The Good Mother (Dramatic Interpretation)

Rest of the Piece

I'm sooo terribly sorry I haven't been active in such a long time I've been caught up with school, theatre, an other things.
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I'm a good mother. Jamie is my life. He is my only child and no one can question the love that I have for him. He is so amazing, have you seen him?
(pantomimes picking up picture)
He has the most beautiful blonde hair, so blonde that is the sun hits it at just the right time of day. He almost looks like an angel. He is an angel. He's my angel.
(Intro)
The bond between a mother and her child is the strongest and most beautiful bond I've ever come to know. Growing up I always knew if I ever needed anything, a hug, someone to talk to, or just dinner to be made my mother would always be the first person there, and this makes me wonder how far someone would go to be the good mother.
By: Elise Sharron
It has been 11 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days since I have held my son. That's one of the rules. Rules? Forget the rules I just want to hold my son!
I begged them for one last hug. I've called his father and tried talking to him but he declines my calls. It's like no one understands, like I'm crazy... Don't look at me like that!! Don't you dare sit in judgement of me I've had enough of that over the past 11 months!!
When Jamie first learned to talk he never slowed down, his father and I could never get him to shut up. But I loved it, his voice... His presence alone strengthens my soul. So on the day Jamie came home and sat down at the kitchen counter and wouldn't say anything, and he wouldn't eat. I knew something was wrong.
(pantomimes talking to Jamie)
Jamie, Jamie please tell mommy what's wrong. Please if you tell mommy what's wrong I can help you. Nothing. For months, I got nothing. I made an appointment with his school counselor, professional counselor, the pastor of our church even. One day I asked him like I always asked him, Jamie, please tell mommy what's wrong, sweetheart, I'll do anything, but first you have to tell me what's wrong. Then he started to cry, it was a silent cry with slow tears. At first he tried to hide them from me , but eventually he just looked and stared. And I knew he could see I was feeling every bit of pain that he was feeling. And he ran up and hugged me tighter than ever before and said: Mom, I've done a bad thing and I'm gonna get in trouble. Mr. Nathan and Ms. Michelle next door... They, they play games with me sometimes... It didnt make sense then, I mean it did Nathan and Michelle have been my neighbors since, since before Jamie was born. They're my emergency contacts at his school, these were my friends.. They were like my family.. I will never forget the look on my sons face when I asked him what he meant by games. Jamie told me everything, he told me the details of a crime that a mother should never have to hear from her child!!! I felt like I was physically ill, I didn't even feel my legs give away until I was already on the floor holding my son who is now so broken that he can barely catch a breath... Those monsters took my child's innocence!! And the only thing I could do was breath, and remind myself that I am a good mother. And that this was not my fault. In that instance, that fleeting flashing an instant, I made a decision that forcer change both of our lives. There was no preparation, no thought, like when your watching tv and the criminal says, it just snapped. believe them because that is exactly what happened to me. Jamie, you are a very strong boy mommy is so proud of you. Now I want you to go upstairs and play in your room and tonight you and I are going to stay up late, eat cookies and watch your favorite movie. His face gleamed at the thought of the night of the Flintstones. While Jamie was safe in his room I made cookies, then I walked next door and knocked, and Nathan answered. "How could you?" He looked surprised even asked me what I was talking about. "Nathan, Jamie told me everything! How could you touch my son?" And then I saw it in his eyes, his emotions gave everything away, in fact, he almost smiled like he had gotten away with something. "He is a child!!!" I screamed as I stabbed him and I stabbed him until my arm was so tired I couldn't lift it anymore and Nathan's body refused to twitch. I sat next to Nathan's dead body for almost an hour until Michelle came home. And I just looked up at her, "How could you Michelle?" She didn't say anything, instead she just picked me up and lead me into her office and in the cabinet there were tapes. Some labeled Jamie and others, soo many others. "Michelle, Jamie told me that you filmed it, that you watched it. How could you, you were supposed to be my friend," You want to know what she had the nerve to do, no not only cut me off, she told me that she had to do it. that she had to do it to save her marriage. And I stood there drenched in her husbands blood and all I felt was rage. It was not anger or hate it was the purest form of blind rage. And I knew this to be true after I dragged her body through the house and I layed her to rest next to her husband. I went home, took a shower, sat on the couch with my son, watched the Flintstones and ate cookies like I promised. A good mother never breaks a promise to her son.
They told me I need to work on being rehabilitated. Rehab is a joke it's like trying to change a lion, it's not possible. You can't just take a lion out of the wild, put it in a zoo and expect it to become a tamed house cat. you see it doesn't work like that, it just pisses them off. They want to be free just like I do. Nothing disappoints me more than to have people think I'm living it up in here, like this eight by eight cell is the life! Ha! Let me tell you, I can't open my door when I want, I can't watch the sub rise or set, I can't eat the food I want and I have to ask permission to read a book or make a phone call. Every freedom you think I have was lost the moment I got here. So please, you can keep all the perks you think I have, just give me my freedom, so I can go find my son. I want him to know every decision I ever made was to protect him and that I love him. I miss him so much, my beautiful baby boy. I would do anything for him, and I did just that.