Lady liberty vanishes
by, Naseer Ahmed
(It is a courtyard of an ancient shrine in the Pothohar region of Pakistan. A group of people is sitting on the chairs. This group consists of Mr. Franz, a wealthy chief executive, Mr. Ullah a cleric, Mr. Ho a revolutionary, Mrs. David a politician, Joker a traveler and Caroline a commoner. They are talking about Lady Liberty. Let us listen to them)
Caroline: Where is that unique and wonderful Lady Liberty? This interactive session without her is empty. It is like having a wedding without a bride. I feel lonely here without her.
Mr. Ullah: That bitch Liberty is gone. We don’t need whores here. We hate vulgarity. I pray that she never comes back.
Mr. Franz. Oh, Mr. Ullah,You would never learn how to talk to and talk about a woman.Your hatred of women is your biggest problem. Caroline dear, Lady Liberty is everywhere. Look there.
Caroline:I can’t see her here. I can see her pictures everywhere but she is not her pictures.
Mr. Ho:Mr. Franz, You should not put her pictures everywhere. You are a bloodsucker. You have killed her and now you sell her pictures. I have no problem with you killing her though.I, in fact,love it that she is dead. Her death means I would place my pictures and pictures of my son to be everywhere.
Mr. Ullah: Oh please, don’t. We have already a galaxy of monsters here. We don’t want any more of those monsters around. Come, man, follow me. I promise plenty of torture and violence against whoever does not follow the right path.
Mrs. David:Oh Caroline, Why don’t you see Lady Liberty when she is just sitting beside you. Girl, you will have to see her and if you refuse to see her, I am afraid; we will have to send you to some loony place.
Caroline: (sobs) oh Joker, What do we do now? These mad people have killed Lady Liberty. I and you have no place to go now. They will cage me and they will murder you.
Joker: Oh Caroline, Our own fault. You got busy in buying what Mr. Franz sells. I got busy fighting against dead. We did not notice that Lady Liberty was not around anymore. We trusted pictures too much and we lost the real one. It is like killing your best friends with indifference.
Mr. Franz: Oh these bloody moaners. What is the difference? We all are lot richer than before. We are busy buying and selling 24 hours a day. What more do we need?
Mr. Ullah: Let them cry. Fools always cry. By the sword of brave, I hate you all and kill you all when this conference ends. Nobody but I deserve to live because I worship the sword of brave.
Joker: Cut the crap Mr. Ullah.I know your sword of brave. Your sword of brave kills the poorest ones.
Mr. Ullah: Joker, You have been always a toady to princes and an enemy to chosen few. Mr. Franz’s dollars are a lot more effective in murder than our sword of brave. Nobody can match Mr. Ho when it comes to murder. And this mealy mouth Mrs. David is the best assassin I have ever seen.
Mr. Franz: Shut up Mr. Ullah, I don’t kill.I just create trickle down effects of wealth. If people die as a gesture of refusal to participate in the progress march. I am not to blame.
Mrs. David: Mr. Ullah always sees too much in collateral damage.
Mr. Ho:I don’t kill anybody. I just free them from clutches of exploitation. It is unfortunate that they choose to die in the process. Actually, they get too used to clutches of exploitation that they prefer death over freedom.
Mr. Franz: Mr. Ho, I guess that is because the freedom you offer is worse than death.
Joker:And Mr. Franz the freedom you offer is nothing but a training into betraying the best mates.
Caroline: Oh Liberty, Oh Liberty,Oh Liberty, I miss you so. No sunshine here.Just talk of murder and big egos.Please come from wherever you could and save me from this wild bunch of worthlessness. Oh Joker, do something,Please bring Lady Liberty back.
Mr. Ullah: The defiance in delicate makes me angry. I assure you Caroline , when this session is over, I would enslave you in order to teach you a lesson into obedience.
Caroline: Shove your anger in your backside. That might teach you lesson into anger management.
Mrs David: Joker, That is why I had to be rough on Lady Liberty a bit because Mr. Ullah was going too wild.I had to protect Caroline from his wilderness.
Joker:hmm, But Caroline misses Lady Liberty while Mr. Ullah gives a mouthful to Caroline. Your protection proved to be quite worthless because we can’t see Lady Liberty and Caroline suffers too much.
Mr. Ho:My son to be is more beautiful than Lady Liberty. Let him come. You know my last son was better at silencing Mr. Ullah, hurting Mr. Franz and controlling Mrs. David. My son to be would do even better.
Joker:Oh Mr.Ho, You always promise pleasure and give pain. I have not forgotten whips.
Caroline: and I remember those days of back breaking work.Mr. Ho, you are perpetual bad news.
Mr. Franz:Don’t mind Mr Ho, he beats up his wife to hurry up his Son to be.He has no sense of timing.
Mr. Ho:You mock me but at deep down you are afraid of my son to be.
Caroline: It is like always.Mr. Ullah, Mrs. David, Mr. Ho and Mr. Franz have it all and I and Joker have nothing apart from each other.
Mr. Ho: Don’t worry, Mr. Franz has made it sure that you lot won’t see each other for a long time.
Joker: I hope Lady Liberty does come back. She gave me a bit and she gave a bit to Caroline too but she was the only one around who gave. Mr Franz steals silently, Mrs. David makes it sure that even we ourselves don’t know about being exploited.Mr. Ullah you know is a highwayman, he robs us openly and violently and Mr. Ho uses promises of eternal pleasure to convince us for giving whatever we have to him.
Mr. Ho: So we all are villains. But what did Liberty did for you?
