27 Aug 2015

PROMPT:  What would it take to forgive someone, if meant you had to give up something you believe?

Zeb L. West, writer/performer

Judy stands in front of Terrance glaring.
JUDY
How can you say you forgive him?!  I will never forgive him!  There’s nothing he can do to get me to forgive him!
TERRANCE
What do you want me to say?
JUDY
I want to you to say that what he did was unforgivable!
TERRANCE
What he did is unforgivable.
JUDY
But you still forgive him, don’t you?!
TERRANCE
I...
JUDY
(turning her back on Terrance)
Don’t even talk to me!
TERRANCE
(putting his hands on Judy’s shoulders)
Judy...
Judy shrugs off his hands and takes a step away.
TERRANCE
Forgiveness is the wrong word.
JUDY
(turning around and glaring)
Well, genius, what’s the right word then?!
TERRANCE
He’s broken, Judy.
JUDY
Broken!
TERRANCE
Broken.  I don’t know how or why...
JUDY
Broken?!
Silence.
JUDY
It’s all well and good to say someone is broken, but that doesn’t relieve an adult of responsibility.
TERRANCE
No, of course not.  He is completely responsible, but I don’t have to be angry.  I don’t have to hate him.
JUDY
He raped a little girl... his own daughter.  I can’t think of anything worse a human can do unless he raped her and then murdered her and even that might be kinder.  At least she wouldn’t have to live with the... facts.
TERRANCE
I know.  I know.  I hate what he did...
JUDY
Then why don’t you hate him?!
TERRANCE
I don’t think he woke up one morning and decided it would be a good idea for him to rape his daughter.  I don’t believe that... I can’t believe that.
JUDY
(snide)
Then what do you believe?!
TERRANCE
I think there is something wrong in his brain.
JUDY
Of course, there’s something wrong in his brain, Terrance!
TERRANCE
Judy, I have to believe that his brain is wired wrong.  I don’t know if something happened to him when he was a boy or maybe it’s just a genetic defect or... or... I don’t know, but if a man can get up one day and just decide it’s a good idea to rape his daughter, then... then...
JUDY
(with compassion)
Then... what?
Judy strokes his face.
TERRANCE
Then, there’s no hope.  We should drink wine, and burn coal, and shoot each other and every animal on the planet ‘til it all burns up.  ‘Til we’re gone and the mother can rest.
JUDY
The mother?
TERRANCE
Mother earth.
Silence.
End of play.