Copyright © James Hale
All Rights Reserved
note: Space is of critical importance in this play. space between the characters, between the beats, even between the lines. All intimate spaces, whether physical or regarding delivery, should be taken as close to discomfort as possible without reaching it. Conversely, let there be an almost uncomfortably large space between beats, both in an immensity of physical distance between the characters, and in length. it is allowable for the play to speed up noticeably towards the end, if desired.
[The holding cell at a federal prison. A metal table, a couple metal chairs. Bare walls, bare floor, a single window overlooking the yard, presumably. A heavy, swinging door opens and PETER enters, getting his shackles removed by an unseen guard at the threshold before the door closes loudly behind him. PETER is in his mid-30s, handsome, with eyes that used to smile.]
PETER
Well.
[PAUL enters, 40s, a man of faith haunted by doubt, wearing a clergyman’s collar. The door again clanges, both opening and closing. Keys are heard, bell-like, locking them in.]
PETER
Well.
PAUL
Did it-
PETER
Yeah.
PAUL
And they-
PETER
Yeah.
PAUL
So that’s-
PETER
Yeah.
PAUL
Well.
[Long pause.]
PAUL
So, how long until…?
PETER
Midnight. About an hour. 12:01, if we want to be exact, and we probably should be.
PAUL
And that was it? The last chance? No more appeals to be made?
PETER
No more races to run, no more appeals to be made, my end is set.
PAUL
Then I guess there’s only one thing to talk about.
PETER
No.
PAUL
Peter.
PETER
Father, no.
PAUL
You know you can call me Paul.
PETER
I know, Father.
PAUL
Then… One hour. That’s all the time that’s left, and you don’t wanna talk about it.
PETER
One hour left, I wanna talk about almost anything else.
PAUL
Fine, we’ll start elsewhere. What do you remember best?
PETER
Best? Clearest? Mostly I remember being alone. I know I had friends, but my memories aren’t of them.
PAUL
Does that make you sad?
PETER
Does it matter, now?
PAUL
I suppose not. But it could.
PETER
The end is nigh, what could matter to me now?
PAUL
Everything could matter if the end isn’t what’s coming.
PETER
Christ, Father, you’re persistent.
PAUL
Christ is right. For he so loved the world-
PETER
That he gave a son, you’ve already said that. I never had a son. I never had any children. I like kids.
PAUL
Go on.
PETER
I ever tell you I used to work at a special needs school?
PAUL
No.
PETER
It was back home. I was young. It paid well. Wasn’t too hard. There was one kid, Daniel, he was my favorite. Couldn’t talk, could barely move, didn’t really interact with people, mostly we wheeled him around in a wheelchair. He’d sit at the window every day for hours. Sunny days he’d smile. Rainy days he’d cry. I don’t know what made me think of that.
PAUL
He needed you and you helped him.
PETER
Honestly, Father, I’m not sure I’ve ever helped anyone but myself.
PAUL
But, Daniel-
PETER
Daniel was gonna live his whole life inside his own head. How did I help him? I made sure he ate and I wiped his ass. There was no help I could offer him, not really, not any help he needed, anyways. Trapped for life inside his own head, cursed by the accident of his birth.
PAUL
So he’s exactly like the rest of us.
PETER
No-
PAUL
EXACTLY, like the rest of us. No matter where we are Peter, all of us are trapped within ourselves. What happened to him?
PETER
I don’t know. I left the school after awhile. I guess he’s still there, this was years ago now, he might be dead. Probably better for him that way, sad to say.
PAUL
Maybe. Many people believe that the life after death will be better for all of us.
PETER
Do you believe that?
PAUL
I believe that we’re here for a reason. That we have purpose, else God wouldn’t have bothered to make us, we’d have stayed in Paradise with him all along. That’s why what I’ve been telling you is so important. This is your last chance to be a part of something greater than yourself. Something good, and beautiful, and pure.
PETER
What makes you think I want good, and beautiful, and pure?
PAUL
…There are NO sins that can’t be forgiven, Peter.
PETER
Maybe not. But there are ones that shouldn’t be.
PAUL
Is that what you wanna talk about?
PETER
I threw him in the water, Father. His worst nightmare. That was me.
PAUL
Why?
[Peter stops and thinks, then laughs.]
PETER
You know, no one’s ever actually asked me that. In court, the lawyers argued back and forth over motive. But, no one ever asked me why.
