The War

by John Cosper

SCENE 1

(Chloe's bedroom. Light only falls in a small area around Chloe's bed. Music optional: something slow and ominous. Chloe is in bed asleep. Uriah rises from the up stage side of the bed and hovers over her, hissing menacingly. Chloe begins to toss about, uncomfortable. She moans, as if having a bad dream. Ophelia enters from stage right. Uriah sees her, pulls back, hissing. Ophelia moves closer to Chloe. Uriah slinks backwards. When Ophelia is 5 feet away, Uriah turns and exits. Ophelia leans over Chloe and kisses her forehead, calming Chloe and stopping her turning and moaning. Ophelia strokes Chloe's hair.)

OPHELIA- Rest, Chloe. Soon, you will be free.

(Lights out.)

SCENE 2

(Maggie's apartment. The place is a mess. There's an old couch, a worn coffee table with full ash trays and stacks of papers and magazines. There is an end table with a lamp next to the couch. Dirty laundry is on the floor. There is a table with chairs as well. Iago is asleep behind the couch. Grendel enters. He leans over the couch.)

GRENDEL- Wake up, Iago. You have a busy day ahead.

(Pause.)

GRENDEL- I said wake up, dummy.

(Grendel kicks Iago.)

IAGO- Owww! What'd you do that for?

GRENDEL- Time to go to work.

IAGO- Work? What do you mean work?

GRENDEL- She's coming home any minute now.

IAGO- Coming home?

GRENDEL- They released her this morning.

IAGO- After a drug bust? Gee, don't they put any one in jail any more?

GRENDEL- Sure we do, but the powers below determined that locking away your

particular patient might not be in her best interest.

IAGO- What do you mean?

GRENDEL- The enemy has infiltrated the prison system. The missionaries are moving in

and stealing souls from us left and right. 

IAGO- You're joking. Why would the forces of light even bother with such refuse?

GRENDEL- The people we stick into prisons are exactly who they're looking for. Lost

sinners without hope. Through prayer and faithful followers, the enemy is presenting the light of hope to the prisoners. They're having spontaneous praise services and everything in there. We can't even get inside the walls at times, what with the Spirit inhabiting the residents and those praise songs, UGH! It's revolting.

IAGO- So what's the deal with Maggie?

GRENDEL- The Powers Below feel she is too much of an at-risk personality. Exposure

to the truth could be detrimental to our grip on her soul.

IAGO- Oh please! She would never convert.

GRENDEL- What makes you so sure?

IAGO- Look at the hole I've placed her in, a rent controlled apartment paid for by her

drug dealing boyfriend, a sickly child that keeps her too busy to do anything to better herself. She's stuck!

GRENDEL- Put her behind bars and she's free of this bondage.

IAGO- Take away her daughter, you take away her desire to live.

GRENDEL- The Powers Below are aware of that. Hence, the new strategy with regards

to your patient.

IAGO- That being--?

GRENDEL- Release her back into this cesspool and take away the thing she loves the

most in this world.

IAGO- I like it.

GRENDEL- It is imperative you keep this woman down. She is highly intelligent for a

human, and the only chain that keeps her here is her own fear. If she got the notion that she could better herself…

IAGO- We'd switch gears, turn her into a money-driven absentee mom--

GRENDEL- Your over-confidence is putting this woman at risk! You know the penalties

for losing one like her to the enemy.

IAGO- It won't happen.

(Maggie opens the door of her apartment. Her hair is a mess, she wears no make-up, and clothes are wrinkled and messy. Iago pushes a child's roller skate across the floor with his foot. Maggie stubs her toe and almost trips over it.)

IAGO- Ha ha!

GRENDEL- Fill her with anger, rage. Anger against Mike, anger against the system.

Hatred will keep her in our grasp and well out of reach of the enemy.

IAGO- You got it.

GRENDEL- She listens to no one except those we wish her to speak with. Don't let her

cooperate with authorities. Don't let her do anything to stand on her own two feet. Keep her dependent on the man she hates.

IAGO- You can count on me.

(Grendel exits. Maggie sits on the couch. She reaches over to turn on the lamp on the end table. Iago snaps his fingers. The lamp bulb burns out.)

IAGO- Oops!

(Maggie sighs. She opens her purse, pulls out a piece of paper. She reaches for the phone without looking up. Iago pushes the phone towards her hand. Her hand hits the phone, knocking it on the floor. Iago laughs. Maggie gets on her knees to pick up the phone. Iago pushes the coffee table towards her so when she gets up, she bangs her knee into it.)

MAGGIE- Ow!

(Maggie angrily kicks the coffee table, causing everything to fall off. She sighs, frustrated, and picks up the phone. Iago laughs, sits beside her.)

IAGO- You'll never leave me, will you, Maggie?

MAGGIE- Yes, my name is Maggie Wilkes. I was given this number to call about my

daughter Chloe…

IAGO- Might as well forget it, Mags. You ain't never going to see your little girl again.

MAGGIE- Yes, hi, my name is Maggie Wilkes, and I'm calling about my daughter,

Chloe. The lady who answered said you were assigned… Thanks… This Thursday? (sighs) I was really hoping I could talk to you today… (looks at her watch, grimaces) Half an hour? Yes, yes I think I can make it. Where are you located? (writes the answer down) And what was your name again?… How do you spell your last name, Jessica?… H-O-L-B-E-R-T. Thanks, I'll see you then.

(Maggie digs into a nearby pile of laundry, pulls out a simple dress, one that could have been bought at a thrift store, but it's the nicest thing Maggie owns. She shakes it out, then runs off stage to the bedroom to change into the dress. Iago picks up the paper.)

