by Azure Boone
An unfamiliar vehicle pulled into the driveway. Sally stood and grabbed her bag when the horn sounded. One last look around at the room that was still almost exactly as when her Aunt May lived there. One last moment of regret for the little sister she hadn't treated as well as she should have. A quick glance confirmed the house keys lying where she'd told Jessie she would leave them, atop the heavy walnut TV cabinet. Careful to lock the door behind her, she left her sister's house.
****
From the time she got in the small Honda with Sister Mary Evangela, until they stopped at the highway rest area an hour later, Jessie tried sporadically to make conversation. The bulky nun, scowling furiously in a very good imitation of a female Olympic athlete from an Eastern Bloc nation, refused to answer in more than monosyllabic grunts. She drove them into the rest area and pulled in to park beside another car.
"You should visit the restroom. We won't stop again until we reach the Abbey." Her heavy woolen habit sparkled with tiny droplets from the misty rain as she stalked toward the low building that housed the restrooms and snack machine kiosk.
Sally jiggled her foot for a moment, resenting the gruff command in the nun's tone, as if Sally needed to be scolded into taking a piss. Then common sense won out. She did have to go.
By the time Sally returned, half-full soda can in one hand, Sister Mary Evangela stood near the car, deep in conversation with two other nuns in full habit. The rain had stopped for a few moments, so Sally held back a little, in no rush to get back in the vehicle and smell wet wool for the next hour, or however long they travelled. One of the nuns with Sister Mary Evangela looked over at Sally and smiled, and excused herself.
Not much older than Sally, the woman moved with an easy grace and assurance that came with the kind of ethereal beauty that couldn't be concealed even by a full habit, complete with head coverings. "You must be Sally?" She extended a slender hand. "I'm Sister Constance Grace, but you can call me Connie. The names take a bit of getting used to at first."
Sally took her hand and introduced herself, shocked to find herself nearly mesmerized by haunting blue eyes and a picture-perfect mouth.
"I'll be helping you and the others get settled at the Abbey."
"Others?" She wasn't the only one?
"Yes." Connie smiled and gestured to someone approaching from the building. "This is Lisa. You and she are the newest candidates. Diana will arrive in a few minutes, with Sister Agnes." She paused to introduce Sally to Lisa. "I'll leave the two of you to get acquainted for a moment."
As soon as Connie moved back to her conversation with Sister Mary Evangela and the other nun, Lisa grinned at Sally. "Can you believe this? I never imagined the Judge would actually find a convent to take me." A deep Southern accent distracted from her words.
"Um, sorry. Judge?"
Lisa laughed, a musical sound that matched her almost child-size build. "Sorry, bad joke. I do that when I'm nervous." She rocked on her heels a little, then shivered violently in her light jacket. "I had no idea it would be so cold here. Where are you from?"
"Roseville. It is a little cooler here than it was at home earlier."
She shook her head, letting shoulder length blonde hair swing into her face. "A little cooler? You must be from nearby? Honey, I'm from Louisiana. We get some cold weather in winter, but when they said California, I had no idea! I thought it was always warm here." The accent might be different, but the girl chattered nearly as much as Jessie.
Sally frowned. "Why did you come to a convent so far from home?"
Lisa shrugged narrow shoulders as a wave of cold rattled her jaw. "Oh, I tried to stay closer to home. I tried every convent I could find." She lowered her eyes with a little chuckle. "For some reason, they all turned me away. I visited one up in Ohio, and they ended up refusing me too. But as I was leaving, this old nun gave me a phone number and said I should call. I did, and here I am."
A car pulled into the open space beside the one Sally and Sister Mary Evangela drove, and three nuns climbed out. Was it a convention or something? Once more, Connie left the others and introduced herself to the new arrivals, then drew them forward to meet Lisa and Sally. While she introduced Diana, yet another vehicle drove up, stopping behind the three cars.
The jumbo-sized SUV looked like something from a forty year-old movie. The driver left the powerful engine purring, and approached Sister Mary Evangela, Connie, and the others nuns. Before Sally could make an effort to include Diana in the conversation, Sister Mary Evangela motioned Sally to the car.
