Leaping Off the Page: Any Time of the Year Edition

by L. Ruth Carter

  TWO CAPTIVE MAIDS

  (2 Kings 5)

  A One-Act Play

 

  I have written three treatments on the story of Naaman: “Naaman’s Dilemma” and “Two Captive Maids”—both of which are One-Act plays. The third, “A Leper’s Song” is a monodrama. “Two Captive Maids” has much of the same text as “A Leper’s Song”.

  Scene: This takes place in Syria, approximately 700 BC. We are in the courtyard of Naaman’s house. There could be a couple of pillars and lots of flowers: enough to show that it is a place of beauty. A stone bench slightly right of centre stage cants slightly towards down left.

  CAST:

  Sara: A young Hebrew maid with great faith. Suggested props: a pail of water and rag for scrubbing the floor.

  Linna: Another Hebrew maid—younger than Sara:—who is terribly afraid of something.

  Lady: The wife of Naaman, she is learning to have faith.

  Linna, limps in. Her foot hurts. She goes to centre stage bench and collapses on floor, cradling her head on her arms on the bench. Her back is to the audience. Sara, enters stage left. She is a maid. She carries a bucket of water and a rag. She stops in surprise when she sees Linna. Sara puts the bucket on the floor down left and goes tentatively to Linna. She sits on the bench next to the other girl with her legs on the upstage side and her body turned to Linna and the audience. She bites her lip, not knowing what to say. She’s never seen Linna before, but the other girl is obviously distressed. Sara carefully pats Linna’s shoulder in a comforting “there, there” gesture.

  Sara: What’s the matter? Can I help?

  Linna: (Startled, scrambles to her feet, backs off, hastily wipes tears from face with palms of hands) Don’t touch me. (Said despairingly, not angrily or defiantly)

  Sara: (Taken aback) Why not?

  Linna: (Gulps and turns away. Grasps apron and twists it. Fierce whisper) I can’t tell. (She uses apron to wipe off another tear)

  Sara: (Swings her legs around to down stage side of bench) Why not?

  Linna: (Repeats stubbornly) I can’t tell you. (This has a trace of defiance in it)

  Sara: Oh. (She tries a new tack) Can I ask you your name?

  Linna: (Nods, saying nothing)

  Sara: (Waits a bit, then) Well?

  Linna: (Turns her head and peeks at Sara)

  Sara: (Patiently, gently, as to a frightened bird) What is your name?

  Linna: (Shyly) Linna.

  Sara: (Smiles and steps closer to touch her) I’m Sara.

  Linna: (Steps back hastily putting her hands up in a guarding gesture) Don’t touch me.

  Sara: (Stops, smiles ruefully) Sorry. I forgot.

  Linna: (Clutches apron) That’s okay.

  Sara: Why don’t you sit on the bench and tell me about yourself?

  Linna: (Wavers a bit)

  Sara: I promise I won’t touch you.

  Linna: (Damp smile) Okay. (She sits on bench at left end. Sara sits at other end, maintaining a careful distance)

  Sara: I’ve never seen you before. Are you a new maid?

  Linna: Yes. I’m supposed to wait here for someone to come and tell me what to do.

  Sara: Are you a captive?

  Linna: (Nods) Some soldiers came and took everybody in my village away. They marched us for many days until we arrived here in Syria.

  Sara: That happened to me, too. I’m an Israelite.

  Linna: I’m from the mountains by the Great Sea.

  Sara: And now we’re both here, working for Captain and Lady Naaman.

  Linna: I’m scared.

  Sara: I used to be frightened, too. But Lady Naaman has been very kind. She’s trying to find my parents for me.

  Linna: You don’t know where your parents are?

  Sara: (Shakes her head sadly) We got separated when we were captured.

  Linna: Me, too. (She wipes tear with apron)

  Sara: (Stretches out a comforting hand. When Linna shrinks away, she hastily draws back) Sorry. I forgot. (An awkward silence) Are you sure you can’t tell me what the matter is?

  Linna: (Nods in shame) I can’t.

  (Lady Naaman enters, sees the two girls together. Linna leaps guiltily to her feet, but Sara stands calmly and serenely.)

