sefton's elegy for gene grey

Among people, our domestic mass merchandisers consider "regular folks", there live and work and procreate other people, known as "cultural relativists". Among them, it's a point of honor to accord a modicum of respect to primitives such as the Pygmies of the Congo. According, some Pygmy proverbs are considered, well, insightful enough to be "bon mots". Here's one such proverb: "better a smart enemy than a stupid friend".

I just gotta follow this up before proceeding to my elegy. The previous bon mot can stated somewhat differently, like so: the damage that can be wrought by a smart enemy can be horrendous, but the damage that can be wrought by a stupid friend can be mind-boggling.

For my part, I'm speculating that the Republican hierarchy will take about five years to realize something about the American flag, which they have "owned" for these last 40 years. Thanks in absolutely complete measure to the man, whom the Supreme Court of the United States had installed in the White House, that hierarchy lost the ownership of "Old Glory".

Please don't be thrown off by those first three paragraphs. In a sense, they're a memorial to the article that previously occupied this slot. ... aaay, my blog, my rules ... Now, let's proceed to the piece that replaced "better a smart enemy".

Ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, this "ain't no" swine swill, customarily served the hoi polloi for their pious edification ... nor for that matter for salacious bemusement of profane and profaning [ahnghgh, insert choice of derogatory collective term]. Oh, alright (!) already, so I like to employ "dollar-ninety-eight" words ... so, wha'd'ya (?) gonna doo'boud'it!

More than likely, it's a good bet the preceding text intimates how I reacted to the news of Gene Grey's death. No and no again, I did not shed one tear. Nonetheless, I'm impelled to dedicate an elegy to Mr Grey.

Really, it's ironical I should do so in view of one simple fact. I strongly suspect Gene was my inferior. Oh, yes, I should remark on Mary Haupt's piece in the newspaper of record for the twin tiers of upstate New York and the rural northeast corner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ... no swine swill that.

Her piece impressed me mightily. In fact, her piece put on display for all the world to see two salient points. First off, she had welcomed Gene into her life. Second, he went about enriching it.

As for me, one might say that the inspiration for this piece came second-hand via Mary's. Let's start with my ever welcoming Gene into my life. If I ever did so, the occasion escapes my memory. While he was with us, so far as I can recall, he did do one small thing to enrich my life. He mentioned my semi-autobiographical novella WAR DODGER. He did not review it, mind you. He only mentioned it was available through the Internet at the bibliobytes website.

Please read the text in the following graphic. Aaay, c'mon, whyz.ache.err, why (?) must you always sprinkle, if not rain, on my parade. So, somebody might need a magnifying lens. That can be gotten in any dollar store for a buck.




Prologue done, let's proceed.

My recitation of the world's four most useless things would've, so I'm given to speculate, amused Gene.

The first three deal with matters of significance to aviators. And they are, in no particular order of impact: runway behind, altitude above and fuel on the ground. No dummy, Gene. He would've readily understood. As for the fourth most useless thing, it concerns politics.

Just so happens, he emphatically betrayed his affiliation. The man was staunchly Republican. . . . ya'know, I'd be willing to bet five doughnuts to somebody's three he voted in the last presidential election for the current occupant of the White House. And he did so for the second time. And that's the kind of hairpin he was.

Incidentally, somewhere towards the end of this piece, I will very emphatically hint about why the "kind of hairpin" comment is included in this text. Verily, so I now acknowledge, the following anecdote fails as geometrically rigorous proof for my preceding assertion about his being staunchly Republican.
Nonetheless, I proffer it as evidence to the effect that we exchanged comments on a few occasions. Quite some time before his death, I asked Gene for his opinion regarding that www.BCVoice.com website, to whose content I had then already contributed several articles. By the way, it's a good guess, the proprietors thereof no longer publish pieces, such as this elegy.

Anyway, Good Lord, there were times the man was totally devoid of diplomacy. In his considered opinion, that particular Broome-oriented website was a nest of "radical [ah, excised proctological expletive]".

Aaaay, whyz.ache.err, keep yer shirt on. I'm getting to the fourth thing right now. And, it is saying "I voted for you" to any politician, who's ineligible for re-election. Now that would've made him chuckle like crazy. No doubt about it, there was a vein of cynicism, a yard in girth and a furlong deep, in his soul.

As much as I admired his writing, I'm sorry to relate this suspicion ... well, not quite so sorry. There was as much poetry in his soul as is found in the average kumquat.

But then, that's only to be expected. Poets are better suited for propaganda than for journalism. And he was a journalist to his fingertips.

Speaking about poetry, I looked up the definition of "elegy" on my Franklin BOOKMAN MWD-440. And here's what I found: "poem expressing grief for one who is dead". The following inference is inevasible. I'm taking shocking liberties with that word.

Oh, well, I'll try to make up by quoting a tidbit of poetry I dearly wish I had treated Gene to. I'm sure he would've appreciated immensely. Aaay, dearth of poetry in the soul does not mean incapacity to appreciate same.

Darn, did I mention (?) my suspicions about Gene's being my inferior. Oh, yes, I'm sure I did, somewhere in the prologue. Quite some time ago, I wrote a piece for that Broome-oriented website with the title, get this, "female thinking a/k/a pseudo-voodoo". Let's skip to the bottom line (shall we?). In that piece, I conjecture that exceptional gossip mongers have the soul of a swindler.

Every so often, investigative journalism, both print and broadcast, reports how grifters and flim-flam rogues and various other charlatans describe their feelings, when they successfully defraud some unfortunate trusting sap. Unlike the Rolling Stones, they get satisfaction. Here it behooves me to be delicate.

Those exceptional scandal pushers achieve far more joy from character assassination by concocting lies than from bruiting brute fact. Depending on one's point of view, I was either fortunate or unfortunate in being immersed in happenstances that led me to that insight.

From what I can tell, poor Gene was immersed in happenstances that gravely hampered his ever grasping that insight. Could it be (?) that doesn't matter. Perhaps, he felt far more profoundly than I ever could the import of this elongated haiku:


. . . . . . . Self-righteousness
. . . is that lubricant, lacking
. . . . . . . . . which the machinery
. . . . . . . . . . . of evil
. . . . . . . . . .must surely seize.

In life, Gene was one prize package, no doubt about that. And lemme lay on the line. The man was a gay ... and not in a jovial sense ... party hound. Fact is, he was such a party hound that his friends and admirers came up with a wonderfully weird way to celebrate his life, and his sharing it with them. They threw a party in his honor. No, I wasn't there. I'm seldom in the mood to spend ten bucks to participate in riotous mourning.

There's also no doubt as Gene is now so shall we become. Oh, well, I suppose I should conclude this piece with a flourish, reminiscent of some Hallmark made-for-television movie. Oh, c'mon, whyz.ache.err, it's expected, and I'm hardly a wild-eyed iconoclast. Here goes.

Sooner or later, we're going to be like Gene. We'll all take our place before that great throne of judgment. In that circumstance, none shall be superior, none shall be inferior, none shall even be equal. Yes and yes again, we will be like Gene as we take our place before that great throne of judgment. We will be only human, neither more nor less ... maybe, even a bit too human.


toodles
.........he who is known as sefton

why the brits chuckle

In previous pieces, I express my regrets, in one way or another, for my support of this country's invasion of Iraq, one unholy fiasco. In this piece, I mull over how come the British government under their current Prime Minister Tony Blair got involved in that fiasco. However hard I try, I'm unable to shake off a rather risible notion that the brits took way too much to heart advice, uttered by another prime minister.

In this regard, I'm referring to Winston "Winnie" Churchill, who is gratefully and pridefully acknowledged by British historians as their country's saviour. Oh, alright (!) already, so I like the way the brits spell that word. I think it shows "savoir faire", if ya' known what I mean. Just when it looked as if the British people were about to be conquered by those nasty nazis, it was Winnie, who rallied the brits and their empire.

Okay, now that I've provided some idea of who the man was, I shall now convey to you the gist of his advice. And here it is: NEVER SEPARATE YOURSELVES FROM THE AMERICANS.

Yeah, it's in big block letters to match, in some way, the intensity, with which the brits took Winnie's advice to heart.

And here's something else he left, sort of as a legacy ya'know, with his fellow brits. And here's how it goes: Trust the Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.

Yeah, gotta admit, first time, I became aware of that "bon mot" I chuckled. Ah, I'm can hardly be considered an anglophile. As I say elsewhere, I'm free of discrimination. I harbor equal disdain for all men.

Recently, I've come to have a massive problem. It saddens me to reveal. And it exasperates me to reveal. It looks like that brit gasbag was right. By the bye, I'm plagued by another emotion ... dread.

According to Lou Dobbs, one of the few teevee commentators with good hard sense, this country is in thrall to corporate supremacists. I take him to mean that Americans are being ruled, not so much by the "investing class", but rather by massive corporate interests. Somebody once said, "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."

From what I can tell, those huge corporate interests insist on installing in high elective office right-wing quacks. When ya come right down to it, how (?) else can anyone explain why "fetal alcohol syndrome" ... my nickname for President George Walker Bush ... is in the White House.

If I may, I should like to insert another "bon mot". This one comes from the Pygmies of the Congo. It's a proverb of sorts, and here it is. "Better a smart enemy than a stupid friend".

