The Sun Child
by
Jaq D Hawkins
Approximate playing time: minutes
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
| NAME | Description | Actor |
| Mallory | A childless woman | Sharra Davies |
| Usha | A Gypsy Witch | Beth Chandler |
| Priest | A travelling priest on a donkey | Lee Foster |
| Risa | A village woman | Beth Chandler |
| Claire | The Sun Child | Claire Chandler |
Music by Kevin MacLeod
- INTRODUCER: (softly) Title.
- /MUS/ OPENING THEME
- SCENE 1.
- /SFX/
- Feet walking in dry leaves. Knock on door. Door opens.
- Mallory
- I’m sorry to disturb you…
- Usha
- You wish something from Madam Usha.
- Mallory
- They say you are a witch, that you can help me.
- Usha
- The villagers come to Usha when all else has failed.
- What malady has brought you to desperation?
- Mallory
- I wish to have a child.
- Usha
- And you think Madam Usha can fix what God cannot?
- Mallory
- I even tried to adopt, but there are no children available.
- Since the blight, there are too few children.
- Usha
- And you… You can care for a child?
- Mallory
- If you can cast a spell, to bring one to me…
- Usha
- You wish magic?
- Mallory
- They say you have the ability.
- Usha
- I can read the future. I can give you herbs.
- But magic… it never works how you expect it will.
- There is danger.
- Mallory
- I would brave any danger, if only to have a child to care for.
- Perhaps if you read the cards first, to see where danger lies…
- /SFX/ Shuffling cards. Sit deck on table.
- Usha
- Choose three cards, lay them left to right.
- /SFX/ Sound of cards laying out on table.
- Usha
- You have had much sorrow in your life.
- The past is represented by the three of swords.
- As you can see, it is a heart pierced with pain.
- Mallory
- Yes, I have known many sorrows. The loss of my husband…
- Usha
- You have no husband, yet still you seek a child?
- Mallory
- That is why I tried to adopt. I don’t expect miracles.
- Usha
- Don’t you?
- The card of the present, the nine of swords.
- This is a card of disaster.
- It is a warning that your present course will bring evil to you.
- Mallory
- I see a child on the last card…
- Usha
- The Sun. It can be a card of hopes fulfilled.
- But it is reversed, upside down.
- In this position it is a warning that plans will go awry.
- I see disaster for you, if you persist.
- Mallory
- I am determined. I will find a way to avert disaster.
- Please, Madam Usha. I can pay well.
- /SFX/ Coins clinking.
- /MUS/ THEME FOR SCENE CHANGE
- SCENE 2.
- /SFX/ Donkey hoofs on cobbles.
- Mallory
- You there, young priest.
- Why do you ride with a child on your saddle?
- Priest
- I seek a foster home for the girl.
- The people of her own village have cast her out.
- Mallory
- Why?
- Priest
- She was cursed with a deformity.
- God’s punishment for her illegitimate birth.
- Mallory
- Who was her mother?
- Priest
- A nun of the convent. She was simple minded, but cloistered.
- Mallory
- And her father?
- Priest
- No man could have come to her in the convent.
- The village folk said it must have been Lucifer himself.
- Mallory
- When Jesus was born to a virgin, they believed he was
- created by God.
- Priest
- Jesus learned to speak before he was five, Claire does not.
- Mallory
- I will take her, if you will give her to me.
- Priest
- Have a care, daughter, for she is an unnatural child.
- But it is not fitting that she should ride with a priest.
- I give her to you to care for her, but with some reservations.
- Watch her well.
- Mallory
- I will! She is my Sun Child.
- /MUS/ THEME FOR SCENE CHANGE
- SCENE 3.
- Risa
- She’s a strange child. Why doesn’t she talk?
- Mallory
- She is only five, there is time yet.
- Risa
- But the way she spreads her arms out and spins,
- as if she were casting a spell…
- Mallory
- The witch in the glen did something like that.
- When she worked her magic, to draw the child to me.
- Risa
- It isn’t natural. I don’t trust the witch’s magic.
- How did Claire come to you?
- Mallory
- People can be superstitious.
- No one would take her in the village where she was born.
- They feared a child who was different.
- Risa
- Listen, she’s singing!
- Claire
- Praise be to Lucifer! (Repeats through dialogue)
- Mallory (reviled)
- What does she mean by that?
- Her first words and…
- Claire
- Praise be to Lucifer! (Continuous repeat)
- Risa
- She’s unnatural! Look, she spins! And the baker’s is on fire!
- Mallory (panicked)
- And the town hall!
- /SFX/ Fire crackling
- Risa
- The whole village is going up in flames! We’re trapped!
- Mallory (panicked)
- Oh my God! What are those?
- Risa (In shock)
- All the demons of Hell…
- Claire
- Praise be to Lucifer! (Continuous repeat)
- /SFX/ Fire crackling, demons chanting, screams of terror.
**********
To vote for this story in the 2015 Wicked Women’s Writing Challenge, send an e-mail to horroraddicts@gmail.com
Voting ends: July 27th, 2015
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