The Case of the Vanishing Novice (Sisters of the Last Straw Book 2)

by Karen Kelly Boyce

  SISTERS

  of the

  LAST STRAW

  The Case of the Vanishing

  Novice

  “Don’t fret,” said Mother Mercy. “Maybe Sister Krumbles and Sister Lovely have already found her.”

  But soon they saw the two Sisters walking toward the car. Kathy was not with them!

  “Oh…Missing Mystery!” whispered Sister Lacey.

  “We looked down every alley and side street!” said Sister Krumbles, now out of breath. “Kathy has vanished!”

  Karen Kelly Boyce

  SISTERS

  of the

  LAST

  STRAW

  #2 The Case of the

  Vanishing Novice

  TAN Books

  Charlotte, North Carolina

  Dedicated to

  Kaitlyn Faith Ditchik,

  my granddaughter:

  Always let those you love know where you are.

  With special thanks to Kathy Scudieri,

  whose laughter in a coffee shop one night

  encouraged me to write this series.

  Text Copyright © 2014 by Karen Kelly Boyce

  Cover art copyright © by Sue Anderson Gioulis

  Cover and interior illustrations copyright © by Sue Anderson Gioulis

  Book design by Regina Doman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  Summary: New mishaps occur in the Sister’s convent when their neighbor dislikes their new puppy and their new sister-in-training goes missing!

  ISBN: 978-1-5051-1187-3

  TAN Books

  P.O. Box 410487

  Charlotte, NC 28241

  www.TANBooks.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Stepping in It

  Hammer and Nails

  Whistles and Goats

  A Trip to Town

  Missing Kathy

  A Barking Miracle

  A Job for Gracie

  Part of the Family

  Chapter 1

  Stepping In It

  Sister Shiny’s eyes popped open. It was still dark in her bedroom, but her large grin seemed to light the room. She slipped her feet into her white slippers, tied her fluffy robe around her waist and tiptoed quietly out the door.

  Last week, when Sister Shiny came downstairs, Mary, the housekeeper, had already finished cleaning the convent! There was nothing left for Sister Shiny to clean. All week she had been upset about it. So today Sister Shiny had set her alarm clock to wake her up an hour before Mary arrived.

  And it worked! Sister Shiny was happy as she snuck downstairs. She grabbed a cloth and spray bottle from the closet and began to clean.

  Sister Shiny started in the parlor by spraying the large mirror. She almost squealed with delight. Today she would clean all the mirrors, windows, and shiny surfaces. Not only can I clean, she smiled, I also get to look at myself while I do it!

  Looking at herself in the mirror, she wondered why God had made her so pretty. She knew it was wrong to think so much about how she looked. It was vanity—and her vanity had gotten her dismissed from all the religious orders she had tried to enter before.

  Sister Shiny’s superiors had told her the problem was not only that she liked to look at herself. The problem was that it distracted her from her other duties. Whenever Sister Shiny was given a job, she would see herself in a mirror and forget what she was doing. She would spend time admiring herself instead of doing her work.

  She had tried to stop, but never succeeded. That was why she had been asked to leave the other communities of sisters she had tried to join.

  But this community, Our Lady of the Angels, was different. All the Sisters in this convent struggled with bad habits. This order was a chance for them to try to conquer their faults together.

  Sister Shiny was glad that she had been allowed to join, even if their Bishop jokingly had nicknamed them the Sisters of the Last Straw. Still, she could not really see what was wrong with admiring herself. If God didn’t want me to enjoy looking at myself, why did He make me so beautiful? Sister Shiny wondered.

  “Look at those large green eyes, and my flawless skin,” she whispered to herself as she worked. Cleaning this big mirror gave her a nice long time to admire herself.

  Sister Shiny cleaned and cleaned. By the time she heard Mary opening the convent door, she was almost done. She looked at her happy face in the shiny side of the toaster one more time. That’s when she felt it. A cold, wet liquid was soaking her slipper. What is it? she thought, looking down.

  “No….I’m dirty!” she screamed. Mary came running as the howling woke the other Sisters in the house.

