You Were On His Mind

[YOU WERE ON HIS MIND]

written by: Joe Haase

Characters in Scene 1:

Kim Green: Soundly sleeping in hospital bed from RX given during C Section of her first child. She appears to be in her late 20’s to early 30’s, long dark brown hair, slim, and pretty.

Kelly Reeves: Younger girl in her early 20’, dark brown hair, shapely, very pretty, dressed in a very nice evening dress. There is no hint of emotion on her face. She always seems to be looking out for #1.

James Foster: Well groomed, black neatly cut beard and hair, in his early 50’s, always dressed in a very expensive suit and tie. He could probably pass for the local preacher; but he is a gambler and a swindler.

Kim’s mother: Seen only in her dream and when James thinks back.

SCENE 1:

Man and women in hospital room near Shreveport, Louisiana, watching another woman in a hospital bed. The woman in the hospital bed is dreaming: [In the dream she sees her mother singing in a small church. The song she is singing is; Four Days Late. When she finishes the song she walks down from the front of the church and sits next to Kim; who is about 14 years old at the time and says to her: "You are my child! You may not want Jesus in your life right now, but the day will come when you will ask Him to be your Lord. When that day comes He will be right on time for you.] As the dream ends the camera fades away from Kim in the bed and shows the other two people in the room. [Reader if you would like to listen to this song go to buy her The Best of Karen Peck & New River CD, she does a wonderful job with 'Four Days Late".]

She will not wake for some time. She has been through a lot. The doctor had to knock her out and deliver the baby by C Section. Dumb thing; she doesn’t even know what she had yet, said Kelly.

She has ruined everything getting pregnant. Somehow we have to get rid of this baby and make her think it died at birth, replies James roughly.

Kelly: Kim had every intention to leave us when she married Matt. Then Matt turned up dead and she didn’t know what to do. She told me last week that she intends to raise her child and try to give it a good home. She has every intention of leaving our trio and settling down.

James: "I know! That is why I have to leave it here and make her think it died at birth. I do not have time to waste staying here while she heals. It will take several months for you to get as good as she is with our system and I cannot afford to lose her right now. Once you are trained I can dump her somewhere. Then if she finds out the baby is alive it will be too late for her to find it. If she finds it after you are trained I could care less what she does with the little brat. After arranging Matt’s death, you and I have too much at stake to lose her right now. We have to finish your training before we dump her. She doesn’t know it but I used her old ID to put her in this hospital, so once we are gone they will be looking for her under her maiden name. She doesn’t even know I had her old ID. If she ever gets wind that the baby is alive she will not know how to find it. Besides, she is so out of it right now, she doesn’t even know what hospital she is in. They will never find her now that she is a Green."

Kelly: Well James, do you have a plan that you think will work?

James: "I have been working on one! What do you think of this one? The night nurses have not seen Kim and do not know what she looks like. I will keep my eyes open and as soon as I see the nurses switch for the last shift I will get you in the bed and hide Kim in the closet. You will pretend to be Kim and sometime during the night you will tell the nurse that you do not want the baby. You can really lay it on heavy. You can pretend you were raped and that you do not even want to look at the object of so much pain in your life. You can say that you would have had an abortion but did not want to take the life of an innocent baby. You wanted to give it a chance to live but you do not intend to raise it yourself. I will be on the lookout for an opportunity to sneak Kim out and as soon as I am in the clear with her, you can slip out on your own. They will think you abandon the child and they will place it in a foster home. I can keep Kim sedated until we are well down the road. When she awakes we will tell her the baby was born dead. We can tell her that we had to sneak out of the hospital because she lost all of our money in the last card game when she passed out."

Kelly: But, James, you cleared the table of ALL the money when everyone went to help her.

James: Now, Kelly dear, she doesn’t know that! She was out cold.

KELLY: "I CAN ALWAYS depend on you to come up with a plan. I think it just might work! It will be wonderful to get rid of Kim and then you and I can continue making money together. When we get enough money here in the states you can take me to Paris and we can continue to scam our way across several countries. It will be great to see other parts of the world. As soon as you are ready I’ll help you get her cloths on her and put her in the closet. Then I can get the hospital gown on and get in the bed. But, you know when the time comes to dump her we may need to make sure she never talks! One more dead body in our wake will not make any difference now that you have two already."[When Kelly says this, James thinks back to when he killed Kim’s mother. [The same woman in Kim’s dream is having a heated conversation with James Foster.

James Foster: "You are not taking Kim with you. If you leave, I will need her to make a living."

Kim’s mom: "You call what you do: ‘making a living’? All you do is cheat people out of their money with cards, knock people in the head, and steal their money. You are well on the way to corrupting Kim, just like you did me for all these years. Well, that’s over! Now that I have Jesus in my heart, I can’t live like that any longer. I have new friends and we are going to start traveling together singing Gospel Music. I am taking Kim with me. She is my child and you can’t stop me."

James: I will not allow you to leave with Kim.

