Jesus Or Mammon: ACT 2... Remember To Drill Down Into The Hyperlinks To Listen The Accompanying Music....
ACT 2: Jesus Or Mammon
The Challengers’ kitchen room counter is looking and smelling good; there is West Indian rice and peas, salad, and fried chicken, ginger beer, and coconut tarts for dessert. The challenger ladies: June, Juanita, and Shelby are taking turn taking out the food and drinks to the tables out back in the yard. John, and the rest of the boys from the Avis Quarry are present and sitting around a large table. The boys are already partaking of the ginger beer and tarts(desserts)….
June (in loving, motherly admonishment): Guys, you know you shouldn’t eat dessert before the main course…
Basil: We couldn’t help it… Mrs. Challenger…
The men are in unison and agreement because they all had sneaked at eating the fresh smelling coconuts tarts/desserts.
Tobias (looking around): Where is the main guess, Silas?
John (looking at and addressing all the men): I hope none of you guys told him… he went to see his Parole officer…
June interrupts the boys. June excitedly placed her hand to her mouth signaling for the boys to be quiet…
June: He’s coming, sh, sh… be quiet….
June, Juanita, and Shelby came out to the back where John and the men from the Avis Quarry were, so as to force Silas to come seeking them in the back when he returned. Everyone hears the door opened….
Silas (curiosity peaked and sniffing the food aroma): Mom, where are you… anybody… Nice smell… food. Mom, you out back? Silas followed the delicious smell of the food out to the back.
John (shouting with joy): Welcome home, son!
There are cheers and welcome sentiments as June runs up to her son and hugs him. Silas is smiling and surprised by seeing his father, mother, sister in law, niece, and the men that work with his father. A place at the other head of the table was made for Silas to sit, making him and his father sitting at the respective heads of the table.
John (motioning with both hands): Come sit down…son. This is just an official welcome home, son… you mother done burne down the kitchen to prepare this feast for you.
The guys are toasting Silas as the ladies go back inside the house.
Basil (with a plastic glass full of ginger beer in his hand): Welcome home, man… Silas, put all that stuff behind you… let it be like when you got Baptized… all that stuff like is like sin it’s behind you. You’re new man….
All the men (in agreement): Yeah, yeah, true… true
Leon (pointing to his belly): Now, sit and eat…stop depriving my stomach… yo, the other food smell good too, man…
Tobias in (in genuine reverence): Like always, Mrs. C… good food….
Silas looking around at the faces takes a seat at the table. The bowls with the different meals are passed around until all the men have taken a portion of everything. John suddenly stands up and the men do likewise, in Godly reverence, recognizing that John was about to say Grace over the food….
John (with eyes closed): Lord, thank you for the food and bless the hands that prepared it. And I thank you Lord and we honor You who made it all in the beginning. I thank You for bringing my son home safely in Jesus’ name….
All the men (in unison): Amen! Amen! Amen…!
The men sit down and ravenously start eating the food. We could hear the satisfaction coming from the men as a compliment to the chefs-June and Juanita--who had made the food.
John (interrupting the eating): On the job, you gentlemen kept me going with jokes and music… I want to hear the same for my son, first, some jokes, then maybe some music for my son. But, don’t talk with your mouth full though….Wait till you finished eating… at least, the first course….
The men are nodding and laughing in agreement. The first round of food was served and consumed; even a second round of desserts consisting of the coconut tarts were passed around. The men are getting ready for the humorous part of the festivities, as John had requested….
John (pointing at the left-over food and rubbing his stomach): Alright fellas… we’ve had good food, drinks, now for the jokes… the ladies are probably inside watching their programs…
Silas: Dad, you guys could just tell me what went on for the last ten years since I was away…Things about your lives and the people I grew up with… I mean not everything, but give me the highlights and if they’re funny, they’re funny…
Basil: I’ll start. You know Sister Trumpet?
Silas: Yeah, powerful woman in God, man…
Basil: She still going strong… seventy something years old and still look like she forty and full with that Jesus power.
