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BEFORE THE SKIES WERE NAMED

A DRAMA IN TWO ACTS

BY DAVID LAWRENCE CADE

ACT ONE

The setting is an area in southeastern Iraq, in one of the reclaimed areas of marshland. There are two large overturned canoes to one side of the stage. Some desert brush in the background. Daytime. There is the suggestion of a dirt road to the other side of the stage.

CATHERINE and ABDUL ENTER.

CATHERINE (reading a paper): How is this name pronounced?

ABDUL (with strong Arabic inflection): Omar Ahkman Hammad, the begetter. First name means most high, long life.

CATHERINE: I don’t know what to make of the times.

ABDUL: Iraq has borne it all: Saddam, two wars, now the suicide bombings. It is like the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, roaring, resisting, mixed together. Our past will mix with this chaos, even the daily terror on the streets, and form, as they say in America, new pastures. A new Iraq.

CATHERINE: You grew up in the marshes.

ABDUL: My people are madan. Our tribe is madan. I was born - my mother used to joke - discovered amid reed-beds. No gods were manifest that day, my father said, so I was named Abdul Rahman, which means servant of the merciful one, of Allah. My father is Abdul Aziz Hammad.

CATHERINE: And did your grandfather Omar fulfill his name?

ABDUL: He lived to eighty. Long life, yes.

CATHERINE: I hear these names every day when I’m covering a news development. I didn’t know most of their meanings until today. Rafiq. What does that mean?

ABDUL: Rafiq means happy.

CATHERINE: Tawfiq?

ABDUL: Success, reconciliation. Many Iraqi mothers will name their new born boys Tawfiq, I believe, as a sign of good luck, that they will defy the collapse of our world today. Tomorrow, the Tawfiqs will have success. Our worlds will be reconciled.

CATHERINE: I hope indeed it will.

ABDUL: Al-Sistani has said our destinies are decreed by Allah. It is His will that this new generation be born within chaos. They will emerge, poorest of them, as soon as they have matured, fully formed to surpass all that Saddam and the Coalition did to us.
They will pass their days at length. The years will add more first-born sons to rival their forefathers.

CATHERINE: Hisham. I met a young man in Baghdad who had been a teacher and despaired last year, living in a slum. Saying he was ready to strap a bomb on himself and go blow himself up if his imam ordered it. What does Hisham mean?

ABDUL: Generosity.

CATHERINE: Generosity. And Leila, I hear that name for many Iraqi women.

ABDUL: Leila means born at night, and my sister who gave birth to my first niece last month named her daughter Leila, born in the night of all this tragedy.

CATHERINE: Who does Leila resemble?

ABDUL: She looks like my sister.

CATHERINE: Khulud.

ABDUL: That is one of my grandmothers’ names. Khulud refers to immortality.

(ROLLAND ENTERS.)

CATHERINE: (aside to ABDUL ): Why does he have to have that superior look?

ROLLAND: My men are trying to get an understanding from the civilians up at the village as to what happened.

CATHERINE: I was asked to look into this because the villagers insist that American troops shot at unarmed Iraqis who were passing a convoy on the road here.

ABDUL: You can see where some sort of crater was formed here, in the roadside.

ROLLAND: It could have been an IED.

ABDUL: Then why was it followed by gunshots? Gunfire on men trapped in a car that had been hit by a bomb?

ROLLAND: American military might does not extend to shooting unarmed Iraqis.

ABDUL: It doesn’t?

ROLLAND: My men are trying to get to the bottom of it all. There are rivals among you people, you know, out to blow each other up. We’re just here among your peers trying to provide security.

ABDUL: You’re peerless.

ROLLAND: Your interpreter comes from the modern generation; I see.

CATHERINE: Meaning?

ROLLAND: They keep clamoring for freedom, no matter if Americans get it in the belly. The discontented of their generation would collide together with us, the U.S.

CATHERINE: Lieutenant Rolland, the villagers I spoke with are quite stirred up about the shootings. This place has been idyllic; they told me. They have been beside themselves with panic.

ROLLAND: It must have been like paradise before Saddam had it all drained.

ABDUL: It’s coming back.

ROLLAND: Not much to play with for the Iraqi kids. Desert as far as the eye can see. Must be annoying to live in a place like this.

ABDUL: I grew up right over there, in one of those huts.

