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MEDICINE 5'?m2f Salvation: medicine that cures the fatal illness

(scene: one chair facing audience)

AMY -- (enters wearing a white lab coat and stethoscope, turns 
after a few steps, speaks to Liz who is entering) Have a seat. I 
have to go and write a prescription for another patient and then 
I'll be right with you. (exits)

LIZ -- (enters, looking around, crossing to chair) Oh, sure. 
Take your time, Sis. (sits, twiddle thumbs for a few seconds, 
takes a few steps toward exit, sees Amy coming, hurries back to 
chair)

AMY -- (enters backward, speaking toward exit) Madeline, hold my 
calls while I'm with my sister. Okay? (turns crosses to Liz) 
Well, let's have a look. (stands behind Amy, feels underside of 
her jaw with both hands) How are you feeling?

LIZ -- I wasn't going to come here, you know.

AMY -- Why? Because you don't have health insurance? I told you, 
it's not a prob....

LIZ -- No. Because I didn't want to hear a lecture from you.

AMY -- You're going to die, you know.

LIZ -- I know. I was the one who told you I have AIDS, remember?

AMY -- No. I mean since Adam and Eve made the wrong decision, 
life is 100% fatal.

LIZ -- I knew I'd get a lecture.

AMY -- Raise your arms a little.

LIZ -- (lifts arms slightly) 

AMY -- (feels Liz's under arms with both hands) Liz, do you know 
that one of the biggest obstacles of the medical field is that 
patients don't take their medicine?

LIZ -- Is this part of the lecture?

AMY -- Just listen. 

LIZ -- Alright, I'm listening.

AMY -- When I prescribe medication for my patients, I know that 
more than half of them won't take it faithfully as prescribed. 
And some of them won't take the medicine at all.

LIZ -- Is that true?

AMY -- More than half. Stand up for a minute. (puts on 
stethoscope)

LIZ -- (stands, step beside chair) Well, I promise that if you 
prescribe something for me, I'll take it like clockwork.

AMY -- (listens to Liz's back) I'm not so sure.

LIZ -- Alright, let's hear the I-told-you-so. You warned me to 
protect myself against the AIDS virus.

AMY -- Well, that too. But I'm thinking now about an ongoing 
conversation you and I use to have when we were in college 
about, Mother Theresa and ...

LIZ -- ... and Adolph Hitler. 

AMY -- Yes.

LIZ -- Yeah, that never made sense to me. You said that if 
Mother Theresa died without accepting Jesus as her personal 
savior, she would go to Hell, in spite of all the good things 
she did in her life.

AMY -- That's right.

LIZ -- And Adolph Hilter, after he murdered eleven million 
people, he could go to Heaven if he accepted Jesus as his 
personal savior.

AMY -- Yes. Does that make anymore sense to you now that you 
have a terminal illness?

LIZ -- I don't know. Why should it?

AMY -- Well, I'm going to prescribe some new drugs for you that 
will prolong your life for several months, maybe even for years 
if your take them faithfully.

LIZ -- Yes. I told you I would.

AMY -- But you've had a fatal disease since you were born and a 
physician greater than I prescribed a cure for you that will 
delay your death PERMANENTLY. Yet, you refuse to take the cure.

LIZ -- I see where you're going with this. But what does that 
have to do with Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa?

AMY -- They both had the same fatal disease that you have.

LIZ -- They didn't have AIDS.

AMY -- No, but the three of you were all born with the same 
fatal disease.

LIZ -- You mean sin.

AMY -- Yes. Now, one of you did bad deeds and then he died. One 
of you did good deeds, but she died anyway. And one of you was 
merely self-indulgent and now she's about to die. The deeds, 
good or bad, don't affect the outcome of this disease. The 
disease is sin. And whether it's a little tiny sin, like Mother 
Theresa's or a horrific sin like Hitler's, any sin in an entire 
lifetime leads to death.

LIZ -- But a person's deeds must count for something.

AMY -- They do. Bad deeds, like Hitler's, usually shorten a 
person's life. Hitler died in the prime of his life. And Mother 
Theresa's good deeds allowed her to live a much longer and more 
fulfilling life. But just like the medications you'll be taking, 
good deeds won't cure the disease. They'll only make life more 
pleasant and delay the inevitable.

LIZ -- (sigh) Well, you're right. The discussions about Mother 
Theresa and Hitler do become clearer when I'm staring death in 
the face.

AMY -- Good, I like my patients to make a informed decisions. 
(removed stethoscope)

LIZ -- Well, DOCTOR, how long do I have to live?

AMY -- It depends on which medicine you're willing to swallow.

LIZ -- (sigh) This is more like heart surgery than choosing a 
medicine, isn't it?

AMY -- Yes, I guess it is.

LIZ -- You know what I'm going to hate worse than telling Jesus 
I'm sorry?

AMY -- What's that?

LIZ -- Admitting to you that I was wrong.

AMY -- (motions to exit) Let's go my office so I can write you a 
prescription. (exits with Liz)

LIZ -- Anything you say, Doctor.

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