SCENE: A room in the Mansion House. Emma looks out the window.

Emma: There is Brigham coming to see me. How resolute, how sure he is. He stops to talk to the women on the corner, then he looks this way….Oh, I remember other days.

(Scene fades into kitchen. Joseph is seated. Emma is bustling about preparing breakfast. She has a towel in her hand. It is a sunny morning.)

Joseph: Ah, Emma….What a pretty dress, my dear. It must be new.

Emma: Oh, Joseph, you know it isn’t.

Joseph: I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it before…. Such lovely hands and hair….. My! What a lovely scarf you wave about. Silk? (He catches her towel and tries to pull her toward him.)

Emma: Joseph, Oh, dear. (laughing) Don’t you want anyone to have breakfast?

Joseph: Not much. Not right now. (She puts her arm across his shoulders.)

(Knock at door.)

Emma: Someone’s at the door.

Joseph: (jesting) Don’t go. Let them knock.

Emma: Oh, Joseph.

Joseph: Maybe they’ll go away.

Emma: My, such a mood. I’ll tell them no one is home. (Opens door and it is Brigham Young.)

Brigham: Well, well, hello there, Emma.

Emma: Brother Young

Joseph: (Hurries to the door.) Brigham!

Brigham: Joseph! (They clasp hands and are obviously glad to see each other.)

Joseph: Come in, come in. It’s good to see you.

Brigham: Have you a little time? Were you busy?

Joseph: No, no, of course not. I wasn’t doing anything important. (Emma looks up sharply.) Have you had breakfast?

Brigham: No, but I…

Joseph: Oh—come, now. Emma’s just getting it ready. Come and sit down.

Brigham: Well…..

Emma: Yes, please do, Brother Young.

(Melissa enters, carrying a few plates.)

Melissa: The table is all set, Sister Smith.

Emma: Fine. You can take this. (Hands her a platter.) Joseph, people are about ready to eat.

Joseph: I’ll eat in here with Brother Brigham, this morning, Emma. We’ve got some important business.

Emma: Well, at least go in and say good morning to your mother.

Joseph: Certainly. Excuse me, Brigham. (exits)

Brigham: Your husband is a busy man.

Emma: Yes, indeed. He has no time for himself.

Brigham: I won’t keep him long this morning. I appreciate your invitation to breakfast.

Emma: You’re always welcome, besides it will save time.

Brigham: Jealousy is a woman’s malady, you know. It poisons the tongue and narrows the eyes. It raises cankers on the soul.

Emma: So, now you’re a doctor.

Brigham: It destroys the inner heart and buries unborn dreams.

Emma: Do you want hot cakes or mush this morning Brother Young?

Brigham: Don’t put up bars between us, Emma. Joseph belongs to us all. He’s the church’s man. Don’t begrudge the time he spends doing his duty.

Emma: You don’t have to be insulting, Brother Young. I love the church as much as you.

Brigham: (He looks at her doubtfully) I’ll take the hot cakes, thank you.

Joseph: (re-enters) Well, now, Brigham.

(Emma exits)

(Scene fades back to present in the sitting room in Mansion House. Brigham Young enters and greets Emma.)

Brigham: Good evening, Sister Smith.

Emma: Good evening, Brother Young. I see that people are ready to go west.

Brigham: I wish they were. Instead, they are going without supplies—leaving their fortunes behind. Only a few of us are ready, but it’s go or be killed. We’ve got to go. I’ve come to check on you and see how your provisions are coming.

Emma: You know I’m not going.

Brigham: I can’t see how you can stay. You’ve got to come.

Emma: I’ll stay here where things are that are dear to me. I’ll stay. Everyone else may leave him, but I can’t. You can’t ask me to do that. What do you expect of me?

Brigham: I came before….Do you remember….In the autumn of a desperate year. I met Sister Snow before your house….It was a time for sorrow. (Scene fades)

(Scene in front of the Mansion House (before curtains). Eliza enters and Brigham enters from the opposite side. They meet.)

Eliza S.: Good evening, Brother Young.

Brigham: Good evening, Eliza. How have you been?

Eliza S.: Much better….I’m glad to see that you are back. I expect we’ll see happier days now that a little order is restored.

Brigham: You sustain us then?

Eliza S.: Yes.

Brigham: I’m sure you know my sorrow at your loss. I want to extend my sympathy toward you. Your have my admiration for your courage. You go on in spite of it all.

Eliza S.: Don’t congratulate me. I very nearly failed. When I saw him being brought through the streets in a brush covered wagon, I wanted to die.

Brigham: Eliza!!

Eliza: I did. I could see only blackness in the sky and the spirit of life gone mad. I had no will to live. I prayed to be taken…. and almost as if in answer, I became so weak, I could not walk.

Brigham: I heard you were very ill.