"Get your bag. We'll take the truck from here on."
Sally complied and climbed into the back of the SUV with Lisa and Diana, while Connie, Sister Mary Evangela and the other two nuns climbed into the front and middle row of seats. Settling in, Sally noted that the interior of the vehicle was extremely utilitarian, with heavy black vinyl coverings on the two rear bench seats. The front bucket seats had removable cloth covers in a possible concession to comfort. The rest of the interior had been stripped down to bare metal and spray painted black.
"Wow, this thing is old. Looks like it doesn't even have power steering," Lisa observed as Sister Mary Evangela pulled out of the parking area. Sally watched as the beast of a woman wrestled the vehicle onto the freeway with vicious yanks on the steering wheel. With her mouth in a lopsided gape to accommodate her snorting and grunting and that large head whipping left and right with almost wild eyes, she looked like she was in the throes of demon possession.
"What's power steering?" Diana spoke for the first time, sounding hoarse.
Lisa and Jessie regarded the slightly rounded girl between them. "It's from well before cars had computers or anything like that," Lisa said. "The steering and brakes are all powered by the driver and it takes quite a bit of effort. Kind of like-"
"Excuse me, ladies." Connie turned around in the shotgun seat, her smile heavenly sweet. "I have to ask you to remain silent for the remainder of the drive. Our Order is based on simplicity, obedience, and productivity. We don't engage in frivolous pursuits, including idle conversation. The rest of our journey will take just over four hours, depending on traffic. When we arrive, you'll be shown to your quarters and have some time to settle in before evening meal and prayers. Our day begins at four a.m., starting with caring for the livestock, so you're going to be too busy to worry with useless details."
After the darling nun turned back around, the girls shared what the hell glances. Sally shoved down her rebellion. This was it. This was what she'd signed up for, she'd better get used to it. For the next hour, her mind rolled with questions, mostly to do with what life was going to be like at the convent and whether or not she could stand it.
"Um, I'd like to go home. Please?" Everybody turned to Diana's timid plea. Sally noticed her limbs trembled and took hold of her hand, hoping to comfort her.
The nuns in the middle seat glanced at each, one shaking her head slightly. Connie turned in her seat, regarding Diana with a perturbed scowl. "I'm sorry, that's not possible."
"Why?'
Connie tilted her head, as if being questioned was an entirely new experience for her. "We have a very tight schedule. If we turned around to take you home, then continued back, we would waste four hours. I can't justify that long of a delay to the Mother Superior. Our absence from the Abbey creates undue hardship for the other Sisters." She paused and tightened her lips, as if there were more she wanted to say on that topic. "We can drop you along the highway here, though I wouldn't advise that. Or you can do the sensible thing, and continue on with us. If you still feel the same way once we arrive, you can ride into Susanville with the Sisters who go in to sell the items we craft. From there you will be able to make arrangements to get home." She turned back to the front, clearly intending that to be the last word.
"And when will that be?" Sally asked, just in case this turned out to be too much to handle and she wanted to hitch a ride with Diana out of there.
Connie b
egan to hum a silky tune and the nun next to her turned. The woman's happy smile seemed etched into her face like a scar, always there, regardless of the circumstance. As she answered for the now tuned out sister, her tone rose up and down, slow and careful. "Sister Constance is praying, let us please be silent and full of undeserved grace." She repeated a hypnotic nod, the right side of her upper lip not quite closing over the large teeth.
Sally began her own prayer session as she second guessed her stupid convent idea. These people were just too damn weird for her. No way could she put up with them. Her tongue was already sore from biting the darn thing. They're just different. You need to sit still and chill. What did you expect from women who did nothing but sing praises and pray all day and night? Popcorn and karaoke?