Here's the upshot of all the foregoing. The "stupid friend" that the corporate supremacists had installed in this country's presidency has cost this country, after the damages have all been added up and by CONSERVATIVE estimate, one trillion dollars. Ah, that's trillion with a "t". Here, lemme inscribe in actual numerals and with a dollar sign:

$1,000,000,000,000.00

I threw in those last two zeroes to emphasize the point. According to the news, some couple in New Jersey hit the lottery for a net of some one hundred and twenty million dollars. Let's just posit the average adult in the street has a tough time getting their arms around something like this:

$120,000,000.00

Now then, please count all the decimal places to the left of the decimal point. Do so, and you'll come up with NINE (numeral 9). Now go back up to the trillion, and again count the decimal places to the left of the decimal point. And you'll come up with THIRTEEN (numeral 13). So, if one hundred and twenty million dollars (numeral $120,000,000) is a lot of money, then one trillion (numeral $1,000,000,000,000) has got to be a god-awaful amount!

Ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, if you think you're getting nickled and dimed to death now, just you wait. For any corporate supremacist reading this piece, let's put it this way. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. Ain't no way in hell, you're going to get that "death tax", also known as the estate tax, repealed.

One may guess those funny diminutive Pygmies were onto something. The damage a smart enemy can cause can be horrendous, but the damage a stupid friend can cause can be mind boggling.

Here's something that should keep you awake at night. Just suppose dear Winnie was dead right about Americans. What (?) else do those corporate supremacists have to pull, before they do the right thing! Oh, dear Lord, what the heck (?) else do they have to try!

Here's a little lagniappe for my devoted scholarly fans. Supposedly, the Democratic Party was able to run successively against President Herbert Hoover in the 40 years, after he had left office. Something tells me that same party will be able to run successively against this current president in the next 80 years, after he leaves office.

toodles
.. . . . he who is known as sefton

scifi schlemiel ... MOI?!

From the title of this piece, one might conjecture that this piece is a bit "off the wall", so to say. Ah, yes, my little chick-a-dees, if that's what you crave, you shan't be disappointed. First off, I should like to deny ever encountering Elvis in an unidentified flying object. From what I can tell, the man was chary with regard to flight, after the death of The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly in a plane crash. By the way, I suspect Elvis might've been fascinated with the movie THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. I saw that movie, when I was barely a tadpole.

I remember one scene, where Michael Rennie who portrays the alien J Carpenter is noodling with a hodgepodge of mathematical notation on a blackboard. Anyway, Mr Carpenter impresses a professor, who looks a bit like Einstein, with the noodling. The professor is impressed, and the audience is gripped with awe. I know I was.

Okay, I went through all that to set up the premise for why I'm now ruining my classified ad in PIPE DREAM, the student newspaper published twice weekly for Binghamton University, during regular semesters. Just so happens, I came upon a piece of speculation that's way too juicy to pass up. Oh, yeah, I'd affirm that I came upon this speculation in one of the most unholy websites I ever had the misfortune to come upon.

In truth, I'm too embarrassed to divulge its U R L. No way in hell do I want people to know that I voluntarily lingered in such a heinous website. How bad is it? Well, let's put it this way, I've scheduled a couple extra appointments with my therapist. No, I refuse to give any hint of that website's location. But as I said, this speculation is way too juicy to pass up..

According to our news media, North Korea's commie regime is agreeing to scuttle their nuclear weapons program. On the drive to this computer terminal, I was listening to radio's Stephanie Miller, who was mocking the news casts. I thought it was funny. My guffaw almost put me in a ditch.

As I said, here's a piece of speculation that's way too juicy to pass up. Just as the American diplomats were urging Kim Il Sung's commie regime to scuttle that their nuclear weapons program, so were Russian diplomats. It took some doing but the Russians came up with a story that convinced lil Kim to begin seriously acceding to various demands for nuclear disarmament.

The Russian diplomats showed lil Kim, who by the bye is North Korea's President for Life, a blackboard that was covered with a mumbo jumbo gumbo of meaningless mathematical notation. There was no way in hell he could've made head or tail of it. Back in seventh grade, he flunked algebra. And the teacher who flunked him was shot for possibly exposing intellectual weakness to foreign interests. Oh, alright (!) already, I just made that up. Still, it fits in with those Russian diplomats are alleged to have told lil Kim.

All that the Russian diplomats allegedly told lil Kim allegedly boggled his allegedly ever loving pea-picking mind. The mathematical hosserei proved, so the Russians allegedly claimed, that the some unnamed American covert intelligence agency was responsible for Chernobyl.

hint hint - that Covert Intelligence Agency's initials are somewhere in the preceding sentence.

By way of refresher, Chernobyl was where a Soviet nuclear power plant went haywire. Somehow, so the story goes, American scientists are able to harness dark matter and dark energy. And that capacity enabled the American government to turn the power plant at Chernobyl into one huge "dirty" bomb. Being the dirty filthy capitalist hooligans they allegedly are, the Americans were allegedly eager to experiment.

To prime the mouse, so to speak, the Russians asked Kim whether there were strange lights in the sky above North Korea's nuclear facilities recently. Just so happens, the Russians are alleged to have told him, with straight faces, there were similar strange lights in the sky above Chernobyl, shortly before it went ka-blooey ... ya'know, there just might've been strange lights in the skies over North Korea. Maybe, that's why lil Kim is suddenly so amenable to foregoing nuclear weapons.

Well, as I said, this piece of speculation was simply way too juicy to pass up.

Truth be told, I can't wait to hear Secretary of State Condi try to dispel this rumor.

She might say something like so,

"Only a scifi schlemiel could come up with such a ridiculous crack-pot psychedelically wacko and whacked out story. What's more, only a seriously deranged social misfit would cover his buttocks with so many variations on 'allege'."

toodles
. . . . he who is known as sefton

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 04

In this segment, I'm publishing pages 31 through 40 in Scene 3, along with page 41 in Scene 4 of my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR. As readers encounter the following segments, they shall be reminded about how the text is being published. In the following segment, a few succeeding pages in the original are published. And in the segment after that, a few pages that succeed those are published.


Copyright (c) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella


THIRD SCENE: page 31

*** (As the light intensifies on the woods, a twig snaps. Then a boy exclaims: "Hans, you are so clumsy". ***

***Following that, three boys come on stage, all in their teens and wearing light jackets. Hans, the big one with the good-natured face is carrying a pack on his back. The boy who called Hans clumsy is still speaking.)***
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * .* * * * * * * * * *
Heinriech: Doch, I cannot understand why you insist that we play this dumb game and sneak around through the weeds. This is silly.

Hans: ***(Taking off his back pack.) *** It is not silly, Heinriech. Maybe, someday we can hunt deer the way Americans do.

Heinriech: What is so great about how Americans hunt deer?

Hans: I read about how they can just buy a rifle and a license to hunt with it.

Heinriech: So what? As soon as you get to be eighteen, you can do the same here.

Hans: But here in Germany, it's different. Not only do we have to take a bunch of tests, we've got to hunt in a group under the supervision of a game warden. Germans have to drive the deer. Americans can stalk their deer alone.

Heinriech: ***(Some sarcasm.)*** You must think that anything that comes out of America is heaven's gift to mankind. Anyway, why should anything Americans do mean so much? Well, Fritz, what do you think?

Fritz: *** (Shrugs.) *** *** (He's the quiet one.) ***


Scene 3 - page 32

Heinriech: Hummph. Since you put it that way, maybe there is something to what Hans says.

Hans: ***(As if he should care.)*** I am overwhelmed.

Heinriech: You are overwhelmed. I am starved. How much sausage do you have?

Hans: ***(Indicates pack on ground_}*** Enough for all of us. ***(He's been through this before.)***

Heinriech: I hope so. Ach, where's Joachim? He's got the drinks.

Fritz: ***(Indicates with a turn of the head to off-stage.) ***

Heinriech: ***(Yelling.)*** Joachim, get your snail's butt over here, I need a drink.

Hans: You need a drink? ***(Of all the nerve.)*** Who carried the sausage?

Heinriech: Oh, you're a big strong boy. Are you sure there's enough sausage?

Hans: I am positive. ***(Said with some strain.)***

Heinriech: Well, the last time you were positive, and -

Hans: Look, mein junger Herr, it was my mother's sausage then and it is my mother's sausage now. And if you don't like it . . . ***(Let the audience fill in the blanks.)***

Heinriech: There gives no need for you to get ticked out.


Scene 3 - page 33

*****(While Heinriech is speaking, Joachim is on stage. Remember, this is Joachim as a boy, so a boy has to play this role. He's carrying a back pack.)*****


Joachim: What did you do to tick him out - - again? ***(Will it never end?)***

Heinriech: Hans is just sensitive like a fanatic about his mother's sausage.

Joachim: ***(Laying back pack gently on ground.)*** There gives no need for you to be as sensitive as all that about your mother's sausage, Hans. She's always made great dog food. ***(Said with a smile.)***

Heinriech and Fritz: ***(Chuckle and chortle.)***

Hans: Doch! That does it. ***(Grabs his pack off the ground.)*** I'm taking me and the sausage home.

Joachim: ***(puts_a_hand on Han's shoulder.)*** Come on, we're just teasing you a little. Come on, Kamerad, we'll drink some beer, sing some songs, talk a little and share some very good sausage.

Hans: Why should I stick around? You guys don't care about me! You just care about this sausage! ***(A little hurt.)***

Joachim: ***(Takes his hand back.)*** You know that is not true, We are all comrades here. Isn't that so, Heinriech? Fritz?