Kim’s mom: I am going to the hotel and get Kim. We will be out of your life and your control for good. She turns to leave. As she is walking away the camera shows only James’s hand with a pistol in it as it goes off.] The camera then goes back to the room where Kelly is trying to get James’ attention.

Kelly: James! James!As he looks at her she says: What if the nurse wants to look at my incision?

James:  "If she does you will have to go into your act. Keep her talking about not wanting the baby and try to send her to contact a Social Worker be very insistent that you want that done NOW and that she can check you after you talk to a Social Worker about giving up the baby.  Get hysterical if you have to. At the very least she will have to go out to get you a sedative. While she is gone you can slip out. I’ll be in the truck waiting for you with Kim wrapped up in the back. Being on the first floor of this old hospital we should be able to get out the window."

He looks at the old window and says, This will be a piece of cake. The window doesn’t even lock any more. They will not even miss any of us until we are long gone.

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 2:

Jake Swanson: Mid 30’s to early 40’s, neatly cut beard and hair, dressed in an inexpensive suit. He is a Louisiana, Washington Parish watermelon farmer, and has a cabinet shop at home to make enough money to get by. He usually wears jeans, western shirt, and cowboy hat, with cowboy boots.

Jan Swanson: Twelve year old daughter of Jake. She is very mature for her age.

SCENE 2:

Jake and Jan stand alone in a small church cemetery. Jake is weeping silently facing a new grave that has not been covered yet. Jan is standing slightly behind him with her head bowed. Far off to one side under some trees is a group of men dressed in nice jeans and dress shirts leaning on shovels.

Jan raises her head and addresses her dad, Daddy, we have to leave now. There is a storm predicted for this afternoon and the church workers need to get Mama covered before it gets here,

Jake takes out a handkerchief and wipes his eyes before he replies. "You know, Jan, your mom was right, ‘You are very mature for your age.’ I should be the one getting you out of here before the rain comes and here you are one more time acting more like a grown up than I am."

Jan: The Henderson’s have brought food to the house for us. Mrs. Henderson said there is enough food that I should not have to cook for a couple of days. That will give us some time to get the rest of the legal papers in order.

Jake: Well, young lady, just what paperwork do you think we need to be working on?

Daddy, you know we have to contact the hospital and work out a payment plan to pay for Mom’s stay. She was in there for six months and I know we do not have that much money. But as long as we start making some small payment each month they will allow that and give you time to catch up with your other bills that got behind from you loosing work while she was ill. We can also contact the bank and take out a consolidation loan to pay off the rest of the bills. With just those two outstanding payments, we should be able to make the farm note and utilities each month. You will have to get back to work as soon as possible in your cabinet shop. You and I will have to get on with our lives and grieve at night. We can also join the Wednesday night Grief Class that Brother John started at church. That will help us both deal with this loss. I have to get back to school and get my grades back up. You and I can cook and clean and share other chores. Everything will be alright, Daddy, someday you will meet someone and remarry.

Jake: How can you talk of me remarrying? I am still standing in the grave yard and your mom is not even covered yet!

Daddy, in time we will both be able to put this in the past. We both know that Mom is in heaven with Jesus. A finer Christian lady there never was. She knew she was forgiven and on her way to heaven. Remember she always said, ‘I am not perfect. The only difference between me and any lost sinner is that I am FORGIVEN! I have given my life to Jesus and He holds me in the palm of His hand.’ Daddy, you know she told you to go on with your life and to find someone else. She also told you that you owe it to me to be raised with TWO PARENTS not just one.

Jake: Well, I think I could do a fine job by myself. But you are probably right. You do need a woman’s touch in your life. You are too much of a Tom Boy now. All you ever want to do is hunt, fish, and drive the tractor.

Jan: That’s not so bad. It keeps me off the streets and out of the bars!

Jake laughing for the first time: Streets and bars!  These gravel back roads and woods ain’t never seen no bars. If someone tried to open a bar around here Brother John would fight it to the hilt. I bet you Aunt Molly would be right in there next to him too.

Jan: Now I finally got you laughing. Be careful with that improper English. Someone might overhear you and mistake you for some ‘Country Bumpkin’ or something. After a short pause she adds; Daddy, I love you. Please take me home.

Jake puts his arm around Jan and they slowly leave the cemetery. The dark clouds have gotten closer and thunder can be heard in the distance. After they are out of sight, the group of men under the trees come out and start moving flowers and shoveling dirt into the open grave.

Characters in Scene 3:

Molly: Lady of about 66 years old, dressed for church, well built and well kept for a lady of her age.

Kay: Baby of about six months old.

SCENE 3:

Molly is standing in front of a mirror fixing her hair. While she is fixing her hair she is listening to a Ray Boltz CD. The song he is singing is Behold. 

The baby is in a crib playing with a mobile and enjoying the sound of the music. The crib is in Molly’s bedroom.

When Ray Boltz gets to the part: Behold a world in slumber lies... Molly starts to sing along with him. She sings even louder than the CD. By the time she gets to: The Saints of God, there Glory bound... she has picked up the baby and holds it up over her head as if it has taken off to heaven in the Rapture. [Reader go to for his music buy his Concert of a Lifetime