ROLLAND: Nothing to quell the noise of the water rippling along the banks. I would find it monotonous.

ABDUL: It’s coming back. They didn’t wait for anyone. They reopened the dikes with their own hands after the war. The ground was too salty to farm. My brother and father stayed after the marshes were destroyed and tried, but there wasn’t much they could grow.

(A loud explosion is heard in the distance.)

ROLLAND: What was that? You need ear protection just to survive over here.

CATHERINE: It sounded like it was on the main road.

ROLLAND: Ms. Carlisle. My men are having trouble communicating with the villagers.

ABDUL: Doesn’t surprise me.

ROLLAND: They’re acting like mute figures on one of them stone reliefs at Babylon. Would your interpreter be willing to come over to the village and act as translator for me this morning?

CATHERINE: You’ll have to ask him.

ABDUL (to ROLLAND): I’ll indulge you. It was my village once. They have grievances.

ROLLAND: Your countrymen have some bad ways.

ABDUL: Yours too. Will you listen to what they told me about their grievances?

ROLLAND: I’ll indulge you.

ABDUL: Finally. Then let’s go.

ROLLAND: Great God. (Calling out to someone offstage.) Okay, Moose! (To ABDUL.) How do I address you?

ABDUL: You want to e-mail me?

ROLLAND: Your name, sir?

ABDUL: Abdul Rahman.

ROLLAND: I never can recall. Is Rahman a last name?

ABDUL: Middle name.

ROLLAND: Then your last name.

ABDUL: Hammad.

ROLLAND: You’re not going to act like one of them viziers.

ABDUL: What?

ROLLAND: I don’t have to please you with Arabic polite words, do I?

ABDUL: Let’s go. Thank you, Catherine. I’ll be back within an hour.

ROLLAND: I’ll make sure of it. Don’t know if I can take you much longer than an hour.

(ROLLAND and ABDUL EXIT. CATHERINE stands in front of one the overturned canoes. There is the sound offstage, apparently not far away, of men discussing, in Arabic – some sort of tape to be played of actual political or news talk. CATHERINE smiles, waves. The voices of the men begin to subside. MELINDA ENTERS.)

MELINDA: Hello, Catherine.

CATHERINE: Melinda, what is the commotion about? The explosion?

MELINDA: It was terrible. I saw a car blown up. It had come within thirty meters of the American patrol. It was hard to tell. One, perhaps two men inside, dead. Fire. I heard some of the villagers discussing their God, their sons. One old man who tried but couldn’t make his voice heard came over to me and said (Her voice loud) "Their ways," he meant the suicide bombers, "their ways, it is grievous (Her voice subsiding to normal) to me." I’m sorry, Catherine, I didn’t mean to shout.

CATHERINE: Did the old man shout?

MELINDA: Yes. He told me that he’s some sort of sheikh with the village tribe, that there are a thousand of the madan from the marsh, the ones who are trying to return here, a thousand, his tribe, and that they cannot rest. "By night, I cannot sleep," he said, "until the Americans have dispersed, and the bombers abolish their ways." He said he believes peace will prevail. "So that we can sleep."

( FOUAD ENTERS.)

FOUAD (To MELINDA): Is this the lady from the BBC?

CATHERINE: I’m Catherine Carlisle with the BBC, yes.

FOUAD: I heard the explosion and came running. My brother is over there talking to that fury of a lieutenant who shouts at our villagers like an unwanted lover.

CATHERINE: Your brother? Do I know your brother?

FOUAD: Abdul Rahman. Yes. Your translator.

MELINDA (To CATHERINE): Their mother is beside herself. With rage at the bombing.

FOUAD: We are all furious. We came back to the marshes, we rebuilt them when we opened the dikes and restored the waters, and were at peace, safe. We thought ourselves safe. But the Americans had all this evil in their belly. They have brought it even here, to the valley. We were not created to be punished by Americans, to perish in their war.

MELINDA: Fouad, there was a man with a turban who is not bearing the bombing patiently either.

FOUAD: I saw him. He is my uncle.

MELINDA: Your uncle. He didn’t tell me his last name. Fahd.

FOUAD: Yes, Fahd is my uncle. We are all cousins and uncles here. His father was a vizier in the old regime, under the monarchy. Fahd Hammad wanted to return to the marsh waters and settle down. Now our illusion of quiet and calm is shattered. This is no better than Baghdad. Now the villagers are afraid our huts will be searched, demolished. Reed huts do not stand up well to jack-booted Americans storming around looking for arms. (To CATHERINE.) Abdul asked if you can come there with your camera.