Mrs. David: Nothing. Liberty does nothing for lovers of lawlessness. They are fake lovers of Liberty. They want their way but they don’t want responsibility.
Mr. Ullah: They love Liberty because she gave them opportunities for adultery. She is nothing but an owner of a brothel.
Mr. Ho: Liberty is just a friend of Mr. Franz and Mrs. David. You know Joker and Caroline are too much impressed with wealth and power. They love their cake and for that they would let the whole world hungry.
Mr. Franz:I love Lady Liberty .She is too wise. She is not going to support fools and failures like Joker and Caroline. She told me that she does not like to see Joker and Caroline anymore.
Joker: It is quite strange that she only talked to you. It is a bit like Mr. Ullah who always pretends to be the symbol of God’s presence but whatever he does ensures God’s absence.
Mr. Ullah: You are an impertinent, insolent and impudent heathan. It would be lovely to have your underneath a shiny sword.
Joker: It seems you are fed up with your empty head. You really need a better head.
Mr. Ho: What did Lady Liberty for you Caroline? I can’t waste time in these useless fights. We all need to get ready for my son to be.
Caroline: All of you have your projects finalized. There is no finality with Lady Liberty. Her defiance to finality is a thing she did for me. She taught me to improve stuff. She taught me to create. She taught me to find faults and remove them. She taught me to be happy in other people’s happiness. She taught me not to worship violence and bullshit from big names. She taught me to enjoy life. She taught me to forgive. She taught me to design. She taught me to combine. She taught me to laugh when it is lovely and especially when it is not laughable. She taught me to face my demons courageously. She taught me to seek friends. She taught me to learn from my senses. She taught me to detect, disrespect and defy the dangerous creeds. The kind of stuff Mr. Franz, Mrs. David, Mr. Ho and Mr. Ullah talk about. She taught me joy of curing flowers. She taught me to solve the puzzles. She taught me how to behave like a citizen when tyrants take my rights away.
She taught me sharing and caring. And above all she taught me to respect arguments facts and evidence. She also taught me to challenge arguments, facts and evidence. She taught me the best of poetry. She taught me the joys of love and sex.Her blessings are countless. She is the best face of life. She taught me to bring peace. She taught me the best of deals for all of us. She taught me to love and cherish myself and others. I could go on and on but she is not around and I miss her too much.
Joker: I don’t want put salt into wounds but while she was doing all this for you , you took all these goodies for granted. She is not around and we both don’t know what to do to get rid of these gangsters.
Caroline: Oh Joker, decline is like an earthquake. It comes suddenly and without warning. These days they predict it but to adjust and adapt to Tsunamis is almost impossible. It is difficult to leave the comfort of home for an uncertain future.
Joker: Oh Caroline, that future is no longer uncertain. It is becoming quite certain these days. Courtesy of Mrs. David. You go for green pastures but your chances of drowning in the sea have increased. You stay home; your chances of being killed by supporters of Mr. Franz, Mr. Ho, Mr. Ullah and Mrs. David have also increased.
Caroline: Surely, Lady Liberty would have shown us a way out of this puzzle. But she is not around. I hope she comes back.
Mr. Franz: Fools, if I let Lady Liberty come back, I would lose everything. They would see the truth and they would tear me apart. I am not going to sacrifice my life’s work for these fools.
Mr. Ho: Stupid, If I let Lady Liberty come back, She would stop my son to be coming into world on medical grounds. She would portray him as some kind of anti Christ. I can’t let her come back. I want my son to be more than a trouble maker.
Mrs. David: Lady Liberty is around. I can see her. They don’t. They don’t understand the dynamics of law and progress.
Mr. Ullah: I hate women dancing and dictating stuff to me. They are not supposed to dictate us. Taking dictations from inferiors is against the highest laws which only I can interpret.
Joker: Oh, I see catastrophes coming but if they are hell bent on learning after catastrophes, nobody could do anything.
Caroline: Oh Joker (She cries).I wish Lady Liberty was around. We would have better chances.
(Suddenly a gang of masked people turns up at the shrine courtyard and they begin to kill all)
Caroline: Joker, my darling, run away, don’t save me. Let them kill me. Life is miserable without Lady Liberty. It is better to die suddenly than living a long miserable life without liberty.
Joker:Oh Caroline Darling, I could not protect you. I am so sorry. Oh I am slain.
Mr. Franz: Take that. I give you my bank details. Here is my gold. Oh Lady Liberty, come back. These monsters are killing me. Please stop them. Oh I don’t want to die. Hey, don’t kill me. I can strike another deal. I am the best businessman around.Oh, I am slain.
Mr. Ho: Look here. These are even bigger bastards than us. My son to be would take my revenge. Oh, I am slain.
Mr. Ullah: Where do these demons come from? Oh please don’t kill me. Kill Caroline. Oh, I am dead.
Mrs. David: Why can’t they see Lady Liberty? She is smiling and her face glitters.Oh, dark shadows, I failed to see you but I can work for you. No, no, no, I would work for Caroline and Joker and them all. I won’t work for a demon anymore. Oh, they killed me.
Caroline:, Farewell, I love you, joker. I am dead.
(A dark figure looms over the courtyard of the shrine in Pothohar Region of Pakistan)
The Dark Figure: The prosperity without liberty is a dream, they keep following but they underestimate the power of ancient tombs. The moment they accept their worthlessness before a higher power they don’t understand, we begin to plan their destruction. The moment they begin to respect their possibilities, they begin to destroy us. This round is ours. See what happens next.