  Lady: Good. You two are getting acquainted. (She turns to Sara) Sara, I’m putting Linna in your charge. Please teach her in her duties.

  Sara: Yes, my lady.

  Lady: (Turning to Linna) You’ve been crying, child.

  Linna: (Gulps, nods)

  Lady: (Reaches out comforting hand) You’ll feel better soon as you adjust to your new situation, and I’ll try very hard to help you find your parents.

  Linna: (Backs off, stammering) D-don’t t-touch me, my lady.

  Lady: (Small frown) Why not?

  Linna: (Mournfully) I can’t tell you.

  Lady: (Looks questioningly at Sara) Do you know what this is about?

  Sara: (Shakes her head) She won’t tell me, either, my lady.

  Lady: (To Linna) Do you know what your problem is?

  Linna: (Nods, deeply shamed)

  Lady: But you can’t tell me?

  Linna: (Stays silent, digs toe of good foot into floor)

  Lady: You do know that I am your mistress?

  Linna: (Nods)

  Lady: You know you must do everything I order you to do?

  Linna: (Nods)

  Lady: I order you to tell me what your trouble is.

  Linna: (Distressed) I—can’t.

  Lady: (Sternly) Why not? You must answer me. That’s an order.

  Linna: (Wails) Because you’ll send me away!

  Lady: (Disconcerted) You won’t tell me because you’re afraid I’ll send you away?

  Linna: (Nods, weeping again)

  Lady: What if I promise not to send you away?

  Linna: (Small) I can’t tell you.

  Lady: (Sighs, then changes tactics) In that case, I will have to send you away. I can’t have any maids who won’t obey me.

  Linna: (Horrified) You wouldn’t, my lady!

  Lady: I’m afraid I must. This is your first day and already you defy me. I cannot allow such disrespect.

  Linna: (Earnestly) But I do respect you, my lady!

  Lady: Then you must tell me.

  Linna: (Twists apron, hangs head and mumbles) Leprosy.

  Lady: Pardon? I didn’t hear that.

  Linna: (A little louder) Leprosy. (Almost a shout) I have leprosy! (Appalled at her own boldness, she stops and turns away)

  Lady: (Smiles gently) Oh, my dear girl. Is that all?

  Linna: All? (Repeats dumbfounded) All? Leprosy is a bad disease. It’s horrid. People die of it.

  Lady: (Gently) I know.

  Linna: Their skin goes bad. Then their fingers and toes fall off. Sometimes their noses.

  Lady: Yes, I know that, too.

  Linna: It is very contagious. I could infect anyone I touch. You must send me away, now.

  Lady: (Stoops down and hugs Linna close) Well, I’m not afraid, and I’m not sending you away.

  Linna: (Amazed) You’re not?

  Lady: (Smiles) Didn’t I promise? Now show me where your leprosy is.

  Linna: (Pulls long skirt away from her lame foot, revealing a festering sore) Right there. (She bites her lip) My toe is going to fall off!

  Lady: (Gently examining foot) It must hurt a great deal.

  Linna: It does. A lot. It throbs all the time and sometimes it feels like it’s on fire.

  Lady: (Standing briskly) I shall go check with a physician. Sara, tell our story while I’m gone, won’t you dear? (Exits)

  Sara: (Takes Linna’s hand) Leprosy is a bad disease. I know, because Captain Naaman had it. Real bad. (Walks to the pail of water down left and stoops down on haunches. Swishes rag in water) Might as well get some work done while we’re talking. (Wrings water from rag and looks up) He was awful sick. (Smiles her admiration) Captain Naaman is a big, brave man. (Stands up. Returns to centre stage. Shakes her hea
d and holds rag to her chest, not realizing she’s dripping water on herself) He’s a soldier. (Proudly) A commander! And the king really likes him because he wins lots of fights.

  Linna: And he had leprosy?

  Sara: That’s right. Captain Naaman had leprosy. (On haunches, pauses in her work) And Lady Naaman was very sad. (Shakes her head) I saw her crying one day. (Stands up, faces down centre, remembering) That’s when I found out. She told me, you see. (New energy. Leaps to feet with fists on hips) Well, I couldn’t believe it!

  Linna : What couldn’t you believe?

  Sara: (Paces down right) I know leprosy is bad and all that.