PAUL
If you wish to confess…?
PETER
No, Father, but thank you.
PAUL
Tell me a happy memory, or a funny story. You weren’t always unhappy were you?
PETER
No more than the next guy, I guess. OK. Let’s see… a happy story… Have I told you about Alice?
PAUL
A little.
PETER
Alice. I was… I don’t remember, 17? End of my… junior year of high school, so, yeah. She, oh god, she always told this joke… uh… oh, ha, where does fairy dust come from?
PAUL
Fairies?
[Beat.]
PETER
Yeah. It was never funny. But she would laugh, and I… I couldn’t help it. God, I was a fool for her. We dated for, I don’t know, about six months?
PAUL
What happened?
PETER
She moved away, during our senior year. Her dad was in the army, I think. Maybe Air Force. Army.
PAUL
That must have been hard.
PETER
It was. We kept in touch for awhile. Made plans to visit each other, whatever, but it just kinda… I don’t know.
PAUL
How do you feel about that?
PETER
I spent a long time blaming myself. Thinking I had let something good get away, didn’t make the right choices, should’ve done something I didn’t, that kinda stuff.
PAUL
You were just a kid, Peter. And now?
PETER
Now? Now I don’t feel anything about it. I had forgotten about it.
PAUL
No, you hadn’t. You just hadn’t talked about it.
PETER
Yeah.
PAUL
I always find that it’s easier to forgive others than myself.
PETER
I wouldn’t know, Father. I don’t know much about forgiveness.
[Long pause. Peter moves away.]
PETER
Guess that wasn’t really happy.
PAUL
No, but you’re getting there.
PETER
What do you think about capital punishment?
PAUL
The Catholic church believes all life is sacred.
PETER
But what do you believe?
PAUL
I’ve been a chaplain here a long time. I’ve met lots of men who I honestly believe deserved to die, but… if you’re asking me whether society should kill people… no, we shouldn’t.
PETER
Isn’t there lots of killing and death in the Old Testament? Vengeance and all that?
PAUL
Yes, but there are also very explicit instructions surrounding it. Deuteronomy 32:41, “to me belongeth vengeance.”
PETER
So only God can kill people?
PAUL
Pretty much, but even then he didn’t always. In Genesis, when Cain murdered his brother Abel, not only did God not kill Cain for his offence, but when he banished him he marked him on the forehead so that no one else would kill him either. I assume he wanted him to live a long life, with his guilt.
PETER
Cruel.
PAUL
Maybe. Tell me a memory of Alice you enjoy.
PETER
Father, I don’t think…
PAUL
Not that kind of memory. Something nice, something that doesn’t make you think of anything but that you were young once.
PETER
Young… I was so young. God, I would write songs and send her little mixtapes. Stupid stuff, but she claimed she loved them. She kept the CD’s in a little blue Adidas box. There were maybe ten of them.
PAUL
I didn’t know you were musical.
PETER
What? Oh, yeah, a little. I used to sing some, and I know enough guitar to strum a few chords.
PAUL
Don’t you sing anymore?
PETER
This is no place for music, Father.
PAUL
Seems like this might be the best place for music. There’s nothing else like it for getting your mind off of things.
PETER
Exactly.
PAUL
You don’t want that.
PETER
Why would I?
PAUL
Most of the people I’ve met in here only ever want to pretend they aren’t.
PETER
Most of the people you’ve met in here probably think they don’t deserve to be.
PAUL
Peter… Do you want to be here?
PETER
No, Father, of course not. But that hardly matters.
PAUL
Then why-
PETER
Because this is where I belong! This is where they put monsters.
PAUL
You-
PETER
You know the last thing he said to me? He said “I’m scared.” He was begging me. He wanted me to protect him, and I did the exact opposite.
PAUL
You thought he could swim.
PETER
I knew he could swim, kinda, in his way. We grew up swimming together, something about being in the water triggered some survival instinct. I also knew he didn’t like it, he only went swimming because he was supposed to. That’s not what he wanted. Ever. It scared him. And I delivered him to his nightmare.
PAUL
You still can be forgiven, Peter. Daniel 9:9, “the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, though we have rebelled against him.” You don’t have to live with this guilt, the Lord can make you whole.
PETER
I don’t deserve to be whole! Why would he forgive me? Why should he? What about his revenge? Isn’t that what he has in store for me?
PAUL
Not if you repent! This is why I’m here, to show you that you still have a chance! Everything is not yet lost!
