Fade In:
INT. LIBERTY JAIL – DAY
Four men are spread out in a low-ceilinged dungeon. Dim columns of light cross the crude floor from a pair of windows. HYRUM, SIDNEY, and BALDWIN are sleeping on wretched pallets of straw. JOSEPH is awake, sitting crosslegged, inspecting his chains. He moves each of his limbs to relieve the discomfort.
The dim light in the jail drops to almost nothing. There is a a strained piano chord, then the light returns to its regular dimness.
THE DEVIL steps out of the shadows and looks around. He is clean where the others are filthy, groomed where the others are unshaven. He shimmers. By some trick of perspective, he is three-quarters the size of the of the other men, so he appears to be comfortable in the cramped space.
JOSEPH looks up.
The Devil tips the battered tin dish with the tip of his polished shoe and looks inside then lets it fall back with a clatter.
THE DEVIL
Fasting, huh?
JOSEPH
The food is such that we prefer fasting.
THE DEVIL
I can help you with that.
JOSEPH
(Laughs quietly.) They said you’d come.
THE DEVIL
Who? (He gestures to the sleeping men.)
These disciples who couldn’t tarry with
you?
JOSEPH
Not them. The Angels.
THE DEVIL
Oh. Which ones — never mind. I don’t want to
know.
JOSEPH
They all say it. You are known to them.
THE DEVIL
Don’t listen to them. They only do what
Father tells them. (He taps his temple with
a finger.) You can’t trust those eunuchs.
Father talks about agency, but he only
rewards obedience.
Joseph chuckles then shakes his head.
THE DEVIL (CONT’D)
What’s funny?
JOSEPH
They told me you’d say that.
THE DEVIL
The last time we talked, I told you how much
trouble you were going to cause. Well, I
came to tell you I was wrong.
JOSEPH
That’s big of you.
THE DEVIL
I am the only one who will admit to a
mistake. They would never. They have
everyone believing they’re perfect. Look at
you. He picked you and told you everything,
and look at the mess you’ve made of things.
EXT. THE SACRED GROVE – DAWN
THE DEVIL
So, this is where you did it?
JOSEPH
I just asked a question.
THE DEVIL
Well, I asked questions, too. And you can
see where that got me.
JOSEPH
But you didn’t wait for the answers. The
waiting makes a difference.
THE DEVIL
(Shouting) This is the vanity Father never
punishes. (Seething now.) You don’t know me.
You only know what they have said about me,
and even then—you have no idea. After they
came to you, I came to balance the scales.
JOSEPH
I remember the council. You’re always the
same.
THE DEVIL
There must needs be an opposition in all
things. You wrote that.
JOSEPH
Translated.
THE DEVIL
I am the opposition, so I must needs be.
Righteousness depends on me. My bitterness
makes sweetness possible. My darkness
creates light. My sorrow. Father can’t do
any of that. He is one-sided, and yet I am
the fallen one. They need us to be down
here so they can be on high. I complete
them.
JOSEPH
You oppose them and hold us hostage. I’m
trying to show people what is going on
here, and how to get back.
THE DEVIL
They’ll hate you for it. To them, you’ll
always be a monster, like me. They will
cast you out. Father has a phrase,
“Wailing and gnashing of teeth.” That’s
where this plan is going. But take a look.
The Devil gestures to the grove, inviting Joseph to look.
THE DEVIL (CONT’D)
But how do you know it was really them
anyway? See how the light breaks through
the trees. In this dappled light, there appear
to be columns of light. One there. One there.
Two columns of light. Hardly people at all.
Hardly. Let me show you some people.
INT. A CABIN – NIGHT
THE WIFE is pregnant, mending some clothes. THE HUSBAND is caring for a wound on his hand. They are doing both by dim firelight. It is so cold, you can see their breath.
THE WIFE
We gave up everything for this?
THE HUSBAND
I didn’t force you.
THE WIFE
I didn’t know you were taking us to follow
a fool.
THE HUSBAND
He’s a visionary.
THE WIFE
He’s in jail, isn’t he? He has no proof.
Just phantoms.
THE HUSBAND
Angels.
THE WIFE
They are nothing. Ravings. He’s a madman,
and our children are starving. They mock
us in the streets.
THE HUSBAND
All I had waiting for me back in England
was dying in the mines.
THE WIFE
All we got waiting for us here is dying of
hunger. The Governor says we are to be
exterminated, like rats.
The Husband tries to speak.
THE WIFE (CONT’D)
Like rats!
Her voice is loud enough to make the baby cry. She walks over and touches it lightly then tucks the blanket more tightly around it.
THE DEVIL
Like rats, Joseph. I know you can look into
the future and see. It’s true isn’t it? You
are a pied piper. These people will follow
you to their deaths.
JOSEPH
They chose freedom. On the other side of
the veil and again now. You mix that up
in people’s minds.
THE DEVIL
They always blame me, when they should be
blaming themselves or this faulty world
Father thrust them into. Let me show you
where this project of yours leads.
EXT. EMIGRATION CANYON – SUNSET
This is modern times. The valley is developed. They are surrounded by cars and contrails crisscrossing the inversion-filled skies.
