Atonement
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Scene – Miriam arrives at her family’s shop. Coming in, with her grown up manner in the busy shop, at first she is not noticed. Brother finishes with a customer and comes up behind the woman Miriam, asking to help her. She takes a lovely material and, facing away from him, asks if he can make an extraordinary robe out of this. He begins to reply as she turns toward him and he recognizes her. He is exuberant with joy greeting her. “You are here, sister! I am so very glad!”
Mother – “You live! My daughter is alive!” Mother is almost hysterical, but pulls Miriam alone. She asks about how she was able to return, and in a tone hushed and ashamed, “What happened to the child?” Miriam says that she never had the child, that she had bled again and never grew with child. They had been mistaken; she was never really with child. Mother asks, “Then why did you stay so long away?” Miriam – “Because Cousin was so kind and I was needing to heal from my grief over Father.” Mother hugs Miriam to her bosom and rocks. Miriam quietly cries, with mixed tears of joy, guilt, and comfort. Mother – “I did not want you to die, to never see you again. Oh, I did not want to tell Yaacov you were dead. Dear Yaacov, sweet kind Yaacov. He deserved my innocent girl as his wife.” Mother looks away ashamed to think of it again, then back at her dear daughter returned to her arms. She looks up at God and thanks Him. Mother looks around and at Miriam. “Yaacov is to return in a month.” Them with realization, she opens her eyes wide – and cries with joy, “We will have a wedding after all!” Mixed joy, trembling, nervousness, guilt, pretending and sorting what is real and what is not. What were lies, what were not? What lies were ready to tell but did not get told? Who was told what? All of this had been part of their minds for so long, they had trouble sorting through it all. They review together to check each other’s reality, trembling with joy & relief now. ”Brother knew you were at cousin’s, to care for his deformed uncle.” ”Yaacov has been away and knows nothing of any of this – but we will only need to tell him of father’s death.” ”You are a young betrothed girl to be married in a month!”
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ALL MATERIAL is COPYRIGHT
© 2007 DJ Reed
Warner of Littleton, New Hampshire, USA |
Brother brings Miriam to their home nearby. When Mother sees Miriam,
she quakes and floods with tears, nervously touching her, outlining her face
with her shaking fingers. 
