Within the Walls of Hell

by Taniform Martin Wanki

  Common Man: (With tears streaming down his face) No.

  Messenger: Good. You got involved with very unhealthy relationships with married women, widows and young girls in your congregation. You called them molecules. You soon discovered that you had a deadly and infectious disease which you picked up from one of your numerous concubines. “I cannot die alone. I will infect as many people as possible before I die.” Those were your exact words and you executed them to the latter. You infected mostly young girls and many of them are presently down there suffering from the disease. Some of them are not aware that they have been infected and are spreading the disease further. Where did you keep your conscience? That was the first court my master made and endowed Everyman with. It is the voice of my master within you. You were supposed to listen to that voice within you before taking any action. Did you do that? You went as far as dating the wife of your best friend Marcus. As soon as he discovered what was going on, he first of all came to you and pleaded with you to leave his wife alone. You did not do it. Out of anger and frustration, he decided to date your own wife in retaliation. The day you learnt of it, you picked your pistol and hunted for your friend all over the city to kill him. He fled to another town. But after a year, he realized that it was stupid for him to have responded to evil by doing evil and came to you to ask for your forgiveness. But you refused to forgive him and told him that no forgiveness was ever going to come from you while at the same time forgetting that you are the one who started dating his wife. “Do onto others what you would want others to do onto you. Where did you keep my master’s commandment on love for your neighbor and the law forbidding you from coveting his wife?

  Common Man: If I am here because I did not forgive my friend, I have now forgiven him.

  Messenger: Forgiving him now is too late. All forgiveness and making of amends must be made down there before you leave that world. Because you refused to forgive your friend, my master could not also forgive you. If you want to be forgiven, you must forgive and accept forgiveness from others and then, my master who is all merciful will also forgive you. But it must be done only down there and not here. (Pauses for a while) We have not talked about all the unhealthy things you did. But let me draw your attention to one thing; you were looking for money all your life and even when you found some, it never stood in your hands. Do you know why? It is because each Man was condemned to eat only from the sweat of his personal labor and not the labor of others. All the money you had could not remain in your hands because you used unorthodox means to acquire it. That is the fate for all ill gotten wealth. It goes to wastage. You should not expect good to come out of something acquired through evil means. Did you ask me to tell you that this is not the place you were warned about by the preachers? I’m sorry it is. This place is the reward for all those who refuse to listen to the inner voices in them and refuse to do the right things.

  Common Man: (Rolls on the ground crying) Help me---help me---help me. I did not know that what I was doing was too serious to lead me here. Please help me--- help me.

  Messenger: I wish I can help you. The begging for help and repentance must be done before you cross that bar which separates this world from that one you’ve just come from. Now, it is too late. I just had to make you see clearly why you are here. Your landing here is very hurting to my master. It is hurting more than you can ever imagine. There are others crowded in one of those rooms there. You can go and join them if you want.

  (Common Man prefers to be alone. Messenger exits)

  Act 5 Sc 2

  A short while later

  A trumpet sounds and everybody has to assemble in the yard. The old comers take advantage of the assembly to acquaint themselves with Common Man. Messenger cannot be spotted.

  William: (To Common Man who is still crying) you came here and you did not even come to see us? When did you come?

  Common Man: Just a while ago. I can’t believe I’ve ended up here. I was seriously warned about this place but I did nothing to avoid it.

  William: It was the same thing with us. We all wanted and dreamed of (pointing) that golden city over there. But we did nothing to get there. You know, it’s like desperately wanting something but doing nothing to obtain it.

  Sandi: We all had nervous breakdown when we came face to face with the reality here. If you are crying, it is just normal. But one thing you must know is that crying will do you no good. You are in here to stay for eternity. The earlier you get used to it, the better for you.

  William: (To Sandi) indeed, you have a very strange way of consoling someone.

  Sandi: What consolation can one really get in a place like this one? We are all doomed. Have I said anything to him which is not true? I just feel that the earlier he gets used to it, the better for him.

  Common Man: Is there nothing that we can do for ourselves?

  William: Do you mean to get out of here? Don’t even think about it. If there was something we could do, we would have done it already. Sorry, you just have to adapt to the new situation.

  Common Man: (Sobs again) I can’t believe this has happened to me.

  William: Cry a little if that will give you some relief. We are assembled here to get a last word from the messenger. After saying what he wants to say, he would probably ask all of us to move inland. There, you would realize that it is even hotter than this place. So, just be prepared.

  Act 5 Sc 3

  In the yard. Messenger appears to deliver his sermon.

  Messenger: There was a preacher called Kingston who worked in a small town called Victoria Bay. He deed what he thought was his utmost best and there came a time when he had to go on transfer. Members of his congregation decided to organize a send-off ceremony for him. During the occasion, so many speeches were made. What was said was so touching to the extent that the preacher wished the transfer never came. But there was an old woman who burst into tears after listening to all the good things that were said about the preacher.