Eliza: I tell you, to see my husband lying there dead, and not to be able to kiss him, or touch his face. My husband…I prayed to go to him. One night, as I lay alone, sleepless, I saw him there…in the room. I though he had come for me.

Brigham: How did he look?

Eliza: Oh, so much the same…so much…He spoke to me with solemn strength and told me my way was upward still. I was wrong to plead for that sweet peace when my hands could hold up the weak and lift my corner of the load. And now, I know my way is planned. My path is cleared and marked and I feel his spirit at my side whenever it grows steep.

Brigham: You are right, Eliza. The church has a long way to go…we need the strong…the brave, to go along with us. We’ve a great work to accomplish…a long way to travel.

Eliza: Yes, I feel it, too.

Brigham: We shall all have to work together, Sister Snow…. Sister Smith.

Eliza: Thank you, Brother Young. Yes, we do have a long way. Goodnight. Give my best wishes to your wife…to all of them.

Brigham: Yes, indeed. (He goes on into the Mansion House and Emma enters. She wears mother hubbard and loose apron.)

Emma: Good evening, Brother Young.

Brigham: Emma…This is not a happy time for us, I am very sorry to find you widowed.

Emma: I expect yesterday’s triumph has helped remove the pain a little. Congratulations.

Brigham: No one knows better than you that I would gladly give my life to bring him back as head of the church. (He hands her the roses) These are for you. My wife sent them with her kindest sympathies.

Emma: Roses, how nice. Which wife, Elder Young?

Brigham: Mary Ann.

Emma: Please thank her for me. They are lovely. I’m not myself.

Brigham: That is understandable. Yet, we must gird up our loins, Sister Smith. The church needs us just now. It needs you as much as it ever did. We need your strength and support.

Emma: I’ve no strength…

Brigham: God will bless you, Emma. He will give you strength.

Emma: He has give me so much strength already. Perhaps in his mercy he will let me rest from the need of it. There is no life in my soul. I have suffered all I can.

Brigham: There is life in your womb.

Emma: Yes, poor child, to be born to dead parents. No, I cannot lend you any strength. Have you ever loved a woman as I love him? To die from one life to be in his? And he was torn from my side at every quiet moment. I’ve seen him bleeding, beaten, and so weary that he moaned in his sleep. He was my prophet, Joseph, and now he is dead.

Brigham: He lives as surely as I live.

Emma: Yes! But, not with me. O Joseph, Joseph! Before you ever saw him, I knew him. Before he reached that full grown strength you knew, I love him. Always, I dreamed of a sweet day when God would give us a safe place to enjoy His spirit, in peace, unafraid. At midnight, when they dragged him from my bed and threatened our babies, I believed and hoped. When he wept in my arms…I cannot bear to remember. Now hope is dead. If there is mercy for me, let me come home. My heart is in that grave and I cannot live, heartless, in such a world.

Brigham: Don’t let old differences, old jealousies, come between us now. They, too, must be buried. My destiny is in the church. It is God’s will. Your’s must be, too. You know that.

Emma: God’s church was Joseph’s church. Joseph was my prophet.

Brigham: And mine.

Emma: I think there is a new prophet rising himself up.

Brigham: Then you do not sustain the action of the Twelve yesterday.

Emma: I tell you, again, Brigham Young, there is nothing left within me. I cannot feel.

Brigham: I’m sorry to have brought you new pain then, Emma. Remember though, that you are not alone in sorrow.

Emma: Well, thank you for coming, and for the flowers.

Brigham: Goodnight.

Emma: Goodnight. (He exits) Bring me roses, if you please, to woo me, but I’ll not hold them in my arms or bury my thoughts in their fragrance. I’ll put them in a vase, upon a table, below a portrait there. And when I see their whiteness and would move to smile, I’ll look up into his eyes and remember.

(As she speaks, she carries imaginary bouquet of roses and holds them under the portrait of Joseph. After Brigham exits, he re-enters and hears her speech. Then the lights change and the scene is brought back to the present. She reties her apron, tight.)

Emma: You think my fire is doused now, and you can take me by the hand and lead me where you will…but, I tell you, there’s strength in ice. And the dead have an advantage over the living; they are untouchable and can be harmed no more. I’ve been chased and drive enough. I’ll not be driven further.

You say that you need me, yet do you seek my counsel? Who was closer to the prophet than I? He’s still head of the church, I tell you. His son is still alive to take his place.

Brigham: Jesus Christ is the head of this church, Emma. He’s given me the inspiration I need and I’m sure of what I’m doing. Don’t let your dislike of me influence you.

Emma: Don’t think you’ll impress me by being humble. I’ve seen you in too high pride. No, I remember him, how can I ever turn away.

Brigham: I’m sorry. Goodnight.

End of Part I