  Mother Mercy jumped from her bed. Scrambling for her glasses on the nightstand, she tried to get them on. Looking at the clock, she could feel her face getting warm.

  “What kind of racket is going on downstairs this early in the morning?” she shouted. Something was wrong, and she had better find out what it was. Lord, help me be patient! she thought.

  “Oh! Waking Wailings!” muttered Sister Lacey when she heard the screams. The short sister quickly put on her robe. When she got excited, she had a habit of using bad words. So she tried to use other words instead when something upset her. Now she thought, Is someone breaking into our convent? Is the house on fire?

  “Oh, Screaming Shenanigans!” she yelled as she stumbled to the hallway.

  When Sister Lovely heard the noise, she knew her sisters needed her. Sighing, the tall sister put on her slippers and hurried out to the hallway to see if she could help.

  Sister Krumbles fell to the floor in a mass of tangled covers. What is going on? She could not get out of the blankets. She rolled around on the floor, getting more and more frustrated. Finally getting free, she rushed to her bedroom door with a blanket caught in her sock. She bolted down the hallway. “I’m coming!” she shouted.

  Hearing the shouts and screams, Kathy jumped up in the dark and put on her robe and slippers. But she was confused by her new room.

  Kathy had come to the convent just a month ago to decide if she wanted to join the community. She was a postulant in the order.

  Instead of opening the door to the hallway, Kathy opened her closet door and ran inside, slamming the door behind her. It took her a few seconds to realize what she had done. Fully awake, she finally found the right door and scrambled out of the room.

  There, she found all the other Sisters stumbling down the dark hallway. Frightened, Kathy cried, “Who is it? Is it a robber?”

  Another heart-rending scream rose from downstairs, “No….no!” Sister Lovely covered her mouth and Sister Krumble’s eyes opened wide.

  “Let’s try to stay calm!” Mother Mercy commanded. She had noticed that Sister Shiny was missing. “Follow me, Sisters!”

  Crowding behind her, the group started down the stairs. Then Sister Krumble’s foot got caught in the blanket. She lost her balance.

  She tried to grab the banister to stop her fall. But instead she fell into Sister Lovely, who stumbled into Sister Lacey, who bumped into Mother Mercy.

  “Ouch!” “Oof!” “Ow!” “Whoo…oa!” shouted all the Sisters as they stumbled down the steps. Just then, another shriek pierced the air.

  “It’s coming from the kitchen!” shouted Mother Mercy. She ran down the hall with the rest of the Sisters right behind her. Reaching the kitchen, they stopped in surprise.

  There was not a fire. There was not a burglar. There was just
Sister Shiny standing in the kitchen, her fists in balls, her eyes closed. Next to her, the housekeeper Mary was trying to wipe up something on the floor.

  “What is it, Shiny?” Sister Krumbles panted. Trembling, Sister Shiny stopped screaming and pointed to her foot. She had one spotless white slipper and one wet, yellow one. “I stepped in this horrible yellow puddle. What on earth could it be?” she cried, tears running down her face.

  Kathy hung her head and blushed. “Oh dear…It looks like my puppy Gracie has wet the floor,” she said.

  “Oh….Puddles of Pee!” yelled Sister Lacey. “All that screaming for just a little mess?”

  A yellow puppy appeared at the kitchen door. She barked with delight at seeing all the Sisters.

  When Kathy had come to the convent, she didn’t want to leave her dog behind. Mother Mercy had allowed her to bring her pet, which seemed like a bad idea now.

  “That dog!” Sister Shiny sputtered. She pointed to the pup. “That dog has to go!”

  Kathy picked up Gracie. “It’s my fault. I let her out of her crate when I woke up to take her for a walk, but then I fell back to sleep.”

  This was too much for Mother Mercy. She was cross from having been woken up. She was sore from falling down steps. And she was angry to see the mess on the floor. “Well, for once I think Sister Shiny is right—that dog is too much trouble!”

  Sister Lovely noticed the tears that ran down Kathy’s face. She rushed to give her a hug, “Now, now—don’t cry! Please let her keep her dog, Mother Mercy.” Gracie wriggled in Kathy’s arms and licked Sister Lovely’s face.