PETER
Really. That’s why you’re here.
PAUL
What-
PETER
How many times have I shown you my willingness to die? I’m ready, and that disturbs you! Why is that, hm?
PAUL
I… I can’t bear to watch another be lost…
PETER
No. Every day people around you are “lost”, what makes me special?
PAUL
Well… obviously you’re… in a different situation than most…
PETER
Liar. You’ve met lots of men who deserved to die, I doubt you tore yourself up about all those lost souls.
PAUL
Many of them converted, but regardless, you don’t…
PETER
Tell me about Thomas.
PAUL
Thomas? Wha…?
PETER
Here are the nail marks in my hands, and the spear thrust in my side.
PAUL
You have an excellent memory.
PETER
I remember stories. You’ve told me enough of them the last few months.
PAUL
Thomas was… a disciple of Christ.
PETER
Yes.
PAUL
He… he wasn’t there when the Lord came back from the grave, the others told him, but he… he couldn’t believe. He had to see it with his own eyes.
PETER
Evidence.
PAUL
Yes… he… he needed proof.
PETER
Is there proof to be had in faith? Can they exist together?
PAUL
I… Yes, they can.
PETER
Then are you a man of faith? Or just a man of God?
PAUL
I don’t…
[Paul walks away. Long pause.]
PAUL
We are here for YOU, Peter. Your time is nearly up.
PETER
My time is nearly up. I have to be here. You don’t. You’re here looking for something.
PAUL
Yes, I am.
PETER
Why’d you join the clergy?
PAUL
I was lost. I wanted to be found.
PETER
And are you?
PAUL
I… my very first memory was of Church. Not of Mass, but of walking in through the doors at St. Patrick’s. You ever seen it?
PETER
No, I never saw New York.
PAUL
It’s difficult to describe, especially seen through a child’s eyes. The immensity of it. The… power. It’s ironic, the only memory I have of my parents is their funeral. Walking through those doors, holding my grandmother’s hand, two caskets up at the front, tiny underneath that huge ceiling, those massive organ pipes like teeth gnashed in lament. I knew then there was something else out there, some… purpose. What else could have built those huge walls.
PETER
Men?
PAUL
Only as a vessel.
PETER
What changed? Where is your faith now?
PAUL
It’s… I still… I’m not sure. It’s… shifted, somehow.
PETER
How?
PAUL
I don’t know! If I knew that I could fix it! But now… where once I saw God’s miracles, I see chance. I used to see mercy and love and now… Now it’s just like a lens has been put in front of me.
PETER
Scales on your eyes.
[Pause.]
PAUL
You’ve been holding out on me, Peter.
PETER
I told you, I remember stories, and the Bible ones are more dramatic than most.
PAUL
That’s true.
PETER
I’ve been reading, even when you aren’t here to walk me through them. My Father always wanted me to go to church with him.
PAUL
Why didn’t you?
PETER
My mother didn’t go, and she was fairly adamant that I not go either.
PAUL
Why?
PETER
She went when I was too young to remember, but the church my Father attended didn’t sit well with her. I heard her say once that she couldn’t reconcile everything she was hearing with everything she was seeing. I’m pretty sure that church destroyed my parent’s marriage.
PAUL
I’m sorry. That’s not uncommon, unfortunately.
PETER
I believe it. Why is it that religion is so divisive?
PAUL
Because what’s at stake is so immense.
PETER
What do you mean?
PAUL
Religion, any religion, deals with what happens to us after we die. It regards the long term. It has the highest stakes because it’s probably the last decision we’ll ever get to make.
PETER
And you’re convinced you’ve got it right, out of all the religions out there.
PAUL
Yes, I am. Because I believe there’s more evidence in Christianity than elsewhere, and partly because I have faith, which, honestly, is the more important part.
PETER
Then you’re lucky your faith and your evidence are aligned.
PAUL
You could look at it that way.
PETER
So a Hindu is a fool for not seeing what you see?
PAUL
No… I’ve met wise and compassionate people from all walks of life, it’s not an intellectual thing.
PETER
Then what if you’re just following in the steps of your parents, what if you’re just… I don’t know… socially conditioned?
PAUL
That’s a struggle for me, of course. It’s one of those things that I’ll never be able to logic away, or completely rid myself of the doubt.
PETER
So, what do you do?
PAUL
You live with the doubt, and embrace it. After all, it’s the foundation of faith.