Leroy (anticipating): I know about this one…
Basil: I’m telling it. You know the Caines Brothers?
Silas: The twins… they were young when I went up…
Basil: Well, they’re big Christians now. Well, the boys, Sister Trumpet, and Pastor Lee was supposed to go up and cast out a demon out of Selvyn. Man, we were dear playing dominoes on that Saturday when the Caines boys went up. Man, minutes later, we see both of them boys running back down pass us… running for dear life. Now, Pastor Lee just happened to be coming up and see them running. So Pastor Lee say, boys, what happened? The Caines…. twins told Pastor Lee that the demon run them and boxed and throw them down. (The rest of the men are laughing) Pastor Lee den say, Boys let’s go back up and show this demon the power of God. So day go back… Next thing we know, Pastor Lee is outrunning the twins boys running pass us (The men laughter is building). So now here comes Sister Trumpet… She stop Pastor Lee and the twins and chastised them and convinced them to go back and give this demon a Jesus whooping. Needless to say, today, Selvyn was 'Delivered' and is a big Christian now, and me not still going to mess with that Sister Trumpet.
The men laughter is at full boil and they are clapping.
Leroy: That’s not the only reason why our friend here (pointing to Basil) afraid of Sister Trumpet. Tell them about the ring ting, man…
Basil (looking at Leroy and shaking his head in disappointment): Boy, you chat like a little girl you know….
All the men are curious and egging on Basil to tell the ring story.
Basil (in resigned reluctance): Ok, Ok… but don’t laugh… well you know what I mean. they say that the women who’re getting married are giving Sister Trumpet their marriage rings to be blessed…
Tobias: So what? Nothing wrong in blessing the rings.
Silas: Yeah, so?
Leroy is laughing loudly because he is privy to what Basil is going to say.
Basil (showing his wedding ring to the men): Well, me think my wife took mine to her because every time me look at another woman the wrong way, it burns and give me a little shock….
The men are laughing -- but incredulous....
John: Come on, Basil… you really believe that… burning, shocking…?
Basil: Yes, sir… As me say, it not only burns but you get a shock of electricity and I hear me wife voice in my head talking to me too.…
John (is laughing, while asking the question): Talking, saying what?
Basil: Saying that, “The same thing you looking at... you wife have the same thing at home.”
The men are now in full roaring laughter, except of course Basil, who is simply grinning and shaking his head at Leroy…
Basil: Me told you… this was not meant to be funny… me telling the truth…
Tobias (still laughing): Me can’t lie either… me heard about the same thing before to…
Basil: Look, I coach little league football with the Griffin boy… him told me it happened to him father too….
Silas: But his father is blind… was born blind… he can’t look at women….
John: He is the one that play the organ for the Methodist Church, right? They call him the West Indian, Ray Charles…
Basil: Yes. Well the son say he took him down to Carnival last Christmas and him say him father asked him to described what the young gal them was wearing in the bikini competition. Him say, him father start with one balling, saying how him ring finger was burning and shocking him. Turn out that he young wife had given the marriage ring to Sister Trumpet to bless too....
The Men are laughing even louder…
John: I guess when Jesus said if you look at another man’s wife, you already committed adultery… I guess all you have to do is think about it too because old man Griffin is as blind as a bat….
The men are laughing again….
Basil: It don’t leave a burn mark or anything when it happen…. (Basil addressing John). You notice that when me came here, me didn’t even look your daughter-in-law in the face…
Silas: Let’s ask mom…the ladies if they heard about it. (Silas shouting) Mom, Juanita, mom!?
Both June and Juanita hurried to the back door
June: Is something wrong?
Silas: No, No, we just wanted to know if you guys know anything about the ring story and Sister Trumpet?
Both ladies do not hesitate; it was as though they knew the question before it was asked.
June and Juanita (in unison): Yes… you mean about Old man Griffin with the burning ring and shock!