Heinriech: More than just comrades. ***(Smiles.)***

Fritz: ***(Smiles like-wise.)***

Hans: What do you mean? ***( You'd better have a good answer.)***


Scene 3 - page 34

*****(The boys sing the first song of the show: ***** HAZARD'S CHILDREN. Look in Appendix for lyrics and for who sings what lyrics.)*******************


*****(When the song ends, let the boys remain in their positions. They don't have to be stiff. A small spot-light starts shining on the man Joachim in the kitchen. There he makes this speech, which ends with spot-light's going out.)****************

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Joachim: So, there were the four of us. Just boys, yet we had our own civilization. In this civilization, Fritz, the quiet one who never spoke unless he was excited, acted as arbitrator. Hans, ah, the good-natured Hans, was the innocent guardian of our law.

Law, someone once said, emerges from quarrels over who owns certain bees' nests and other bits of property. Our law, strangely, came from the battles of wit I fought with Heinriech. Usually, he was a little too clever for his own good. He's gone now. Tears in his eyes, Heinriech died in my arms during the siege of Leningrad. As for Hans and Fritz, somehow the war swallowed them.

****(BACK TO THE WEEDS.)****

Heinriech: If I didn't know you, I would never believe anybody like you could exist.

Hans: I just want to have a car. That's all.

Joachim: Hans, I think what Heinriech means is why that kind of car.

Hans: I just think a De Soto Phaeton looks nice.


Scene 3 - page 35

Heinriech: To you, anything made in America looks nice. I think you are addicted to peanut butter.

Hans: I don't care spit about what you think, Heinriech. That De Soto has very nice wire wheels.

Joachim: What else does it have?

Hans: It also has a roof that can be put up or folded away. When it rains, I can drive and stay dry. When it's sunny, I can drive down the road with the wind in my nose.

Heinriech and Joachim and Fritz: ***(Shake their heads a little.)***

Heinriech: Just let me get behind the wheel of a BMW three-twenty-six. It's got a wicked two-litre engine.

Joachim: Heinriech, our road-racer hero.

Heinriech: You may bet the family jewels on that, Kamerad.

Joachim: You're dreaming! Who are you going to race?

Heinriech: Hans and his De Soto! My three-twenty-six will him and his car suck dust.

Fritz: ***(Chuckles a little.) ***

Heinriech: What's so funny? ***(Feels he's been challenged.)***

Joachim: I know what. Just a year ago, we all had to chip in to get a used motorcycle. And here we are, talking about "my car", "your car".

Heinriech: I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to have my own car.


Scene 3 - page 36

Joachim: Wahr? Well, I'm going to have my own car too. ***(Nobody's going to get one up on him.)***

Hans: What kind of car are you going to get? ***(In all innocence.)***

Joachim: I haven't decided yet. Maybe, an Adler Trump. What about you, Fritz?

Fritz: ***(Makes face, noise and motions like drivin a race car.)***

Heinriech: And you said I was dreaming. This guy thinks he's going to be the second Bernd Rosemeyer.

Joachim: Maybe, ***(Teasingly non-chalant.)*** next week the Auto Union will enter him in the Grand Prix.

Fritz: ***(Hands Joachim a look that says you-think-yer-so-smart.)***

Heinriech: Dream on, Kamerad, dream on.

Hans: I don't think it's all that bad a dream. Getting all those trophies, all that money, and getting invited to all those gigantic dinners. ***(Wouldn't it be delicious?)***

Joachim: The heck with those big dinners. You get girls by the box car load. And all you got to do is win the races.

Heinriech: Speaking about girls and winning. If we take next week's soccer match, I'll have something great coming my way.

Joachim: Heinriech, you are a dreamer. Don't you remember the last time we played them in soccer? They creamed us! ***(Was it bad.)***


Scene 3 - page 37

Heinriech: The score wasn't that bad.

Hans: Ja? Thirty-two to one!

Heinriech: How can you remember the score so well?

Joachim: We got our goal, when Fritz's kick ricocheted the ball into the net - - off Hans's face.

Heinriech: Oh, yeah. How I remember. That was funny. ***(Grinning like a fool.)***

Hans: I'm glad you think so. ***(Too bad, Fritz didn't kick your head.)***

Heinriech: But we still got to win!

Joachim: What for?

Heinriech: Because Elsa promised me she would - ***(Said more than he wanted.)***

Joachim: ELSA would do what? ***(Ho, Ho, HOO.)***

Fritz: ***(Brings two finger tips-to his lips and kisses them with three quick, loud smacks.)***

Joachim and Hans and Fritz: ***(Chuckle like fools.)***

Hans: ***(It's his turn to jab the needle in.)*** --------Maybe, Elsa will do for Heinriech what she's already doing for Joachim.

Joachim: What do you mean?

Hans: I saw you with her a couple times.

Joachim: So, I was walking her home from school.

Hans: Naturliech, you were - - ten o'clock at night.


Scene 3 - page 38

Heinriech: Joachim, you are a schweinhund! *"(Jealousy)***

Joachim: If I'm a schweinhund, so are Hans and Fritz.

Heinriech: What do you mean?

Joachim: Elsa is everybody's girl friend. Isn't that true, Fritz?

Fritz: ***(Nods in agreement.)***

Heinriech: ***(Incredulous.)*** Even you, Hans?

Hans: She just likes to have guys walk her home from school ten o'clock at night. *** (Apologetically.) ***

Heinriech: ***(Wounded.)*** The things your best friends won't tell you. ***(pause.)*** ***(Angrily.)*** Schweinhunde, all of you. After all the trouble I went through to get you daggers like the storm troopers have.

Joachim: Come on, you were bound to find out sooner or later. Anyway, look at it this way. It shouldn't be too hard for you to get what you really want from her.

Heinriech: What a Dulcinea she turned out to be! ***(Disgust.)***

Joachim: ***(Puzzlement.)*** Dulcinea? ***(Then traces a small circle with right finger tip near right temple.)***

Heinriech: ***(Challenge.)*** You want to make something of it? Let me settle your hash.


Scene 3 - page 39

Joachim: ***(Urbane.)*** Small need for that, mein junger Herr. We are going to have a good hike. I guarantee it.

Heinriech: What are you getting at? ***(Sceptical.)***

Joachim: You got us daggers like the ones the storm troopers have. ***(Squats down and starts rummaging in his back pack.) * * * - - I got us some good beer and - -
***(Extracting bottle for display.)*** Schnapps! ***(Triumph.)*** Hans, start getting the sausage ready.

Hans: Where did you get the Schnapps?

Joachim: I'll tell you that as soon as Heinriech tells us where he got the daggers and how he got the daggers.

Heinriech: ***(pacified.)*** I'd tell you guys that, but you know what a blabber-mouth Fritz is. Hey, Hans, why don't you tell us how you get your mother to make so much good sausage.

*****(Here the orchestra plays an intro.)*****

Hans: Jawohl, I go to my mother, and then I say - - *****(He sings MAMACHIEN, LIEBCHIEN.)***** *****(After the song is finished.)*****

Fritz: Oh, Hans.

Hans: Oh, Fritz.


SCENE FOUR: page 40

*****(As the light fades in the woods, the four boys sit down and remain quiet The light brightens in the kitchen)**************** - - -

Volumna: Boys, just boys. Cars, sports, and girls - - that's all boys ever talk about - - anywhere.

Rabbi: You will think of them that way, and you may even giggle at their fondness for sausage and beer.

Joachim: Old Jew fox, I have nine hundred West German marks. It shall be yours, when I am ***(Interrupted.)***

Rabbi: And here before us is one of them. After a few years, those boys grew into columns of tramping soldiers - - proud, courageous . . , heartless barbarians and beasts.

Joachim: Vermin!

Rabbi: Vermin you say. Do my own countrymen hunt me as if I should be exterminated?

Joachim: You have no countrymen - - you decrepit relic and fragment.

Rabbi: Doch! How blind you are!

Volumna: What do you mean, Rabbi Gottesmann?

Rabbi: This man is a veteran of a military machine that was torn into pieces and exists only in history books - - fragment and a relic.

Joachim: You say that in such a way - - the same way you would comfort frightened children with fairy tales of guardian angels that chase away the hobgoblins in the dark.

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 05

thanx, Jimay's Flea Market . . .



The above text has been left to serve as a memorial to that post, which originally occupied this slot.

In this segment, I'm publishing pages 42 through 49 in Scene 4, along with pages 49 through 53 in Scene 5 of my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR. As readers encounter the following segments, they shall be reminded about how the text is being published. In the following segment, a few succeeding pages in the original are published. And in the segment after that, a few pages that succeed those are published.

Copyright (c) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella


Scene 4 - page 42

Joachim: *** (Crosses stage, if necessary shoving aside Volumna, to take the rabbi by the shoulders.)***
I will have your answer.
***(Spins rabbi about.)***
Look at me!
*** (Then softly.)*** Look at me!
***(After they look each_other in the eye.)***
I thought so. ***(Said with contempt and sorrow.)***

Volumna: ***(Frightened, small girl voice.)*** You must be insane to say anything so terrible as that.

Joachim: How typical of little America fluff! ***(And over here is_ another_ interesting examale of- -)*** Anything unfamiliar to them is terrible, and anything terrible to them is insane.

Rabbi: One must make allowances for Americans.

Joachim: ***(Pushin the rabbi away and with cold contempt.)*** You disappoint me with your weak attempt to humor me.

Rabbi: Of what special knowledge am I supposed to be guilty?

Joachim: "Guilty" - - that word is the measure of you. How you and your kind love to wallow in the filth of such words: guilt, salvation and revenge.

Rabbi: And I suppose you and your kind redeemed the world from filth.

Joachim: That, old man, is in the future.


Scene 4 - page 43

Volumna: What kind of future? ***(Sarcastically.)***

Joachim: ***(As if talking to_an under-achiever.)*** A future free from parasites and prigs. Today belongs to them, but tomorrow is not their inheritance. ***(Warming up_)*** How cunning they are. How cleverly they poison away that higher, noble strength with conscience, guilt and pity. And how that poisoned herd love to press tight against each. other - - in that mud and filth.

