MY PLAYS

The Love story that changed the world – Christmas play 2007
by Fr. Eustace Siame

CHARACTERS NEEDED FOR THE PLAY 1.      ANNE: THE MOTHER OF MARY2.      JOACHIM: THE FATHER OF MARY3.      BASHI LAMECH: THE MATCH MARKER4.      MARY: THE MOTHER OF JESUS5.      JOSEPH: THE FOSTER FATHER OF JESUS6.      SHEPHERD 0NE7.      SHEPHERD TWO8.      SHEPHERD THREE9.      ZEBEDEE : RELATIVE OF JOSEPH10. MAN IN BLACK: THE BAD ANGEL11. WOMAN IN WHITE: THE GOOD ANGEL12. KING BALTHAZAR: ONE OF THE MAGI13. KING GASPER: ONE OF THE MAGI14. QUEEN MELCHIA: ONE OF THE MAGI15. BANA MAGDALENA
ACT ONESCENE ONE The Mother of Mary and the Father on stage. ANNE: (Singing while cooking) When we walk in his way….JOACHIM: Anne, you like singing a lot. Don’t you consider the concerns of the stomach? It is empty and the sun is past the head.ANNE: Bashi Maria, do you think I am still as young as you found me in the days of my virginity? I deserve to be called by the name of our only child.JOACHIM: Anne, in my eyes you are still the sweet 16 I knew 30 years ago.ANNE: Not when I have such a well-gloomed daughter proudly calling me mama. I should be called bana Maria.JOACHIM: That reminds me. Where is your daughter Maria?ANNE: Where do you expect her to be? She is in the temple waiting on the Lord.JOACHIM: I know we are pious too but our daughter’s piety surpasses that of ours. I even feel ashamed in her presence. There is something very mysterious about Maria. She is not ordinary.ANNE: Our daughter is alright. What only worries me is that she has no interest in men and I am afraid she may not get married.JOACHIM: That will be a loss if she wont know a man. Imagine how many heads of sheep we are going to lose! But I am very sure the Lord she has always trusted and depended upon will provide her a husband.ANNE: Jehova Jire is his name, the God who provides. He will definitely provide for my daughter as he did for me.JOACHIM: Yes that time for you! Now I wouldn’t make such a mistake. You look worn out (He laughs)ANNE: Bashi Maria, you are there again with your jokes. Why do you like pulling my legs always?JOACHIM: Because I don’t have anything else to pull. (A knock at the door) That must be Maria.ANNE: (Another Knock) Kalibu mukwai! (Bashi Lamech enters) Oh ni bashi Lamech. Please, you are very welcome. Find a home in our simple house.BASHI LAMECH: Bashi Maria na bana Maria, peace be in this house!JOACHIM and ANNE: And also with you.BASHI LAMECH: You know very well that I am led by a certain economic principle – NOTHING COMES FROM NOTHING. As such, my coming here is well calculated. Nothing comes from nothing. Are you with me?JOACHIM: Bashi Lamech, don’t make us over anxious. What news have you brought for us?BASHI LAMECH: Not small news of course! Nothing comes from nothing. You are a blessed family bashi Maria. Your daughter Mary has found favour in the family of David.JOACHIM: May I be enlightened more on that? What do you mean, bashi Lamech?BASHI LAMECH: I mean only what I mean: Nothing comes from nothing! It is because there is something in your daughter that is why David’s descendant had found favour in your eye.ANNE: I want to know: - do you mean to say that our daughter Mary will get married to a royal class?BASHI LAMECH: Precisely! You should be knowing Joseph, don’t you?ANNE: You mean to say Joseph, that upright and principled carpenter has found in my daughter a potential wife?BASHI LAMECH: Nothing comes from nothing! Joseph has been seeing Mary’s piety