The men laughter continue…
Silas (shaking his head): That’s it mom, thanks, Juanita…
The ladies -- smiling at each other -- go back inside to resume watching TV. All the married men around the table are rubbing their respective ring fingers and are examining their respective wedding bands.
Leroy (worried): Talk about something else, man…
All the men nodding in agreement.
Leroy (addressing Silas): You know that teacher Daysent died, right… used to teach us history.
Silas: Yeah, he taught me and when I became a teacher, I worked with him as a colleague…
Leroy (nonchalantly): Yeah, he died, but I had to ask God forgiveness because I had hatred in my heart for that man, even when I heard he dead.
Tobias: But he taught you over thirty years ago?
Leroy: Me know, but me still remember the beating the man used to give me in History class, especially the last beating he give me. Twelve lashes in me hand because me didn’t know the name of Columbus wife.
The men are puzzled but smiling because none of them knew who Columbus’ wife was either
Leroy: Every question he asked me… I knew the answer, but he had to come up with one to stump me. I mean when we learn about Columbus, they teach you about Queen Isabella, King Ferdinand, the Pinto, the Nina, and the Santa Maria, but not the name of Columbus’ wife. The man put a whipping on me and to this day, me still know her name.
Basil: What was her name?
All The Men: Yeah I don’t know either…what was it?
Leroy: Donna-Felipa-Perestrello-E-Moniz
Leon. (laughing along with the rest of the men): Jesus, that’s long name for true.
Leroy: See, me told you… me had every right to be vexed with teacher Daysent…
Silas: Whatever happened to the William’s girl?
The men are unusually quiet and deferring to Silas’ father, John.
Basil: You’re father didn’t tell you…Man, stay away from her
Silas: Why?… She was beautiful …
Leon: Still beautiful!
Silas: So why…?
Basil: Mr. C…you tell him.
John: Well, it seems that everybody who married her… dies, dead…
Silas: Come on, dad…?
Leroy: It’s true…
All the men are nodding in agreement
Leon: She first married this Yankee boy who had a bunch a gold teeth like them rappers in his mouth… then lightning down come and struck the man dead in him mouth, mind you….
Basil (with an air of unbelief): You ever hear of lighting striking anybody on the island?
Leon: Then there was the husband from Barbados, him met his maker when a breadfruit fall off Joe Smith’s tree and killed him, stone dead….
John: Then there was the preacher before Pastor Nichols. Man, I warned him, along a bunch of other people, but he didn’t listen. Preacher boy was playing Cricket and the Zakers boy bounced the ball and licked him in the head and killed him dead. From that, no one would go near her…
Basil: Boy, me wish those hoodlums waiting to die on death-row wasting the government money and food would take the time and marry her so that justice could be done to them swiftly.
The men’s laughter is muted out of respect.
Silas (addressing Leon): Speaking of marriage, who did you marry?
Leon (smiling broadly and showing all his white teeth): One of the Woodley girls…
Silas (surprised): How did you manage that?… dealing with her father?
The men laugh because they know of the Woodley girl father’s reputation.
Leon: Me remember when me first saw her, Jacklyn… mmn, pretty… but man her father scared me. Every time me passed their house, she was on the veranda smiling and I would smile back. But the father was always there filing his cutlass. At that time, I had long dreadlocks. But me couldn’t take it no more, me was in love so me decided I’m going to ask Mr. Woodley for her hand. I tell meself look what Romeo and Juliet did for love and Jacob in the Bible had to work for some fourteen long years for his wife… so I figure it was easy for me to ask Mr. Woodley for him daughter’s hand. So one day, me walked up to Mr. Woodley and asked for his daughter‘s hand. Him didn’t even look up at me from sharpening him cutlass… Him just say, “goo way, dirty Rasta,” you look like John the Baptist without the Holy Spirit (The Men are roaring in laughter again) But me persisted and today we have two boys and you know what grandpa Woodley call those two boys, Osama and Taliban (The men again are dying with laughter). That’s how bad those little boys are….
The men are clapping and laughing and as the merriment subsides, everyone is looking at Silas….
