The Reckoning Page #3

God hasn't given us

this story to use.

No.

But he is everywhere,

even in this story.

Martin's right,

it's for us to find him.

Aye, aye, aye.

Just as I thought.

An ally to swing the vote your way.

( Martin chuckles )

We'll perform this afternoon...

...and use the morning to find

out more of what happened.

NICHOLAS:
Jack Flint?

MAN:
Yeah?

Uh, um...

You're the man who found

the body of Thomas Wells.

- Are you from the castle?

- No.

- Because I've already--

- No, I'm a player.

We plan to tell the story

of the killing.

( ominous theme plays )

Worse than I feared.

De Rougement.

Ampleforth, even Vilius.

Martin!

( horse whinnies in distance )

Martin?

Where are you going?

What did you find out?

Nothing.

He wouldn't speak to me.

No one would.

It's a feast day.

They've got other things

to think about.

Come on.

Half a shilling?

See into her heart.

The heart of our play.

( door unlocks )

In.

- MAN:
Did you hear?

- NICHOLAS:
Who are these people?

JAILER:
Guests of Lord de Guise.

There's one who left his lands

to work for another.

Another who preached dissent!

Hey!

( bangs on wall )

( chuckles )

Hey, wha--?

It was he that gave me the money.

You can stay here and watch.

Hey.

Beware her touch.

They say...

she has the power.

Eh?

- What power?

- Well,

you've paid dear for the pleasure

of hearing your own crowing.

She's deaf and dumb!

JAILER ( in distance ):

What you looking at?

( door slams shut )

( chains jangle )

My name is Martin.

That's Nicholas.

We're players.

- What am I doing?

- She can't hear.

Look.

You can see my words?

We're to tell your story

on our stage.

( grunts )

( whimpers )

Why did you do it?

What possessed you?

A young boy, a child.

The monk saw you

near the woods at dusk.

- He's lying.

- Why?

But the sheriff and his men

found the boy's purse in your house.

The monk.

The one at the trial?

That-- That monk?

Purse.

The monk's purse.

The boy's purse.

The monk...

grabbed the boy's purse and...

...hid it under your bed.

You saw him do this?

You weren't there?

So the--

The monk was with them...

when they searched your house?

And they arrested you

when you returned.

Silence in there!

( cackles )

You didn't do it.

( mouths words )

Got it.

She didn't do it.

She wasn't even there.

So she says.

So would you.

She wasn't there.

What would you have us do?

Declare her innocent

based on a few snatches of mime?

You're a player, a master player.

And you know how to read people.

Tell me she was lying.

Look at me.

For heaven sakes, man,

we're actors, not judges.

Well, that's exactly

what we have become.

Just tell me she was lying.

Look at me.

I'll hear no more of this.

( suspenseful theme plays )

Right.

The lad went with his family

to a village just near here

to sell his horse.

It was a cow.

A horse, a cow, it doesn't matter.

The point is,

his father went straight

to the nearest alehouse

with the money, to drink it all away.

And he would have done so--

If his wife

hadn't slipped it to Thomas,

sending him home with it.

Which is why he was on the road.

It's why he got strangled.

Yes, all right,

we know the rest of it.

Good work, Springer.

We'll open with the alehouse.

Tobias, set up the table here.

Stephen, you play the drunken father.

Straw, you'll have to double.

You'll play both

the mother and the woman.

Her name is Martha.

And you, Nicholas,

shall be Good Counsel,

urging Thomas to stay on the path,

the way of life.

STEPHEN:
Right. Right,

where should we start from?

From over there.

( sniffs )

What troubles you?

Ask your brother.

MARTIN:
You're free to leave.

If I do, does my precious vote

go with me?

I will put on this play

with or without you.

The first are arriving.

Sarah.

Well, take your place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey.

( speaks indistinctly )

Thank you.

( crowd chattering )

Tobias.

( shouts ):

Oh!

Good masters!

- We beg your patience.

- MAN:
Yes, sir.

And also to give

good audience to our play,

which is also yours.

It's a new thing to make a play

that belongs to a town,

and this play does honor

to your town, for it shows

that wrongdoers are punished here

with great speed of justice.

MAN:
Aye.

Gentle people, we give you our play

of Thomas Wells.

( audience murmurs and gasps )

The family have just sold their cow.

Their purse is full.

They pass an alehouse.

( audience chuckles )

( slurps noisily )

MARTIN:

He tries in vain for half a day,

to drink that precious purse away.

( burps )

( yawns )

Are you ready?

MARTIN:

As daylight fades, so does he.

( whispers ):

Straw, take the purse.

MARTIN:

For his wife, an opportunity.

( yawns )

...each and every man

to keep well upon...

( whispers ):

Take it now, Straw.

MARTIN:

The purse recovered, she must stay,

and so dispatches Thomas on his way.

...of Christ, Good Counsel

is my name.

MARTIN:
The shadows lengthen,

night draws ever near,

- ...he's tired and cold,

- TOBIAS:
Martin.

his young heart gripped by fear.

He quickens his pace,

still clutching his precious load,

Psst.

recalling the words of...

Straw needs more time.

Pas de deux it as best you can.

Use your Latin.

You never know.

Uh...

- Go on.

- Good Counsel is my name,

and some call me Conscience.

My task it is...

Come on, come on, come on.

- Head.

- Come on.

...to urge each and every man

to keep well upon the way of life.

Which path was opened to us

by the sufferings of Christ.

Uh, ah...

( Nicholas stammers )

Come on, come on, come on.

Um...

Heed well my words, Thomas,

for as everyone here is aware,

it's in the contrary nature

of the young

to be drawn to the very thing

from which they are warned,

convinced that

their elders conspire...

- It's a disaster.

- ...to keep some...

( crowd murmuring )

...hidden fruit that must be tasted.

( mysterious, seductive

theme playing )

( woman vocalizing )

MARTIN:
Sin, in the beginning,

may seem full sweet,

but the reckoning comes,

be you never so fleet.

The die is cast,

his fate now sealed...

WOMAN:
It wasn't like that!

MARTIN:

...as Thomas to temptation yields.

- WOMAN:
No. No.

- MAN:
Shh. Shh.

- Shh.

- What did you say?

My Thomas was a good boy.

Too young to know who holds his hand...

WOMAN:

I know my son, I know him.

MARTIN:

...and draws him to the shady land.

He wouldn't have gone with her,

I tell you.

I'm sorry.

He wouldn't have gone with her.

NICHOLAS:
Listen, what happened

to your boy was tragic.

He wouldn't have gone with her,

I tell you.

- I'm sorry.

- MAN:
His mother should know.

( audience dissent intensifies )

- The Reaper...

- Martin.

...in a guise so sweet.

But he must have gone with her.

His body was found in the woods.

She wasn't strong enough to carry him.

No, not strong enough

to wring his neck, neither.

Well, now, he was just a boy.

Big beyond his years, he was.

And strong as an ox.

( audience clamoring angrily )

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