Murder Mysteries a Play for Voices (9781466109827) Read Online Free Page B

he was working on. He was never content to just
create it -- to understand it intellectually. He wanted all of
it.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    All of it?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    Yes. That wasn't a problem before, when we
were working on properties of matter. But when we began to design
some of the Named Emotions... he got too involved with his work.
And our latest project was Death. It's one of the hard ones -- one
of the big ones, too, I suspect. Possibly it may even become the
attribute that's going to define the Creation for the Created: if
not for Death, they'd be content to simply exist, but with Death,
well, their lives will have meaning -- a boundary beyond which the
living cannot cross...
     
     

     
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    So you’re saying you think he killed
himself?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    I know he did.
    (beat)
    That’s him, isn’t it?
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Excuse me?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    The white and red dot on the sidewalk, down
there. Is that Carasel?
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    I believe so.
     
    SARAQUAEL
    How can they just leave him there like
that?
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Someone will clean up the mess.
     
    SARAQUAEL
    Who?
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    I don’t know who. But there will be an angel
whose function it is to remove things that are unwanted. My
function is discovery and vengeance. So how do you know that
Carasel killed himself?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    How? There’s no other possible explanation.
Look, recently he'd begun asking questions -- questions about
Death. How could we know whether or not it was right to make this
thing, to set the rules, if we were not going to experience it
ourselves. He kept talking about it.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Didn't you wonder about this? Weren’t you
concerned?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    Not in the slightest. That is our function
-- to discuss, to improvise, to aid the Creation and the Created.
We sort it out now, so that when it all Begins, it'll run like
clockwork. Right now we're working on Death. So obviously that's
what we look at. The physical aspect; the emotional aspect; the
philosophical aspect...
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    So that was what Carasel was working on?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    That and the patterns. Carasel had the
notion that what we do here in the Hall of Being creates patterns.
That there are structures and shapes appropriate to beings and
events that, once begun, must continue until they reach their end.
For us, perhaps, as well as for them. Conceivably he felt this was
one of his patterns.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    I see. I think. Did you know Carasel
well?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    As well as any of us know each other. We saw
each other here; we worked side by side. At certain times I would
retire to my cell, across the city. Sometimes he would do the
same.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Mm. Tell me about Phanuel.
     
    SARAQUAEL
    (confidentially -- gossiping)
    The boss? Honestly? He's officious. Doesn't
do much -- farms everything out, and takes all the credit.
    (intimately)
    To hear him talk, you'd think that Love was
all his own work. But to his credit he does make sure the work gets
done. Zephkiel's the real thinker of the two senior designers, but
he doesn't come here. He stays back in his cell in the City, and
contemplates; resolves problems from a distance. If you need to
speak to Zephkiel, you go to Phanuel, and Phanuel relays your
questions to Zephkiel...
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    (interrupting)
    How about Lucifer? Tell me about him.
     
    SARAQUAEL
    Lucifer? The Captain of the Host? He doesn't
work here... He has visited the Hall a couple of times, though --
inspecting the Creation. They say he reports directly to the Name.
I have never spoken to him.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Did he know Carasel?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    I doubt it. As I said, he has only been here
twice. I have seen him on other occasions, though. Through the
window over there. In flight. On his way somewhere.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    Where was he going?
     
    SARAQUAEL
    I.... I don't know.
     
    RAGUEL THEN
    It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The city, from
this height. And the darkness, beyond the city...
     
    SARAQUAEL
    Yes.