Silas Ok, I’ll tell you something that happen since I’ve been out. I went down the road Tuesday to get some Roti because I haven’t had it in so long. So, I go into to Sister Mills shop and I see Benjie…. Benjie with the dreadlocks all the way down in his back, but what was strange was that Benjie ordered a Jerk Pork with rice and peas…. Now you see just how you guys are looking at me shocked, so it was for me too. So I asked, Benjie, but you’re Rasta man, what you doing ordering pork? Benjie look at me, and without missing a beat, say, Silas, man, don’t worry about me, me done learned how to pray the devil out of the pork.
The men are laughter is prolong… and when the jest subsides, John intercedes...
John (shaking his head and smiling): That’s was good. We had good food and laughter, now, it’s time for the music…. All the men and women will harmonize during the song’s bridge.
The music is cued for Neil Diamond’s, “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451H6kaKeSU
Basil: Hot August night
And the leaves hanging down
And the grass on the ground smelling sweat
Move Up the road
To the outside of town
+And the sound of the good Gospel beat
Sit’s a ragged tent
Where they aint no trees
And that Gospel group
Telling you and me
It’s love, love
Brother love’s traveling salvation show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone Knows
Brother love show
Room gets suddenly still
And when you’d always bet
You could hear yourself sweat, he walks in
Leroy: Eyes black as coal
And when he lifts his face
Every ear in the place is on him
Starting soft and slow
Like a small earthquake
And when he lets go
Half the valley shakes
It’s love, love
Brother love’s traveling salvation show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone Knows
Brother love show
Take my hand in your hand
Walk with me this day
In my heart I know
I will never stray
Halle, halle, halle, halle, halle, halle halle
It’s love, love
Brother love’s traveling salvation show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone Knows
Brother love show
Take my hand in your hand
Walk with me this day
In my heart I know
I will never stray
The men are high-fiving and gathering more dessert and ginger beer to
quench their thirst.
Silas: This was good… the food. (Silas shouting his compliment to the
cooks again.
June: We hear June shouting back, you’re welcome!)
There is a rumbling emanating from inside the home and there is some sort of argument going on. Silas pauses and then John and the men ears are listening intently. John stands up and is ready to walk back to the house.
John (with inquiring concern): Everybody ok, June, Juanita, Shelby?
Silas: Mom?
Silas is on his way towards to the house when Winston comes through the back door. Winston is followed by Juanita and June.
Juanita: Why you have to come and start trouble?
June: Have some respect… this is not how we raise you….
In the meantime, Silas has retaken his seat and so are the rest of the men, except John who is looking at his son with a look of utter disappointment.
Winston, looking around at the food and the faces….
Winston (with mocking, grating sarcasm): Me see we having a party for the Prodigal Son… me wonder why me wasn’t invited. No matter though, because me no see no fat calf… oh, me forget, daddy was fired from the quarry… so him couldn’t afford to buy the fat calf.
John (disregarding Winston and addresses the men): Thanks for coming… I hope you fellas had a good time. We have to cut the festivities a little short… but I’ll call each of you later… thanks again for showing my son a good time.
All the guys are on their feet exchanging pleasantries and shaking hands with Silas and John. Winston interrupts the exiting pleasantries and causing all attention to turn toward him.
Winston (with mockery, scorn, and arrogance): Me know you fellas are out of work… but if you want… you can come work for me… me got plenty work…
Out of respect for John and Silas, the visiting friends ignored Winston and made their exit. Winston, looking around and slurring his words, evincing his being drunk, addresses his father and brother.
Winston (rhetorically): Was it something me say….
Juanita: You ought to be ashamed for your behavior… in the presence of your father’s friends….
Winston (sticking out tongue like a child and pointing it at Juanita): Pot calling the kettle black… you come over here using the excuse bout you bringing me daughter to see her grandparents… liar! You come here looking for your jail bird ex-boyfriend - oops, I mean fiancée...
Juanita: You’re drunk!