CATHERINE: How far up the road is it?

FOUAD: A third of a kilometer. You will be safe. I can go with you. Abdul said the villagers are scared. He is translating for the Americans. They all want you there to make a record.

CATHERINE: All right. I think I’ll be safe driving alone just that far.

FOUAD: I know you will be safe. You are like our earth mother.

CATHERINE: I think we can put an end to that. Your earth mother?

FOUAD: You can put an end to the American’s troublesome ways. They are afraid of the foreign media. As they will not allow harm to come to you, or to us, if you are there and see what is happening and tell the world. You will see. My uncle’s face will light up. They are afraid there will be a riot.

CATHERINE: At the village?

FOUAD: It is evil planning to ruin us where we hoped to find the past. Yes, our little village could explode.

CATHERINE: My God. I so wanted to talk with you about your relief work here, Melinda.

MELINDA: I’m here for the long haul as well, Catherine.

(MELINDA and CATHERINE hug a moment.)

Stay safe.

CATHERINE: What could happen just driving up the road a stretch? Thank you, Fouad.

FOUAD: Thank you.

(CATHERINE exits. There is the sound of a car engine starting.)

MELINDA (calling out and waving): Take care.

CATHERINE (from offstage): You too. Thank you.

MELINDA: Catherine says your brother is one of the best translators she’s known.

FOUAD: As a boy, I would sit in his lap, my older brother, and listen to him read to me. He taught me to read Arabic when our school was shut down for two years.

MELINDA: Why?

FOUAD: Under Saddam, everything was plotted between him and his sons and his generals. They robbed Iraq blind. Nothing for the poor. It was like a relay game, and no one passed us the baton, ever.

MELINDA: I thank God the UN can still help here.

FOUAD: Until you arrived last year, the gods did not listen. They wandered about the tells and the desert restlessly. They fell silent and mute. My uncle says he has found out their plot.

MELINDA: The gods?

FOUAD: Eanna, who made for himself a design of everything, how to rid Iraq of the Americans, and al-Qaeda, and the evils of the bombings. My uncle says it is now all laid out correctly.

MELINDA: What a clever man. I think the marsh has cast its spell over him. It has over me. I feel I’ve been at home here all my life.

FOUAD: It is the waters. They are hypnotic. Superb relief for modern anxieties. The Coalition forces should have come here like to a spa. Instead they recite the CPA’s edicts. They cannot still the waters now. The marsh will pour sleep upon the foreigners so that they sleep soundly, drenched with sleep, and then we will put them to sleep forever.

MELINDA: I feel at times I’m in a sleepless daze when I think of the horrors of the bombings.

FOUAD: Have you heard what happened just within the hour?

MELINDA: You don’t mean up the road?

FOUAD: I mean in Irbil. Two suicide bombers. Over seventy dead. More.

MELINDA: Oh, how sad.

FOUAD: It was in the halls of the KDP and the PUK. Their guard was down for the festival of Eid. The PUK spokesman, I think he is a counselor, had blood around his crown. I saw it on Aljazeera. I have a satellite TV dish, a generator. After fishing and dinner, I can unfasten my belt, sit down, and enjoy TV.

MELINDA: There were many slain in the chaos outside Mecca today.

FOUAD: It is tragic. It was the hand of the devil. My father says that some day the devil may have to hold down the Coalition force and slay him, that they have Iraq tied up, and we cannot dwell atop the ziggurats, the last safe places in the country. He says the devil will grasp the Americans with a noose, a rope, and overcome them that way. That it is the will of Allah to let the devil do this. Then there will a triumphal cry, with Iraq saved by Allah and Satan working together to save our world.

MELINDA: Then the country could get some rest.

FOUAD: Very quietly inside our private quarters, and no block raids. No one with shoes inside our assigned mosques. Let Bush find his own residence outside Crawford in the American desert.

MELINDA: I think I am in love with Iraq. I have designs on your country.

FOUAD: You must deal with the cleverest of the clever, for we all are in love with Iraq. Inside Iraq, it is pure love for those born here. Iraq created us. Our mothers bore us. The land suckles us. It will be awesome all those who love Iraq, nursing the land back. You have proud designs for us?