PETER
If you say so.
[Long pause.]
PETER
Mark was a lifeline for me, after my parent’s split.
PAUL
Someone to look after?
PETER
Yeah, someone to put on a brave face for. It seemed like he was too young to really understand what was happening, all of a sudden we just spent every other week over at our mom’s new house. A change of scenery is all.
PAUL
You must have been a… lifeline… for him as well.
PETER
I don’t know. The kid was solid. He never seemed fazed by much.
PAUL
Even if you didn’t see it, I’m sure you helped him. Even if it was only later, when he was old enough to understand.
PETER
What about you, Father? What did you hold on to after your parents?
PAUL
Honestly? The church. I know, it seems weird, but ever since St. Patrick’s I only ever wanted to be in that world where there’s this huge power. It felt like… like I wasn’t in control, but it was okay because someone was, someone special.
PETER
So, what? You joined Catholic summer camps?
PAUL
Actually, sort of, yes. There were lots of classes before my first Communion at seven, then I got confirmed at twelve. After that I went right into what was basically a seminary feeder school, in Brooklyn.
PETER
You had to claim some sort of saint or something, right?
PAUL
To be confirmed? A patron saint, yes.
PETER
Who was yours?
PAUL
St. Joseph.
PETER
The patron saint of clergymen?
PAUL
No. The patron saint of death.
[Peter looks at Paul – a long, searching look. Then nods.]
PAUL
There are saints for everything.
PETER
Apparently.
PAUL
I used to know them all too, I’m sure I don’t anymore. We can pray to a saint now if you want. Who would you like to intervene on your behalf?
PETER
Is there a patron saint of convicts?
PAUL
Absolutely, St. Leonard.
PETER
How about of the guilty?
PAUL
Well… St. Drogo is close, I think. He was an orphan whose mother died giving birth to him. The story goes, he was so driven by guilt for this that, after he converted, he performed rather extreme rites of penance.
PETER
Happy guy.
PAUL
Interestingly, he’s also the patron saint of “repulsively ugly” people. I always liked that.
PETER
You’re joking.
PAUL
He’s not a common choice at confirmation.
PETER
Do all the saints have a story?
PAUL
To a certain extent, yes. We know enough about their lives to know they were deserving of sainthood, but the amount of information differs. Some were canonized for a single event, others for a entire life lived piously.
PETER
And St. Joseph is your favorite?
PAUL
No, a patron saint isn’t really a popularity, or interest thing. My favorite is probably St. Barbara – patron saint of people who work with explosives.
PETER
Seriously?
PAUL
Yeah, I can’t think of a population more in need of their own saint, to be honest.
PETER
So why St. Joseph, then? He, what, spoke to you the most?
PAUL
Something like that. More specifically than just death, he is the saint of dying happily, of receiving grace at the moment of death.
PETER
Of last second conversions.
PAUL
Yes.
PETER
Interesting choice.
PAUL
Thank you.
PETER
Why are you here, Father. You must know you won’t change my mind.
PAUL
I’m not allowed to make that decision. That’s in God’s hands.
PETER
In… look around, Father. You see any friends or family? Any mourners waiting to send me off with love? I’ve been abandoned by everyone. Including God.
PAUL
You haven’t been. I’m here.
PETER
Sure, but you aren’t allowed to make that decision. Don’t get me wrong, I know why no one’s here. I deserve that. I accept that. But you! You’re an enigma.
PAUL
I’m not. I’m the simplest man here.
PETER
Fair.
PAUL
Tell me more about Mark, what did he have again?
PETER
It’s called spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Basically he only had limited control of his muscles. One moment he’d be sitting in his chair comfortably, the next his arms and neck would spasm and he’d be flailing about.
PAUL
He was stricken from birth?
PETER
It’s generally caused by trauma or chemical damage to the fetal brain, so, yeah, from birth.
PAUL
You were his main caretaker.
PETER
Eh, not really. He received services, but they were strangers, really. What with us switching between our mom and dad’s houses every week, I was the most consistent caretaker, I’d say. I at least saw him every day. Probably the only person in the world who did.
PAUL
So then…
PETER
Then, what?
PAUL
That’s quite a burden to place on a young man.
PETER
That’s generous. I was a child, essentially. Sure, I guess I was legally an adult, but I had no coping mechanism. Nothing but fear, and anger, and loneliness.
PAUL
And a brother who needed you.
