:C0930 :C1000 (C) /en7/ TIME CODE: 09:30 The Matre'd is overlooking the gathering from area C. He'll notice the bridal party outside, by the Power House. LYLLA moves into the area. /en5/ TIME CODE: 10:00 LYLLA Excuse me -- do you know when the ceremony will begin? MATRE'D Not until the bride arrives, I presume. I believe she makes a grand entrance of some kind. LYLLA That's different. MATRE'D I have nothing to do with the ceremony. I just provide the facility. LYLLA For a pretty price, I imagine. But I hear this church they belong to is loaded to the gills. MATRE'D It's not as expensive here as you'd think. We are very competitive. LYLLA Do wedding parties often write their own ceremonies? MATRE'D Maybe one out of four. I've never had the bride delivered so mysteriously, though. LYLLA What's the purpsoe of that, do you think? MATRE'D Beats me. We'll have to wait and see. LYLLA You think it'll make sense when we see it? MATRE'D You have a point -- maybe it won't. LYLLA I take it this is one of your stranger weddings. MATRE'D It's the very strangest ever. No doubt about it. There's never been a 25 thousand year old High Priestess at Edgefield before. LYLLA I'm sure! Do you think the ceremony is intimately tied up with the religion itself? MATRE'D It would have to be, wouldn't it? LYLLA So if the wedding is strange, the religion itself must be strange. MATRE'D Lots of religions are strange. LYLLA But you have no doubt that this wedding is, let us say, unorthodox, to say the least? MATRE'D So many questions: You sound like a lawyer. LYLLA I am. MATRE'D You've got a case against the religion or something? LYLLA Not really. I'm just trying to understand it. I wonder, for example, where they get all their money. MATRE'D Lots of rich misfits in the world. Look at all those Kree that built that ashram in Juniper County, a Swami with dozens of Rolls Royces. These are no different. You can be smart in some ways, smart enough to make a lot of money, and still be spiritually lost. So when the right guru comes along, wham!, you feel like you've seen the light. LYLLA That's how you'd explain it? MATRE'D More or less. I have a younger sister who joined the Kree. She was validictorian of her high school class but that didn't stop her. LYLLA It's a little sad, don't you think? That people are so lost that they become gullible to cults. MATRE'D Well, you have to consider the freedom of religion aspect as well. Who's to say what's a cult and what isn't? Are you Catholic? LYLLA No. MATRE'D My sister says Catholics are a cult, that the Pope has more power than any swami. Depends on your point of view. LYLLA You sound like a very tolerant man. MATRE'D When you've seen as much as I have, nothing surprises you. LYLLA All the same, this is the strangest wedding ever? MATRE'D In my opinion, it is. Someone else might think differently. LYLLA Well, I can hardly wait to see what happens. MATRE'D You may not have to wait long. LYLLA What do you mean? MATRE'D I was told to be prepared for the wedding within half an hour of my welcoming remarks. LYLLA Really? MATRE'D So I don't expect it to be long now. I keep wondering how she'll make her appearance. I think I may have an idea. LYLLA Maybe she'll drop in as a skydiver. MATRE'D On the other hand, there's something going on down there. It looks like a small procession of some kind. LYLLA (looking out the window) Oh my. Those aren't regular guests? MATRE'D Hard to say. We have Deadhead parties but it's the wrong time of year. LYLLA Looks pretty festive down there, in a sixties sort of way. MATRE'D Yes, it does. We get a lot of refugees from the sixties. They keep trying to create a nostalgic happening. Sort of sad, really, that they never grew up. LYLLA I think you're right - those are church people and the bride. MATRE'D We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure. LYLLA Then the wedding has a Back to Nature theme. They do look like lost hippies, don't they? MATRE'D The lost hippies of Marin County, up for a weekend from their six-digit day jobs. LYLLA They must be ready to make their entrance. MATRE'D Perhaps so. I guess we get no Wedding March. I think people should leave the traditions alone. How can you have the entrance of the bride without a wedding march? LYLLA We may get a wedding march yet. MATRE'D Played on kazoos or what? They didn't ask for a piano. I knew it would be a strange wedding as soon as I learned. What a shame. LYLLA I find it more amusing than shameful. What people will go through to try and be "creative." MATRE'D I believe in traditional weddings. LYLLA I guess I don't believe in weddings much at all. MATRE'D Really? LYLLA Speaking personally. MATRE'D Let me guess. You had a bitter divorce. LYLLA I've never been married. MATRE'D Now that surprises me. Never met the right man? LYLLA End of conversation. See you at the wedding. Lylla heads for A, while the captain continues to observe from C. Down on the grounds below: TRUDY, MAXINE and WOLF in primitive costume "back to nature" costumes, perhpas with ancient animal horns, blowing strange sounds, beginning "the ritual of the offering of the bride." This should take about three minutes (Trudy enters at 16:00). /ex5/ /h7/ TIME CODE: 13:00 ?"Stay with Matre'd" ?"Follow Lylla" :"Stay with Matre'd" Stay with Matre'd :"Follow Lylla" Follow Lylla