IAGO- Jessica Holbert? That's a new one on me. Haven't heard of her. No matter. It's

always fun meeting new and exciting people. Back in the nineteenth century I was working a voodoo cult in South America, and the Strongman on that operation later on became the guiding spirit to Adolf Hitler. There was another up-and-comer in the group that became the guardian of Jonestown. An entire town, mothers and fathers giving their children poisoned Kool-Aid. What a genius. Meanwhile, here I am working urban America with a loser like you. Guess I should have done more butt-kissing like the Butcher of Jonestown.

(Maggie enters, wearing her dress. She is brushing her hair, vigorously trying to get the knots out. There is a knock on the door. Sauron opens the door and sticks his head inside.)

SAURON- Iago?

IAGO- Sauron, your patient got released, too?

SAURON- Yep. And I got him all worked up at yours. Can we come in?

IAGO- Be our guest!

(Mike barges in the door past Sauron. Sauron enters, closes the door behind him. Maggie turns to see Mike, then turns back around. She digs into her purse for her make-up and starts applying it to her face.)

MAGGIE- (snaps) What do you want?

MIKE- You walked out on me!

MAGGIE- What?

MIKE- You left me at the police station! Just ran off without me.

MAGGIE- (short) So?

MIKE- I don’t know. I just assumed that since you were my girlfriend, you would have

the courtesy to wait for me?

MAGGIE- After what you did? You bring your friends over, fill my home and my

furniture with your filthy drugs, leading the police to kick down my door, drag me off to jail and take away my child!

MIKE- Your home? Did you say your home? Your furniture? How much do you pay a

month for your home and your furniture? Who buys the food in your refrigerator? Answer me that?

MAGGIE- I don't have time for this, Mike. I have an appointment.

MIKE- What kind of an appointment?

MAGGIE- I have an appointment about Chloe.

MIKE- Don't waste your time. The courts are never going to give her back to you.

MAGGIE- Yes, they will!

MIKE- They will never put a little girl back in the arms of a pot head!

MAGGIE- I am NOT a pot head!

MIKE- Don't start playing innocent now!

MAGGIE- I don't have to play innocent. I haven't touched that crap in years.

MIKE- That "crap" is your lifeline. It's the money that pays your rent

and buys your food. That "crap" is gold as far as you're concerned!

MAGGIE- That "crap" is about to cost me the one person I love the most, and you act as

if you don’t care.

MIKE- Of course I care!

MAGGIE- Then why don’t you come with me? Would you?

MIKE- I’ve got my own problems. The cops confiscated the ten grand Juan and I owed to

Snake, and if Snake doesn’t get his money, we're both dead men.

MAGGIE- Fine. You settle up with your drug boss. I’m going to get my daughter back.

MIKE- Forget about her. (puts his hands on Maggie's shoulders) What about the one

person who loves you the most? Come on. We could make another one to look just like her. Little babies are much more fun and cuddly than little girls.

(Maggie shakes Mike's hands off her shoulders and starts to put things back into her purse.)

MIKE- Besides that, it's only a few years time before your daughter becomes a loser like

you. She'll get pregnant like you did, you'll kick her out like your mother did, and she'll depend on the kindness of drug dealers, like me. Either that, or she'll sink to what you were until I found you. Selling her pretty little body for cash.

(Maggie slaps Mike. He grabs her hand violently and pulls her close.)

MIKE- You would be wise never to hit me again. If I went away, you would be back on

the street peddling your own body, never to see or hear from your precious daughter again!

(Mike shoves Maggie. She hesitates a moment, then regains her composure.)

MAGGIE- I have to go now.

(Maggie tries to walk around Mike. He bumps her shoulder to shoulder as she walks past. She walks out the door. Mike shakes his head and walks off stage to the bedroom. Iago and Sauron laugh.)

IAGO- That was beautiful, man! Simply beautiful.

SAURON- We got stuck in traffic on the way home, so I had plenty of time to get his

blood boiling. He's so pumped full of fear of her leaving, he's nearly homicidal.

IAGO- And now you've primed her so that I can fill her with the same fear of losing him.

SAURON- What a life we lead. Well, have fun at the court house.

IAGO- I don't have to go yet.

SAURON- Didn't she just leave?

IAGO- Yes, but she left her directions and everything on the table!

(The demons laugh.)

SAURON- That was good.

IAGO- Thanks. Hey, have you heard of a Jessie Holbert?

SAURON- Holbert… Holbert… No, can't say that I have.

IAGO- That's the case worker assigned to Maggie. Just wondered who was working with

her.

SAURON- I don't know. Wotan is in charge of that department. Last I heard, Nabrun was

working there, Evazian, Muftak…

IAGO- Muftak? I haven't seen him since the L.A. riots after the O.J. trial. What's he

doing working a lowly desk job?

SAURON- He let a couple gang members talk to a missionary, lost them to the enemy.

IAGO- You're kidding. Grendel was telling me the prisons were being invaded, but I had

no idea… Guess I am lucky she wasn't kept behind bars.

SAURON- Mine wasn't either. I've got a bad feeling that something is brewing

downtown. Keep your eyes open.

(Maggie enters the door gingerly, walks to the table softly, hoping not to let Mike know she is there.)

SAURON- Here comes little miss secret agent.

IAGO- I could creak the floors, wake up your boy.

SAURON- Nah, I've got some bad dreams to run by him. You go on, have fun at the

court house.

(Maggie grabs the paper and tiptoes out the door.)

IAGO- You too.

(Iago follows Maggie out of the apartment.)

SAURON- Come on, Mike. We're going to be late.

(Mike enters from the bedroom.)

SAURON- Don’t forget your piece.

(Mike stops, walks to the couch, pulls a handgun out from under the cushions.)

SAURON- We have an important appointment to keep.

(Mike opens the door and exits. Sauron follows him. Blackout.)