PETER
And Mark, yes.
PAUL
You helped him… did he help you?
PETER
Constantly. I can’t even… if I was… if I had what he had, I would’ve been miserable. He… he was anything but. Kid had the most beautiful smile… best ladies man I ever knew.
PAUL
Really? How did that work?
PETER
He couldn’t speak himself, but he was wicked smart. He had a computer that would talk for him, and he’d use it to flirt, kinda. He’d call pretty much any girl he met “Babe”, and coming from this tiny little smiling guy in a wheelchair it made everybody laugh. Not that he ever had a girlfriend or anything like that. It’s one thing to be charmed by a little guy in a wheelchair, it’s another to get intimate with him.
PAUL
Were you jealous? Angry that he could cope so well when you were struggling? That you had to take care of him when you, yourself, needed comforting?
PETER
I was… I don’t know… He was my brother, brother’s fight sometimes. I didn’t want to always be his minder, and he didn’t always want me around.
PAUL
So, what happened?
PETER
What… you think I killed him maliciously?
PAUL
Why else do people kill?
PETER
Tell me about the rules of confession. You’re bound to secrecy, yeah?
PAUL
Absolutely. Do you wish for me to hear your confession?
PETER
If you want to know what happened.
[Paul hesitates, then takes a Bible out of his jacket pocket, and puts his stole around his neck, donning his armor.]
PETER
I don’t really know how this works.
PAUL
There’s a ritual, but in this case I think we can forego them. Just tell me your sins.
PETER
I killed my brother.
PAUL
Why?
PETER
He asked me to.
[Long pause.]
PAUL
Who else knows this?
PETER
No one.
PAUL
Peter… why not? This can save your life! No judge in the world would order capital punishment in a case of… of assisted suicide!
PETER
Mark asked me not to tell.
PAUL
Why?
PETER
He didn’t want our parents to think he was a coward.
PAUL
He… what?
PETER
He became depressed. Well… no, that’s not really right. He was still the same happy, smiling guy, but he had come to a realization. The rest of his life was going to look exactly like what he had already lived. He wasn’t ever going to speak. He wasn’t ever going to walk. He wasn’t ever going to get married, or have children.
PAUL
That’s…
PETER
…a hard truth to tell yourself. I know.
PAUL
And so he…?
PETER
Yeah. He decided to move on. He had had enough of this life, and was looking forward to whatever came next.
PAUL
Was your brother saved?
PETER
Actually, he was Buddhist.
PAUL
That’s… unexpected.
PETER
Not so much, really, when you break it down, which he did, often. Buddhism is about inner strength and a reality within a larger world beyond our control. That pretty much was the definition of Mark’s life.
PAUL
Being in the world but not of it.
PETER
He would meditate for hours, and read. He spent most of his time doing one of those, actually. Both activities you do by yourself, and don’t require control of anything other than your thoughts.
PAUL
So he believed he would be, what, reincarnated?
PETER
I’m not sure. He went back and forth on that, where he was at the end I don’t know, but he definitely believed there was something else waiting for him.
PAUL
He and I have that in common.
PETER
I thought you’d like that.
PAUL
Your parents don’t know?
PETER
No. They hardly knew Mark by the end. I don’t really blame them, they were stuck with every parent’s worst nightmare. They just couldn’t handle it, and they drifted further and further apart from each other, and us.
PAUL
But they… what do they think of you?
PETER
The same thing the rest of the world does, presumably. That I killed my brother out of spite, or impotent rage, or plain malice.
PAUL
And that’s ok with you? That you be seen as the villain?
PETER
Aren’t I? I killed my brother! I am Cain, witness his mark upon me!
PAUL
But… you did it out of love! Out of mercy!
PETER
It hardly matters to him! He’s still dead. I couldn’t convince him to change his mind. And I was weak enough to wash my hands of his decision and go through with it.
PAUL
Weak enough…?
PETER
Paul. He could hardly move. The only way he dies is if I allowed him to. I could’ve kept him alive and one day maybe he would’ve changed his mind, maybe something good would’ve happened. Some new medical science. Maybe he would’ve met someone who appreciated him for his mind, not just seen his body. I don’t know. But I killed him because he asked me to, and I’m not sure I wasn’t glad to do it!
[Long pause. Slowly, Paul lifts his hand, as if to bless Peter with the cross, hesitates, then lowers it and closes his Bible, taking off his stole, putting them away.]
