Living History

Written and Directed by Michelle Denise Milam and Janeare S. Ashley
© 2007


CAST
Fatima Jones, 18 years old, just released from juvenile hall.
Nicole, her sister
Groundskeeper, An angel.
Harriet Tubman
Moses
Young Jesus
A Man
ACT I
(NICOLE is DOWNSTAGE standing in front of a sign that
says “Living Museum” waiting for the bus. She is
frustrated and tired after a long day of working at the
museum, her after school job. NICOLE looks at her
watch. A man walks by.)


Man
You need a ride, baby? Your feet hurt? I’ll rub them!

(Nicole looks away. The man EXITS stage left.)

Man
Fine then.

(The man walks away. Fatima ENTERS Stage Right. She strolls in, giddy. She hands Nicole the car keys. Nicole is angry.)

Fatima
Take these and start walking. I parked on the other side of the building. (with an attitude) What Nicole?

Nicole
I told you I needed to get to choir rehearsal after work, Fatima. That was two hours ago!

Fatima
And I told you I was busy, alright? I had business to take care of. What was I supposed to do?

Nicole
(whipping out her phone) Ring, Ring, Hello? You do know my number. It’s getting ready to rain!

Fatima
Whatever.

Nicole
Oh that’s cute.

Fatima
Is it cute that you’re walking home?

Nicole
You don’t have to ever worry about asking you for anything. I’ll take the bus.

(Fatima looks sorry. It is quiet for a moment and then spies a car.)

Fatima
Is that Chris in that new Lexus Jeep? That boy has come up. Man, I would look sick in one of those. (Nicole ignores Fatima) He looks like one of those people who build houses. What do they call it? An arch…art…

Nicole
Architect.

Fatima
I knew you would know. (Pause) I bet they get paid. One of these days…

Nicole
You’d actually have to open a book first.

Fatima
You better be glad you’re my sister, little girl, cause I cut girls for less.

(A Groundskeeper ENTERS Stage Right to UPSTAGE. Holding a broom he starts sweeping. He notices the fight and looks on.)

Nicole
Go ahead and do it, then, Fatima, I’m not sacred of you! You always talking about what you want to do, but you never do it. You only care about yourself.

(Fatima slaps Nicole. Nicole starts crying.)

Fatima
Aww, did that hurt? It serves your little stuck up self right! You had it easy! Don’t be jealous because you can’t be like me.

Nicole
Be like you? You think I’m jealous because I don’t wear an ankle bracelet? Because I don’t smoke and I come home on time? Because I want better for myself? I never want to be like you!

(Nicole runs off EXITING stage Left.)

Fatima
(calls after her.) Walk then! ( Fatima reaches for her pocket and remembers Nicole has her keys.) (To herself) She has the keys! Dang! (She reaches in her pocket to pick up her cell, but the battery is dead.) This phone is dead! (Fatima reaches out her hand feeling a few raindrops.)

Fatima
(Looks up to the Lord)
You would decide to make it rain now!

Groundskeeper
You look like you could use a rest.

Fatima
’Scuse me?

Groundskeeper
You look tired.

Fatima
I’ve done all the resting I plan to do.

Groundskeeper
You’re talking about rest out there. I’m talking about rest in here. (He points to his heart.)

Fatima
Are there dead people in there?

Groundskeeper
Don’t you little heathens know anything? God said he’s a God of the living, not the dead.

Fatima:
You’re crazy, old man. All I need to do is find a phone, to call my sister, and I’m out of here, Mr. Crypt Keeper. I know this isn’t McDonald’s so you don’t have pictures to tell you what I want, but maybe you’ll understand this: ET phone Home….

Groundskeeper:
There’s one inside.

(Groundskeeper EXITS)

(Fatima hesitates and looks up at the rain, and decides to enter the museum. Fatima exits stage right. LIGHTS GO DOWN. HARRIET TUBMAN, AND MOSES position themselves in the museum, stage left, center stage, and stage right, respectively. “Wade in the Water plays, eerily. Lights up. Fatima enters , wiping her hands on her pants. She looks around for a second, and sees no phone. She walks around gingerly, and then bumps into Harriet..)

Harriet
Ow!

Fatima
(Fatima screams. She races to the door, but can’t open it. She tries kicking it, but that fails.) Help, let me out of here!

Harriet
Be still child. They’ll hear you!

Fatima
Lady you better step back.

(Wade in the Water PLAYS in the background.)

Harriet
There’s no turning back now. See that moon out there? That’s a sign. The Lord done told us to go that way. I been on this path before, and I ain’t lost one yet, so you better get used to it.

Fatima
(To herself)
You’re loosing it, Fatima, this isn’t real, this isn’t real…

Harriet
(clapping)
Snap out of it! I said come on, girl! You deaf? I don’t know where you thought you was going, but you can’t stay here. I never lost a passenger. Now I don’t want to hurt you, (Harriet corners Fatima) but if I have to, I will.

Fatima
I’m sorry, lady.

Harriet
My name is Ms. Harriet Tubman, and I ain’t no lady.

Fatima
Ma’am, I’m just trying to call my sister, that’s all.

Harriet
You children always want to go back to Egypt, when God has set you free. How many sisters you got?

Fatima
One, ma’am.

Harriet
She still in slavery?

Fatima
Slavery? Slavery’s been over!

Harriet
Naw, chile. Slavery ain’t no ways done, yet. You got chains on your legs, doncha!?

(Fatima Realizes her ankle monitor is visible. She tries to cover it with her foot.)

Fatima
Oh those aren’t chains.
(Harriet points to her ankle monitor)

Harriet
Then why are you wearing them?