and very often he commented on the God given beauty of Mary. The other day he dreamt facing a multitude and Mary was holding his hand.JOACHIM: That dream is very revealing I suppose. It is the divine indication that they are meant to be together. Who are we to change the plan of God? If Mary will find no problem in such a proposal, tell Joseph’s family that they have a child-in-law in Mary.BASHI LAMECH: There can’t be any better news than that. But I cannot go without hearing the consent of Mary. She is a very difficult person and this will come as a shock from her I know. Where is she?ANNE: She went to the temple, but today she has taken longer than usual.JOACHIM: My wife, you have short memory – didn’t your daughter tell you that after her temple service she was going to visit her cousin, my sister’s daughter, Elizabeth?ANNE: Oh yes! But bashi Maria you also forgot because you were the one asking me about her a while ago ( A knock at the door. Its Mary coming in) Oh, ukulumbula chimbwi ekumwita. We have just been conversing about you Mary. Welcome back.JOACHIM: Yes my daughter, welcome back!MARY: Thank you!BASHI LAMECH: Break the news to her right now because it is important.MARY: What news? Is everything alright here?BASHI LAMECH: Relax Mary, everything is alright here. Let them not delay my message for you. I am here only for one thing since nothing comes from nothing. Maria, Joseph has looked around and found you alone to be a perfect match for him. In other words Joseph wants to have you for life.MARY: But wait a minute! Tata bashi Lamech, who is Joseph?JOACHIM: My daughter, you don’t ask questions over a man. It is enough for you to know that he is a man.MARY: Yes my beloved dad. All I want is to know about him since I know no man in my life and I want to give my life to God.ANNE: What do you mean Mary?MARY: I mean, I have never wanted to come close to any man. All I want is to be with God, preserve my virginity for him alone.BASHI LAMECH: Mary, you and I know that virginity is fruitlessness, a sign of uselessness. Nothing comes from nothing. You are such a well gloomed lady and you deserve the best. Joseph is the best for you.MARY: God is the best for me and to him virginity is a virtue and I am keeping it for him.ANNE: Ah my daughter, what has come of you? Surely, you don’t want to be a laughing stock in our society. Dignity is what we are asking for.JOACHIM: Mary my daughter – all we want is your happiness. Don’t tell us that your mother and I did not want God and chose each other to come up with you. We love God that is why we gave birth to you. You will be with god even at a deeper level by being with Joseph. He is from a royal family.MARY: My beloved parents, you know very well that I have never disobeyed you. This time it is just because I don’t understand what God really wants from me. I had a different revelation which is hard to share. But since you stand in the place of God I accept being with Joseph in my life. (The mother ululates and the men clap)JOACHIM: Bashi Lamech, what else do we wait for? Our daughter here has accepted to enter into the house of David. Take this good news to that royal house. Tell them we are just too happy to be part and parcel of the Joseph family.BASHI LAMECH: Nothing comes from nothing! You are definitely going to get the best from Joseph. So, thanks a lot and remain with my blessings.ANNE: Thank you bashi Lamech for this good news. Now we can be trusted, we can be respected by the community.