  Linna: You said that.

  Sara: And I know people die of it. But they don’t have to!

  Linna: Don’t have to?

  Sara: Die of it, I mean. (Shakes head, gets on knees, barely starts to scrub and stops in amazement)

  Linna: But what couldn’t you believe?

  Sara: That Lady Naaman didn’t even know that! (Scrambles to her feet) When I told her, she just stared at me and said, (deadpan) “Leprosy kills.” I mean just like that! (Repeats deadpan) Leprosy kills!

  Linna: But leprosy does kill.

  Sara: (Pacing energetically) What I couldn’t believe was that Lady Naaman didn’t know that God can do anything. Anything!

  Linna: God?

  Sara: Yes, God. (Slower—wanders down right, remembering) Why, I remember when my daddy told me that God made the whole world! (Brisker—back to centre stage) Well, He can certainly heal leprosy.

  Linna: I never knew that.

  Sara: (Sobers, sits on bench) That’s when Lady Naaman told me that she and Captain Naaman and the soldiers and the king, even, didn’t know about God. I mean, (taste the words) the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That’s what my daddy used to call God. He used to call Him Yahweh, too.

  Linna: I’ve never heard about that god.

  Sara: (Story-telling mode. Brisk) So I told Lady Naaman about Elisha. He’s a prophet. (Knowingly) That means he’s a man of God. (Smiling) Because he believes God and obeys Him, God does miracles through him. (Big grin) Boy, you should hear some of the stories!

  Linna: (Wistfully) I’d like to.

  Sara: (Back to the story) Anyway, I said, “Lady Naaman, if only my master”—that’s Captain Naaman—“if only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.”

  Linna: Where’s Samaria?

  Sara: It’s part of Israel, which was my home.

  Linna: That must be far away.

  Sara: It is. So, I told Lady Naaman some of the stories about Elisha and God’s miracles. She said, “He is a great man.” And I said, “Yes, but it’s God who is great. Elisha is great because he is God’s man.”

  Linna: What do you mean?

  Sara: (Frowns slightly, scrubs floor) I’m not sure she understood that. I’m not sure I really understand it, either, (matter of factly) but that’s the way it is. (Firmly—no doubt about it) It is God who is great. (With reverence) The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yahweh. God. I guess she didn’t have to understand it to believe it, because she told Captain Naaman. (Wide eyed wonder) And then Captain Naaman told the king! Can you believe it? The king!

  Linna: How do you know all that?

  Sara: (As if to give her credentials for knowing such a thing) I know because Lady Naaman told me about it afterwards. So then the king gave Captain Naaman a whole bunch of money and a letter to give to the king of Israel, and told him to go to Israel and get healed of the leprosy. So Captain Naaman went.

  Linna: (Breathlessly) Was he healed?

  Sara: (Big smile) H got back home yesterday. (Up and moving about. By this time the task of scrubbing the floor is totally forgotten. She waves the rag around like a banner) You wouldn’t believe the commotion! I mean, I never saw such a fuss! (Sees them sitting around the courtyard—relives it) The king was there and lots of important people and they were (dances a bit with the rag) all cheering and shouting and dancing around. (Stops, says very gently) Lady Naaman was crying again. (Perhaps she’s crying too) This time it was because she was so happy.

  Linna: I’d be happy, too.

  Sara: (Hushed) Then everything got real quiet so that Captain Naaman could tell his story. (Feeling important) He told how he saw the prophet Elisha in Samaria. Elisha told him to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cleansed of his leprosy.

  Linna: (Listens, awestruck)

  Sara: (Giggling, moves down stage) Oh, you should have seen Captain Naaman when he got to that part of the story. (Paces back and forth with great vigor, miming Naaman. From this point on she will go back and forth between being Naaman and being herself) He stormed back and forth and shook his fist and bellowed to show how angry he had been at such a suggestion.

