected text changes to:

Rom 8:5-6 For those who live according

to the flesh set their minds on the

things of the flesh, but those who

live according to the Spirit set

their minds on things of the Spirit.

To set the mind on the flesh is

death, but to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace.)

PAUL

When I pray for the souls of the women you have murdered, I pray for them all using the one name Mary. Like so:

O nobly born Mary,

when you stop breathing,

and your vital force sinks

into the center of your brain,

your soul experiences the Holy Ghost

and enters the world between earth and heaven,

where all things are like the sky,

and the intellect is like a vacuum.

At this moment, know thyself.

The time has now come

for you to learn your judgment.

Soon you will be face to face

with your maker.

Blessed Mary, now that you

are experiencing the Holy Ghost,

stay in that embrace

as long as possible.

You are touching the reality

of God the Father.

Your mind has become

nothing, no obstruction

to the underlying reality

of God the Father.

Know that you are worthy

in God's eyes.

Your acceptance

into Heaven is certain.

If God's judgment

was not predestined,

and is thus not instantaneous,

you enter the phase

of prolonged judgment.

The deeper you experience

the Holy Ghost, the better.

You see your family wondering

what has become of you.

You see your body

dumped in a gully.

You can see your murderer

coming back

to visit your body.

(The projected text changes to: Rom

8:7-8 For the mind that is set on

the flesh is hostile to God, for it

does not submit to God's law; indeed

it cannot. Those who are in the flesh

cannot please God.)

O nobly born Mary,

listen to our prayers for you.

Do not let go

of the Holy Ghost.

Do not cling to this life.

Under no circumstances

will you be coming back.

O nobly born Mary,

cast away your fear, terror and sin

upon the sea of the word of God.

and continue to pray

as you have been taught.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name.

The demons who are dancing around you

will soon be departing.

O nobly born Mary,

as you experience the Holy Ghost,

subtle, glorious,

radiant, awesome,

know that this is your true nature.

Recognize yourself.

You will hear from that Holy

embrace, the voice of God,

calling your name, Mary,

echoing as in a thousand canyons,

welcoming you into heaven.

Whatever happens to your body

now causes you no harm.

The Lord loves you, knowing

every thing you have done.

Know now that the evil that befell

you was the work of Satan,

and the people who have allowed

Satan entrance into their souls.

O nobly born Mary,

your spirit was pure.

You did not deserve

to be murdered.

That is not what

the Father wanted for you.

This is the last time

you will wronged.

You move out of the world between

earth and heaven, and into heaven.

I started out saying I would pray for each of your victims.

I long since did that. Now I pray for them as often as possible, for my peace as well as theirs.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 2

SETTING: Day One evening. Gina's

apartment's living room, modest

and somewhat Spartan, with couch,

entertainment center and book cases. It is evening and the

lighting is low. Two candles burn

on a coffee table in front of the

couch, which faces stage front.

The end of a Gregorian chant plays

softly.

AT RISE: As the chant ends Gina gets up

from the couch and walks to the

stereo stage rear. Paul is

relaxing on the couch and sipping an after dinner cup of coffee or

tea..

GINA

(scanning over some CD titles.)

Anything special you would like to hear?

PAUL

(Turning around on the couch to stare at Gina as she squats by the stereo.)

How about that new EmmyLou Harris, Stumble Into Grace?

GINA

That's out in the car.

PAUL

I'm tired of the chanting. How about something kind of folkie?

GINA

Yesterday I got a CD at a thrift store for 50 cents. It's some nuns who set some psalms to their own music. I haven't listened to it yet. It starts with the 51st Psalm.

(Gina starts CD, very soft folk

music. The words to the psalm appear

as projected text. Psalm 51:1-2 To

the chief Musician, A Psalm of David,

when Nathan the prophet came unto

him, after he had gone in to

Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness:

according unto the multitude of thy

tender mercies blot out my

transgressions.)

That is kind of folkie.

PAUL

You fixed a great dinner. Thanks a lot.

GINA

(Sitting back down on couch.)

I heard somebody say the other day, "Everything everybody says is a lie." Do you think that is true?

PAUL

Who said that?

GINA

I can't remember.

PAUL

Well, was it somebody on the bus? Or like at a lecture?

GINA

I think maybe it was on TV, maybe a movie director. I don't think I ever heard of him before.

(Text changes to: Psalm 51:2-3

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin. For I

acknowledge my transgressions: and my

sin is ever before me.)

PAUL

Is that a lie?

GINA

No.

PAUL

Then it couldn't be true. You just told me the truth. Therefore everybody doesn't always lie.