MELINDA (staring at FOUAD): Mature plans.

FOUAD: You have gotten off to a powerful start bringing aid to this isolation.

MELINDA: Not isolated from the God who begat us all.

FOUAD (beaming, almost rejoicing): You will find your kindness doubled to return upon you.

MELINDA: What a beautiful thought.

FOUAD: Can you see that elevation, the far point, so faint, in the haze?

MELINDA: I think my eyes are just a bit weary, but yes. It’s one of the ziggurats.

FOUAD: Superior in every way. The ziggurat. Like that Lieutenant Rolland. He is ingenious. Beyond comprehension how he turns Iraqi against Iraqi. He is difficult to perceive. Like the distance. The Tell Senkeret.

MELINDA: Is that Tell Senkeret?

FOUAD: Yes. Now, it is not impossible for you to understand. I am saying the Americans, like their Rolland, have four eyes, four ears, like a double sphinx. The four ears are enormous. They hear everything Iraqis do. Likewise the eyes. They see everything we do. They turn us against ourselves. They have Iraqis blowing up other Iraqis on festival days, like today. They act like they are highest among the angels. I mean they pretend.

MELINDA: They have a long reach.

FOUAD: And then their majesties the British. Merry you too, merry old you too. I have cousins in Basra who say there the Coalition British appear clothed in radiant mantles, with ten dollar bills handed out like ten gods to get Iraqis to bow down to them.

MELINDA: At least Basra has been more at peace.

FOUAD: Thanks be to God. (He looks up at the sky.) I have worn the sky above my head.

MELINDA: Head in the stars, feet in the mud?

FOUAD (laughing): Stuck in the marsh, yes. One day last week, I thought I saw five fearsome rays of light clustered above me. I wondered for a moment if it were a sign.

MELINDA: From God?

FOUAD: It was only five American jets, so high I could not be sure, but surely American, in formation like five rays of light headed toward Baghdad.

MELINDA: More reconnaissance, perhaps.

FOUAD: Then the wind began to blow, and I thought if Allah and the devil were to give birth here, and the four winds take us to the four corners of the world. What if the suicide bombings went to the four corners of the world, anything to get them out of Iraq.

MELINDA: We must put it in God’s hands. As to the devil, my friend Fouad, let him play elsewhere than in Iraq. Don’t play with Satan.

FOUAD: Yes, Saddam fashioned a devil out of dust. It was almost trapped. Then the war last year made a whirlwind carry it all over our country.

MELINDA: God made the flood to come, the waves here, stirring up the marsh again.

FOUAD: It could stir up the world and yet we heave restlessly day and night. The world is unable to rest now. They suffer in London, and Washington, knowing they plotted evil in their hearts with their lies that Iraq was a threat, the lies about WMD’s, and no one addressed our mothers saying, "because you could slay our people, our airplanes, step aside, sit mute, while we create four fearful winds and invade your land." Even Bush wants to know why they have found no WMD’s.

MELINDA: Could you teach me something about Arabic some day?

FOUAD: Yes. What would you like to know?

MELINDA: What does your name mean?

FOUAD: Fouad?

MELINDA: Yes.

FOUAD: My name means "heart".

MELINDA: Heart. Thank you, Fouad. You have names, Arabic names, for everything around us.

FOUAD: And Sumerian names. I know Sumerian.

MELINDA: What were the skies called before Arabic was born?

FOUAD: The heavens. The skies were the last to be named. Heaven, in Sumerian, is an.

MELINDA: An?

FOUAD: Yes. An.

MELINDA: It sounds like ana in Arabic.

FOUAD: Very like. Ana. In Sumerian, the "celestial horizon" is anur.

MELINDA: Anur.

FOUAD: Damiq. That means "good".

MELINDA: Ana. I am. Do you think the Arabic for "I am" could have come from the Sumerian word for heaven?

FOUAD: Very like. It could. Ana. An.

MELINDA: Then, I am is from heaven.

FOUAD: Anunnaki.

MELINDA (fumbling with the word a bit): Anunnaki?

FOUAD: Anunnaki. "Those who from heaven to earth came." I am.

MELINDA: What about home?

FOUAD: Eridu. Ana eridu. Blending your Arabic with Sumerian. I am home in the faraway. Eridu is Sumerian for "home in the faraway."

MELINDA: And "woman"?