ACT ONESCENE TWOMary is sitting on a stone in a very worried mood. On the background is some sorrowful instrumental. Joseph comes to where she is sitting. Joseph: Yes Mary, you called for me. What is your problem? Why are you looking so down cast? Tell me is there anything wrong?Mary: I called for you Joseph.Joseph: Ok, but look up. Look at me. It’s me you are talking to.Mary: I can’t even look up. I don’t have that courage.Joseph: Mary, What has come of you? You are not the Mary I have been seeing passing here to the temple. You are not the same Mary I met and we spoke with so many aspirations for the future. Can you tell me what is really going on?Mary: I don’t know how to let you understand what is happening to me.Joseph: Do I look like daft, Mary. No, Mary I will surely understand. You know I love you and your joys are my joys, your pains mine too. I will understand. I promise.Mary: You will not understand Joseph; because what I am going to tell you never happened to anyone before. I am afraid you are going to hate me and there is nothing much more hurting for a woman than the fear of rejection by her only love.Joseph: Look into my eyes Mary; do I look like one who is fake in my love for you?Mary: You are very true Joseph and I am even feeling for you so much. This has never happened before.Joseph: What has never happened before? Do you want me to believe that there is something new under the sun? There is nothing new, Mary unless you are going to make a turning point for the world with your news. Even that is positive.Mary: Joseph, I am pregnant.Joseph: Say that again. I might have heard it wrongly. Did you say you are pregnant? Did you mean (spelling it out) P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T, as in, you know, mmm, having a child inside you?Mary: That’s it Joseph.Joseph: Tell me that you are joking, my love. There are so many ways of joking with your fiancée, but not with pregnancy, Mary. Let’s finish this joke.Mary: It’s not a joke, Joseph. I have never joked with you in this way. It is an embarrassment. Joseph: So you are fake, you have been fake! You’ve been cheating on me with all the prayers you pretended to offer to God so that I thought of you as a very holy girl and yet you were a wolf in sheep’s clothing.Mary: Not what you are thinking.Joseph: What else do you expect me to think Mary? You and I know I am not the one because I have never touched your body to preserve my religious beliefs. Mary: You are right Joseph. You are not the one.Joseph: For heavens sake, you should have been more considerate Mary. You should have known you were betrothed to me. By telling me this, what were you expecting as my reaction? To say its ok right? I don’t encourage prostitution.Mary: You called me a prostitute Joseph!Joseph: Give me a worse name, Mary. I thought I knew you, no. I deserved myself.Mary: (crying) Joseph, you haven’t given me chance to explain the source of this pregnancy and you just start insulting me by calling me a prostitute.Joseph: What are you going to explain and to who? The fact is you are pregnant and I don’t care which man made you pregnant since I know you have many plans with him.Mary: Joseph, it is not any man. God is my witness. I have never been touched by any man and…Joseph: Enough of that nonsense. Am I a child Mary? Even a three old boy cannot believe what you are saying.Mary: For real, Joseph! This is by the power of the Holy Spirit that I have conceived.Joseph: Mary, get out of my sight! I am saying, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! YOU ARE A BORE!Mary: (Holding his trousers) Don’t do that to me Joseph. I am innocent.Joseph: Don’t make me vomit, innocent of what? I told you to get out of my sight (pushes her) Away from me now. Go! Go! I say, go! (She goes out and Joseph remains alone in deep thought and in disbelief. Suddenly, two people appear. A woman in white robe standing for an angle of God and a man in black standing for the devil)Man in Black: Just do it Joseph, just do it! Leave that disappointment by herself. If you marry her she will do worse things than that. You know how women are when they are tolerated. They become worse than before. You have kept yourself clean, maintain your cleanliness and don’t dirty yourself please.Woman in White: Joseph, you know Mary very well. You can ask from anyone you know and you will confirm that she has never had any relationship with a man before. She is innocent. What is in her is truly from the Holy Spirit, it is of God.Man in Black: Don’t believe such nonsense. Has such a thing ever happened? In fact people who will be hearing you tell the story will surely laugh at you and consider you a child. Pregnancy comes only through a sexual relationship between a man and a woman, at least in our time.Woman in White: Think of all the promises you made to her, that you will never leave her no matter what. You promised Mary that you will stand by her in cold and in rain. Now that she is in cold you want to leave her. She has no one but you and at this moment of crisis in her life she needs you much more than before. She needs your understanding and your sympathy. She needs you by her side.Man in Black: I have another alternative, Joseph! Expose her. You know the Jewish culture very well. She will be stoned to death and in this way you will have cleared your name. Imagine, what people will think of you when they come to know that somebody else made your wife pregnant while you where watching. They will think you are foolish! Be a man Joseph and take a decision before it is too late.Woman in White: Don’t worry what people will say Joseph. People will say many things and if we choose to live by what people say we shall never live. First of all we shall be confused. Where is your faith Joseph? Just take Mary to be your wife and will receive a lot of your blessings from such a decision. This is known only to you and you know very well that Mary will never tell anyone about it.Man in Black: It is not a matter of secrecy here Joseph. This thing will be known sooner or later. Just expose it before it is too late and remain a man of dignity you have been known. (He goes away)Woman in White: Joseph, this is the time you have to show your selfless love for Mary and for the God you have always wanted to serve. Before the pregnancy becomes visible have a wedding and start staying together. To the eyes of people you will be the father of the child and to God the true guardian of the child. He will be the son of the Most High God, and his name will be Jesus. He is the one to deliver Israel from the bondage of sin. He will be a sign of contradiction to this generation and a turning point in the history of man. He will be a link between man and God since he will be God man. You may not understand anything now, just like Mary but you will be led by grace and faith to the understanding of his mission.Joseph: (Nodding in agreement) OK, I will do it!