Volumna: ***(Her breath's taken away. This guy's a kook.)*** Where did you get ideas like that?

Rabbi: ***(Rather urbane.)*** He got them out of the air.

Joachim: Ach, in your child-like sarcasm, you have hit upon the truth.

Volumna: Did the air talk to you?

Joachim: I took my thoughts from out of the air. The world trembled when the air Germany took breath from turned electric with spirit. Perhaps, rabbi, you may care to help her understand. You were alive in Germany at that time, were you not?

Rabbi: ***(Slow)*** Yes, I was alive at the time.

Joachim: Then for certain your heart was stirred by the resurgence of Germany's racial geist.


Scene 4 - page 44

Volumna: Geist? ***(Is there a recipe for it?)***

Joachim: Yes, GEIST! An exurberance of the spirit, an awareness of strength and beauty, a love and a lust for destiny, the pro­foundest enjoyment of fate.

Volumna: You weren't even eighteen at the time, how could you have entertained such thoughts.

Joachim: The young do not "entertain" thoughts. We gave our thoughts flesh and breath.

Rabbi: And then you stripped the flesh and breath from living people.

Joachim: Birth takes place only in blood.

Rabbi: The birth of what? A super-race of sausage gluttons.

Joachim: Again, rabbi, you disappoint me.

Rabbi: ***(Real sarcasm.)*** Perhaps, I should beg your indulgence.

Joachim: Very well, I will indulge you. Even today, glib, pompous asses preach that all we wanted was power to rule sausage gluttons. Supposedly, to keep this power, we waged war to enrich them with loot.

Volumna: I'm told you did a pretty good job at looting.

Joachim: Those pompous asses preach their banality well. Doch, they must have banality on the brain, banality in the brain, and banality for the brain.


Scene 5 - -page 45

Volumna: Hmmm, that's nice alliteration. ***(She learns three new words every day.)***

Joachim: We did not wage war to keep power. We took power to wage war.

Volumna: A war you lost to us.

Joachim: You dwell on a misadventure, a first, failed attempt. We were not destroyed, and our spirits were strengthened and made far more deserving of their great task.

Rabbi: Mein Gott im Himmel. ***(When will they ever learn?)***

Joachim: It was only through war, we could infuse the earth with spirit. It was only through war, we could become worthy to take possession of our birth-right.

Volumna: Just what exactly is your birth-right?

Joachim: Tomorrow.

Rabbi: In our eagerness for tomorrow, how easily we forget yesterday.

Joachim: Why must you continue to dwell on that mis­adventure. Still, that is your choice. Still, even you must admit that the mis­adventure brought a new nobility into the essence that is Europe.

Rabbi: For a German, that is a rather large European sentiment. ***(You've_ got_ to be putting me on.)***

Joachim: There is no Europe without Germany.


Scene 4 - page 46


Germany.
Volumna: ***(Joins in)*** Really? I had no idea all that Europeans live for is sauerkraut.

Joachim: It is easy to get the idea all that Americans live for is brighter teeth, drier breath, and fresher arm-pits.

Volumna: ***(Her face says well_I've -never-been -)***

Rabbi: Tell me, Joachim. What do you live for?

Joachim: The salvation of Europe and the fulfillment of her destiny.

Rabbi: The "salvation" of Europe? ***(Can't help. being amused.)*** From what sins? What danger?

Joachim: Europe is caught in a pincers movement.

Rabbi: Perhaps, I find it hard to hear. Did you say a "pincers movement"?

Joachim: Perhaps, you also find it hard to see. Europe is being suffocated by a Tatar horde from the East and a stampede of Smiley Burdettes from across the Atlantic.

Volumna: The United States and Russia? You got to be paranoid.

Joachim: You have an excuse to believe that. You are just a little American, corn-fed girl. **(Quick turn.)*** But you, rabbi, you have no excuse. You know what I say is true,

Rabbi: I know that you are a mad man,-and that you are my problem.

Joachim: Ach, you have finally come to your senses? Remember, you must hide and fluff. But you still get your nine hundred.


Scene 4 - page 47


Rabbi:I should hide you? - - - Helushka's killer.

Joachim: You have no right even to speak her name.

Rabbi: You had no right to shed her blood. Even though you are mad, justice must be done. On that fatal day, though you were just a boy, you had the power of choice.

Joachim: I spit on your justice.

Rabbi: And so, you would spit on the radiance that was Helushka.

Joachim: ***(Something just snapped_)*** ***(Mimics the boy Joachim's voice.)*** I detest to touch filth. Nevertheless, I will now take pleasure in strangling you with my bare hands.

Rabbi: Kill me, and you shall surely find no place to hide. I die, but nevertheless, I shall have accomplished half the task of my final years - - your justice.

Joachim: My justice?! You probably planned to drown me in chicken soup. Do not try to resist me/it would be useless. Die with dignity. ***(Starts moving towards the rabbi.)***

Volumna: ***(Lots of fire.)*** Fools! The both of you! Blind, stupid fools! Dollars to donuts, Helushka was like any other normal girl. She probably didn't care one or another about "radiance", "geist", or any other kind of your stupid pompous, ASSISININE bull. ***(Her third new word.)*** Chances are - - all she ever wanted out of life was to be somebody's wife, somebody's mother.


Scene 4 - page 48


Rabbi: Doch, little Amerika fluff speaks the truth.

Joachim: ***(Back_to normal voice.)*** I should grow used to this. Three times in one night, rabbi, I am disappointed in you. Volumna has told a truth, but not THE truth.

Volumna: ***(Cautious)*** Maybe you would liketo tell us what the truth is.

Joachim: You could learn from this girl, rabbi. She can humor me better than you.
***(Suddenly)*** Oh, I grow tired. The hounds draw near, and I grow tired.

Joachim: ***(Exhaustedly, walks over to table, takes a cup of coffee and sips from it. Then he makes this speech.) ************************

Is the earth big enough to hide me from the hounds? It is so small, perhaps, too small, to yield me a place to hide. Yet, it is large enough. For the all-too-similar, it is wirkliech large enough. All-too-similar are the best and the least of human spirit. Ja, they are quite cozy here on this earth. Soon, oh, so soon, they shall awaken in a world far too large. Earth, this earth, swells with destiny.

Mein Gott, for the sake of destiny, the fulfillment of Europe's spiritual destiny, I have given over my heart, my spirit, my body. How I kept on all these years is a mystery to me.
I feel cold. Where is that warmth? My Germany, my Europe's final hope, you are
a volcano, a Vesuvius of spirit. Why will you not give me warmth? Must I go under in the lava of your eruption? Very well, then


Scene 4 - page 49

let the violence of your eruption light the earth, and shift the wind and sea. Make them a cradle. and hymn for our over-man. In over-man, what in man is riddle and fragment and dreadful accident shall at last be carried into one. True, among men there are superior men. But next to over-men, they are poor jokes.

Men are not fit to be gods. It is just as well, though. This earth, this our mother, this island earth is too small for gods. When will what is all-TO-man blaze in the frenzy of that spiritual eruption?

***(Now a siren wails loud then it goes low to let theaudience hear Volumna.)*** ^

Volumna: Please, dear God, let that be the cops.

***(After that, the siren wail fades into music. As the music starts the light on the woods intensifies. The four boys sing and do some choreography for A THOUSAND YEARS. When the song ends, their right arms are up-raised in the Nazi salute, dagger in hand. The "daggers" can be just hunting knives.) * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Scene 5 - page 50

***(At_the_conclusion of_the anthem,_the boys put their knives back.)***

Joachim: ***(Sniffs the air a couple times.) ***

Hans: Was ist laus?

Joachim: One of you guys wears perfume.

Heinriech: That Schnapps you got us must be strong stuff.

Joachim: I tell you I smell perfume.

Heinriech: Don't look at me when you say that. You looking for a fight? ***(Then starts side.-stepping carefully toward shrubbery_.)***

Joachim: I do smell perfume.

Heinriech: ***(Continues side-stepping.)*** I know what you're smelling. The von Hauptmanns like to ride their horses here.

Hans: Nein. Joachim is right. I smell the perfume too. It is delicious.

Heinriech: ***(Makes a grab behind the shrubbery_ and violently_ extracts a _young girl. He twists her arm behind her back.)*** Was haben wir hier? ***(With a dirty smile.)*** ^

Fritz: A jew girl!

Heinriech: Ja, a Jew girl and all mine.

Joachim: Nein! Nein! She is mine. I noticed she was around before you did.

Scene 4 - page 51

Heinriech: But I caught her and I got her. ***(To_the girl.)*** Hey, cutie, don't try anything or I'll use my dagger on you.

Hans: Fritz, whom does she belong to?

Fritz: ***(Taps his_chin with_his_right_index finger a couple times, then says.) *** Heinriech.

Joachim: All right, then what are you going to do with her?

Heinriech: For a Jew girl, she's nice looking. Why shouldn't she be a nice-looking Jew woman?

Hans: I am puzzled by what you are saying.

Heinriech: Let's do to her what her thieving tribe has been doing to the Fatherland.

Hans: ***(A dirt grin)*** Now I understand. ***(Looks to Fritz.)***

Fritz: ***(Another dirty grin follows.)***

Joachim: Wait a - - - wait a minute! You just don't do things like that - - - just like that.

Heinriech: Why not?

Joachim: Well, it's just that, ah, we're not supposed to, ah - - -

Hans: We could get into trouble with the police. Ja?



