Outline of Act One: The Preachers Son

I.        Preacher gives a passionate, fire-and-brimstone speech at church about the need for peace in the world. That people should defend peace at any price, just as our Lord Jesus sacrificed himself as a model for peace. He reads the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and compares it to how he killed people in the Civil War, but Jesus saved him. 

a.       A leader in the church just slightly older than the Preacher looks on with admiration and jealousy.  If only he had the same opportunities as the Preacher, he would be the one up there.

b.      An abused, yet attractive, woman enters church. She has scars and bruises on her face. The rest of her body is hidden in dark clothing. She sits and a woman pulls her children away from the woman.

II.      The Preacher’s Wife is cleaning rugs with other women of the community, beating them  mechanically. The dust from the rugs flies around in great, wispy tendrils that swirl like the arms of some misguided phantom engulfing everything in its path and then moving on as if it were never there before. It evens surrounds the four-year-old boy, the Preacher’s Son, sitting on the porch, oblivious to everything around him besides the two handmade dolls he is playing with, puppeteering them through the most important gunfight of their lives. He uses raspy voices one might imagine would come from an outlaw. He must see the outlaws when they come to collect the church's protection money.

a.       He watches outlaws approach the church and knock on the door. The Preacher comes out and puts gold in the men's hands. The Community looks on.

III.   The Preacher, his son and his wife eat a meal together. The Preacher is very intense, praying at meal, praying for peace. His Son acts very intense as well—but it is an act.

a.       The Son thinks the prayer is over before it actually is and looks up to his father, but the Preacher is not done yet, so his son quickly returns to his act. The Preacher Father at least pretends he doesn't notice. Sitting on the bench next to the boy, out of site from the father, are the dolls. The Son holds on to them. All he can imagine is growing up to be an outlaw.

b.      That night the Community sings songs of peace and looks up at the tranquil stars in the sky. The father tells the boy that God is up there, and up there no one hurts other people. God is their protector. The boys asks if that is like how those men protect them down here. The Preacher says that the Bandits are nothing like God. They pay those men so they don't attack us. The boy asks why doesn't God protect them down here if he does in heaven. The Preacher says he does, that is why people like The Preacher and The Preacher’s Son exist.  To shelter those who are abused by those greedy for money and power. He tells his son that is why he brought all those people to Utah and built this settlement. Someone has to change the violent hearts of the people in this area, and if we don't do it, the people will turn to the Mormons, only causing the violence to get worse.

IV.   The woman in black sleeps next to the church. She cries in her sleep. Her tears immediately get absorbed by the dry dirt of the desert.

V.      The next day the Son is playing outside with the dolls and his mother pulls a bucket of sand out of the well. She runs in to tell her husband that they are out of water. The Preacher comes out of the church with a shovel. His Son leaves his dolls on the porch and runs after his father. The Preacher beings digging a new hole for a well. The Son is helping nearby, digging his own hole in the dirt just a few feet away.  Other men join the Preacher. Water is absolutely essential.

VI.   The sun has shifted in the sky, but the men are still digging—no water yet. The Preacher’s wife and other women are tending to the men whom are feeling the heat. The blonde woman approaches the Preacher’s Wife. The Preacher’s wife comes for her husband.

a.       The Preacher and the woman meet in the Preacher’s home behind a closed door. The Preacher’s wife stands outside of the door. The woman shows the scars on her hands and arms. She asks for help. She grabs the Preacher by the wrist, wearing her black dress, with lace at the ends, like death grabbing onto him and asks him to shelter her from her abusive husband. She says that she will do anything if the Preacher will protect her … Anything. She doesn’t have anywhere to turn to.

b.      The Preacher says that he has to consider the safety of his people. She can stay in the church that night, but he will have to pray about what to do after that.

c.       The Preacher tells his wife to take her into the church.  She does. The boy is still outside digging in the dirt. His mother tells him to get inside, but he ignores her.

VII. That night the Preacher can’t sleep. He prays before a cross hanging on his wall and continues to looks out at the church.

a.       The Blonde Woman’s husband, the Bandit, sits atop a cliff looking down on the Preacher’s small community. His horse neighs as the Bandit empties a flask of whisky, which he then tosses, empty bottle and all, into the dry dirt.

VIII.                      The next morning exhausted looking men continue to dig for water. The Preacher’s Son also digs, and then he hits something hard in the ground. He uncovers a section of it, and silver light shines brightly in his eyes despite not a cloud in the sky. It is a silver metal that looks untouched by the dirt. The Son pulls the object up and is immediately entranced by whatever it is. The villagers shuffle by him to the church, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

IX.    The Preacher enters mass and walks past the Blonde Woman. The Preacher gives his mass and the Bandit enters, and then interrupts the service. He says that he is there for his wife. The Preacher asks him if he put those markings on the Blonde Woman.  The Preacher asks the Bandit about the state of his soul. Does he realize what violence will do to him? He mentions how he did violence in the war too, but God has forgiven him.

a.       The other leaders of the church approach and the Bandit walk out.

X.                  The Preacher’s wife dolls out the last bit of water to the men digging. The Preacher’s Son is no longer by his hole.  Then one man hits water. It is brown and dirty, but it is life. Everyone celebrates.

a.       The boy sits on the other side of the house with the house with the shiny object between his legs. We see that it is a long handled pistol with a shiny jewel in its ivory carved handle. The happy Preacher goes looking for his son, sees his son and approaches him from behind. When the Preacher sees the gun, his countenance changes from joy to rage.  He grabs the gun and launches a verbal tirade on his boy: where did he find this, guns are of the devil, they dirty men’s souls. The Preacher raises the gun up in the air and grows more and more excited, accidentally pulling the trigger. The gun goes off. The Preacher asks the his son  where he found it. The boy points to the ground outside of the house.

b.      The father buries the gun under the house with the intention of getting rid of it later.

c.       At the preacher’s house later that night everything is quiet. The Blonde Woman is eating dinner at the Preacher’s table.

d.      The Preacher’s Son very quietly asks to be excused. The Preacher nods and asks his son for a hug. They hug and the boy runs off.

e.       The Preacher’s wife asks him where he put it (meaning the gun). The Preacher says he where he will never find it. The only place where he figured the little rascal wouldn’t look, because he is still afraid of the dark. He says that there was something eerie about the gun. It reminds him of something, but then he stops speaking. His wife kisses him on the forehead and leaves.

XI.                The Preacher’s wife puts her son to sleep.

XII. The house is dark. The Preacher walks through the house and puts his bible and rosary away. He lights a candle and kneels down to pray to a figure of Christ on the Cross. He begs Jesus to forgive him for what he done and bless his family with peace. Give his boy a peaceful heart.

a.       Then he hears a click. He looks up and the Bandit is pointing a pistol in his face. The Bandit tells the Preacher that no man takes what is his and lives. He says he checked the church and couldn’t find his wife, so where did they put her. He will spare the Preacher’s family if the Preacher tells him now where his wife is. The Preacher refuses to acknowledge. The Bandit makes a final threat. A second click is heard.

b.      The Preacher sees his son with the gun in his hand. It glimmers even in the dark. The Preacher reaches out one hand towards the bandit and one hand back to his son, so from above the Preacher has his arms stretched out like Christ on the Cross, foreshadowing what is about to happen.

c.       In the dark of night the Preacher’s home sits off in the distance, the outline of it lit by a crescent moon.  Suddenly a flash bursts forth from a window, followed by the loud crack from a gunshot. A moment later a second flash is seen, followed by a second loud gunshot.

End of Act One.