FOUAD: Mi.

MELINDA: Fish?

FOUAD: Kua. Subur – earth. Kur – mountain.

MELINDA: Heat? The desert heat. I’m not sure if my parasol will do me much good come summer.

FOUAD: Heat. I will tell you the word for scorching heat in Sumerian, and you may think you can survive your first summer.

MELINDA: All right.

FOUAD: Mel.

MELINDA: Mel? Mel in Melinda, as in my name?

FOUAD: Mel as in the name of a fine lady who is here for a purpose.

MELINDA: There’s your brother and Catherine.

FOUAD: I see them. He is driving rather fast.

(Offstage sound of an approaching car, tires on dirt road, brakes sounding, sputtering engine as it is shut off.)

MELINDA: She looks upset.

FOUAD: She’s not alone.

MELINDA (calling to CATHERINE and ABDUL offstage): How are you?

ABDUL: (offstage, calling loudly): They’ve arrested uncle Fahd.

FOUAD: No! Who?

(ABDUL and CATHERINE ENTER.)

ABDUL: The Americans.

FOUAD: Why?

ABDUL: They think he knows names of men in the resistance.

MELINDA: This is dreadful.

CATHERINE: I know. Melinda, it’s heartless what that lieutenant has done. He ordered their uncle arrested. Fahd was hooded, his hands tied in front of the entire village. Apparently, soldiers had come last week to question him, and he denied then, as today, knowing anyone among the insurgents. Lieutenant Rolland said that with today’s bombing, this part of southern Iraq could explode with violence toward Americans and that he had no choice but to take the sheikh into custody, insisting he must know who is involved in planning today’s attack.

ABDUL: We have nothing to do with terrorists. The entire tribe will rise up if anything happens to my uncle.

FOUAD: I must go to him. (To ABDUL.) Why did you not go with him?

ABDUL: I will straightly. Ms. Carlisle needs a translator.

CATHERINE: I can go it alone for a day. You must go to your uncle.

FOUAD: What about the others, the elders?

ABDUL: Farid Mohammed ibn Muslu was also detained. Grandmother was shrieking the whole time.

CATHERINE: It was quite sad, Melinda. You must keep a grip on yourself, Abdul. Your eyes look sunken.

MELINDA: Yes. Don’t do anything rash.

ABDUL: I would that Allah remove this yoke of American terrorism from our backs. (Lets out a sort of battle cry, startling CATHERINE and MELINDA.) Avenge them!

FOUAD: Reduce them to naught!

ABDUL (to CATHERINE and MELINDA): I’m not sure you should listen to this. I hope I haven’t displeased you. You have been so kind.

FOUAD (aside): Let us act now.

ABDUL (calming down, to CATHERINE): As you were advising. Fouad, inside a few hours, uncle Fahd should be released. The Americans have adopted evil for the land that begot them, the cradle of the world.

MELINDA (to CATHERINE): What else happened?

CATHERINE: A crowd formed quickly around the lieutenant and his men after they had Mr. Hammad in custody. There was already a sort of rally around the village meeting house when Abdul drove us back here.

MELINDA: Where are they taking Sheikh Hammad?

CATHERINE: I heard a sergeant being told by the lieutenant to take the prisoners to the American military base outside Nasiriyah.

MELINDA: About fifteen kilometers from here.

ABDUL (to FOUAD): There could be some fierce fighting ahead. (To CATHERINE and MELINDA.) I’m sorry to have to part company like this. Fouad and I must go to the base, if possible, and wait for word on our uncle. I have your satellite phone number, Ms. Carlisle. I will try to call as soon as I am free.

CATHERINE: That’s all right. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a bombed out car. And it wasn’t the first time I’ve seen an American officer behave in such a heavy-handed manner. But it was the first day I felt like crying in several weeks. (She cries a bit.)

ABDUL: We will be back tonight.

CATHERINE: Thank you.

MELINDA: Goodbye.

ABDUL: Tonight. Good bye, Mrs. Kramer.

FOUAD (to ABDUL): The tribe will be scheming restlessly night and day now until this is avenged.

(ABDUL and FOUAD EXIT.)

CATHERINE: They are working up to war, growling and raging. It’s becoming like this all over Iraq. Word is there could be civil war this summer.

MELINDA: They convened that governing council last year, and it just created conflict.

CATHERINE: Who fashions these things, weapons no one can face?