Scene 5 - page 52

Heinriech: Dummkopf! In this part of the world, it's open season on Jews. We're not in Jew-ruled Russia or America, you know. Isn't that so, Fritz.

Fritz: ***(Nods in agreement.)***

Heinriech: Christmas came early. ***(Then taking hold of the girl's dress collar. Her jacket's open.)*** Let me unwrap our Christmas present.

Joachim: Hoch, how brave we are! Four of us against one Jew girl. If she were a man, Heinriech, how much guts would you have - - without the rest of us around?

Heinriech: What's the matter with you? Don't you like your girls kosher.

Joachim: And what's the matter with you? You got to be scared, ja, too scared to answer my question.

Heinriech: I am a German. I am bound by Aryan honor to fear no Jew, man or girl.

Joachim: Show that honor means something to you. Let the girl go!

Heinriech: Let the girl go? ***(You're kidding.)*** I know what's wrong with you. You're too scared to do it!

Joachim: Your Dulcinea knows better than that.

Heinriech: I'm going to beat you to within a centimeter of your life, you Jew-loving Schweinhund.

Joachim: Whom are you talking to? Me or that girl? I know for a fact you're scared to meet a Jew man in a fight.


Scene 5 - page 53

Heinriech: No Jew man scares me. Bring me any man ***(Smart-alecky)*** "confessing the Hebrew Faith; and I'll break that Jew man in a half.

Joachim: Any Jew man?

Heinriech: You heard me.

Joachim: If I get you your Jew man, what will you give me?

Heinriech: I'll give you this girl.

Joachim: That is a deal.

Heinriech: Not so fast. There's one more thing.

Joachim: What is it?

Heinriech: Fritz, you got that watch your uncle gave you?

Fritz: *** (Gets out a pocket watch.) ***

Heinriech: Joachim, you got three minutes.

Joachim: Three minutes?! ***(You're putting me on_)*** ***(Looks to Fritz.)***

Fritz: ***(Taps the watch face three times with finger tip..)***

Heinriech: I didn't stutter. You got three minutes - - - starting now.

Young girl: ***(Pleading)*** Joachim! ***(Looks in Joachim's eyes_)*** ***(Desparingly.)*** No! -

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 06

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

The above text has been left to serve as a memorial to that, which originally occupied this slot.

In this segment, I'm publishing pages 54 through 62, all in Scene 5, of my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR. As readers encounter the following segments, they shall be reminded about how the text is being published. In the following segment, a few succeeding pages in the original are published. And in the segment after that, a few pages that succeed those are published.

Copyright (c) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella


Scene 5 - page 54

******(As she says the word no, the light intensity in
******the woods lessens and its tint reddens. Then a
******spot-light goes on the man Joachim in the kitchen.
******All other actors should remain where they are and
******stay relaxed. **************

The man Joachim:______ In such a brief moment, what thoughts can pass between two people. Helushka.
I had known her since before my mother
brought me to kindergarden. Helushka
was three years older than I. Still,
it was natural that we grew up together.
Her father and mine had served in board
the same ship during the Great War's
Battle of Jutland. Afterwards, they
worked for the same company in our town.
We had all been such loving friends
until the world's trembling shook us
apart. In such a brief moment, what
thoughts can pass between two people.

*******As the man Joachim is saying his last sentence,
******Iet the boy Joachim and Helushka slip off to one
******side of the woods.)****************
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

the boy Joachim: ______ Shoeki, you silly idiot, why didn't you take off, when we came around?

Shoeki: ______Your friends came as silently as wolves. We were surprised.

The boy: _____ "We", eh? I knew Isaac had to be with you. You still could've run off.

Shoeki: ______Jachin, you know my little brother cannot run at all fast. How could he have run away? And how could I have left him alone


Scene 5 - page 55

Jachin:_______ So, you stayed and got yourself into trouble. ***(They-can-be-dumb)***

Shoeki: ______I can handle it.

Jachin: ______ The hell you can! Don't you know what these guys want to do to you?

Shoeki:________ That is a stupid question. I want to know what you are going to do.

Jachin: _______Simple. I bring in Isaac, then Heinriech and I make the exchange. A deal is a deal, you know.

Shoeki: _______I cannot believe my ears. They'll do some-thing bad to Isaac.

Jachin: _______Keine Sorgen, Shoeki, keine Sorgen. What can my friends do to him?

Shoeki: _______Don't you dare tell me not to worry. Bitte, Jachin, just don't do anything.

Jachin: _______Look, so Isaac gets slapped around a little. After that, you can take him home.

Shoeki:: ______How can you say something like that? ***(Unreal!)*** Isaac always looked up to you.

Jachin: _______And how could you have been so dumb to take a walk with just Isaac in the woods?

Shoeki: _______Isaac will be lucky if he sees his fifteenth birthday. He loves being here with me. Who can deny him such a simple pleasure?

Jachin: *** (Looking up to signal give-me-strength.)***
***(Now looking at her.)*** ______ Shoeki, why just you two alone?

Scene 5 - page 56

Shoeki: _______Isaac wanted to spend some time talking just to me. My father understands this. That's why he left us here.

Jachin: *** (Now we're setting somewhere.) *** ______Where's your father now?


Shoeki: ________I don't know. He is supposed to come back for us in about another half hour.

Jachin: ***(Gesturing with his hand.)*** ______All right, let me think, let me think. It shouldn't take me two minutes to find Isaac. Heinriech will put up a fuss, but I can always out-wit him. Anyway, his fussing will help me stall for more time.

Shoeki: _______Why can't you just let Isaac stay hidden? Bitte, Jachin, for the love of God.

Jachin: ______Let me handle this.

Shoeki: ______Doesn't what I want mean anything to you?

Jachin: _______Shoeki, naturliech, it matters a great deal. Let me handle this.

Shoeki: ______I know what you're trying to do, but it's not going to work.

Jachin: ______It will work. I'm going to get you out of this mess.

Shoeki: ______I'm not talking about. Can't you see what you're really trying to do?

Jachin: _____What?

Shoeki: ______You're trying to save the love we have between us, and, Jachin, at the same time you're trying to remain one in geist with your friends.

Scene 5 - page 57 -

Jachin: ______This isn't the time to talk about such things.

Shoeki: ______Not the time!?! Jachin, I am a Jewess. Your friends and all the rest of your new Reich want to do hideous things to Jews.

Jachin: ______Nein, Shoeki, nein. We want to punish ONLY the bad Jews.

Shoeki: _____Jachin, evil men are telling you filthy lies. How can you go to those torch-light ralles and listen to such filthy lies. You go to those torch-light rallies - - I know you do. And you listen to evil men tell lies. They throw their words like torches into the crowd, and they burn. Then the people in the crowd yell and scream their hearts away. You yell and scream "Zieg Heil" along with them - - I know you do. Oh, what have they done to you? They have imprisoned you. Jachin, how can I love you now?

Jachin: _______Shoeki, it's not going to be like this forever. After all the bad Jews are punished, it'll all be as it was before. We'll be such good friends again. We'll be like sweet-hearts.

Shoeki: _______Then be a sweet-heart and do as I ask. ***(Now she sings YOU THAT I LOVE.)*** ***(During the last strain of the song's music.)***_

Scene 5 - page 58

Shoeki: *** says *** ______ Why won't you remember? When you were sick, I brought you hot tea with lemon. When you were sad, I played the piano for you. And when you were hurt and loney, I held you in my arms.

***(Now let Joachim and Helushka drift back to where then were before.)***
***(As Heinriech once more grabs her arm)***

Shoeki: :______No older sister could have treated you more lovingly, or loved you more,

Joachim: ______I understand. Three minutes. I'll be hack. ***(Goes off-stage.)***

Heinriech: _____Look at her. She's shaking. Let me twist her arm a little.

Helushka: ***(Resisters the pain)*** ***(Her face strains.)***

Heinriech: ______She's as frightened as a mouse. She even looks like - - No! Not with those eyes.

Hans: _______They make her look like a deer.

Heinriech: ____Do you really think so?

Hans and Fritz; ***(Nod in agreement.)***

Heinriech: _______You're right! She does look like a deer. Deer meat is supposed to taste sweet.

Hans: _____It's always good if it's cooked right.

Heinriech: ***(Here Heinriech sings with some accompani-
ment from the other boys_ HOWL OF THE WOLF.)***


Scene 5 - page 59

****(At the end of the song, Joachim returns with a small boy. who walks with a limp.) ***

Isaac: ______ Oh, big brother, are these your friends? ***(From his slow manner of speech, it is obvious Isaac is retarded.) ***

Joachim: ______Ja.

Isaac: _______Oh, big sister, are all we going to play "hide"?

Helushka: _____Isaac, little brother, we'll have to play another kind of game.

Heinriech: ***(Some relief in his voice.)*** ______ You call that a Jew man? No deal!

Joachim: ______Fritz, I came back in time, right?

Fritz: ______Ja.

Heinriech: _____The deal's off.

Joachim: ________Fritz, a deal is a deal, right?

Fritz: ______Ja.

Heinriech: _______ You're crazy. Your little brother is Jew all right, but not a Jew man.

Isaac: ***(Addressing_ Joachim)*** _____ I am a man. I am thirteen years old. I have gone to bar mitzvah. I am a man.

Joachim: ______ You heard him, Fritz. Is this deal a deal?

Fritz: _______Ja.

Heinriech: ______Teufel! I was tricked!


Scene 5 - page 60

Joachim: _______You heard him, Heinriech. Hand her over.