Sally took a deep breath and passed part of the time in deep thought, reminding herself why she was there to begin with. Backing out was not an option. It was time she dealt with her past before she ended up at the loony bin from a break down. The wreck, God sparing her, the dream…this was the answer, this was God's intervention. He had heard her prayers all these years and this was His answer. Sally wasn't oblivious to her problems. But she was helpless to make them go away. Make the pain go away. A lot of it came down to guilt. Over her father's sexual attention. Over trying to divert that attention to her younger sister. Over her hatred of her mother for refusing to believe Sally when she'd tried to talk with her about it all. The ugly truth wasn't hidden from her, she knew her issues very well. All she needed was help getting free of them.
Somewhere along the way she dozed off, lulled by the baritone roar of big tires on pavement. A hard object digging into her ribs woke her. A moment of initial confusion with her surroundings gave way to memory. Lisa's elbow poked into her side again, until Sally looked at the girl. Lisa raised a brow and gave a significant nod toward the window.
Sally looked in the indicated direction, and had to close her eyes and look again. They were on a dirt track that wound along an eyebrow of a ledge clinging to the side of a mountain. Stone cliffs rose ominous and threatening on the right, ready to break loose and crash down on them any second. To the left, nothing. Off in the distance, other mountains rose, but immediately next to the track, was nothing but empty space where the mountain fell away, abrupt and ready to let go of them, leaving them to tumble away into nothing.
A shudder of dread raced down Sally's spine. They'd told her the Abbey was located some distance from the nearest city, but not that the driveway was better suited to mules than vehicles. She strained her neck trying to see ahead, eager for her first glimpse of their destination. Nearly an hour later, she gave up and sat back again. Where on earth were they going?
Finally they reached a sort of summit and cliffs to the right receded, then gave way to a broad plateau. A small cluster of stone buildings huddled on the far side of the flat, against the shelter of the mountain where it rose again. Sister Mary Evangela pulled up to the largest building and parked the SUV.
Sally's back and legs ached in protest and anticipation of freedom. It was going to feel good to move. She waited her turn to climb out after Diana and Lisa. Her feet hit the ground and her back arched into a painful stretch.
Connie came before them with angelic grace and tone. "We'll be here about fifteen minutes, ladies. I suggest you use the time to visit the restroom and get a warm drink. You'll also find nutritious snacks inside. We'll make the remainder of the trek by horseback. No vehicles can reach the actual Abbey. Please be back here in twelve minutes."
Horseback? Surely she was joking. Sally regarded the joyful gait of the nuns as they went ahead toward the crude stone building. That's what I need. A ridiculous peace when everything is clearly shitty. Or at least that level of immunity.
Sally and the others followed. They would have followed the nuns to hell if it meant getting out of the damp cold that permeated everything with an aching chill.
By the time they came out of the Way House, as it was called by the woman who ran it, soft snow had started to fall and the midafternoon light had waned. The black wool robes they'd been given inside did little to block the cold. A dozen horses waited in the lee of the building, tails to the wind. So much for Sally's theory that Connie must have been joking.
Sister Mary Evangela led the way to the horses, several of which carried bulky packs instead of saddles, and handed each woman a pair of reins. The other nuns swung astride their mounts easily, settling the full skirts of their habits to cover their coverall-clad legs. Diana followed suit, and Lisa lost no time catching up.
Sally stood there, feeling like an oddball. She wanted nothing more than to get back into that SUV and head back down the trail. Right. And if she did, she'd have to live with the knowledge that she couldn't finish a single thing she started. School. Relationships. Jobs. Nothing. She put her foot in the stirrup and dragged herself aboard the horse.
No. She was going to see this through if she had to die trying.
A short time into the ride, Diana's horse spooked at some movement in the underbrush crowded along the trail. Diana hit the ground hard, face down, and cried out sharply.
Sally slid from her own horse, and helped Diana to sit. Her left arm hung at an odd angle while Diana bit her lip against the sobs.
Sally stood and found all the nuns still on their horses. "We have to take her back. Her arm's broken."
Connie shook her head. "We don't have time." She dug into a pack hanging by her knee and produced a length of rope. "Use this to bind her arm up to her chest. We'll get her treated as soon as we reach the Abbey."