MELINDA: Unfaceable weapons. Billion dollar stealth, like giant snakes in the sky, the unnamed sky above, sharp in tooth, striking Sumerian villages that hardly have changed since the days of Babylon.

CATHERINE: Unsparing. The Americans have been unsparing in rooting out the insurgents. Now the Iraqis I’ve spoken with say they feel filled with venom toward the Coalition, instead of blood. They say that Iraq has been bled dry by Bush and Blair.

MELINDA: Do you think there could be another war this year?

CATHERINE: It will be ferocious and fearsome if it comes.

MELINDA: If it does, I hope it does not touch the marshland. The sky is radiant out here over the reed-beds. One thing I most love about helping in such a poor area. The beauty of the sky. Thought we’d be free of the din of Iraqis chanting curses at the invaders. The whole house of cards could collapse in utter terror now.

CATHERINE: When you have Iraqis blowing up Iraqis, tens of dead every day, and so many corpses continually rearing up their heads in morgues that never turn any away, it is like some horned serpent making itself the hero of the land.

MELINDA: I still hope I can escape it all out here. I went to Uruk the first week I was in the valley.

CATHERINE: Fascinating summit. I have filmed nearby there.

MELINDA: My translator told me what one of the inscriptions meant. It had to do with the fall of an early mythical city-state that preceded Uruk. He could make out the words, "demon, and a scorpion-man, aggressive umu-demons, ugallu-demons, a fish-man, and a bull-man."

CATHERINE: Did he know what it meant?

MELINDA: He said it had to do with a warrior state bearing merciless weapons. So powerful, they could not be disobeyed. He said the Coalition is like that.

CATHERINE: What else?

MELINDA: That the inscription went on to tell how the Goddess Ishtar created eleven more warrior states like that, each destroying the earlier.

CATHERINE: The village elders were to convene a council for this evening to discuss the arrest of the sheikh. I should like to be there. But they could think I’m promoting women’s rights.

(ROBERTS and ROLLAND ENTER.)

ROBERTS: Ladies. We’re simply here to inspect the crater and to see if there are any signs of just what happened to the Iraqis who were hit by gunfire two days ago.

ROBERTS: What? What do you see?

ROLLAND: Mirage. It looked like some men with hoods, like the Ansar al-Islam brigade, huddled over by that rise. (To MELINDA and CATHERINE.) Sorry. This is Major Roberts, Third Infantry. We’ll be mustering combat-troops now that there’s been a bomb attack so close to our convoy this morning.

ROBERTS (greeting MELINDA and CATHERINE): Glad to meet you.

CATHERINE: Nice to meet you. I’m Catherine Carlisle with the BBC.

ROBERTS: I’ve seen you on television.

CATHERINE: Thank you.

ROLLAND: I admire your courage in staying the course here.

CATHERINE: Thank you. I’d like you to meet Melinda Ellen Kramer with the World Food Relief Organization.

MELINDA (extending her hand): Good to meet you.

ROBERTS: And you. You are to be commended for what your group is doing here. I see many Iraqis every day, underfed, and that doesn’t make us winners of any popularity contests. I detect a Texas accent.

MELINDA: Austin.

ROBERTS: Children?

MELINDA: Two in college. Divorced.

ROBERTS: Sad the sort of welcome those suicide bombers have in mind for us every day now.

MELINDA: Tragic.

ROBERTS: I have overall command of the whole battle force in this sector.

CATHERINE: Battle force?

ROBERTS: It is still a combat unit, yes. We don’t anticipate more than the usual number of random, or rather, calculated, insurgent attacks.

MELINDA (aside): Who set him upon a throne?

ROBERTS: The devil’s put a spell over the whole land and that assembly in Baghdad if you ask me. Thank God Paul Bremer was put into power to rule over it all, at least until the handover. That is my main concern now, this summer, when the Governing Council take up the mantle.

ROLLAND: Military command will always prevail over it all.

ROBERTS (opening a computer notebook): Abazaid gave me this to keep track of all our destinies. (Clasping it to his chest.) Wouldn’t know what to do without it now.

CATHERINE: Your notebook. You keep track of your troops with it?

ROBERTS: Every utterance, every report, every incident, never to be altered. Quite literally, as to computerized warfare, my Word shall be law.

MELINDA: Who is promoting all the suicide bombings, Major?

ROBERTS: Al-Qaeda and Saddam loyalists.

CATHERINE: And Iraqi civilians. Do you find the average Iraqi ready to die now in desperation.

ROBERTS: Not quite sure. I do know that after all the killings of American troops last autumn, I’m ready to put them in the hospital for life.

MELINDA: Oh.

ROBERTS: Sorry, ma’am, but things issue forth from my mouth, and I could quench fire with it all.

CATHERINE: My translator says that most Iraqis believe the suicide bombers are foreigners. That Iraqis cannot accept as yet that it is some of their own countrymen carrying out the attacks, the ones in which Iraqis are killed.

ROBERTS: My information says otherwise. But there’s not much left after a suicide bombing to tell just who it was.

CATHERINE: What is going to happen to Sheikh Hammad? Abdul, my interpreter, is one of his nephews. He’s quite upset. He and his brother Fouad have headed for your base near Nasiriyah to wait for Fahd’s release.

ROBERTS: That’s military intelligence, Ms. Carlisle. I can’t answer to that at this point. We’ve got enough accumulated leads and informants to paralyze the most powerful insurgency in the whole Mideast.

CATHERINE: What can you tell me about the incident that happened right here? According to eyewitnesses, American troops fired on unarmed Iraqi civilians in a car that was trying to pass them. ROBERTS: My report is still incomplete. The eyewitnesses include members of the Iraqi insurgency and are not reliable, not in a court of law. (To ROLLAND.) Assemble the unit, Rolland. ROLLAND: Yes, sir. (EXITS.)

ROBERTS (to MELINDA): His battle unit’s taken up a collection for the village kids. We’ve got some nice American offspring here, Mrs. Carlisle. My men are kind to the Iraqi children.

CATHERINE: I’m sure. Posterity will remember.

MELINDA (to ROBERTS): It was reported by the Coalition Authority last week that the bombings make Iraq unprepared for countrywide elections. Would you agree?

ROBERTS: You listened to that report?

MELINDA: I did.

ROBERTS: I helped write it up. I’ve a copy of the text that was released to the media here in my documents.

MELINDA (dumbfounded for a moment): Silence from the voters?

ROBERTS: They’re free to ponder their fates. And if you haven’t noticed, their fury in those protests last week haven’t subsided. (He begins measuring the crater beside the road.) Two meters across. Must have been a grenade attack. Our soldiers wouldn’t have used an RPG on an Iraqi car. That’s an insurgency signature.

CATHERINE: My interpreter is quite concerned about his uncle, Mr. Fahd Hammad, whom your lieutenant arrested just a while ago. Will Mr. Hammad be treated well?

ROBERTS: Treated well? He’ll be treated according to the Geneva Convention. He’ll come before a military review within an hour of being processed. I don’t know the details of what was repeated about him. Everything from rumors to hard evidence has to be investigated.

MELINDA: He’s a tribal sheikh.

CATHERINE: I’d like to speak with him.

ROBERTS: You’re free to do so once he’s been released.

CATHERINE: When will that be?

ROBERTS: I don’t know. Haven’t got everything planned.

MELINDA: Catherine, while the major and his men are inspecting the area, I need to get back to the huts where I was showing some Iraqi women how we preserve foods. Would you care to join us?

CATHERINE: Yes, I would. We’ll be going now, Major Roberts.

ROBERTS: Anytime I’m in the area and things get out of control, you can turn to the U.S. army.

CATHERINE: Thank you.

MELINDA: Good bye.

ROBERTS: Good bye.

(CATHERINE and MELINDA EXIT.)

I wish they’d come over to our side. It’s lonely out here. I want a promotion. This report is going to disturb the high command. (Clenches his fists, bites his lip, pats his belly.) What inflames them all? Money? We’re designed to fight Russians, not shadowy terrorists. Weak excuses. Can’t keep up the denials ‘til the occupation is over. Keep brandishing denials. Lieutenant Rolland, you are the hero. You slew Iraqis. Where else will we find someone with good sense to keep his mouth shut, even when voices are heard saying, "You fix it." Unfathomable. Need to order a very fragmentary dossier on this incident. Pleases Sanchez. Gaps up to twenty five lines. Witnesses addressed. The addresses raided. They stand their ground. (Looking toward the marsh beyond the upturned canoes. Calling to someone.) The wind calmed. Need a hand? (Silence for a few seconds.) Speak our language?

AMAL (offstage): Will you listen to my word?

ROBERTS: I’m a major with the U.S. army. Looks like your canoe is going make it. (Makes his way to AMAL.)

(AMAL ENTERS. She is dressed in a black chador. She is struggling to get out of a canoe that is just offstage, trying to climb up the embankment.)

ROBERTS (extending his hand): Just a short gap there. Grab my hands.

AMAL: Thank you, sir. The canoe rocked. I thought I would have to turn back, find another place to come ashore. (She sets her hands atop his arms. He helps lift her up. She stares at the ground a moment.) Thank you. I saw you from the fields, where I had taken some pita bread and cheese to my husband.

(Pointing past the marsh.) That is him, far over there, tending our cattle.

ROBERTS (tight-lipped for a few seconds): Nice assembly here, your village.

AMAL (silent again a few seconds): I have come forward. Is it fixed?

ROBERTS: Is what fixed?

AMAL: Has no one come out to face that lieutenant? The man I saw with you and the two English-speaking ladies. I saw him two days ago. Here.

ROBERTS (aside): Oh perfect hell. (To AMAL.) You mean the fellow with the rifle who was with me?

AMAL: Perfectly. The one who looks like a brute. When the car was rushing past the soldiers, I was in my canoe just over here.

ROBERTS (aside): Champion. (To AMAL.) You saw the car draw near the troops?

AMAL: Can you report my advice?

ROBERTS: Your statement. I can take down your statement.

AMAL: Please, sir. My name is Amal Latifah Ermil.

ROBERTS: Major Roberts.

AMAL: Major Roberts. I have to set my heart at rest. I saw the lieutenant draw his rifle and shoot. The car had passed. They were not shooting at your soldiers. They were gentle. Will you make my voice heard?

ROBERTS: I can take your statement. You are sure of what you saw? Your sight is good?

AMAL: My sight is good.

ROBERTS: You don’t have to stay silent when you’re dealing with the U.S. army. I’m glad you opened up.

AMAL: You will let me go? You have my name. I will open up if there is an inquiry.

ROBERTS: There will be.

AMAL: What kind of man ordered you out to this war?

ROBERTS: One born of a woman, just like me. I have to head back to my unit. I’ve got it typed up.

AMAL: I’m glad you have set foot in our village. The Americans who were here two days ago acted like they wanted to break our necks.

ROBERTS: I must be going. There’s my chariot.

AMAL: Your humvee.

ROBERTS: My humvee. I must set forth. My men are just trying to quell the insurgency. To protect your people from terrorists, the suicide bombers.

AMAL: I know. I wish them to be driven out of Iraq. I fear for my children. I do not want them growing up where so many are blown to bits every day at the word of bin Laden.

ROBERTS: No turning back.

AMAL: No turning back. You will save our lives.

ROBERTS: Until they convene a council and order me out.

AMAL: I would not have uttered a word, if it were not to speak the truth about what I saw. I shall never alter it. I shall never change or revoke it.

ROBERTS: You’ve made your voice heard, Mrs. Ermil. You’ll be sent for after an official probe begins.

AMAL: I am not skilled at speaking. Will I be brought before the generals?

ROBERTS: Not generals. Staff. They sit informally. Thank you for the conversation. I’ll be going now.

AMAL: Then goodbye, Major Roberts.

(ROBERTS EXITS, shaking his head after he has turned his back on AMAL.)

They sit at a banquet, eat our grain, drink the choice wine left behind in the palaces. Issue their decrees. I should have said, "Everything I am about to tell you, repeat to them, your men, it is from my heart. I have turned to Allah. There was such a dreadful groan from the men in that car. How terrible." I decided to report it. The people in America do not even know what their military are doing. They prefer to let sweet beer trickle through their drinking straws, their bodies swollen with liquor, drunk with power, very carefree. I would hope someday to find a princely shrine here for the innocent lives that lieutenant and his unit took from us. I will take up residence in such a shrine. Let it be so! It will be dusk soon. The constellation vanished last night. I was speaking to my husband outside, looked away, and when I looked back, it had vanished. Let the constellation reappear. I will speak again. I will tell the American aid worker and the English reporter. The constellation vanished. Speak it again. The constellation recreated.

END OF ONE ACT

David Lawrence Cade Copyright 2004

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