Shelby appears to the door.
Shelby: Momma, come back inside….
Juanita takes up her daughter’s offer and goes back in; June also follows Juanita and Shelby back into the house.
John: Boy, get out of my house… now!
Winston (surveying the house): What… this piece of crap…you won’t take no money from me… having momma taking money from her church sisters… no pride...?
John: Pride… a drug dealer talking about pride. How many of your drugs done caused little girls to be selling themselves up the road… how many people done overdose and the drive by shootings… Pride? Us, taking your blood money? …We rather starve or depend on our brothers and sisters in Christ for whatever they have to give….
Silas is still sitting at the table observing and looking at his brother, Winston, with hatred.
Silas: Boy, you have no shame box… no sense of decency….
Winston: Oh, you. Did someone make you their girlfriend in jail...?
All of a sudden, Silas is on Winston, punching him and knocking him down to the ground, and then proceeded to choke him. Winston is gasping for air, while John is fighting to pry Silas’ hands from Winston’s neck. John finally succeeds and is standing between Silas and his brother who is still gasping for air on the ground. The ladies are back at the back door after hearing the elevated commotions.
Silas: You ever mention my serving jail time in any capacity… I’ll….
Silas without finishing his remarks… walks away.
Silas: I went to jail for this man… ten years out my life. I come home, he’s married to my fiancée and has the nerve to throw 'shade' at me. Tell them why I went to jail… you coward!
Winston now has his bearings.
Winston: You had my lawyer...
Silas (moving towards Winston): Look, shut your mouth… I am not the innocent little brother who went up to jail ten years ago….
John: What do you mean...?
June: Yes, Silas what do you mean you went to jail for him?
Silas: Yes, of course, the scum-bag never told you all. I should have told you, but I thought it was too late since I was sentenced to twenty years. So I’m down at the college in my office… here come my brother with a briefcase. I’m grading papers before class and I’m thinking, well, he just come to say hello. We shoot the breeze a little bit and I left him in my office to go teach my class, telling him to lock it when he leaves. I’m in class in front of my students when the police come and arrest me for drugs. Drugs found in the briefcase that the scum left in my office.
June (apologetic): We didn’t know… we thought that….
Silas: You thought like the Prosecutor that I was selling drugs for my brother. After all, it would have been easy to sell drugs to the kids I teach… but they couldn’t find any of my students to come forward and substantiate their accusations of my selling them drugs… not one!
John (in meekness): Why… you didn’t say anything?
Silas: Say what… I thought his fancy lawyer he offered me would have gotten me off… but even that was used against me. Oh, how come he could afford such a fancy lawyer… Prosecutor also implying that the reason why none of my students came forward to support their claim of my selling drugs to them was because they were afraid of retaliation from my drug dealing brother, here (pointing at Winston). You know how hard I studied to get my college teaching license… to be called Professor Silas Challenger?! But in one afternoon, it was all gone! Dad, I know he’s my brother… but I hate him with a perfect hatred… Did he once come to see me in ten years… did he send me a little change/money to buy something from the commissary? No!
Winston (almost sheepishly): You wouldn’t take it anyway….
Silas: That’s not the point... I told you to shut your mouth, anyway… I am a felon… nobody is going to hire me. Look, dad, mom, I’m going to take a walk to cool down.
Silas leaves with both his mother and father nodding at him, perhaps both being shocked of knowing the true story of his incarceration, and moreover, feeling guilty that they thought all along that he was selling drugs with his brother. Winston, pulling himself up, brushes off his clothes, and with his face looking towards the ground, quietly leaves. No one stops him or says anything to him. In the meantime, the Juanita goes back to the coach inside the Challenger’s home, while June is looking over the back door at her husband, John.
June: When were you going to tell me that the Quarry laid you off?
John: Well, I, I was looking and hoping to find something before…
June (interrupting): Before Winston blabbed his mouth… so every morning when I packed you lunch, where you be going?