PAUL
You do want to die.
PETER
Yes.
PAUL
Shame is a powerful force, Peter, but it doesn’t-
PETER
Why do you care so much for your faith, Father? If it’s gone why not just let it be gone? Move on. Get married. I don’t know.
PAUL
My parents were buried in the Catholic faith.
PETER
And?
PAUL
So they have… ascended.
PETER
I don’t…
PAUL
They have gone where only those who believe can follow! Without my faith I’ll… I’ll never see them again.
PETER
But… if you don’t believe… why wouldn’t you just see them in some sort of non-religious afterlife?
PAUL
Because they believed! And if they were wrong, why would there be anything after death? Why wouldn’t it all simply end? Then I’d really never see them again.
PETER
You don’t have to believe that…
PAUL
I’m trying not to! That’s why I’m here! That’s why I need you.
PETER
You need me?
PAUL
I need you to see the light so that maybe I can too, again.
PETER
You’ve chosen poorly, Paul. I told you, I’m not sure I’ve ever helped anyone my whole life. And I can’t start now, not with this.
PAUL
Peter, think of your soul, think of your family, think… Damnit, just think of the price you are about to pay for your brother!
PETER
No.
PAUL
Will-
PETER
Why don’t you just believe whatever you like? Believe that you’ll see your parents again somewhere neutral. Somewhere with white sand and black mountains, drinks with little umbrellas and cozy fireplaces in deep winter snow. Choose some fantasy and fix your mind on it or whatever.
PAUL
Is that how you think it works? Faith can’t just be manufactured. I can’t just make something up to believe in.
PETER
Lots of people would argue that’s exactly what religion is.
PAUL
The only people who would argue that are the ones who aren’t religious, they don’t understand.
PETER
Neither do I.
PAUL
Yes, you do. You understand perfectly. You killed your brother because he asked you to, because of his faith that he would go somewhere better. You aren’t Buddhist, but he was, and so it was real enough for you.
PETER
That’s different.
PAUL
No, it’s not. Faith isn’t something that can be manufactured. It’s organic, natural, arising out of ourselves.
PETER
“Act as if ye have faith, and faith will be given to you.” Seems pretty manufactured to me.
PAUL
It would, because that’s not scripture.
PETER
What? I’m sure I’ve heard it before…
PAUL
Maybe so, but never from a Bible reading. Faith, faith in anything, is not something that just happens. I have faith that if I crash my car, things will happen that will protect me. Seat belts, and air bags, and whatever.
PETER
Those are facts, you don’t need to have faith in facts.
PAUL
Facts, how? It’s a fact that I wear my seatbelt, but I’ve never been in a crash, I don’t have knowledge of how they work. People who know have explained it to me, and because I have faith in them, I put my trust in their inventions.
PETER
That’s… science.
PAUL
And everything you know from science you, yourself, can prove? Are you an expert in everything that you take to be true?
PETER
What’s your point?
PAUL
That it is so much more complex then just deciding to believe something. It’s difficult, it’s admirable, it’s conscious and unconscious.
PETER
Maybe so, Father, but I don’t care for what you’re offering.
PAUL
Don’t let one decision be the end of your existence, Peter. Don’t let the worst thing you’ve ever done define you, forever.
PETER
What time is it?
PAUL
Nearly…
PETER
Then there aren’t any more decisions to be made. I am defined already.
PAUL
No! This… your brother believed he was moving on, don’t you want to move on and see him again? Don’t let this be your end.
PETER
I don’t know where he is. If, as you say, there’s something after this, then I’ll look for him and beg forgiveness, but… I don’t know, Father, I’m staring into blackness and I don’t see anything staring back.
PAUL
Peter, please.
[There is a sound at the door. Keys unlocking, tolling finality.]
PETER
The bell tolls.
PAUL
You… Peter! Please! For God’s sake…!
PETER
No, Father, for my own.
PAUL
Then… for me! Peter… I need this, I need you!
[The door opens. A black, inviting void. Peter walks to it and sticks his hands through, wrists together.]
PETER
I’m sorry, Paul, I can’t help you.
PAUL
Just… Peter, let me call someone. Your lawyers… let me tell them about your brother. Please, Peter, you don’t have to do this…
[Peter turns around, he is handcuffed.]
PETER
It’s done already. It is finished.
[Peter turns and walks out, the door closes behind him. Paul, alone now, stands a beat, two, then collapses. Blackout.]
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