GINA

Maybe he meant in movies.

PAUL

Everything in movies is drama. That's different than lies. There can't be real lies in movies.

GINA

When was the last time you told a lie?

(Text changes to: Psalm 51:4-5

Against thee, thee only, have I

sinned, and done this evil in thy

sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be

clear when thou judgest. Behold, I

was shapen in iniquity; and in sin

did my mother conceive me.)

PAUL

(Visibly not prepared to tell the truth.)

I can't remember.

GINA

Come on. I bet you've lied to me tonight.

PAUL

I don't think so.

GINA

My dinner really wasn't that good. I forgot to put in rosemary and put in too much salt.

PAUL

It wasn't that bad.

GINA

You said it was great.

PAUL

OK, that was stretching it. We need to get to know each other better before we tackle this subject.

GINA

Oh yeah, like that makes a difference. I know a lot of married couples that lie to each other all the time. But I'll let you off the hook and change the subject. I've been thinking about this the last few days. We take our pluralistic society for granted. But doesn't somebody besides the police and the courts have to keep an eye on people who are going over the edge? They can't do it all by themselves.

(Projected text: Psalm 51:6-7

Behold, thou desirest truth in the

inward parts: and in the hidden part

thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be

clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter

than snow.)

PAUL

Are you talking about some kind of vigilante justice?

GINA

This thought is not fully formulated yet. I am not talking about going back to the mindset that produced the Salem witch trials. There are a lot of creepy people in our society that don't much bother to hide their creepiness and nobody seems to think much about it. Really though, it only takes one person to ruin it for everybody.

PAUL

One person?

GINA

Yeah, like Hitler. The trouble is there are little Hitlers all over the place. Common sense suggests its best to stop them before they get their grand campaigns off the ground.

PAUL

I still don't understand how this would work.

(Projected text: Psalm 51:8-9 Make

me to hear joy and gladness; that the

bones which thou hast broken may

rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins,

and blot out all mine iniquities.)

GINA

I don't either. I've just started thinking about it. Let me think out loud, OK? A successful community has to agree on certain basic fundamentals. Say, for example, that it is wrong to kill. Most people believe that. But there are exceptions. Those must be agreed upon in advance. Then there are sanctions for those who get caught violating the rules. One of the sanctions is being killed, the death penalty. Abortion is more ambiguous. Is it an exception because the person hasn't been born yet? I think not. But then I've never been in that situation. To be sure. I've spent a lot of effort to make sure that I don't get in a situations where I really have to make that choice. My questions is, though, do we each stand alone interpreting and following the law? OR do we owe each other assistance in these matters?

PAUL

We each stand alone, with our God.

GINA

In contemporary United States, that is the conventional wisdom. But how well is it working?

PAUL

Pretty well, Better than alternatives would work.

GINA

How do you know that?

(Projected text: Psalm 51: 10-11

Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence;

and take not thy holy spirit from

me.)

PAUL

Even if hypothetically it would be better, people just won't stand for turning back the clock.

GINA

I can't read the future. I'm just brainstorming anyway. Applying this thinking to a family could be interesting. As a microcosm of society. A family attains a degree of emotional and spiritual development. A modicum of ease, stability, well-being and status is attained. Then a child displays sings of lacking the baseline of development that is now expected. Parents ad perhaps siblings worry. Something must be done. If this child does not mature to the expected level, everybody in the family is threatened. Family members will naturally collaborate to induce the delayed child to grow into the mature context. Now if progress does not occur, the family considers whether the child is rebellious or developmentally incomplete. Allowances can be made for the developmentally incomplete. The rebellious will be made to consider the error of their ways. If the rebellion is on behalf of a higher power than the family, and seeking to promote a fuller maturity, the rebellious child might be seen as a blessing in disguise. If the rebellion is on behalf of soft gratification, the child will be forced to chose between conformity and being ostracized.

PAUL

It could well be that it is not so clear cut. That it is a little of each.

GINA

Quite likely. We can go there after we get a better handle on the premise. My questions are about how the family will recognize and handle this conflict and about how the child will respond. Few would say that it is improper for the family to deal with this conflict, or that the child has a right to ignore the context into which it was born.

(Projected text: Psalm 51: 12-13

Restore unto me the joy of thy

salvation; and uphold me with thy

free spirit. Then will I teach

transgressors thy ways; and sinners

shall be converted unto thee.)

PAUL

That could in the end be the child's best choice. There's another side to all this that you are leaving out. It's not OK to forget about mindless conformity and oppression. Nothing would be any better if every child was just a rubber stamp of what parents wanted for them. That would lead to total stagnation. Conformity is not to be confused with happiness.