Heinriech: ***(Draws his dagger and brings it to the girl's cheek.)***
________ Before I do, I'm going to brand her. A Jew star will look good on her. Won't it, big sister Jew girl?

Joachim: _______A deal is a deal. You've got to hand the goods over intact.

Heinriech: ______I don't have to.
Joachim: _________You have to hand her over. Fritz says so.

Heinriech: _______All right. I will. After I cut the star of David into her.

Isaac: ________I not like this game.

Joachim: _____Quiet Isaac! Hand her over right now. You heard Fritz. A deal is a deal. You've got to hand the goods over.

Heinriech: ______You tricked me! ***(Venemous.)***

Joachim: _______You agreed to it.

Heinriech: ______I didn't say what shape she would be in. As for you, big sister Jew girl, stay still. One slip and I just might slit your throat.

Joachim: ________You get the worse end of the deal. But that doesn't mean you've got to carve that girl up with your dagger.

Heinriech: _______That's right!


Scene 5 - page 61

Joachim: _______That's better!

Keinriech: ______Kamerad, you have to do it. Say you'll do it on your honor as a German and an Aryan. Remember, if you don't carve that Jew star into her, I will.

Joachim: ________Heinriech, you've got to be mad. You must have drunk too much Schnapps.

Heinriech: ______Joachim, so what if I am - - and I did? Ooh, my hand is a little unsteady. could botch the job.

Joachim: ________You win. I'll do it. I'll carve the star of David on her.

Isaac: ________This is a bad game. ***(Somehow he jumps/ limps off-stage.)*** Poppa, poppa, where are you, poppa? Come for us, poppa!

***(Somehow, it sounds like the kid falls into some shrubbery.) ***

Heinriech: ________Hans, get to that kid and gag him before he gets up.

Hans: ***(Goes off-stage.) ***

Heinriech: ______Fritz, come over here and help me hold her.

Fritz: ***(Does so.)***

Heinriech: _____Now, Joachim, let's see you keep your word. Remember, carve deep.

Hans: _______***(Yelling off-stage.)*** He bit me!

Joachim: _______***(Screaming above Isaac)*** Hans, gag that kid a little harder.


Scene 5 - page 62

Isaac: ***(Stops.)***


Joachim: ***(Cold)*** ________ Now you two lay her belly-down on the ground over there, and bare her back.

Heinriech: ________ You're supposed to cut her face. Joachim: I didn't say I would.

Heinriech: _______ Fritz, what do you say to that?

Fritz: ________ You gave Joachim the job. How he does it is how he does it.

Heinriech: ______ O.K., let's get started.

Heinriech and Fritz: ***(Starting Helushka off stage)***

Heinriech: ***(Almost off-stage.)*** ***(Calls over shoulder.)*** _____ You'd better carve deep.


****(All other young people off-stage, Joachim slowly draws his dagger. * * * * *
There's a little instrumental music - - a medley of a THOUSAND YEARS, YOU THAT I LOVE and HAZARD'S CHILDREN.)* * * * * * * * * *

Heinriech: ***(Strong call focus to be heard above the music.)*** _______ Fritz, grab hold of her dress there, will you?

***(Sound of fabric tearing.)***

Let's get her slip.

***(More fabric tearing.)***

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 07

I hate President George Walker Bush.

Yeah, the above text is an odd way to start publishing pages 63 thru 69 of my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR. In point of fact, I consider my print declaration of enmity towards "dum'ass botch" as a "memorial" to the piece that originally appeared in this slot.

In each and every segment, the visitor will reminded that I'm publishing my one-act play with music in the manner of "last in, first out". Here's a simple way to catch my drift. In the very last enumerated segment, found in my blog, one finds therein the very last few pages of the hard-copy text. In the segment, immediately preceding the one just mentioned, one finds the few pages that immediately precede those in the paperback ... okay, now let's proceed:

Scene 5 - page 63

Fritz: ___ *** (Strong call focus.) *** Wow, that's beautiful skin.

Joachim: ___ *** (Re-acts.) ***

Heinriech: ____ Come on, Joachim, we haven't got all day, you know.

Joachim: ____ *** (Goes off-stage, holding the dagger in his two hands, like an ancient priest, walking solemnly to the altar.) ***

Helushka: ____ *** (All young people off-stage and medley still playing.) ***
*** (Helushka groans through clenched teeth.) ***

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Special Note: The audience gets everything.

SCENE SIX:

********After Helushka's groan has given way to silence, the lights go up in the kitchen and dim in the woods. * * * * * * * * * * *

Joachim: ____ The thought to the deed is one thing; the deed itself still another; and the image after the deed, that awful image, yet another.

Volumna: ____ What is the rest of the story?

Joachim: ____ You want to hear the rest of the story, wahr?

Volumna: ____ Yes, I want to hear what happened to those young people.

Joachim: ____ What happened was a beginning that none of us were ready for. Not even Heinriech with his taste for blood was ready. Heinriech who gave us our daggers. Nein, not even he was ready.

Volumna: ____ Ready for what?

Rabbi: _____ Murder - - demonic. Murder - - out of mania. Murder for the sake of thoughts condensed like dew from thing air.

Joachim: _____ There was a killing that day. Poor Hans, innocent, good-natured Hans, he never did known his own strength.

Volumna: ____ What happened?


Scene 6 - page 65

Joachim: ____ When Herr Kristalstern returned to his children, he found Helushka, bleedidng from her Star of David, and Isaac, dead in her arms.

Volumna: ____ Oh, my God.

Rabbi: ____ On the morning of the next day, the Kristalsterns buried Isaac, and that evening departed far from here.

Volumna: ____ They were that frightened? *** (Incredulous) *** Too frightened to go to the police.

Rabbi: _____ You have no idea what it was like around here. Helushka's parents had no stomach to stay and risk the life of their remaining child.

Volumna: _____ Joachim, was it really that bad that soon?

Joachim: _____ *** (Ignoring her, staring into his cup of coffee.) ***

Volumna: _____ *** (Fifteen seconds waiting.) *** Wait a minute! Wait a minute! *** (I'm confused.) *** I'm confused. *** (Fire in her voice.) *** It's true. It's all true what I said about the both of you. You are fools. And as for you, Rabbi Gottesmann, you think you're so clever with your little riddles. Of course, Joachim shed that poor girl's blood twice. Once, when he managed to get her brother killed: and twice, when he . . . mutilated her. Yet for years, you insisted that Joachim murdered Helushka. And with a wave of your hand, you disregard that unfortunate boy's death. All I got to say is: you are positively weird.

Scene 6 - page 66

Rabbi: _____ You have yet to hear the rest of the story.

Volumna: ____ This has got to be unreal. I wonder. Is somebody going to get out a violin and play HEARTS AND FLOWERS.

Rabbi: ____ No doubt and no dispute, Isaac's murder was horrible and reprehensible. However, it is Helushka's fate that touches my innermost being. Helushka had a radiant inner spirit, a healing innocence. She was free from any need to forgive. To her presence was suffused with light, innocence and healing joy. Oh that fatal day, the burden of forgiveness fell upon Helushka. That radiance and that innocence gone. For me, on that day, Helushka died.

*** (Angrily.) *** When the burden of Joachim's forgiveness fell upon Helushka, the burden of Joachim's justice fell upon me.

Joachim: ____ *** (Lays aside coffee.) *** My justice?! *** (Of all the nerve.) *** You burn for justice? It's a wonder you aren't a cinder after waiting so many years for it.

Rabbi: ____ I detest to touch filth. The way you murdered Helushka requires a very fitting retribution. You turned her brother over to your fellow Germans and comrade Aryans to his death and her death. So, shall you receive your justice from the hands of your fellow Germans and comrade Aryans.

**** (The siren wails again. Joachim springs, grabs Volumna about her shoulders with one arm, and with his free hand, draws a dagger and holds it to her throat.) ****

Scene 6 - page 67 -

Joachim: ; ____ How could you have known I would be in this fix. I do not care. You shall hide me and this girl. Remember, I have nothing to lose.

Volumna: ____ *** (Looks quite upset.) ***

Rabbi: _____ That dagger, that dagger. *** (Starts towards them.) ***

Joachim: ____ Let the Volkspolizei see me, and I'll use it to take her with me.

Rabbi: _____ Did you ever touch another girl with that dagger?

Joachim: ____ *** (Throws the rabbi a desperate look.) ***

Volumna: ___ *** (Likewise.) ***

Rabbi: ____ Do you find it it hard to hear? I said: did you ever touch another girl with that dagger? *** (Keeps going toward the two.) ***

Joachim: ___ *** (No answer.) ***

Rabbi: ____ I know the secret of your heart. *** (Takes hold of dagger with two fingers.) ***

For all your brave talk about the poisons of sin, guilt and conscience, the lash of your heart denies you any real peace or rest.

*** (Starts pulling dagger away from Volumna's throat.) ***

For you it is all over. And it was so from the day you disfigured Helushka with this.

Rabbi and Joachim: ____ *** (Look into each other's eyes.) ***

Scene 6 - page 68

******* (There comes a knock on the door. The boy who plays Fritz will call out: *****
"Guten abend. Volkspolizei. Open up."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Joachim: _____ *** (Stage whispers.) *** You can have it all - - eleven hundred marks.

*** (Waits.) *** Bitte, Rabbi Gottesmann, for the love of God!

Rabbi: ____ Get over quickly there. *** (Points to where the door had hidden Volumna.) ***

Joachim: ____ *** (Does so and puts dagger back inside jacket.) ***

Rabbi: ____ Fraulein Cliothal, stay here. *** ( Then goes over to door and answers it. As the rabbi opens the door, it hides Joachim. Remember special instructions.) ***

Guten abend, Herr Offizier, how may I help you?