THE DEVIL
Here’s what you’re going to get out of this.
(He gestures to the statues of Brigham
Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Wilford
Woodruff.) Brigham rescues everyone and
brings them out here. His statue is up
there, not yours. They build a university
with his name on it. He builds the utopia
they say is impossible. It’s not impossible,
though. It was just beyond your skill set.
JOSEPH
Where am I in all this?
THE DEVIL
(Laughing) You’re gone, like a lamb to
slaughter. Father likes that simile.
JOSEPH
What’s a simile?
THE DEVIL
He also likes the uneducated.
JOSEPH
What about the university? The glory of God
is intelligence.
THE DEVIL
The point is, when you die, they abandon you
for the next prophet and then they flock to
the one after that. And on and on. They stop
killing the messengers and start ignoring
them. They find other things to worship. Oh,
how they love a Golden Calf. It’s so easy
to give them one.
Joseph points into the valley to THE TEMPLE.
JOSEPH
I see they built another temple.
THE DEVIL
They surround it with Mammon. It’s what
always happens. Things. Things. Things.
They are so much more solid than ideas.
Joseph has lowered his head.
INT. AROUND THE HEARTH – NIGHT
A FAMILY gathers around a fireplace with steaming bowls of stew. One of the daughters takes up a violin and plays an old Scottish tune. Emma is there. The lost children, too. One small child climbs down from the Father’s lap, and Joseph can see that it is himself.
THE DEVIL
Men are that they might have joy. Can you
smell that meal? Delicious.
Joseph turns and leaves the house. It is snowing outside. He walks in a straight line away from the house with The Devil disappearing and reappearing at intervals to block his path. He walks through him as if he were a cloud of vapor.
THE DEVIL (CONT’D)
Where do you think you’re going?
JOSEPH
Back to the jailhouse. I know where it is.
THE DEVIL
But you’re free. Now. You could go anywhere.
JOSEPH
If this were real. I’d be freezing. I’d
have ice coming through my boots.
INT. LIBERTY JAIL – DAY
Joseph, stooping, looks at his sleeping companions. He returns to his place on the ground.
THE DEVIL
Why haven’t your angels sprung you out of
this place? Remember Father’s miracles? The
lions who were suddenly full, the fire that
didn’t consume, the jails that became
rubble? I want to know what you did to
Father that would make him abandon you here.
He likes to do that, you know. He walks away
from everyone at their lowest point —”Oh God,
why hast thou forsaken me?”—The only
constant with Him is His indifference.
JOSEPH
He sends angels. We just ignore them.
THE DEVIL
You should hate those angels.
JOSEPH
Why?
THE DEVIL
Because Father lets them see things, things
they should not be allowed to see.
JOSEPH
Like what?
THE DEVIL
Our shame, you fool. Our weakness. Your
temptations, and your sins. Heaven. Hell.
All of it. He veils our eyes but not
theirs.
JOSEPH
God trusts them because they will do the
right thing, and they are family. Family’s
job is to forgive and protect us.
THE DEVIL
(He laughs, then roars.) I was cast out by
(he makes air quotes) “family.” (He spits.)
This thing you’re doing. This restoration.
It’s all going to fall apart. Things like
this always do.
Joseph sits taller and looks The Devil in the eye.
JOSEPH
Go ahead. I’m learning a lot from you right
now.
THE DEVIL
(He smiles.) Good. Then I haven’t wasted my
time. Father is unfair. That is the flaw in
His plan. And it’s going to fail. Two-thirds
bet on the losing team.
JOSEPH
If the plan for this world is going to fail,
why did you come? Seems like you could have
let it all come down on its own. More ways
to gloat. If the boulder is going to roll down
the mountain. No need to nudge anything.
Maybe you’ve seen the future, how things
turn out for you. Confidence often covers up
desperation.
The Devil stares at Joseph and Joseph stares back, then the Devil shrinks to a small point, pulling a rank cloud behind him into the singularity he’s left behind. Joseph’s companions stir but don’t wake. A light illuminates the far corner of the prison. Joseph takes up a pencil and begins to write.
FADE TO BLACK
David Habben is an illustrator, artist, and educator. His unique work has received awards from Creative Quarterly, Communication Arts, Graphis, AIGA, and 3×3 Illustration Magazine. His first author-illustrated children’s book, Mr. Sherman’s Cloud, was named one of Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Books of the Year for 2020. David’s education includes a BFA in Illustration (BYU) and MFA in Studio Art (UofU). You can find more of his work at davidhabben.com and on Instagram and Twitter.
Todd Robert Petersen was raised in Portland, Oregon, but has lived in Cedar City, Utah for the past two decades with his wife and three children. Once a film major, he is now a professor of creative writing and film studies at Southern Utah University. His stories have been published in Hobart, Weber Studies, Wisconsin Review, Cream City Review, Dialogue, and Sunstone. Zarahemla Books published Long After Dark (2007) and Rift (2009); and he has two novels, It Needs to Look Like We Tried (2018), and Picnic in the Ruins (2021), out with Counterpoint Press. He is on Twitter @toddpetersen.