ACT TWOSCENE ONEA man moving on stage announcing about the census in Jerusalem. Mary is advanced in her pregnancy (9^th Month) and is preparing some drink for Joseph. Announcer: Attention to all the citizens in the Roman Empire! This is a command from the emperor. All of you are expected to be in Jerusalem for the massive censor of the inhabitants of the empire. Attention please! Don’t delay. Leave for once to Jerusalem. Censor in Jerusalem! Censor in Jerusalem! There is no exception, even for the dying! Leave for Jerusalem immediately!Joseph: My love, are you hearing that announcement? It is now we have to leave.Mary: I heard the same yesterday and I think you were part of it too. Joseph: Yes darling, I heard it yesterday but I never thought it was so urgent. But how are we going to go with your condition?Mary: Its ok, my hubby. We are going to manage. I am sure by the time we shall be through with the census I will not be ready yet for delivery.Joseph: Are you sure?Mary: I am dear.Joseph: I don’t mind anyway. If it happens there, God will make a way. I just don’t want it to happen on the way. Now, let me have that cup of tea so that we start off.Mary: (Brings a cup of tea with some bread to Joseph and sits down) Joseph you have been very supportive. You have been by side in moments of doubt. I am so happy with you and I thank God for giving me such a husband.Joseph: I love you Mary and I am with you not because I have understood what is going on, no. It is faith in the fact that all things from the Lord works for good.Mary: Neither do I understand, but I only told God that I am the your handmaid, let it be done to me according to your word. I have kept all this to my heart and pondered on it. If one day I will be granted understanding I will thank God.Joseph: This reminds me. How was your experience with your cousin Elizabeth? You stayed for too long. Don’t you think I was missing you?Mary: I know you were missing me. My experience there was amazing. God is great. I was shocked to hear the words that came from the mouth of Elizabeth.Joseph: What did she say?Mary: She called me the MOTHER OF HER LORD! Then she added that my greetings made the child in her womb leap for joy.Joseph: She is pregnant? But Elizabeth cannot be pregnant.Mary: Oh, you are behind news my hubby. At 65 my cousin gave birth and what was amazing is that Zacharia, my brother-in-law who was dumb for months was given a tablet to write the name of the child. He wrote John, just as my cousin had told us and yet there is no John in our lineage. We were all amazed and wondered what the child will turn out to be.Joseph: That’s amazing.Mary: I didn’t even finish telling you what happened after I greeted Elizabeth upon my arrival.Joseph: What happened, my love?Mary: I found myself being possessed by the Holy Spirit and I sang the magnificent. In it I said all generation will call me blessed. I don’t know why I said that.Joseph: Things are clicking. I am beginning to get something. Your cousin Elizabeth at 65 with a child and then you while still keeping your virginity with a child. God be praised. (A man comes in running by the name of Zebedee)Zebedee: Joseph, we better start off now. It is not good to move alone. There is quite a distance to Jerusalem. When we are many, the way becomes shorter. Your parents and in-laws are all on caravans now ready to start off.Joseph: Ok, ba Zebedee. Let us start off. Mary, just bring your bag I will carry for you since you already have enough luggage on yourself. (they start off.)