****** (The boy who plays Fritz should be dressed in a beige overcoat and a fedora. He'll be accompanied by the boy who plays Hans. He should be carrying a bolt-action rifle and wearing a soldier-style cap and jacket.) *******

Beige overcoat: ____ May we come in for a few moments. *** (Polite command.) ***

Rabbi: ____ Jawohl. *** (Lets them in.) ***

Beige: ____ Rabbi Gottesmann, has anything unusual happened here tonight?

Rabbi: ____ So, what do you call unusual? I have a young American reporter for a visitor. She thinks I would make an interesting story.

Scene 6 - page 69 -

Beige: ____ *** (Wry smile.) *** I am sure you would. But that is not important. We have to conduct a quite thorough search in and around this area.

Rabbi: ____ You want to search my house?

Beige: ____ We will in a little while. First, we have some procedures to follow. Then we'll come back to search.

Rabbi: ____ What do you need to do now?

Beige: ____ *** (Reaches into his overcoat, and pulls out a sheaf of papers.) *** This is a Notification and Verification of Residence Search. Fill out all seven copies and send them to the ministries mentioned thereon. Don't forget to affix proper postage.

Rabbi: ____ *** (Takes the papers and riffles them at the corner.) ***

Beige: ____ *** (Continuing.) *** You will need to send seven marks fee with the one copy for the Ministry of Mice Control.

Rabbi: ____ Why? *** (Laying aside papers on the table.) ***

Beige: ____ This is how thoroughly we will search. Rabbi, even after the search, you are advised to remain inside at least until dawn. And that goes for you too, Fraulein.

Volumna: ____ *** (Recovered a bit.) *** But why?

Beige: ____ Let me just say we do not care to have our visitors meet unpleasant people.

Bolt-action rifle: ____ Unpleasant! Just tonight he cut off somebody's hand to escape.

Beige: ___ Schweigen!

Copyright (C) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 08

well, I decided to publish my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR in piece, and in the manner of "last in, first out". Dear Reader, if you'll look through the following articles, you'll find the concluding segments I've published. It takes only a little investigation to discern that I've published the last few pages in the concluding segment. In the segment before that, I've published the few preceding pages. The text in green is meant to explain how I'm publishing this play.

And as for the text in blue, it serves as a memorial to the article that previously appeared in this slot. My five doughnuts to somebody's three, it'll take the hierarchy of our right wing five years after the departure of "dum'ass botch" from the White House to feel the sting of the following "bon mot". Wood'ja (?) buh'leave! It's so obvious to the point of trivial among the Pygmies, who inhabit the edges of the Congolese jungle. Anyway, here's the bon mot for your edification, dear Reader,
. . . . better a smart enemy than a stupid friend ...

And the text in brown comes from pages 70 thru 79 of my one-act play, speficifally, CRYSTAL STAR:

Scene 6 - page 70 -

Volumna: ____ Officer, you got to do something, you see there's this - - ***(Excited as all out hell, and barely coherent.)***

Rabbi: ____ Schweigen! Fraulein Cliothal, this is official business, and it must be handled conscientiously, and according to form. Surely, you can perceive that. Moreoever, only I am qualified to tend to this business. Doch, there is no reason for you to get excited.

Volumna: ___ No reason? Are you out of your ever-loving mind? *** UNREAL ***

Rabbi: ____ Schweigen, Fraulein.

Beige: ____ Rabbi Gottesmann, what could be upsetting her? Tell me.

Rabbi: ____ Mein Herr Offizier, surely, it has not escaped your notice that my guest is a young American girl in an unfamiliar country. Very likely, she's heard wild camp fire stories about the Volspolizei. Is it a mystery why she should be excitable"

Beige: ____ Of course no, Rabbi, of course not.

Volumna: ____ I've got damn good reason to be excited.

Beige: _____ Schweigen, Fraulein! One more outburst like that, and Schultrein will give you one across the lips.

______ *** (After audience re-action) ***

______ *** (Shakes his head.)*** Americans. No respect for their elders. Their women use such language.


Scene 6 - page 71 -

Volumna: ____ *** (Makes fists and stomps floor.) ***

Rabbi: _____ *** (Smiles a bit.) *** You must learn to be cool and collected. This I must tend to. *** (Turning to Beige.) *** Mein Herr Offizier, may I have a few moments with you in private.

Beige: ____ Ja. *** (Goes off with Rabbi to spot near the door.) ***
____ *** (After talking ten seconds.) *** Schultrein, kommen Sie mit mir. Wir haben hier jetzt soeben nichts mehr zu tun.
_____ Ja, my good rabbi, I am right. You would. You would indeed. Auf Wiedersehen.

********* (After the two cops are gone and the door's closed, there's Joachim.) ****

Volumna: ____ I thought you wanted to turn that brute in. Why didn't you do it? You crazy idiot, why didn't you do it?

Rabbi: _____ Whom she loved and touched with forgiveness, how could I turn over to death. Just like that. Correct and proper procedures must be followed.

Voumna: _____ Did Joachim just happen to meet your price. *** (Good old American cynicism.)***

Joachim: ____ Miss Clothal, that has become immaterial.

Volumna: ____ "Immaterial"? How do you know it's not immaterial to him? Mein Herr, you've got to be loaded with talent. You must read minds as well as amputate hands.

Joachim: _____ It is immaterial because I shall meet death tonight.


Scene 6 - page 72 -

Volumna: ___ What?

Joachim: ___ My dear rabbi, you are right it is all over for me. Maybe, even now, you could hide me. Even so, I've grown tired of the chase. Nor shall I live in fragments. I shall die a whole man. Spirit demands it. No more shall I race as sport for fools and buffoons. Spirit demands it.

Rabbi: ____ What demand do you have of me?

Joachim: ____ Tell me the truth. The dead have the right to the truth. What makes you believe that Helushka forgave me?

Rabbi: ____ Very well, you shall be told the truth, and you shall bear it in a manner befitting you. May it give meaning to these last few moments of your existence, your journey on earth.

Joachim: ____ Bitte, Rabbi.

Rabbi: _____ The Kristalsterns fled to Holland. There, some time later, Helushka fell in love. She and her chosen, after a fitting courtship and proper arrangements, married. Quite happily, I understand.

Volumna: ____ How does that forgive Joachim?

Rabbi: ____ It was not easy but I managed to get a letter from Helushka. She wrote that for the sake of the happness she shared with her beloved - - that is how she wrote it - - for the sake of the happiness she shared with her beloved, she wanted no hatred in her heart. As hatred was expelled, the love she had once felt for Joachim returned. Where there is love, there must be forgiveness.


scene 6 - page 73 -

Volumna: ____ That's beautiful.

Rabbi: ____ It came in a new form, however. There is love one has for those free to love, and another for those in prisons remote from love.

Joachim: ___ And what about Helushka herself? What was her fate?

Rabbi: ____ Better than yours or mine. *** (Catches my deeper meaning.)***

Joachim: ___ *** (Catches it.) ***

Volumna: ____ Through all that, how did she manage with her marriage. I mean. What helped her to cope and find the emotional security to relate to her husband.

Rabbi: ____ Thanks to some very well forged papers, she even felt safe enough to be grateful for the spark of new life she bore in her body. Yes, she felt this gratitude deeply, even in those circumstances of horror and despair.

Volumna: ___ *** (Blithely.) *** Was her first a boy or a girl?

Rabbi: ____ She was somebody's wife, but before she could become somebody's mother,
*** (Accusation.) *** your SS comrades . . . your SS comrades . . .

Volumna: ____ Oh, my God. *** (Catches on.) ***

Joachim: ____ I was a lieutenant in the WAFFEN SS. *** (That's his defense.) ***

Scene 6 - page 74 -

Rabbi: ____ *** (As if that makes a difference.) *** After the little country of Holland had been over-run, the SS had to contend with underground resistance. They carried out a series of surprise searches.

One night, while Helushka was in her bath, a platton of SS stormed her house. They conducted their search methodically and efficiently. Just as the SS were about to leave, one of the troopers for a joke tried to yank Helushka's bathrobe off from behind.

After they had found Joachim's handiwork on her shoulder, they first shot her husband before her eyes. Even though she had fainted and her body showed signs of pregnancy, they carried her up to her bed. There they raped and finally strangled her.

Joachim: ____ Mein Gott.

Volumna: ____ *** (Too horrorified to speak and it shows.) ***

Rabbi: ____ It was not easy for me to uncover those details.

**** (Joachim bounds for the door. Before he can open it, the rabbi catches him by the shouler.) ***

Rabbi: _____ Listen to Joachim, just a little while ago, you offered me - -

Joachim: ____ *** (Shoves the rabbi back) *** Hah! No old Jew fox fails to snatch at eggs or gold. Ja, one must be practical.

Rabbi: ____ *** (Shakes his head.) *** Death no more a door away, yet you persis in willful blindness. I should not be astonished. however. An old Jew such as I has seen too much for astonishment and ah, . . .

scene 6 - pg 75 -

Joachim: ____ You want to avoid the word "disappointment". One must be diplomatic.

Rabbi: ____ I ask your pardon.

Volumna: ____ *** (Mean.) *** You think you're going to take it with you?

Joachim: ____ I am going to take it with me outside that door. The Volkspolizei play their role of hounds well. They must suspect I came through that door. Somewhere out there in the shadows, they wait, their guns ready. The Volkspolitizei will search my corpse, find the money and count it mark by blood-stained mark.

Volumna: ____ It sounds gruesome.

