FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE in small caps between the top 1's and THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in larger ones. The letter A in a seal to the left of Washington, along with the assurance that THIS NOTE IS
LEGAL TENDER, FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. It was a series 1985 bill, the signature that of James A. Baker III.
Paladin's one was not the same at all.
The 1's in the four corners were the same; THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA was the same; the assurance that the bill could be used to pay all public and private debts was the same.
But Paladin's one was a bright blue.
Instead of FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE it said CURRENCY OF
GOVERNMENT. Instead of the letter A was the letter F. But most of all it was the picture of the man on the bill that drew Cheyney's attention, just as the picture of the man on Cheyney's bill drew Paladin's.
Cheyney's gray-green one showed George Washington.
Paladin's blue one showed James Madison.
175
AN EVENING AT GOD’S
An unpublished one-minute play auctioned off at the Hasty Pudding Theatre on April 23, 1990 to benefit the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theater Training .
DARK STAGE. Then a spotlight hits a papier-mache globe, spinning all by itself in the middle of darkness. Little by little, the stage lights COME
UP, and we see a bare-stage representation of a living room: an easy chair with a table beside it (there’s an open bottle of beer on the table), and a console TV across the room. There’s a picnic cooler-full of beer under the table. Also, a great many empties. GOD is feeling pretty good.
At stage left, there’s a door.
GOD – a big guy with a white beard – is sitting in the chair, alternately reading a book (When Bad Things Happen to Good People) and watching the tube. He has to crane whenever he wants to look at the set, because the floating globe (actually hung on a length of string, I imagine) is in his line of vision. There’s a sitcom on TV. Every now and then GOD chuckles along with the laugh-track.
There is a knock at the door.
GOD ( big amplified voice) Come in! Verily, it is open unto you!
The door opens. In comes ST. PETER, dressed in a snazzy white robe.
He’s also carrying a briefcase.
GOD Peter! I thought you were on vacation!
ST. PETER Leaving in half an hour, but I thought I’d bring the papers for you to sign. How are you, GOD?
GOD Better. I should know better than to eat those chili peppers. They burn me at both ends. Are those the letters of transmission from hell?
ST. PETER Yes, finally. Thank GOD. Excuse the pun.
He removes some papers from his briefcase. GOD scans them, then holds out his hand impatiently, ST PETER has been looking at the floating globe. He looks back, sees GOD is waiting, and puts a pen in 176
his out-stretched hand. GOD scribbles his signature. As he does, ST.
PETER goes back to gazing at the globe.
ST. PETER So Earth’s still there, Huh? After All these years.
GOD hands the papers back and looks up at it. His gaze is rather irritated.
GOD Yes, the housekeeper is the most forgetful bitch in the universe.
An EXPLOSION OF LAUGHTER from the TV. GOD cranes to see. Too late.
GOD Damn, was that Alan Alda?
ST. PETER It may have been, sir – I really couldn’t see.
GOD Me, either.
He leans forward and crushes the floating globe to powder.
GOD ( immensely satisfied) There. Been meaning to do that for a long time. Now I can see the TV…
ST. PETER looks sadly at the crushed remains of the earth.
ST. PETER Umm...I believe that was Alan Alda’s world, GOD.
GOD So? ( Chuckles at the TV) Robin Williams! I love Robin Williams!
ST. PETER I believe both Alda and Williams were on it when you..umm...passed Judgment,
sir.
GOD Oh, I’ve got all the videotapes. No problem. Want a beer?
As ST. PETER takes one, the stage-lights begin to dim. A spotlight come up on the remains on the globe.
ST. PETER I actually sort of liked that one, GOD – Earth, I mean.
GOD It wasn’t bad, but there’s more where that came from. Now –
let’s drink to your vacation!
177
They are just shadows in the dimness now, although it’s a little easier to see GOD, because there’s a faint nimbus of light around his head. They clink bottles. A roar of laughter from the TV.
GOD Look! It’s Richard Pryor! That guy kills me! I suppose he was...
ST. PETER Ummm... yessir.
GOD Shit. ( Pause) Maybe I better cut Down on my drinking. ( Pause) Still...It was in the way.
Fade to black, except for the spotlight on the ruins of the floating globe.
ST. PETER Yessir.
GOD ( muttering) My son got back, didn’t he?
ST. PETER Yessir, some time ago.
GOD Good. Everything’s hunky-dory, then.
THE SPOTLIGHT GOES OUT.
(Author’s note: GOD’S VOICE should be as loud as possible.) 178
Document Outline
Jhonathan and the Witches
People, Places and Things
In a Half-World of Terror
The Glass Floor
Slade
The Blue Air Compressor
The Cat From Hell
The Crate
Squad D
The King Family & the Wicked Witch
The Night of the Tiger
Before the Play
Man With a Belly
Skybar
The Leprechaun
Keyholes
For the Birds
The Reploids
An Evening at God's