“The Miracle Maker”
Mid 14th Century
MORGAN, the ‘Miracle Maker,’ is a small time travelling con man/conjurer/salesman. He performs so called miracles in public and sells magic potions and remedies. The Black Plague is rife in the country and there is widespread misery, particularly amongst the poor.
In a public show, a woman asks MORGAN to cure her nephew, ARUN, who is a cripple. MORGAN gives him a ‘holy stone,’ insisting that the boy will walk, but just not today. The crowd believe, rightly, that he is a fraud and start to heckle him. JESS,a traveller in the crowd, prevents a heckler from throwing a large stone at MORGAN. MORGAN and JESS escape the rowdy and aggressive crowd.
JESS finds out that MORGAN has a somewhat selfish philosophy to life; taking what he can and believing in no one and nothing. MORGAN jokes that his so called miracles give unfortunate people some hope in their otherwise meaningless lives but JESS objects to it being false hope.
JESS and MORGAN plan to leave the city but they see that the city gates have been shut. The city has been quarantined due to the Black Plague which is spreading with disastrous consequences throughout the city.
JESS and MORGAN live off scraps of bread which are handed out to the poor. In a fight for a scrap of bread, JESS and MORGAN are chased by some other starving men. While escaping, they come across ARUN, the crippled boy that MORGAN had supposedly tried to heal.
JESS insists on taking the boy with them and helping him, even though it is against MORGAN’s wishes. ARUN still has the shiny stone which MORGAN had given him. ARUN’s aunt and uncle have both recently died.
ARUN is fascinated by MORGAN’s conjuring tricks and looks up to him. On JESS’s advice, MORGAN informs ARUN that he is a fraud and tells ARUN that any hope of a miracle cure is impossible. As ARUN goes to leave and, miraculously, takes some slow tentative steps as he bends down for the pebble.
MORGAN sees ARUN as a chance to make some money. He trains him up to perform the same routine in front of a crowd. The time comes for their first public performance. MORGAN pretends to look for a needy soul to perform a miracle on when ARUN appears in the crowd. ARUN, however, can not go through with the performance, particularly as he sees what he thinks are more needy people in the crowd. The crowd turn on MORGAN and JESS is implicated as well.
JESS and MORGAN are jailed and are sentenced to death by hanging for trying to sell false cures in a time of plague. On the day of the public hanging, MORGAN has the noose placed around his neck when ARUN shouts out that he has been cured. He steps easily free from his crutches and proclaims that MORGAN has performed a miracle.
MORGAN and JESS are released and ARUN’s legs grow strong again. ARUN and MORGAN farewell JESS and decide to take the same road together out of the town.