Joachim: _____ *** (Grimaces.) *** The Volkspolizei know almost to the mark how much I have. If any money is missing, they will look for it here. Can you imagine what questions they could put to this strange rabbi? Just for a start, they may ask the both of you why was not my presence here reported.

Volumna: ____ Oh, my.

Joachim: ____ I will take the money, and the Volkspolizei will have it and the body -- case closed.

Volumna: ____ That's one way to look at it.

Rabbi and Joachim: *** (What can you expect from Americans?) ***

Scene 6 - page 76 -

Joachim: ____ Besides, my good rabbi, you are a pitiful old man, and you are crazy. What good could any of the money do you?

Rabbi: ____ If you could have given me the money, I would have used it to fulfill what is now the purpose of my final years.

Joachim: ____ How much chicken soup do you want to drown me in?

Rabbi: ____ Bitte, for a while, let us not have to endure your gallows humor. There is no need for you to play act American tough.

Joachim: ____ Entschuldigung! *** (Well, pardon me!) ***

Rabbi: _____ One night, it came to me in a dream about what I should do.

Joachim: ____ *** (Rolls his eyes up.) ***

Rabbi: _____ You think "stale chicken soup". No matter, I still had the dream, and ever since I have gathered stone and mortar. *** (Indicates same on floor.) *** With these I shall build a fountain near what our municipal authorities call "The Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of Socialism for Soccer and Other Worthwhile Recreation."

Volumna: ____ That's quite a mouthful.

Rabbi: _____ The local people are practical, however. They call it "dead Jew" park. It is where Isaac died.

Volumna: ____ Rabbi Gottesmann, I know now you never would have asked Joachim for the money, had not this fountain some very special importance to you.


Scene 6 - page 77 -

Rabbi: ____ Bless you, Volumna.

Volumna: ____ Please, Rabbi, what is the reason why you're going through all this trouble, getting together the materials and, I'm sure, the thousand and one official permits.

Rabbi: _____ I told the Communist municipal officials that I wanted to prove that I am not afraid to fly over water.

Volumna: ____ But this is a stupid reason.

Rabbi: _____ So, what can you expect? Most government officials refuse to believe any other kind.

Joachim: ____ Did the dream give you a reason?

Rabbi: ____ Not just the reason, but also the design. Every so often, some one steeped in the spirit of or Truth will pass through this little town. This someone will look at the fountain, then see and then know that this fountain is a monument.

Joachim and Volumna: _____ A monument?!

Joachim: _____ What need does Helushka have for a monument?

Rabbi: _____ Those she left behind have the need. Perhaps, I should regale you with a heroic speech about how this fountain will proclaim the power and the glory of the indomitable human spirit. So, is it proclaimed here in the lair, the Heimatland, the charnal house of the Wolf Prince.

Joachim: ____ What kind of speech do you want to make? What do you want to proclaim?

Scene 6 - page 78 -

Rabbi: ____ "Proclaim"? That is a word for titanic tasks and other things that shake the world. I want this to be only whispered. No matter the horror and the despair, the best of the heart, that tender radiance shall endure.

Volumna: ____ That's beautiful.

Joachim: _____ It endures through the grace of your God, I suppose. How strange are those companions - - life and death. To hear such things so close to the edge of death. That deep chasm.

***** (Joachim is looking into the woods and watching the boy Joachim walk into a spot light that went on at the words "deep chasm". The boy sings SOME STAR-LIT NIGHT and then walks off stage behind the tree.) *********

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Volumna: _____ Joachim, think back. Why didn't you just do what she asked you to do?

Joachim: _____ I want to take that with me into the chasm.

Rabbi: _____ Joachim, you are a dead man. The living have the right to the truth from the dead.

Joachim: ____ As you say, Rabbi Gottesmann, if I had not refused Helushka's request, I would have had to witness, and so be part of the debasement of my life's most precious jewel. That thought I could not bear. *** (Pause.) *** *** (Puzzlement.) *** How can such things happen? How can such terrible thoughts come from such tender emotions?

Scene 6 - page 79 -

* * * * * * * (And the siren wails again.) * * * * * * * *

Joachim: _____ Miss Cliothal, my death has drawn near. I am a man, and there are thoughts one man can share only with another man. Bitte, let me speak for a few moments with the rabbi.

Volumna: _____ Of course. *** (After the rabbi and Joachim go near the door to talk) ***
*** (She sings WARM DREAMS.) ***

**** (At the conclusion of the song, she moves toward the men, who in turn go a little toward her.) ***

Joachim: ____ *** (Breaking the silence.) *** Rabbi Gottesman, I have a small favor to ask of you.

Rabbi: ___ I am at your service.

Joachim: ____ I was born into a tradition that places a high value on the relics of its saints and martyrs - - the bits and pieces of their lives, their bodies. *** (Takes out dagger and offers it rabbi, grip first.) *** Bitte, take this as a relic of Helushka's life.

Rabbi: ____ *** (Accepts the dagger.) ***

Joachim: ____ Rabbi Gottesmann, incorporate it into the monument, that fountain.

Rabbi: ____ So shall it be done, Joachim.



Copyright (C) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella

aphrodite of tabor

Oh, alright (!) already, I'll own up to it. Yes, I am piggy.backing on the phenomenon of THE DA VINCI CODE. Well, here's something that its fans might find interesting. The source for this little tidbit is found in a science-fiction book, titled STEPPING STONES. ya'know, it's too darn bad the United States Postal Service saw it to burn all the copies its agents could get their hands on. Had its author Avram Beilitzsyn been allowed to distribute it, the present imbroglio between Muslim and Jew, children of Abraham, might've been avoided.

Well, here was part of the problem with Avram, a disbarred lawyer. Whatever the government, its authorities found him a bit much. Well, all that's a story for another time. For now, let's focus on the tidbit from his book.

In an appendix, he claimed that archaeologists uncovered a certain manuscript in the ruins of a church that had been built centuries earlier by Nestorian Christians in China. How they got there so far from their country of origin in the Middle East is a story for another time.

In the manuscript, one finds an account of Christ's ministry that's profoundly different from that found in the traditional gospels. There was a reason why Jesus failed to marry, in accordance with the custom of his time and place. He had taken up with the daughter of a pagan. And she was no ordinary pagan, being a temple prostitute.

One should remember that, in certain cults of the time, a temple prostitute was considered a physical intermediary between worshippers and their deities. In those certain cults, a temple prostitute was a woman, who commanded immense respect. More than a few of those prostitutes amassed a nice piece of change. In the time of Christ, whereas it may not have been official policy, there was a strong taboo against marrying a gentile.

As I remember the story, Christ met his true love, during the re-building of Sepphoris. Whether she ever considered converting to the Jewish faith, the way I read the story, is indeterminate. What is not indeterminate, according to the story, Christ and his true love had a daughter, who grew up to be a head-strong and exceedingly beautiful young woman.

When she attained the age of fourteen, she began calling herself Aphrodite. What's more, she insisted that was her new name. Evidently, Jesus loved her so much that he permitted her that indulgence.

Now here's the kicker. Wherever the incident is mentioned in the gospel, it is reported incorrectly. Along with the apostles mentioned as present at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, Aphrodite was there, and she was cajoling those men to take courage.

No doubt about it, she was something else. Supposedly, she led the ass, on which her father rode into Jerusalem, and to his eventual crucifixion.

toodles
. . . . he who is known as sefton

CRYSTAL STAR - segment 09

well, I decided to publish my one-act play CRYSTAL STAR in piece, and in the manner of "last in, first out". Dear Reader, if you'll look through the following articles, you'll find the concluding segments I've published. It takes only a little investigation to discern that I've published the last few pages in the concluding segment. In the segment before that, I've published the few preceding pages. In this segment, I'm publishing page 80 and the first song of my one-act play with music. The text in green is meant to explain how I'm publishing this play.

As for the text in brown, it's what's published.

Scene 6 - 80

Rabbi and Joachim: *** (They grip each other's shoulder.)***

Joachim: ***(With a sad smile, stage whispers.)***
_________ Sale juif.

Joachim and Volumna: ***(After the two men break, Joachim reaches out and strokes her hair a couple times. She freezes than yields slightly. That over, he goes over to the door.)*****

Joachim:
__________ Lebewohl, Rabbi Gottesmann. Good night, Miss Cliothal.

******** (Joachim walks out the door, closing it behind. After five seconds, the audience hears "Halt", and then two quick shots. All this while, the rabbi, still holding the knive, and the girl touch elbows. After five more seconds of quiet, a third and final shot resounds and ends
******* in total darkness.)*******

APPENDIX OF SONG/POEMS WITH A NOTE TO THE AUDIENCE

HAZARD'S CHILDREN

First song of the show: the music has lots of gemutliechkeit, genial give-and-take, friends' affection.

(Heinrich sings.) ------ (Joachim sings.)
More than comrades ---- right or wrong

(Both sing.)
We are soul mates
Steel bound our fates.

Joachim sings.)
Held by trust and - - - and honor strong

Joachim and Heinrich sing.)
Though boys we are

(Now Fritz sings.)
Fate lit our star.

(All three sing.)
Hazard's children - - - spirit born
Band of brothers
Like no others.

(Joachim sings.) - - - (Heinriech sings.)
For sure we are - - - fear we'll scorn

(Both sing.)
As one, we'll fight
(Fritz sings.)
With honor bright.

(Finally, Hans sings.)
Bound together?? - - - forever??

(The other boys sing this, while joining right hands.)
For sure, it's true.

(Hans joins his hand with theirs and sings.)
I'm one with you.

Copyright (C) 1978 by Albert A.M. Stella