  “All these people have said so many good things about you but I will like to tell you that they are deceiving you. I will tell you what they say about you. Some of them say that you are very lazy and do not take adequate time to prepare your sermons. Others say that they don’t like the way young girls and married women frequent your residence. So if you go to that new station, correct those aspects to be a better person,” she said.

  That is what happens with eulogies and eulogies, there were, when you all left that world. Anyone who listened to them left your burial grounds believing that you were going to be seated by my master’s side by now. But those eulogies remained what they were. That is, they lacked touch with reality and most important facts concerning the lives you led, down there were left out. They equally collected money to offer many prayer intentions for you. But all that was in vain because the decision on where to go thereafter rested only in your hands. The actions of those still living could not in anyway influence the judgment of my master because He knows all the facts and sees right into the heart and soul of Everyman. While down there, you did your jobs as if life started and had to end with you. You spent most of your time drawing up time tables forgetting one thing….death. You forgot that you were not masters of your destinies. You forgot that you were not the ones to choose when to die. You let your love for power push you to deny my master. You let your love for money push you to dishonor my master. You extorted and looted billions from people and the state forgetting to know that the size of your stomach could never increase. You let your intelligence or knowledge push you to question the existence of my master. You let your love for worldly pleasures push you to disobey my master. You had to know that you were just clay in the hands of a porter who had to do with you whatever He pleased. He made you and blessed you with positions which you had to use in making yourselves worthy for that kingdom (pointing) over there by serving humanity. He created everything you saw, enjoyed and loved. He asked to be mast
er over them and that was what you were supposed to do. he never asked you to become a slave to what He created. In the days of old, my master performed miracles as well as spoke to Man directly. When He came down there and left, that direct interaction ended. My master decided to be intervening in the lives of humans indirectly through fellow humans. That is, the medical doctor is continuing with the healing mission, the president with the serving mission, the preacher with the preparation for the kingdom to come mission, the uniform officer with the defending and protecting mission, the farmer with the feeding mission, the lawyer with the justice seeking mission etc. You were supposed to continue with my master’s miracles. There is no better way of serving and honoring my master than through the job and position you occupy. But you instead spent your time making those you had to serve feel how important you were, how powerful you were and how unique you were…. You saw them as tools or customers whose job was only to provide you with the money you needed…. you saw them as enemies because they were poor, looked different, inferior, uncivilized, belonged to another religion or were political opponents. Indeed, there were physical differences between you in terms of skin color, ethnic background and differences in languages spoken. But my master took care of that my instituting one language which was a language of action….a language which had no words…. A language which Everyman understood….and it was the language of Love and service. Where could you better exercise it than in your work places or positions of responsibility you occupied? My master tried to stop you in different ways and even when you were about to die, He still accorded you some time to make amends. Most people whose paths are straight do not spend much time on their dying beds. On the other hand most of those whose paths are not straight spend longer times on their sick beds. It is my master who accords that time for them to make straight their paths and also to teach the living a lesson. That is to say that you were all supposed to learn from what happened to those that were about to depart from that world before you. He accorded all of you here time to straighten your paths. Two minutes is enough time for anyone to straighten his or her path. But my master gave more than that to each and everyone of you. Sandi, when you strapped those explosives round your waist and blew yourself up with hundreds of others in that prayer house, you did not die immediately. You died seven minutes later. Within those seven minutes, you had to make your path straight with humanity and your creator. But you didn’t. You instead used the time dreaming of a crown and virgins. As for you Stone, you were given months to make amends for the terrible things you did to your brothers and my master. Instead of doing just that, you wasted all the time wishing that your illness disappear so that you could go back to what you knew best….hurt your brothers and make more money. As for you Carlos, the missile did not catapult you here instantly. You were badly wounded but you were rushed to the hospital where you spent three days. Though unconscious, you kept pleading with the doctor to save your life against a huge amount of money as reward. You also kept thinking of all the money you kept in foreign banks until time passed you by. William, you wasted your own time feeling too big to apologize because you thought that your reputation would be tarnished. You were equally regretting why life could not be longer. As regards you Cain, you were given three hours which you used in regretting the loses you were incurring as you laid on your dying bed. You were all given a last chance. You failed to use it. Now, you are all faced with the bitter reality. You were long told and now know that the life down there is a life of vanity. But it does not cancel the fact that the life of bliss thereafter must be prepared from down there. The fact that the life of man down there is very short should have been a reminder that you ought to listen to the inner voice in you before taking any action in order not to waste the short time you had in doing dishonorable things that would displease my master and land you here. By living a life of selfishness, greed, lust, envy, crime, you were preparing yourselves for this place though some of you were quick to point out that no man in his normal senses would choose this place. That place over there is meant only for people who have made amends and are worthy. That is why the road to get there is narrow, rough and difficult. Seconds were enough for each and everyone of you to make a difference and avoid this place but you refused to take advantage of them because you still had your eyes on the things of that world. Now that all your doubts have been cleared, it is time for you to move inland.

  They all wail.

  Curtain

  The End.

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