Setting: Somewhere in the Universe. Lucifer Arrives As Though Shot from a Cannon

The Kiss

Part 1: Genesis

By Deborah Mulhall

© June 2016

Characters: 2M

Jehovah

Lucifer

Setting: Somewhere in the universe. Lucifer arrives as though shot from a cannon.

Jey: You’re late.

Lucifer: Traffic was heavy.

Jey: Funny, Luce. Really funny.

Lucifer: I am here, aren’t I What’s up? Or should I say, “What is your will?Oh great and wonderful Jehovah”.

Jey: Cut the crap. I called you here because - I have an idea!

Lucifer: Again? What is it with youJey? Never content with what you have.

Jey: OK. So I bore easily. It’s the sign of a superior mind.

Lucifer: If you say so.

Jey: I do. (pause) You didn’t have to come, you know, Luce.

Lucifer: I know. I just find your commands … and you … somewhat irresistible.(a moment passes between them) So what is this idea of yours?

Jey: So. You know how in the 123rd sector I sculpted the whole life thing?

Lucifer: Light?

Jey: And the rest.

Lucifer: Plants?

Jey: Animals!!!!

Lucifer: Animals! Now I remember. Yeah. So?

Jey: I want to test the limits of our power!

Lucifer: You want to … what? You are – you and me are – all powerful. Omniscient and omnipresent. It means no limits.

Jey: What if – and hear me out here – what if we gave some animals the choice not to acknowledge our power?

Lucifer: What would that prove?

Jey: It might make eternity a bit more … interesting.

Lucifer: Interesting. Loco – do you know that? You’re loco.

(pause)

How do you give them choice?

Jey: A trial.

Lucifer: A trial?

Jey: A test and if they pass, then they get a beautiful eternal life.

Lucifer;What’s the test?

Jey: I am messing with a tree of knowledge décor.

Lucifer: Trees? And if they don’tpass ?

Jey: Death!

Lucifer: What the hell is death?

Jey: The cessation of all physical life!

Lucifer : “Physical” life?

Jey: Energy as matter. The physical disintegrates. The energy changes form and comes back to us.

Lucifer:Sounds appalling. Why would you want to have a physical life? Why would anything? I wouldn’t. Seems sort of pessimistic to me. You put in all that effort and in the end – pfftt! AND I am still not getting the “why.” Where do you get these ideas?

Jey: Why do you always have to be so negative?

Lucifer: I’m not being negative. Actually, I sorta hoped when you called that …

Jey: … that what?

Lucifer: That you might, you know, want give it another shot.

Jey: You what?

Lucifer: We could try this again. Maybe.

(Jey gives Lucifer a long look. Then he starts to laugh. The laughter grows. As Jey finds this more and more hysterical, Lucifer becomes visibly offended).

What are you laughing at? It isn’t funny.

Jey: (wiping the tears) Yes it is. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said. Why weren’t you this funny when we were together?

Lucifer:(high dudgeon) I wasn’t joking. You’re being incredibly insensitive.

Jey: Awwwwww, diddums get his feelings huuuurrrt? You never opened up this much when we were together. (beat)Anyways … I want them to be Male and Female.

Lucifer: Male and Female?

Jey: Yes, because the male and male thing … just doesn’t work. We need yin and yang. Black and white …Up and down. ...we were too much the same.

Lucifer: No we were not. We are yin and yang. Black and white. That’s the point of us. We define each other just by existing.

Jey: I don’t think so. It’s our essence. Too much the same.

Lucifer: You are not getting it. It didn’t work because WE didn’t work. Us.Our personalities. Not because of our essence.

Jey: cutting him off impatiently. Yes yesyes. So I am thinking … a you and a me!

Lucifer: You’re not listening.

Jey: Two more animals. In our image.But different.

Lucifer: Seriously? After what happened between us you want to … I mean, after all the arguments.

Jey: It wasn’t always arguments. In the beginning…

Lucifer: In the beginning it was all light but then … it was always about you. It still is always about you. Then you threw me out.

Jey: You didn’t have to go.

Lucifer: You made it pretty uncomfortable for me to stay.

Jey: Are we going to do this again?

Lucifer: Why not?

Jey: Look, I don’t want to go there. It was … an eternity ago. I just thought, if we tried it out on copies of us, we might be able to see where it went wrong.

Lucifer:But they wouldn’t be copies. They’d be – distortions. That could be very destructive.

Jey:Let’s say they are lesser us. Sort of … well, lesser. Imitations. We’ll limit their powers.

Lucifer:Power. It is all about the power, isn’t it? You know, you have issues. You have this need to control everything and when you don’t get your way, you throw temper tantrums. Remember the hissy fit you threw when I asked you to share. There’s another one! Sharing! You have no idea what that really means, do you?

Jey: (pause) Are you finished? Because I’d like to point out that I invited you here to “share” this experiment with me.

Lucifer: How do you propose to do that?

Jey: You make one, I’ll make the other. This way we know the characteristics each should have.

Lucifer: You don’t need me for that.

Jey: I know. But I thought – we could bring our individual understanding to what makes it work…

Lucifer: … and what makes it not work.

Jey: Yes.

Lucifer: And after you -

Jey: - we –

Lucifer: - we have done this … then what?

(pause. Jey shrugs)

Lucifer: Right. So you brought me here to help make imitations of us.

Jey: I really don’t need your help you know. I just wanted your input.

Lucifer: (dawning realisation) Oh ohoh! You’re just trying to create someone to replace me!

Jey: I wouldn’t do that.

Lucifer: Wouldn’t you just. This wasn’t about testing the limits of your power through choice at all, was it? This was about testing the limits of your power by seeing what you could talk me into doing!

Jey: Indulge me. For old times sake.

Lucifer:(sighs) For old times sake, eh? OK. give it to me without the window dressing.

Jey: I’ve got this animal thing going in Section 123. Right? So I want to make advanced animals who are copies of us. But without our powers. They can be the caretakers of everything that’s going on there. The plants and animals. They’ll have enough of our abilities to create systems to look after everything and enough of our intelligence to make sure it all stays in balance. But I want to make them male and female.

Lucifer: Why don’t you just get Gaia in on this? Seems like her perspective would be better..

Jey: I thought … I thought … Like I said. Maybe they will get it right where we got it wrong.

Lucifer: That was us. If they get it wrong it will be because it will be them. If they get it right, it is because it will be them.

Jey: And not us?

Lucifer: Exactly.

Jey: But I want to know what it is about us that made it not work.

Lucifer: This sounds something like regret to me.

Jey: I regret nothing about us. (pause) There will be a test.

Lucifer: So you said.

Jey: They live in paradise. I will forbid only one thing. And if they do what is forbidden, then they will fail.

Lucifer: I don’t know what you are trying to prove with this. Well, I do. But your motivations are murky.

Jey: Trust me. I make one, you make the other.

Lucifer: ( has an idea, smirks). Sure. Let’s go

Jey: Great! On the count of three … 3, 2 1

(there is a flash of light and an explosion. Jey looks down)

Jey; What did you do Lucifer! There’s two of them. Just like us.

Lucifer: For God’s sake - I thought you’d make the Female.

Jey: I thought it was clear YOU would. And don’t refer to me in the third person.

Lucifer: I wash my hands of this. … What are you going to do?

Jey:(thinks)Fix the test.

Lucifer: How?

Jey: The kiss. No kiss. I shall forbid them to kiss.

Lucifer: Because that’s where the trouble starts. With a kiss. It is where it started with us.

Jey: Yes.

Lucifer: Go for it.Now. How about we kiss and make up?

The End