John (with growing frustration): I told you… looking for work… helping out grandma down at the farm… giving Pastor Lee a hand with little things around the church…
June (emphatic): You lied to me!
John (surprised and confused): Wha… what you mean I lied to you? I did no such thing!
June: You lied to me through omission…
John: Omission?…What, are you a lawyer now?
June: What would Jesus call it?
John: Look woman, I’ll see you later…
June (dripping sarcasm): Going down by the quarry?
John (shaking his head in disbelief): Jesus...
John leaves with June looking at him in an accusatory manner. All the players: John, June, Winston, Juanita, and Silas are located at different areas when they will take turn singing their respective verses of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Winston is disheveled as he lies on his coach when he will sing his verse; Silas will sing his verse after returning to his parents’ back yard where the party was held; John will be on the outside…no particular place when he will sing his verse, and June will sing hers from her bedroom. All the players will unite and harmonize on the song’s chorus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q
Hallelujah
Silas: I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well, it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Winston: Well, your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
John & June: Well, there was a time when you'd let me know
What's really going on below,
But now you never show that to me, do you?
But remember when I moved in you,
And the Holy Ghost was moving too,
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Silas & Juanita: I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told you the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but hallelujah
All The Singers: Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Silas comes in and sees Juanita sitting on the living room couch reading one of his mother’s Avon magazines. Upon hearing the footsteps, Juanita looks up from the pages.
Juanita: Oh, it’s you.
Silas: Dad came back?
Juanita: No, but your mother and your niece are in the bedroom…
Silas (in truncated laughter): For a while there, I thought we were one of those dysfunctional families you see on Jerry Springer…
Juanita: I know what you mean… by the way, I didn’t know about what Winston did. If it’s worth anything, I apologize for my husband and me...
Silas: That’s ok…you don’t choose family, you accept them as is….
Juanita: You know that I gave your mother back our engagement ring… it was the least I could do.
Silas: She told me…I told her to sell it to help out, but you know my mother, she probably has it up in here somewhere….
Both are engaging in nervous laughter
Silas: Does he treat you good…?
Juanita: You mean, Winston? Yeah, he’s ok… you know… I made my bed… but you know you men….
Silas: He we go again… you used to do the same thing when we were…
Juanita (interrupting): But you men are different….
Silas: But we are supposed to be!
Juanita: You know what I mean… it’s that King David complex… can’t keep you zipper closed. I mean, take Abraham, although God told him that Sarah was going to give him a son, he still jumped at the chance to go in to Hagar….
Silas: Wait a minute, wait one minute, it was Sarah who gave Abraham…
Juanita (interrupting): But he could have refused and say, look Sarah, God done tell me you were going to give me a child, not the Egyptian concubine.
Silas: Juanita, you’re still the trouble maker… well you know Abraham came before David… right?
Juanita: Ok, ok, what about the fact that God don’t send any female angels to deliver his messages….
Silas: Whoa, What do you mean?
Juanita: You know what I mean. It is always a male angel like Gabriel who deliver His message, because I have a feeling that God knows if He send a female Angel, He would have had to strike down the men He was sending the Word to. So that is why you always see God sending male angels to deliver his message….
Silas and Juanita are laughing…
Silas: I feel like I’m watching Oprah…. Your know where she has a panel of
women gathering just to berate… and bet up men… telling them about all the wrongs that we are responsible for….
Juanita (feigning tears): Boo hoo, but you men are responsible for much of the wrongs….
Silas (conveniently changes the topic): What happened to your brother?…You knew that he came one time to see me when I was lock down….?
Juanita: He went to the States… New Jersey… he’s a paralegal… say he might go to law school too…..
Silas: Good. By the way, your daughter was complaining to your mother in law about you punishing her for wanting to wear make-up….
Juanita: These children nowadays don’t know what it is like to be punished. Those terrorists in Guantanamo are always complaining about torture -- they don’t know pain. Pain is having West Indian parents from the old days….
Silas: Well said, I know what you mean….
