Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Scene 20

Setting Fr. F’s office

people:
Lucia
Jacinta
Francisco
Maria Rosa
Fr. Ferreira
Fr. F’s secretary

Sr. L: (offscreen) We didn’t exchange a word the entire way up there.

(Maria Rosa and Lucy walk up to the secretary’s desk.)

Sec: Good morning, Mrs. dos Santos.

Maria Rosa: Good morning.

Sec: Father Ferreira would like to see you privately before he sees the children, Mrs. dos Santos.

Maria Rosa: Thank you. (to Lucia in a hushed, angry tone) Don’t annoy me any more! Tell Reverend Father now that you lied, so on Sunday he can say in the church that it was all a lie, and that would be the end of the while affair. Imagine! People coming from all over to pray to a bush!

(she goes offscreen as Lucia sits down on the bench in Father’s office. Jacinta and Francisco come in. Lucia gets up when they come in.)

Lucia: Francisco! Jacinta! I didn’t expect you here!

Francisco: Reverend Father told our parents to bring us here.

Lucia: My mother invented endless threats to frighten me about this interview.

Francisco: Mama and Daddy never did that.

Jacinta: That’s OK, even if they beat us, we’ll have that much more to suffer for sinners.

(Father F. and MR walk into the room. Children stand at attention when they do.)

Fr. F: Ah, children.

Lucia and Francisco: Good morning, Father. (Jacinta looks suspiciously, not saying anything.)

Fr. F: (pleasantly) Please be seated. (Jacinta and Francisco sit down on the bench, Lucia sits beside her mother by the door.)

Fr. F: Would you like some candy, children?

Lucia: Thank you, Father, but no.

Fr. F: (taken aback, sits behind his desk) Well, all right, then. Francisco, Jacinta, come here. (They go to the desk.)

Fr. F: Did your parents not come?

Francisco: No, Reverend Father.

Fr. F: Ah, that’s a pity. (pleasantly) Well, the important thing is that you’re here. Did you children see a lady at the Cova the other day?

Francisco: Yes, Father.

Fr. F: What did she look like?

Francisco: Well, Father, she…it almost seemed that she was made of light. You could distinguish her hands from her clothes, but it seemed to be made of light, and not flesh.

Fr. F: OK, and what was the first thing she said to you?

Francisco: I couldn’t hear her, Father. Lucia and Jacinta could, but I couldn’t.

Fr. F: Oh, really? And why would that be, Francisco?

Francisco: (shrugs his shoulders) I don’t know, Father.

Fr. F: Do you have trouble hearing, Francisco?

Francisco: No, Father. My hearing is fine.

Fr. F: Do you hear your teacher in school all right during lecture?

Francisco: Yes, Father, and during story time.

Fr. F: What about my sermons. Do you have any trouble understanding my sermons?

Francisco: No, Father.

Fr. F: Really? What did I preach on last Sunday?

Francisco: The need to honor your parents, and help them with the chores, and take care of them when they get old. And you told a joke about a farmer and his cow that wasn’t funny.

Fr. F: (trying to stay pleasant) I guess you have no problem hearing, Francisco. Or staying awake.

(Fr. F: laughs, the only person in the room laughing)

Fr. F: (getting frustrated) So, why is it that you have problems hearing her?

Francisco: I don’t know, Father.

Fr. F: Jacinta, you hear her, don’t you?

(Jacinta won’t answer.)

Fr. F: What did she say this time at the Cova?

(No answer)

Francisco: Lucy said…

Fr. F: (gradually getting more angry) I was asking your sister. I thought you couldn’t hear?

Francisco: My sister and cousin told me everything afterward.

Fr. F: I see. Jacinta, will you say nothing?

(silence)

Fr. F: If you’re going to be difficult, then just run away. Do as you like. Lucia?

(Jacinta kneels and prays the Rosary silently, Francisco sits down.)

Lucia: Yes, Father.

Fr. F: Come here! (Lucia walks up to Fr. F’s desk.) What did you see at the Cova on the 13th?

Lucia: It was a woman, Father.

Fr. F: And who is this woman, Lucia, was it Our Lady?

Lucia: She didn’t say who she was, Reverend Father, she just said she was from heaven.

Fr. F: Why did she come to see you?

Lucia: She said she would tell us later.

Jacinta: In October.

Lucia: Yes, Father, in October.

Fr. F: Really. So why do you come to see her when you don’t even know why she came to see you?

Lucia: We promised her, Father.

Fr. F: What did she tell you in May?

Lucia: She said she would take Jacinta and Francisco to heaven soon, and would leave me here a while longer.

Jacinta: But Francisco has to say many Rosaries first.

Fr. F: (to Jacinta) Hey! You had your chance to speak and you said nothing. Why are you speaking now?

(No answer.)

Fr. F: What else did she say?

Lucia: She wants us to come to the Cova at noon on the 13th for the next four months. Then she will tell us what she wants.

Fr. F: Did you ask this Lady about the war?

Lucia: Yes, Father.

Fr. F: What did she say?

Lucia: She said she wouldn’t tell us. She had to tell us what she wanted first.

Fr. F: Really. Now, what did she say on the Feast of St. Anthony?

Lucia: We can’t say. It’s a secret.

Fr. F: It’s a secret.

Lucia: Yes, Father.

Fr. F: (laughs) It’s a secret! God appointed me to be your pastor, but He doesn’t want me to know what heaven says to you.

(To Mrs. DS) It doesn’t seem to me like a revelation from heaven. It is usual in such cases for our Lord to tell the one to whom He makes such communications to give his parish priest or confessor an account of what happened. But this child, on the contrary, keeps it to herself as far as she can. This may well be a deceit of the devil. We shall see. The future will show us what we are to think of it all. I wish you all a good day.

Maria Rosa: Good morning, Father.

Children: (Lucy haunted) Good morning, Father.

(The others leave Father to do paperwork at his desk. Lucia eventually collects herself and leaves after the words “invention of the devil” below.)

Sr. L: (not seen) Those words of Father haunted me: “All that is an invention of the devil.”

No comments: