SCENE ONE
Butler (could be anyone) - Since I am the butler in this play we will assume that the butler did it.
Peter - Really?...That’s not how I imagined it.
Tom - I am the village mayor in this production, Bernard has a doctorate in something ancient, I believe, well that leaves the rest of us.
Bernard - How do I always get stuck with directing this ship?
Walker - We do need a real director and we have one.
Marilyn - You mean, Elaine.
Peter - Who else really could it be...production portfolio and before all of that she had earned a fine arts degree in directing.
Bernard - We need to ask her.
Walker - I begged her.
ALL - Well...
Walker - It would be very nice if we could perform some of her works. She has some really different viewpoints on Evangelism and production since she’s been involved
with the latter.
Peter - Well, is she or isn’t she going to help us.
Walker - She wanted me to tell you all that you know the answer.
Bernard - When will....
Walker - Tomorrow evening, in time for dinner.
Peter - She said she’s driving her car.
Bernard - Let’s make sure that Jamison is on board with her arrival.
Peter - Where is she going to put the car?
Tom - Did you see the various garages here yet?
Peter - That good...
Tom - A mechanic’s dream!
Marilyn - Just to be on track, we have our director who will be here tomorrow evening for dinner and stay a while. Now we have everything. What’s the name of the play?
Peter - Walker said he liked it. The Haunting of Haversford.
Tom - The Haunting of Haversford. Is it haunted?
Peter - You know the restaurant and inn at the base of the mountain where we came in...
Bernard - Yes, quite nice in a rustic mountain way.
Walker - Peter, is the food there any good?
Peter - Actually yes. Loomis and Dorie own the restaurant and inn and Dorie inherited all of it when her father died. She had worked at the inn since she was a child. Yes, the food is outstanding. Stews, breads, cheeses, complete meals. All you could want.
Peter - Well anyway, Loomis has stories of not one but many ghosts that roam the woods in the mountains at night at Haversford, and there had been times when the
estate was under constant vigil of anything that might happen out of the ordinary.
Tom - What did they do...lock themselves inside the castle...
Bernard - When I was last in the castle library I found a series of ancient books on all of this haunting nonsense.
Tom - In short, is it real or not here. Is Haversford Castle haunted?
Walker - I know that the entire cast will agree that God only knows.
END OF SCENE ONE
SCENE TWO
Peter - How will this all end?
Tom - You mean, what are we all going to do?
Marilyn - But there are so many more subtexts involved that we haven’t even introduced that remain to be resolved before this ends.
Bernard - We don’t need to pull the servants, gardeners, cooks and stable handlers into this do we?
Walker - We really do.
ALL - Why?
Peter - Walker knows this but I invited Loomis and Dorie here for dinner tonight.
Bernard - Here at Haversford? Does Jamison, the Head of Household know about this so that he can order adequate preparation? You do realize that Elaine will be here for dinner tonight also. She should be driving up the mountain sometime soon.
Peter - That's all been taken care of.
Marilyn - Peter and Walker, I am just curious, why are they meeting us for dinner tonight...anything special that we need to know about?
Walker - Yes. Loomis knows quite a few of our staff at Haversford Castle. He grew up with them and knows the families.
Marilyn - That was the answer I was hoping for. It’s not that Loomis wants to tell us about all the ghosts of Haversford Castle.
Peter - He says that there are ghosts. He swears by it.
Bernard - Is that all we’re going to talk about tonight? I’d rather cancel however it would be inhospitable to do so at this late hour after we had invited them for dinner.
Tom - We could learn quite a lot from Loomis and Dorie. Since they both own the only restaurant and inn in the village, do they stay busy?
Peter - They have their regulars.
END OF SCENE TWO
SCENE THREE - DINNER AT HAVERSFORD CASTLE
Bernard - Now, it is our pleasure to greet you Loomis and Dorie just as Lord Haversford met our toast the first night at Haversford.
Peter - Loomis, Jamison ordered the cooks to prepare a mountain meal kinda like what you guys do at your inn.
Dorie - I’m the cook there. My mom showed me what her mom did in the kitchen and I cook entirely from scratch.
Marilyn - Butter, flour, sage, whole milk etcetera...
Dorie - Marilyn, if I weren’t seated at the far end of this enormous table I would leap up and give you a high five!
Bernard - You can taste the ingredients.
Loomis - We have a bakery in our kitchen. I think it’s always been there.
Dorie - Loomis, now really...
Bernard - Do you like to bake, Dorie?
Dorie - Every morning we get up around 3 and bake for the day.
Tom - What do you do with all the product that isn’t sold or consumed at the end of the day.
Loomis - We give it away.
Dorie - We know just about everyone who lives in the village and they are our customer base. Plus, we’re the only restaurant in town.
Walker - Loomis told me that you guys know some of our staff here at Haversford Castle.
Peter - Loomis, you told me about that horrendous storm a few years ago with wind, lightning, thunder and rain.
Loomis - I remember that it was bitterly cold that night and we had all the fires going for us and our customers.
Marilyn - Is there a story to this? A haunting perhaps...
Dorie - William, one of our customers said that there was a seance up at the castle and that’s why we had the inclement weather that night.
Tom - How would William know what happens up at the top of the mountain where Haversford Castle is.
Loomis - William is the village auto mechanic and has the gas station about a mile from us at the base of the mountain, and he told me that two spooky looking gentlemen came in to get a full tank of gas and while they were waiting, William wasn’t busy and he heard one of them say “I wonder how the spirits will be tonight at midnight when they are summoned.”
Marilyn - You see, already I don’t like this.
Bernard - It is not of the Holy Spirit.
Peter - From what I see, there are no spirits with which we should be concerned. It is the way of the Devil. Perdition is the opposite of success and a belief in goodness and mercy forever.
Tom - As long as you believe and pray not to be lead into temptation and even after that you pray to be delivered from all evil.
Peter - And this is forever...we should get Father Thierry up here.
Walker - He is coming however he is super busy with all that he has to do with our church in Richmond.
Elaine - Saint Alban’s Anglican Catholic Church of which I am an esteemed member.
ALL - Elaine!
Bernard - Elaine, when did you get here?
Elaine - A few minutes ago. Baskin, I believe...
Jamison - Yes ma’am, Baskin, our houseman.
Elaine - Baskin got me in my room and I’m all settled...am I in time for dinner?
Bernard - Jamison...
Dorie - I see that Jamison has ordered the servants to bring us our dinner! I know Jamison!
Jamison - Ma’am, I shall leave the conversation to our hosts for introductions.
Peter - Dorie, and Loomis, this is Elaine, and she has come to our castle to direct our next production in our incredible theatre.
Elaine - Walker, do you have a script yet?
Walker - No.
Elaine - What’s the name of the play?
Peter - The Haunting of Haversford.
Bernard - Any ideas?
Dorie - Jamison’s family has always been here at the castle. He knows all the ghost stories.
Jamison - Ma’am, pardon my rhetoric however they are just stories.
Loomis - That’s not what I know.
Peter - Garrick, who works as the assistant stable master, told me about another night when all the horses tried to bolt from their stalls.
Marilyn - Why? Were they spooked?
Loomis - Yes, definitely, by a spook.
Dorie, Now Loomis dear, if my feet could reach you under this table I would kick some sense into you. My husband talks to the old geezers that hang around the bar at night
and they tell ghost stories.
Bernard - About Haversford Castle?
Peter - What else?
Elaine - Well, it stands to reason that we do a ghost story but with a nice spiritual ending.
Tom - A prayer at the end.
Bernard - Wouldn’t that be nice.
Elaine - I’m big on research. Before I even attempt to write a play I do a great deal of investigating and even after I begin writing I continue to research actually up to
the end.
Bernard - Then we need to get to know some of the people who work here and we’ll tie it up together to make it to the end.
Peter - How do you know when it ends?
Walker - It’s when you’re in that same bar with the same bartender but it’s the third time you’re there and you say “God is like a tornado and you know you can’t get out of
the way.
END OF PLAY
NEXT EPISODE - RETREAT - PART FOUR
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