ACT TWOSCENE TWOIn Jerusalem looking for a place to sleep Joseph: What shall we do Mary? I have gone to six hotels and all are full.Mary: I don’t know my darling and I am not feeling well.Joseph: Don’t tell me it is time already.Mary: I start feeling some signs of it.Joseph: (Starts panicking) Hold on. Wait. No. Where shall I go now? Ok. Ok. Ok! Did you say, you are already having labour pains?Mary: They are increasing Joseph.Joseph: Oh no! Not on this path. Ok. Ok.Ok! I got an idea. Let me carry you to the hidden place behind this place, even if it is a manger. It is much better than here were everyone is watching. Let’s go (she yells). You will be fine. Slowly! (Holding her tight as they move to the manger on the other side of the stage and Joseph leaves on the grass to go and ask for help)Mary: (Yells) Oh, Joseph, Don’t go! Oh! Oh! Oh!Joseph: What do I do now! Help! Help! Ok. Ok! Ok! Here is the stick. Bite it! (A woman comes in)Bana Magdalena: Its alright. She will be very ok. Don’t panic my dear. Is she your wife?Joseph: Yes she is. (The baby cries and a big light shines over the baby.)Bana Magdalena: It is a baby boy. Congratulations!Joseph: Good heavens! Just as I was told!Bana Magdalena: By who?Joseph: Let it be. I am just amazed.
ACT TWOSCENE THREE Dingdong merrily on high…. The singing of angels from the sky as shepherds move to the direction of the manger.Ding dong merrily on high,
In heav'n the bells are ringing:
Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with angel singing.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

E'en so here below, below,
Let steeple bells be swungen,
And "Io, io, io!"
By priest and people sungen.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!

Pray you, dutifully prime
Your matin chime, ye ringers;
May you beautifully rime
Your evetime song, ye singers.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis!SHEPHERD ONE: Iwe chishimwansa, walk slowly. What are you rushing for?SHEPHERD TWO: I have to rush because the angel told us that we are to hurry and we shall find this child in a manger.SHEPHERD THREE: Interesting! What is special about this child born in a manger? Why such a hustle?SHEPHERD TWO: Where were your ears? Didn’t the angel say that he will be THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH AND AUTHORITY IS ON HIS SHOULDERS? He will be God with us – the Emmanuel, one who will bring justice to the world and identify himself with the poor.SHEPHERD ONE: So iwe, you want to say that we have a place in his company? But he is expected to be a king. If he identifies himself with us he will lose respect. If he is son of the most High, he should have just dropped from heaven for us to believe in him.SHEPHERD TWO: You know what I think, he has chosen to be identified with us so that we too may attain the dignity of being children of God.SHEPHERD ONE: Boyi iwe you should have just become a priest. You speak like you were there when God was making his plan of salvation.SHEPHERD THREE: Guys we are about to reach. The sight is amazing look at that star. It is very unusual. What are we to do when we reach there?SHEPHERD TWO: We shall just prostrate and adore him as we were instructed.SHEPHERD ONE: But that is just a baby, boyi iwe. How can we adore him?SHEPHERD TWO: Just do it. We were told to do so and so we must.SHEPHERD THREE: I will sing him a song when I reach there. I will sing silent night.SHEPHERD TWO: We are here. That must be the child over there with the mother and the father Joseph.(They all prostulate in adoration)ALL THE SHEPHERDS: Hail to the King born for our salvation!MARY: What could all this mean? Is my son that important?SHEPHERD TWO: You may not understand now, but this is what we were told by the angels who came to us while we were tending the flock. This child is going to be a sign of contradiction for the generations to come. He is going to raise the mighty from their thrones. He will be the discomfort of the comfortable and the comfort of the uncomfortable.SHEPHERD THREE: Mine is a song that will be repeated by the generations to come. It is SILENT NIGHT:             Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.Silent night, holy night
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!SHEPHERD ONE: Who else again is singing?SHEPHERD THREE: I am the only one singing.SHEPHERD ONE: Can’t you hear the voices from a distance. Somebody else is singing. I can hear at least three voices. Listen very carefully.The three kings are heard now from a distance singing.We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