GINA

I haven't said anything about happiness.

PAUL

Exactly. We're all about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Let's get realistic here.

GINA

Does realistic mean that the way things are now is the only way they can be?

PAUL

Realistic means taking into account the way we really are.

GINA

How really are we?

PAUL

We don't want to give up our rights and turn back the clock. That's what the Taliban are trying to force the people of Afghanistan to do. It's not working.

GINA

I'm not talking about the Taliban at all. I'm talking about a free and healthy society. You seem to think that what we have now is good enough.

PAUL

All I am defending is the child.

GINA

And I am not?

(Projected text: Psalm 51: 14-15

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O

God, thou God of my salvation: and

my tongue shall sing aloud of thy

righteousness. O Lord, open thou my

lips; and my mouth shall shew forth

thy praise.)

PAUL

Maybe we should finish this discussion later. You seem determined to read something into all my remarks.

GINA

I'm just musing out loud about some ideas. Don't assume that I am advocating anything or that it applies to you. Can't I just play around with some ideas?

PAUL

Play away. I'll shut up.

GINA

That won't make for a very interesting discussion.

PAUL

OK, let's extend the hypothetical nuclear family example. I am a friend of the rebellious child, a teenage boy. I am another teenage boy in the neighborhood. I see him steal a comic book from the drug store. I tell him it is not right to steal and to take it back. He laughs at me and refuses. I can tell somebody or keep quiet. I should tell somebody, parent or store clerk. But that will lose me my best friend. I decide to hold off on that and see if he will follow my example of not stealing.

GINA

That's not going to work. You are not setting an example of not stealing. You have become a conspirator You have helped him steal by keeping it quiet.

PAUL

That's setting a pretty high standard.

GINA

And standards should be low?

(Projected text: Psalm 51: 16-17 For

thou desirest not sacrifice; else

would I give it: thou delightest not

in burnt offering. The sacrifices of

God are a broken spirit: a broken and

a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt

not despise.)

PAUL

Let's change the example. The rebellious boy wants to have sex with his rebellious girl friend. They are still teenaged. They are going to the same school. As the friend of either one, how do you counsel?

GINA

Wait until marriage.

PAUL

What if they are in love and know they will get married?

GINA

Wait until marriage.

PAUL

What if they are over 21 years old and finished with school?

GINA

Same answer.

PAUL

What if they were us?

(Projected text: Psalm 51: 18-19 Do

good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:

build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the

sacrifices of righteousness, with

burnt offering and whole burnt

offering: then shall they offer

bullocks upon thine altar.)

GINA

Same answer, period. Andy by the way, if you were thinking of being romantic tonight, you're not getting off to a very good start.

PAUL

I thought maybe you were talking all this intellectual stuff just to keep me at a distance.

GINA

No, it was because I am interested in the subject and feel I have something to say. You don't need any help keeping yourself at a distance.

PAUL

It seems sort of like we are having our first little argument.

GINA

If so, you are arguing with yourself.

PAUL

I guess you were almost right. Most of what most people say is a lie.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)

Scene 3

SETTING: Day Two, morning. The same jail

visiting room seen previously.

AT RISE: Sharon is sitting in the visitor's

chair. Jeremiah enters stage left

rear and sits in the prisoner's

chair. He is accompanied by guards

who do not speak.

SHARON

Even though there is no law against it, what you did to Jerry Jr. and me was as evil as what you did to the prostitutes, or, I should say, to the women you murdered. And we have to live with it.

JEREMIAH

I loved you in my own way.

SHARON

You're way is no love at all. You have never loved anybody, not even your self. I feel so dirty for letting myself get involved with you. I feel so mortified that we had a child. Both your first and third wives have been leaving messages on my answering machine since the news broke. I don't want to talk to them. It all makes me so sick it is all I can do to keep from killing myself.

JEREMIAH

All I can do now is cooperate with the authorities and let people know how ashamed and sorry I am.

SHARON

Funny that didn't start until you got caught.

JEREMIAH

You know, I don't have to visit with you.

SHARON

Don't worry about me making a habit of it. I guess I come hoping you would tell me something to make me feel less guilty. I should have seen signs and turned you in to the police a long time ago. Now that I look back on it, there were some warning signs. I was just flat out taken in by all your flagrantly shallow Biblical rhetoric.

JEREMIAH

There weren't many warning signs. I am a very good liar. And you never wanted to believe the worst. It reflects well on you actually.

(BLACKOUT)

(END OF SCENE)