Fatima
I don’t know who or what you are, but nobody owns me.

Harriet
Would be better for you if somebody owned you, then. All this nonsense from a free woman! Do you see this tree on my back? (She hikes up her shirt, and pulls it down.) They beat me till the blood ran, and ran some more. But I never stopped going. I never stopped coming back. I lost my sister to slavery. I said if the Lord would let me live, I would keep coming back-- for her.

Fatima
Were you scared?

Harriet
I can't die but once. Everything else I leave to the Lord. (Harriet leads Fatima towards center stage, facing the moon) I’ll be going back tomorrow, when the moon is high again. Look, there it is now…

( Fatima looks up and gazes at the moon. Harriet moves back into place by the pillar and freezes.

Fatima
Miz Harriet? I don’t see…

(Fatima spins around and realizes Harriet is frozen.)

Fatima
I gotta get outta here.

(Fatima quickly tries to escape and bumps into Moses)

Moses
Woman, why are you here? You must leave. The time is here!

Fatima
I’m not going anywhere!

Moses
Do you hear me, Daughter? You’re free! Quick, this way! (He grabs her and moves her to cover.)

Fatima
I don’t care! I just want to get up out of this crazy place and to my car.

Moses
You can’t stay here. You think you can be free without the Lord’s help? Do you think that if Pharaoh would not spare me, a Jew who lived in his house and his court, that he would spare you? Ramses will have you butchered! Until we all are free, none of us is free.

Fatima
I ain’t one of you.
Moses
Then I pity you, because we are God’s anointed. Last night after years of suffering, the Lord poured his wrath into Egypt, the house of bondage. An unearthly cry was heard in that land unlike any other, because Egypt has defied the Lord, and oppressed his anointed. (pause) Every first born is dead.

Fatima
Dead? Wait a minute, who are you?

Moses
I am Moses, servant of the most High God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

Fatima
(to herself again)
You’re just really, sick, Fatima. The cold is getting to you. Harriet and Moses….

Moses
Daughter, better to be sick with ague, than sick with regret, for the Lord is a God of his word. Let’s go!

Fatima
Wait, how do you know this? How do you know that God just isn’t playing with your mind?! I’ve prayed to him many a times. It never kept my family from being poor, or my dad from leaving us!

Moses
I have seen God take a man like me, who is not even much of a man and use me to lead his people from slavery. He has brought the Prince of Egypt to ruin! (he cups her chin) What more do you need to see to believe? If the Lord of Lords can do the extraordinary, can’t he also deliver us from poverty?

Fatima
You really believe God would help someone like me?

Moses
He’s set us free, child. All you have to do is follow his light. (Moses points to an imaginary pillar of fire in the sky, and freezes. A little boy (JESUS) dressed in white ENTERS. Fatima turns around and meets what appears to be a twelve year old little boy in white garments.

Fatima
Thank God! Little boy, do you have a phone? Better yet, do you know your way out?

Jesus
I am the Way.

Fatima
Uh huh, I mean the WAY out!

Jesus
Follow me, and I will show you.


Fatima
(raises her hands in glee)
Hallelujah! Thank God!

Jesus
You know my Father?

Fatima
Honey, I don’t know your daddy, but if you show me the way out of here I would give him my doggone soul right about now.

Jesus
(smiling) You do not know what you ask. Why are you worried?


Fatima
If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me, but trust me when I say that dead men are walking up in here.

Jesus
Well, God is a God of the living, not the dead.

Fatima
Okay, and what does that have to do with getting out of here?

Jesus
You said you wanted to know the way out. I’m showing you.

Fatima
Where at, so I can be there!

Jesus
Your sister already knows the way, but something is hindering you.

Fatima
You know my sister?!?

Jesus
I know lots of things about you. I know that the reason you’ve been in and out of trouble is because you believe that nobody cares about you. You think you had to make it on your own. You’re hurting, because you’re not free.

Fatima
Dang right I ain’t free! You see this? (She points to her ankle monitor)

Jesus
The only way out is through. The only way through is me.

Fatima
You gotta be kidding! Look at me. I am not Jesus, man! I am not Harriet Tubman, I am not Moses! My whole life is messed up! (Frustrated she breaks down) I can’t save anybody, I can’t even save myself.

Jesus
(touches her on her shoulder.)
That’s why I am here. Give it to me.

Fatima
Give you what?

Jesus
The weight.

(Fatima looks at him. Jesus walks to her and touches her arm. Fatima immediately begins to shake and falls to her knees. Jesus takes the weight of her sins. He loosens her monitor and takes from her. While she is crying, he smiles and walks away.)

Fatima
Thank you, Thank You! Thank You!

(Nicole Enters)


Nicole
Fatima! Oh my God are you alright?

Fatima
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Nicole
Mama and I have been looking for you. I’m so sorry. I was upset and I left and I came back and I couldn’t find you.

Fatima
Where is he?

Nicole
He who? Nobody’s here.

Fatima
Jesus, Harriet, Moses…

Nicole
Are you okay?

Fatima
(Stands up)
I’m more than okay. I’m free, Nicole. I’m finally free. Things are going to be a lot different now. He saved me.

Nicole
Nobody is here, Fatima.

Fatima
That can’t be! Ask the groundskeeper…he’ll tell you. You know. The guy you work with?!?

Nicole
There is no groundskeeper here! They haven’t even had a security guard in two years.

(Fatima looks up and around. She then looks at her sister and hugs her.)

Nicole
What has gotten into you? Are you in trouble?

Fatima
Not anymore. Not anymore.

(The two hug. They look out to the audience and freeze. The lights dim.)

THE END