(enters cautiously, looking around, crosses to imaginary casket DC, one last look around, looks down at body)
Hi, Amy, it's me.
(looks around)
I suppose you want to know why I came to see you an hour before the funeral. I... I just wanted to talk to you alone... just the two of us... like we did when we walked home from school together.
(looks around, deep breath)
(To self) I HAVE to do this. (to body) Amy, do you remember all those Arguments we had about why I go to church and why you don’t believe in it?
(laughs nervously)
You always laughed at me because I always carried my Bible around everywhere I went. Remember?
(laughs nervously)
And I always laughed at you because you thought you HAD to go to church on those special church holy days, and because you thought you HAD to eat certain things and NOT eat others? Remember that?(sigh)
I must have asked you a half dozen times, "Amy, what do you think it takes to get into Heaven when you die?" You always answered, "Well, if you're a good person and don't do a lot of bad stuff and if you live a good life and do good deeds, you'll probably get to Heaven."
(turns aside, sigh, turns back toward body) Amy, I always intended to tell you this, but I always I choked. I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. (sigh) Well, here's the truth. It's a lie. It's all a lie. You can't be good enough or do enough good deeds to get into Heaven. Human beings are incapable of being "good" enough. There, I said it.
Amy, in the Bible, it talks about Pharisees that spent their entire lives trying to be good enough to get into Heaven and Jesus said they could never be good enough. If they can't do it, there's no way any of us can make it that way either.
(paces in front of the casket)
I guess the reason why I never really confronted you about that is because every time I mentioned the name of Jesus, you got this funny look on your face, and always told me you didn’t want to talk about it. So, I decided to wait for you to ask me about
it or maybe I was waiting for a crisis in your life, or when you were desperate or something. I don't know. I mean, I look back on it now and think to myself,
(hand to forehead)
Tell her that Jesus himself said that there's no other way to Heaven except by putting your trust and belief in him. What could be simpler? Thirty seconds. Give her the chance to make an intelligent decision. What are you waiting for? This isn’t rocket science.
(stops, looks down at body)
I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I had to do it over again, Amy, I would’ve told you.
(paces in front of the casket)
You know, Amy, now that I think about it, I was really stupid, you know, I mean, short sighted. See, I was afraid that if I had told you about the lie that you had believed all your life, you might get mad at me and not want to be my best friend anymore. But, if I had given it any thought... any thought at all, I would have thought about the long term, you know, the future. If I had just been brave, you and I could have been friends for eternity in Heaven.
But instead of thinking about the future, I was afraid of hurting your feelings.... or, maybe mine. So, I put it off. I waited. I thought, "There's lots of time." "We're young." "We have a whole life ahead of us." "What's the hurry?"
(stops, looks down a body, tearful)
But now, you're dead. And you and I will never seen each other again. Ever. I'm sorry I didn’t try hard enough to tell you the truth.
(backs away, exiting)
Goodbye, Amy.
(Exits)