Juanita: They talk about water-boarding… are you kidding me? One time, I stumped my big toe, and granted, I wasn’t cleaning it as I should have. Do you know what my mother and grandma did? They held me down and scrubbed my toe with lime and salt. Let me tell you… Nothing hurt and painful so….
Silas is nodding and laughing in agreement.
Silas (smiling):I know…. I wish they had sent me to Guantanamo instead of where they sent me. Man, my dad, used to beat us with Tamarind whips… to this day, if I see a Tamarind tree, I chop it down….
Juanita is laughing as she rises from the couch.
Juanita: I got to go home… see how Winston is doing… Shelby going to stay with grandma tonight…As I said, Silas, I apologize for me and your brother… but believe it or not I have learned to love him….
Silas (shaking his head in resignation): All right… my brother doesn’t know how lucky he is… I‘ll see you later Juanita.…
Juanita (laughing): Yes, he does know how lucky he is….Welcome home again, Silas….
Juanita leaves through the front door, while Silas follows her to the door, as a gentleman would do; Silas then goes out to the back yard.
June is reading her Bible when the phone rings; she picks up the phone and listens, then drops the Bible and phone screaming. John, who was out in the back yard, rushes in and inquiring about what was wrong.
John: June, what’s wrong (he goes to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of water and gives it to her)? John is hugging June as she drinks down he water. John then takes the empty glass and waits on June to impart the apparent disturbing news….
June: They shot up Winston house again and Shelby was, was... hurt….
John (in a passive, hesitant voice): Is… she ok?
June: She’s in surgery… her mother said that she was conscious… but she didn’t tell me where she was… shot.
John: I’ll call the taxi….
June: John, go… I’ll be there... I need to talk to the Lord.
John: Ok.
June: Don’t worry…I’ll be there, soon….
John kisses June on the cheeks and leaves in a hurry… .As soon as John leaves, the tears resume coming down on June’s face; she kneels down in silent prayer.
June (hesitating and in utmost reverence): Lord, you giving me more than I can bear; my husband don’t have no work, the bills are piling up, and now my only granddaughter is hurt. Please Lord, guide the surgeon hands and bring her out safely, Lord Jesus… please Lord… a little interference by Jehovah Rapha…
There is a soft, soothing breeze which starts blowing in the living room; then June hears a still quiet voice….
GOD/Jesus (in silken commanding, yet calm, soothing voice): June, my daughter, of course I will never give you more than you can bear… I am not a man that I should lie, but the Almighty God. I look at my children lives from the end to the beginning-- And all will be well, June!
The breeze and soothing voice are gone as soon as they came. Then June starts hearing the Angelic voices singing the chorus to the Staple Singers’ Gospel Song, I’ll Take You there. June will sing the lead, while the Angelic Choir will harmonize during the chorus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXvirzznSn4
June: Help me now
I’ll take you there. Oh! I’ll take you there
Oh! Oh! Mercy! (I’ll take you there)
Oh, let me take you there
(I’ll take you there)
Oh, oh! Let me take you there!
(I’ll take you there)
Play your, play your piano now All right
Ah… do it… do it… Come on now
Play on it, play on it
Daddy, daddy, daddy, ooh Lord
All right now, baby easy now
Now, come on, little lady all right
Dum-dum-dum-dum
Sock it, sock it
Ah, oh, oh!
I know a place, ya’all
I’ll take you there
Aint nobody cryin
I’ll take you there
Aint nobody worried
I’ll take you there
No smilin faces
I’ll take you there uh-uh
Lyin to the races
I’ll take you there
Oh, no. Oh
I’ll take you there
Oh, oh, oh
I’ll take you there
Mercy now I’ll take you there
I’m callin, callin, callin, mercy
I’ll take you there
Mercy, mercy
I’ll take you there
Let me, I’ll take you there....
Oh, oh!
I’ll take you there
I’ll take you there
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Wanna take you there
I’ll take you there
Just take my hand
Stay Tuned For Act 3 -- the conclusion of Jesus Or Mammon