Rosemary And Thyme

Episode #16 – Bethlehem

Scene 1

(Beeping gets faster and faster.)

Dikke

Uh oh, we get closer. I can feel energy change!

Thyme

Oooh, me too …

Lizzie

No kiddin’! Let’s not worry ‘bout that now DK. We’re gonna have a baby! An’ it better not be in that back seat!

Alfredo

Look … at billboard ! Motel 6 up ahead!

Maria

Aah … We go. Get room. Have baby.

Thyme

1 mile … oooooohhh … oh Lord, be with me now …

Lizzie

Hang in there, girl. We’re gonna get ya’ taken care of.

Josiah

There! Dikke … on right. Pink sign.

Lizzie

Lee and Geri’s Motel 6. Oh hallelujah! Thank the Lord.

All (Clapping)

Yay! … (then … ) Ooooooo (disappointment)

Lizzie

What? No Vacancy?

All

Aaawww. Oooohhhh

Josiah

No Vacancy … ooooo…

Dikke

Keep watching. There. On left.

Lizzie

Dolly and Lyman’s Desert Bloom Inn.

Maria

Oooh, very nice!

Zwei

Uh, oh … many cars.

All

Ahh, No vacancy! Aaawww.

Dikke

Many people come to Sedona now for to study vortex. Many scientists. No vacancy.

Josiah

No room at the inn.

Maria

We must find ourselves some private place. Get off highway.

Josiah

I agree, Maria. Dikke, drive into the desert. Get away from all this humanity.

Dikke

Up ahead. Dirt road. I take.

(We hear the car begin to bump and jolt over the dirt road.)

(Music U/S)

Scene 2

Gabriel

The desert at night under the canopy of the Milky Way could be anywhere in the Galaxy. The black sky with little light reflecting off the distant cities of the earth brings the stars so close, you could just reach out and just grab a handful. That, coupled with the arrival at the center of the Sedona vortex, makes the air around our little band of travelers crackle with an energy beyond comprehension — both inviting and terrifying at the same time. No moon rises to seize the night from the stars, and the desert stretches on before them in silence. The neutrons and electrons dance around the car in a frenzy overpowering the atmosphere until the car takes on a bluish translucency and its engine is stopped dead. A lonely blue SUV, off road, stranded in the middle of a black desert night under the stars. Even the lights of the car sputter and fade to black. The only sound is the lethargic rotational subterranean vibrational whump whump, whump of the spin of the vortex. Deep in the mind and body of Thyme, the same vibrations move in synchronicity with the contractions of the coming Christ. It is not accompanied by the usual labors of childbirth, but rather the wondrous ebb and flow of the universe and its throb of life. Atoms reforming and coalescing with the photons of light. Mingling in consciousness …

Scene 3

Dikke

We have entered the wave. This is the vortex. Look! The needles are off the chart. We are in the vortex! Can you feel it? The power!?

Lizzie

C’mon Thyme. Let’s get you outta this back seat an’ outta this car. Ladies, it is now our time to shine. Gentlemen, stay in the car. This is lady’s work now. Give us our privacy.

Maria

We need bed an’ covering. Water. Clean cloth.

Zwei

I make survival tent.

Lizzie

Oh yeah, with what?

Zwei

Use parachute. It also make silk bed for deliver baby.

Lizzie

Well …OK … that’s jus’ perfect. You are a godsend, Zwei.

Dikke

Two tripods in back for making tent. May I help?

Zwei

No and thank you. This be women’s work. Stay in car.

Josiah

Better do it, Dikke … or she’ll shoot ya’!

Dikke

I am understanding.

Lizzie

(Nervous, but committed)

Boys, we now need peace. We need calm. We need your prayers. We need the grace of God now more than ever. Do whatever you can to provide us with that. DK, is it safe out there?

Dikke

I believe it to be. Yes.

Josiah

I will pray like never before.

Lizzie

I know you will, Josiah. Thyme is so strong. God is good … Ladies? Shall we?

Scene 4

Gabriel

While they talked in the car and prepared, I would grow two sturdy palm trees just 30 yards from the car in the desert sand. There, they would hang their tent of silk and prepare Thyme’s bed of satin. You know, I had to play my part as well. After all, both Gabe and I had been such integral parts of the journey. I also turned the rheostat on the stars to full, so the ladies would have the necessary light to do their work. God would not mind my doing so. After all, a night like this only comes along every couple thousand years. Then, I stood in awe as Jose climbed through an open window to the top of the car under the stars with his ever present package in his arms, sat quietly, lovingly unwrapped it, and began to play. And oh … the man did play …

Jose

So, … this place be our Bethlehem.

(Jose plays a beautiful and haunting Canta on his guitar. He plays for a while, and then …)

Scene 5

Thyme

Hello God.

God

Hello Thyme

Thyme

It’s time.

God

It certainly is.

Thyme

Are we ready for this?

God

I’ve been ready for two thousand years.

Thyme

I am ready now.

God

I know.

Thyme

So let us begin.

God

Let us begin … and thank you Thyme. I chose well.

Thyme

I know.

God

Let the child come forth.