  Linna: (Giggles)

  Sara: (Jumps up on bench and stands arms akimbo) “Wash in the Jordan River, indeed!” he raged. (An aside, drop pose) His face got quite purple when he said this and the king laughed and said that Captain Naaman should keep his day job. “Did you wash?” asked Lady Naaman. “I did not,” retorted Captain Naaman. “I said, (resumes pose of indignation) ‘Wash in that filthy, muddy river! I would not so demean myself.’ (Steps down from bench, continuing as Naaman) I thought Elisha should come to me and (gestures) wave his hand over me and the leprosy would just disappear. (Minces down right, burlesquing her imitation) I was doing him a great honor by coming to him. (A quick, rueful grin as the little girl, then back to exaggerating Naaman’s actions) “And I also thought that if I had to wash, why couldn’t it be in some of the nice clean rivers here in Syria? (Marches towards the bucket down left) So I marched off, absolutely furious at the insulting way I had been treated.”

  Linna: (Sadly) So he didn’t get healed?

  Sara: Wait. (Goes back to being the little girl and looks off, warmed by the memory) He stopped then in his pacing and looked off in a gentle kind of way and a small smile came to his eyes. (Hugs self) He patted my head and then he looked at his servants who had gone with him on the trip. (Looking off towards stage left. She is lost in Naaman’s wonder. No burlesquing) “I have good, loyal servants,” he said. “I don’t deserve them. They came after me and convinced me to do what the prophet had told me to do. (Shakes head) They used logic. (Turns head to glare over audience’s heads) Spare me from logical servants! They’ll get you every time! (Shakes head again and walks slowly to the bench) They reminded me that if the prophet had asked me to do a great mighty thing, I’d have done it. (Faces audience and nods) They were right. I would have. (Goes energetically down right with lots of macho muscle flexing) I’d have wrestled with a bear or climbed a great mountain or swum a mighty sea if that’s what the prophet had asked me to do. (Stops)

  Linna: (Impatiently) Did he do it?

  Sara: (Smiles) He did. (Walks to the bucket stage left and kneels before it on one knee) He said, “I went down to that scrummy river and I bathed. (Dips into the dirty water with fingers and feels its texture) Seven times. On the seventh wash, (holds hand out, looking at it) my skin was completely restored. (Feels arms and face) It was like that of a baby. Soft and clean and healthy. (Lifts radiant face u) The leprosy was gone. (Almost a whisper, head bowed) All gone.”

  Linna: Oh.

  Sara: (She stands quietly, being herself again and wipes hands on skirt. Walks to bench) That’s when Lady Naaman started crying again. She cried softly so that it wouldn’t interrupt his story and she hugged me tightly. (Looks at bucket as if Naaman were still there) I saw that Captain Naaman and some of the tough soldiers with him had tears in their eyes. (Wavering smile) I was crying, too. Now Captain Naaman wouldn’t lose his toes or fingers.

  Linna: Or even his nose!

  Sara: (Firmer, bigger smile) But I wasn’t surprised like those others were. (Absolute assurance) I knew God would heal Captain Naaman because I had been praying He would. And I pray that God heals you, too.

  Lady: (Entering) I spok
e to the physician, Linna. You don’t have leprosy, dear. If you did, it wouldn’t hurt so much. It’s an infection, and he gave me some herbs that’ll help clean out your wound.

  Linna: (Happily) Thank you, my lady! (Turns excitedly to Sara) See? Already God has answered your prayer!

  Lady: Did you tell Linna the whole story, dear?

  Sara: Except what Captain Naaman said to the king at the end.

  Lady: Oh, yes! You must tell her that!

  Sara: (Moves to down centre to a spot she has never been before, overlooking the audience. She has once again taken on the persona of Naaman, but more subtly so. It is her convictions that ring out) Captain Naaman stood straight and tall before his king and concluded, “I went back to the man of God and told him that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. And I tell you that now. The God of Israel is God, and there is no other.” (Raises arms and face) He raised his arms and face to heaven and cried out, (ringingly) “Praise be to God!” (Drops pose, completely back to being the little girl) And I say that, too. Praise be to God.

  Linna: Praise be to God.

  Lady: Praise be to God

  Sara: (Hugs self. With soft reverence repeats) The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (A firm nod) The God of Captain Naaman. (Goes to bucket, dips in rag, stops and looks up with a radiant smile) Oh, and the God of me!

  The LIGHTS dim, the MUSIC swells, the CURTAIN closes and we come to

 

  Curtain

  ~~~~

  Sketches

  Some are ten minutes long, others are just two minutes.