They reach the place where the children are and offer the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrr.Balthazar: I am King Balthazar with my fellow kings here. We have come to honor our own. The star we followed revealed to us that he is destined to be a king like us. So we have come to bring him gifts that befit his title. Gold is for wealth. As a king he is truly wealth and that he will sacrifice all that wealth for the sake of the people he is going to serve.Gasper: My name is king Gasper! This frankincense shows the peculiarity of such a king. He will not only be a king but a priest. He will minister to his people and proclaim to them things that are on high. He will be a high priest to offer himself as true incense to God.MelchIa: I am queen Melchia! Here I bring to him the gift of myrrh. This oil is for his own burial. You may ask, why should I proclaim death at birth? Because, his very destiny is prophetic. He is coming to be a sign of contradiction to a world that has lost value. To a world that has gone its way. To a world that has become laxed in morals. He is not going to be accepted, as such death is the only method he will use to convince the world that he is right. His death will be a source of the rise of fall of many in Israel. Your own soul, oh mother, will be pierced as with a lance – but the God who has given you this privilege of bearing a king will see you through.BALTHAZAR: You have spoken enough your highness. You women speak too much. The message has reached this very humble couple – Mary and Joseph. We have to go now since we have a long way.GASPER: Before we go, here is a warning: Herod wants the head of this innocent child. He will not rest until he has the corpse of the promising king on his plate. We advice you to take this child away from his territory so that the disaster he is planning does not affect this child. Run off to Egypt and there you will find yourself secure from the canning jaws of Herod. Remain there until he is no more.BALTHAZAR: That, I would have forgotten. Herod is threatened upon explaining to him that there is a king born in Bethlehem. He thinks he will live forever! Go right now! Go! We are using a different root because we don’t want Herod to know we have gone. Long live your child! Long live the king of the Jews!!! End!

What if tomorrow never comes?

A Short Play on the Regrets of Life by Fr. Eustace Siame

Melanie with her mother helping in cooking. She just gets up in a shabby dress and looks at the audience for a while ignoring her mother who is looking at her. Melanie: I have a story that might be of interest to you. Wait a minute! May be I am mistaken. You don’t share my interest after all. Do you? I am asking all of you seated here who lie in the comfort zone of your own lethargy until life meets you halfway. It did and I am here to share my story. For the sadists present here this might be the sweetest tragedy of all. I call it bitter honey, if honey has ever been bitter. It was for me and I can still feel the bitterness in my regretting mouth. We might be sharing the same story but you have chosen the path of silence, I have chosen the opposite. Which one of us is in a better prospect will be judged at the end of my story.Bana Melanie: What have you been telling them?Melanie: My story.Bana Melanie: Do you think anyone is interested? Melanie my daughter, nothing interests a person until it is his or her own. A problem is never a problem until it is yours. You have passed through all these things and others listening to you right now will think you are just telling one of those tragic stories they have seen on movies and dramas.Melanie: Mum, be positive at least for once. Can’t you see they are attentive (looking at the audience). They will sympasize with me at least.Bana Melanie: What will happen after that my daughter? Do you think things will become better?Melanie: I am positive mum. Things will become better. Someone listening to me right now will definitely take a resolute step and say I am not going to pass the way of Melanie. I am not going to be as foolish as she has been (she starting shedding tears). Mum, someone listening to me will be wiser than I have been and never trust men as much as I have trusted them. (Bana Melanie comes close to Melanie and embraces her as she puts her heard on the breasts of her mother).Bana Melanie: It’s alright my daughter. What has happened has happened. You cannot cry over spilled milk. Melanie, when water from the cup spills it cannot be drawn back.Melanie: Why, why? Why was I so foolish mum? You told me so many times. Why did I think I was more educated than you in the school of life? Why did I pretend to be listening to you and on the other hand doing my own things?Bana Melanie: You were young my daughter. You had not yet been taught by life. You were still in class though you have learnt it the hard way.Melanie: But mum, why did I have to wait until I learnt things in this way? I am so happy you stood by me even in my foolishness. What always remains as a wound is that my father, my truly responsible and loving father is seven feet below on my account. (She cries aloud) oh, my beloved dad you would be alive by now! You would be here with me had I not been selfish and self-seeking. Dad you would still be on this earth.Bana Melanie: My daughter, how often will you mourn your father. It was his time to go. Just know that God would have taken him even without what you did.Melanie: (becoming hysterical) Mum, leave me alone now. Go away from me. Let me relive those moments, maybe my father will forgive me. Go mum go. Allow me to know where I would have rectified. (the mother leaves and Melanie remains alone with tears flowing as she looks up in the sky then smiles as tears flow over her chicks)END OF SCENE ONE.