(Jose has continued to play his Canta through all this in the background,)

Scene 6

Gabriel

Now if I were ta’ let y’all listen in here, ya’ really wouldn’t hear or see much a’ nothin’ ‘cept the soft silhouettes on the side a’ the makeshift parachute tent, an’ the calm but intense mumblin’s a’ four mighty women workin’ their womanly wonders. Ya’ wouldn’t hear no sentences – mainly an occasional word or two like “so tired” or “there, there”, or much too often the word “stuck” or “jus’ stuck …”. Sometimes a “can’t” usually followed by a “can”. Then somethin’ that sounded kinda like Chinese. Only once, a “hopeless”. An’ then finally a full sentence from what had ta’ be Maria. I’m sure I heard it right.

Scene 7

Maria

I must go in, an’ pull it out.

Gabriel

Then a voice totally unrecognizable, but clearly from the soul of a mother to be. It spoke,

Thyme

Then do watcha hafta do.

Gabriel

I never once heard a cry or a weep or a moan from Thyme. It was as if she weren’t there, but a’ course I knew she was. Then, finally, from what had ta’ be Lizzie,

Lizzie

“OK now girlfriend, one more time.”

Gabriel

Or was it, ”One more, Thyme.” An’ then, for what seemed like the ages a’ time, silence. Jus’ silence. I listened with all ma’ might, for the cry of a newborn. But it never came.

I thought ta’ myself, “How could this be?” But then the thought came to me,

“Now why would this child come into the world weepin’?”

Finally, finally … finally Lizzie stepped outta the tent, looked up at the heavens and drew in a mighty breath a’ the highly pressurized air that hovered above us there in the center of the vortex. She then stood for several minutes, eyes shut, with a stillness I’d never seen in her before.

(We hear Lizzie sing)

It seems like it’s jus’

One more miracle

Miracle after miracle

One more miracle after another

Gabriel

Out a’ that stillness came a whisper,

Lizzie

… an’ most of all, thank ya’ Lord fer bringin’ us Maria. She is one almighty woman! Without her, well … I donno. She was jus’ the rock that we all leaned upon.

Gabriel

An’ ta’ think, she came up here all the way from Honduras jus’ ta’ deliver a baby.

Scene 8

Gabriel

At that, without thinkin’, I was so excited, I reached out an’ touched her on the arm. She yelped an’ jus’ ‘bout jumped half ‘way ta’ the moon an’ back.

Lizzie

Who touched me?

Gabriel

Easy girl, that was jus’ a little touch.

Lizzie

Wha … ? Who … ?

Gabriel

So I simply revealed ma’self to her an’ stood before her.

Lizzie

Oh ma’ God, you jus’ appeared outta nowhere! You gotta be Gabriel.

Gabriel

That’s right. In the flesh.

Lizzie

You really an angel?

Gabriel

Right again. I am the angel, Gabriel.

Lizzie

An’ jus’ how do I know that fer sure?

Gabriel

Because once I was Gabe, (in his voice) Miss Lizzie Cranbottom. An’ once, a while back ya’ called fer me an’ said ya’ was missin’ me.

Lizzie

Gabe! (realizing) Gabriel! Oh ma’ heavens, what next?

Gabriel

Well, what’s next is “How’s the baby? How’s Thyme?”

Lizzie

(All on one breath)

Well, everything’s jus’ perfect, a’ course. Thyme’s sleepin’ now an’ the baby’s jus’ fine. A Chinese lady came outta the sky an’ another one named Maria came all the way up from Honduras ta’ help me who was positively heroic and two other men, one from Africa an’ one from Bolivia also joined us to ‘splain all this stuff ‘bout the vortex an’ it turns out that Jose can play the shit outta that guitar an … oh Lordy, I need a drink.

Gabriel

At that, I picked up ma’ trumpet and joined Jose in the makin’ a’ music!

(And now, in song, Gabriel and Jose take us to the final scene.)

(As the song winds down, Maria approaches Josiah.)

Scene 9

Maria

Josiah, would you like to see your newborn baby?

Josiah

Oh Maria, I’m afraid my heart will burst.

Maria

Come with me now. Thyme ask for you.

Josiah

Yes. Yes, I come now.

Thyme, my love … I have no words. Only tears of joy!

Thyme

Oh Josiah, my husband, look, they have made a crib of silk.

Josiah

Yes. Yes! … Oh my God, … oh Thyme … oh … she is just beautiful!

Gabriel

And so begins

The legendary tale of Rosemary an’ Thyme

Metaphorical Curtain

Curtain Call Song

Quite A Time

Isn’t it quite a time
Holy
Isn’t it quite a day
Christ is born
Isn’t it quite a place
This manger
Here in the Father’s house
On this day

Isn’t she quite the child
Sleeping
Feel the peace she brings
Child of God
Isn’t it quite a thing
Of wonder
Here in the miracle
Of this day

In this simple backcountry stable
The Father’s child, the savior is born
Born into this humble silk cradle
And now the world awaits the promise of this
Glorious morn

Isn’t it quite a time
Hosanna
We welcome ascendant man
This sweet child
Here in our Father’s house
Holy
And oh how the world will change
From this day forth

It’s time to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelu
Hallelujah
Isn’t it time to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelu
Hallelu

Here within a star we have gathered
Here in that manger
Here to celebrate this moment sublime
Knowing that we stand on this threshold
Glorifying God in this moment in time

Isn’t it quite the hour
Holy
Isn’t it quite the time
To celebrate
Gloria
It’s a new day of promise
Isn’t it quite the day
Of promise
Isn’t it quite a time
The Christ is born
Isn’t it quite a time
Isn’t it quite a time
Isn’t it quite a time for Heaven
To come and visit Earth
Isn’t it quite a time
Whoo Whoo Whoo Whoo