Reconciliation Island

By Mel C. Thompson

Did you ever want to take over a country but didn't know how? This short play serves as a brief beginner's guide on how to start your own banana republic. Now everyone can have their own tax haven.

The action begins when ICC prison escapee George Summers and his money-laundering friends land on Reconciliation Island. They hatch a plan with the idealist-turned-tyrant, Gracia di Romanique, a well-intentioned UN worker who goes rogue.

There's plenty here to keep you amused: right-wing insurgents, Marxist guerrillas, underworld financiers, international weapons dealers (and a little romance on the side).

Who knew so much could happen in eighty pages? This book is the perfect gift for that politically incorrect friend of yours who likes a little cultural appropriation sprinkled over his daily serving of dark humor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mel C. Thompson
• Release date: Dec 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005776916

Mel C. Thompson

Mel C. Thompson is a retired wage slave who survived by working through temp agencies and guard agencies. Unable to survive in the real world of full-time, permanent work, he migrated from building to building, going wherever his agencies sent him, doing any type of work he could feign competency in and staying as long as those fragile arrangements could last. He somehow managed to get a B.A in Philosophy from Cal-State Fullerton in spite of his learning disorders and health problems. Unable to sustain family life due to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, lack of transportation and lack of income, he lives alone in low-income housing and wanders around California on buses and trains. He began writing at the age of 14 and continues till the current day. (He turns 64 in June of 2023). In his early years he wrote pathetic love poetry until, in his thirties, he was engulfed by cynicism and fell in with a group of largely antisocial poets who wrote about the underground life of drugs, sex, alcohol, poverty, prostitution, heresy, isolation and alienation. In his fortes he turned to prose and began to write religious fiction with an emphasis on the comedic aspect of theology and philosophy. He now writes short novels focusing on the attempt to find meaning in a economic world beset with money laundering, unethical marketing, contraband smuggling, human trafficking, patent trolling, corrupt contracting and every manner of spiritual and psychological desperation and degradation. When he is not writing, he wanders from hospital to medical clinic to surgical room attempting to sustain what little health he has left after a lifetime of complications resulting from birth defects and genetic problems. When he is able, he engages in such hobbies as reading, walking, yoga and meditation; and whenever there is any money left over from his healthcare-related quests, he goes to wine tastings and searches for foodie-related bargains. Before the pandemic, he spent many years gaming various travel-points systems and wrangled many free trips to Europe. He is divorced and has no children, no pets, no real estate, no stocks nor any other assets beyond the $550 in his savings account. His career peaked in the early 2000s when he did comedy gags for a radio station and had about 10,000 listeners per week. However, currently, he may have as few as five active readers on any given day. He no longer has the stamina to promote his work and only finds new readers through ran...

Book preview

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RECONCILIATION ISLAND

Mel C. Thompson

Copyright © 2021

Mel C. Thompson Publishing

3559 Mount Diablo Boulevard, #112

Lafayette, CA 94549

[e-mail]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHARACTERS

PROLOGUE

ACT 1, SCENE 1

ACT 1, SCENE 2

ACT 1, SCENE 3

ACT 2, SCENE 1

ACT 2, SCENE 2

ACT 2, SCENE 3

ACT 2, SCENE 4

ACT 3, SCENE 1

ACT 3, SCENE 2

ACT 3, SCENE 3

ACT 3, SCENE 4

ACT 3, SCENE 5

ACT 3, SCENE 6

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CHARACTERS

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GRACIA DI ROMANIQUE:

A half-Italian, half-Spanish, temporary UN governor who is brought in to bring some order to Reconciliation Island. She is initially overwhelmed by the scope of the task she is confronted with, but eventually embraces authoritarianism.

ANTOINE PESCADORIO:

A half-Hispanic, half-French UN receptionist who works for Romanique. He has also worked for the two previous UN governors of the island. In spite of all the disasters and changes that go on around him, he retains both his poise and his darkly-humorous outlook.

CONSTANTIN FEDERICO III:

A right wing insurgent who controls about a third of Reconciliation Island. He is a Hispanic evangelical Christian who hopes to turn the island into a theocracy, but he eventually decides to join Romanique’s coalition.

ALEX DOS FLORES:

A Marxist insurgent who also controls about a third of the island. He is both a competitor to, and friends with, Federico who later betrays him. He is deliberately excluded from Romanique’s coalition and is killed in battle.

GEORGE SUMMERS:

An American UN governor who also became a tyrannical ruler over the island. He is deposed by French and English forces and sent to an ICC prison, however he escapes with the help of defecting Dutch commandos and returns to the island to reestablish authoritarian rule. He also dies in battle.

MERCY A LA GENTE:

The owner of the island’s largest brothel and friend of Pescadorio. She attempts to bribe Federico into joining Romanique’s coalition by offering him access to call girls.

THE VOODOO PRIEST:

A half-Black, half-French Voodoo priest who also plays classical piano. He is the semi-official co-priest of the UN governors. He provides both religious services and background music.

THE CATHOLIC PRIEST:

An excommunicated Catholic priest who strays too far from church orthodoxy. He retains both his clerical and worldly status in spite of the church’s disapproval of him. He is close friends with the Voodoo priest.

BERNARD STEPHENSON & FRANCOIS LA FOI:

Stephenson is an international money-launderer and la Foi is an international weapons dealer. They work together to protect authoritarian regimes from western powers. They front for international investors, tax evaders and shell corporations.

RUSSIAN BUSINESSMAN & CHINESE BUSINESSMAN:

Stephenson and la Foi work with these two men to secure both money and military aid for authoritarian rulers they and their investors approve of.

THE PRIME MINISTER:

A strictly symbolic figure who, like Pescadorio, serves all three UN governors. He never wields any real power and simply obeys whoever is most powerful.

MALE NARRATOR:

He introduces the play by reading a contextual prologue and acts as the presenter of international news reports.

FEMALE NARRATOR:

The female narrator describes scenes and gives stage directions. Her part, or a part similar to hers, may help in audio productions of this work. The part may be edited down or eliminated depending on the producer’s needs or circumstances.

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PROLOGUE

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MALE NARRATOR

Haiti and the Dominican Republic become embroiled in a border dispute which turns into a wider conflict involving immigration, trade, crime and poverty. All attempts at resolving the dispute through diplomacy fail. War breaks out and both countries are destabilized. The situation degenerates into complete anarchy. The international community is unable to restore regular governance in either country; and the whole island of Hispaniola collapses into famine. Looters and armed political factions roam the island freely.

In the search for food, water, shelter and protection, waves of mass migration have blended the populations of both countries. The UN mobilizes the largest army in its history; and a hundred thousand European soldiers now occupy the island. They are unable to quell the violence or restore order; but, over the years of their occupation of the island, they begin to regard the new UN protectorate as their home.

The third of three UN governors arrives on the island, hoping she can bring some clarity to the situation after the first two