SCENE TWO Lwimbo: Melanie! Melanie! Melanie!Melanie: What’s your problem?Lwimbo: That’s not the way you respond to someone who has seen an angel in you Melanie. That’s not you definitely. I know you to be a very pleasant person and one with whom all feel at home.Melanie: Are you through with your flattery?Lwimbo: You cannot call this flattery Melanie. Everyone acknowledges this about you. You are an angel in human form. You are not meant for this earth because your beauty does not much that of ordinary humanity. If anything you can only be liken to those creatures to whom you are legendary linked, I mean the sirens.Melanie: (becoming interested) Don’t be funny, Lwimbo. If this is the way you talk to other girls I pity them. Iam happy I am not so easily deceived.Lwimbo: I have never told anyone words that do not fit the description. In the actual fact you are the only one I have ever told such words. I did not even plan them, but your very beauty prompted them.Melanie: Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.Lwimbo: Not yours dear! Not your beauty! Your beauty is mathematically, syncrematically, physiologically, epistemologically and geometrically measurable.Melanie: You cannot measure beauty.Lwimbo: In a study called Aesthetics, beauty is a measurable entity. Proportion is a word we use in measuring beauty. You are the most proportionate being I have ever seen. I am not saying this to win your admiration. I cannot have you for your wife even. I am not fit my dear. But, if I am granted just to be an ordinary friend I would pay you heavens for such a favour.Melanie: (smiles) You are funny!Lwimbo: Look at your smile! The last time I saw such a smile was in heaven among angels. It was when the gods tickled the angels. Among men this is the first smile of its type. If you were to sell your smile, I cannot afford to buy.Melanie: Let me admit one thing Lwimbo – You are very romantically poetic. You can drive a woman crazy by your words.Lwimbo: Not every woman. Its only with you I can say all these things.Melanie: Don’t make me too special. Don’t make me a queen; I am just an ordinary person.Lwimbo: Melanie, you are not ordinary. You are truly a queen. You are…Melanie: (interrupting) Ok! Enough of this flattery! I have to go now. Lwimbo: Ok! Thanks! When do I get the privilege of seeing you again, Melanie?Melanie: I am not promising. You may not see me at all. Bye.

SCENE 3Like the first scene.Melanie: That’s how Lwimbo swept my heart away. He stole my heart and every time I would only think about him and him alone. I would long for those sweet and romantic words of him. He would tell me, “There is a place deep inside me that belongs only to you; a place of soft celestial dreams spun of stardust, a place of red hot fantasies and naughty secrets meant for your ears only.”I don’t know why I did not put the stress on “FOR YOUR EARS ONLY”.He made me pregnant and I was sent out of school, but him the school authorities did not expel. Coming back home, with all the trust and hopes my dad had for me, an intelligent and principled girl I was known, I could not face my dad. He was hypertensive. But I could not resist it for long. I told my dad that I was 5 months pregnant and I was not ready for an abortion. He got cardiac arrest and died.Imagine the pain!Bana Melanie: It’s enough my daughter. Come and take your medication. Your doctor stressed very well that ARVs are supposed to be taken according to the prescribed time. (Taking her by hand)Melanie: Let me tell them mum, wait! Let me tell them that the same stupid fellow had made three others pregnant who are also suffering from HIV like me. (She keeps on talking as her mum takes her out) Let me tell them that I have lost everything – my child and above all my life. I never knew that I had only today. I never knew! END