Astounded, Sally caught the coil of rope and glared at the peaceful nun.
"Let this be her first lesson in suffering for our Lord who bore all things in His flesh for our salvation. Aside from this, we have to continue now or we won't be able to reach the Abbey. We have a qualified physician who will treat her as soon as we arrive. Now prepare her to travel and help her back on the horse."
Sally opened her mouth to argue but a movement to Connie's left caught her attention. Sister Mary Evangela held a big gun across her saddle, pointed in Sally's general direction. Fear bucked her insides and she looked at the hulking woman and was met with fierce beady eyes. As though reading Sally's mind, she muttered harshly, "It's for the wolves."
This new threat had the girls glancing fearfully around while Sally helped Diana back onto her horse. A ululating cry off in the distance rang clear in the cold air, adding credence to Sister Mary Evangela's words. The sound also served as a nice little reminder to all that traveling alone in the mountains could be a deadly undertaking.
Sometime after dark had fallen, the little party trekked into a lit clearing, chilled to the bone and soaked. Sally crawled off her horse, exhausted. Numb legs collapsed to dump her directly on her ass in an icy puddle. A growl of frustrated annoyance died, her throat too cold and tired to make a sound.
Lisa and Diana fared even worse. Practically unconscious from the numbing cold and dizzying high altitude, the nuns had tied Lisa onto her saddle an hour back when she kept dozing off. Suddenly freed, she tumbled to the ground in a boneless heap. Diana cried out in a voice ravaged by pain when the third nun who hadn't been introduced dragged her abruptly from the saddle.
A shapeless form limped from the shadows, collected the horses' reins and led them away. Sister Mary Evangela and the others shouldered substantial packs as if they weighed no more than the designer handbags they might have carried had life gone differently, and started walking.
Connie turned to Sally. "Arouse your Sisters and follow us. Tarrying the night in the courtyard isn't suitable gratitude for the troubles that have been taken for you."
Sheer exhaustion kept Sally from going off on sweet Sister Constance. Tarrying in the courtyard? Like they stood in a sun kissed meadow instead of slop for a ground with freezing rain soaking them to the bone? To the broken bone in Diana's case.
She looked around at the deserted square
surrounded by dark looming buildings. She suddenly had a commanding urge to turn around and walk right back down the mountain. Except she had no idea which way that might be. Then she remembered the gun-packing Amazon/nun and her mention of wolves. As soon as daylight hit, she was hitting the road. This was just pure bullshit. She hadn't expected a moonlight cruise, but she certainly hadn't signed on for some kind of Holy boot camp for bad teens. She'd have to find something else to break her string of unfinished business. Sorry God.
It took some work, but she managed to get Lisa up. They shakily supported Diana long enough to slog across the courtyard and through a massive door wrapped in wrought iron rails. Dim light flickered from oil lamps mounted on the stone wall to illuminate a sort of cloakroom/entry hall.
The unnamed nun finished hanging coveralls from one of the hooks on the stone wall and disappeared through yet another heavy door. Dripping on the clean floor was the least of Sally's concerns, so she didn't bother removing coveralls, and led Diana and Lisa on through behind the nun.
Walking through that door, her first impression was that they'd stepped back in time a thousand years. Wood smoke from the bus-sized fireplace at the far end of the room stung her eyes, while she strained to see in the dim light. Several dozen women sat in small clusters around big rough-hewn wooden tables, eating and drinking.
A nun—at least Sally assumed she was a nun—in a dark brown robe and an odd-looking head dress hurried across to them and took immediate charge of Diana. Sally and Lisa took a few steps back at the woman's shooing. She then proceeded to pinch, poke and prod, pale blue gaze missing nothing. Finally, dark brows drawn into a deep scowl, she released the rope holding the injured arm immobile.
At Diana's pained moan, the woman widened her eyes in an expression Sally could have sworn was pure alarm. The woman's veiled head-dress, with its modified tri-corn hat sitting at the top, wobbled precariously as she shook her head and took Diana's good hand and led her from the room in a hurry. Through the whole exchange, not a word was spoken.
