And you’d have to be skillful.Why, but you can learn those skills.Mother, where shall I go?Leave this place and go from here to the place that I shall show you.The voice always did have a Biblical way with it, just like that.Nearly there, my girl, don’t you worry.And out of the darkness Allie sees a light, illuminating a sign.It says, Sisters of Mercy Convent.And all Allie knows after she crosses the threshold is that three women take her up bodily, calling her child and sweet and exclaiming when they find the crucifix in her bag because this is the proof of what they’d hoped to find in her face.They bring the food to her while she sits up, barely conscious, in a soft, warm bed, and that night not a one of them asked who she was and where she’d come from.She is not the only girl who beaches on this shore, nor is she the one most in need of counsel.By the time three months have passed, they have put in bunk beds and tacked up a schedule of classes and Sunday school and given out chores in exchange for meals and comforters and a roof over the head.There has been a great tide in the movement of people, and those old ways have taken precedence again.Allie likes to get the stories out of the other girls.She becomes a confidante, a pal, to several of them so she can match her tale up to theirs.Allie digs her fork into the tough old stewing meat the nuns serve for dinner thrice weekly.She says, What’re you gonna do 2023-06-03 (土) 18:48:22 And Savannah says, I’m gonna find a doctor will take it out of me.Cut that thing right out. A clue.Some of the girls were prayed over by parents who thought a demon had possessed them.Could it be that boys like it?Is it possible they want it?Some of them have found internet forums that suggest that this is the case.There’s one girl, Victoria, who showed her mother how to do the thing.Her mother, who, Victoria says as simply as if she were talking about the weather, had been beaten so hard and so often by Victoria’s stepdad that she hasn’t a tooth left in her head.Victoria woke the power up in her with a touch of her hand and showed her how to use it, and her mother threw her out into the street, calling her a witch.None of them needs an internet forum to understand that.They all nod, and someone passes Victoria the jug of gravy.In a less chaotic time, there might have been police, or social services, or earnest folk from the school board asking what was going on with these girls.Someone asks Allie what happened to her, and she knows she can’t give her real name.Eve’s story is simple, not interesting enough to be remembered.Eve’s from Augusta, and her parents sent her to relatives for two weeks and when she came back they’d moved away, she doesn’t know where.The other girls nod and move on to someone else.It’s not what I’ve done, Allie thinks to herself, it’s what I’m going to do.It’s what Eve’s going to do.She likes it in the convent.The nuns, for the most part, are kind, and the company of women is pleasing to Allie.She’s not found the company of men has had much to recommend it.The girls have chores to complete, but when they’re done there’s the ocean for swimming and the beach for walking, there are swings out back and the singing in chapel is peaceful and quiets all the voices in Allie’s head.Maybe I could stay here forever.There is one nun, Sister Maria Ignacia, who particularly draws Allie’s attention.She has dark skin like Allie herself, and soft, brown eyes.Sister Maria Ignacia likes to tell stories of the childhood of Jesus and of how his mother, Mary, was always kind to him and taught him to love all living things.See, Sister Maria Ignacia says to the girls who gather to listen to her before evensong, our Lord learned from a woman how to love.And Mary is close to all children.She is close to you now and has brought you to our door.
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