  Mother Mercy’s face grew red with anger. “I am the head of the convent!” she shouted. “I make the decisions, and I say the dog goes!”

  Kathy hugged the puppy tighter, and began to weep. Sister Lacey blurted out, “Oh.…Mother of Meanness!” Then she remembered that this was not the right way for a sister to talk to her mother superior, and she said, “I’m sorry.”

  Mother Mercy remembered that her bad habit was losing her temper. She silently prayed and tried to stay calm, but she still felt very, very angry.

  “But don’t you think Kathy should have another chance?” Sister Lovely asked. “She only forgot once. And dogs can be useful.”

  Sister Krumbles said, “Why, we can train Gracie to be a guard dog.”

  Mother Mercy tried not to yell. “Why in the world would we need a guard dog? To protect us from Sister Shiny’s screaming?”

  “No, no,” laughed Sister Krumbles. “We can train her to guard the goats. She can live outside with them. That way she will not mess up the house.”

  “Why, that’s a wonderful idea!” Sister Lovely said.

  “I suppose that might work,” Mother Mercy said gruffly. She was beginning to be sorry for having yelled. Now she would have to ask God’s forgiveness.

  Kathy gave Mother Mercy a hug. Mother Mercy tried not to be mad when Gracie licked her nose. “Well, we are up early! Let’s go into the chapel and begin Morning Prayer,” Mother Mercy said. She wanted to apologize to Jesus for yelling. So she quickly went to the chapel before anything else could happen to make her lose her temper.

  Sister Shiny still stood on one foot weeping.

  “I will help you, Sister.” With a smile, Sister Lovely helped Sister Shiny hop to the kitchen sink. Sister Shiny wiped her eyes and said, “Thank you.”

  Sister Lacey helped Mary finish cleaning up. Kathy just hugged her puppy and said softly, “Thank you for giving Gracie another chance, Sisters.”

  “That’s what community is for,” Sister Krumbles said. She felt so happy about her fellow sisters. She held out her arms and stepped back to look at them all fondly. “Isn’t it wonderful how we can solve any problem by working together?”

  Just then, she felt something squish under her bare foot and between her toes. Looking down, she saw something soft and brown. And she yelled just as loud as Sister Shiny had.

  Sister Lacey’s eyes opened wide as she scrambled to get the mop again. “Oh…Piles of Puppy Poop!”

  Chapter 2

  Hammer and Nails

  Sister Krumbles turned the key, and the powerful engine roared to life. She loved to drive. She couldn’t believe that the Sisters’ good friend, Father McNulty, was allowing her to borrow his 1950 Ford pickup.

  She needed the truck to go down to the new hardware depot to buy wood, nails, and shingles to build Gracie a doghouse. She was gleeful as the truck started slowly down the driveway.

  Suddenly, she saw Kathy run out of the house. “Wait for me!”

  Sister Krumbles hated to stop, but she did. The postulant Kathy ran toward the truck. She was holding her puppy Gracie.

  “Mother Mercy said I could come with you,” said Kathy.

  “You can’t bring the dog!” said Sister Krumbles. The wiggling puppy worried her. “I don’t think she likes to ride in the truck.”

  “Gracie will be good, I promise,” said Kathy, climbing in, “Besides, I’m afraid to leave her home with Sister Shiny.”

  “She will have to stay in the truck when we are at the store,” Sister Krumbles said. She sighed and again started to back out of the driveway.

  Gracie started whining. She wriggled, pulled loose from Kathy’s arms, and jumped at Sister Krumbles!

  “No!” yelled the Sister, as Gracie landed on her lap.

  “Stop! Gracie, no!” shouted Kathy. Gracie’s back paw got caught in the steering wheel. The wheel turned sharply. The pickup truck shook and swerved. The two sisters screamed. Gracie jumped all over the cab, barking wildly.

  The truck roared backwards off the driveway and into the fresh dirt surrounding the neighbor’s newly-planted bushes. Wheels spinning in the mud, the truck finally stopped.

  “Mr. Lemon will be mad at us again,” Sister Krumbles said. Gracie jumped out. Sister Lacey, who was outside gardening, caught the puppy. “Running Rascal!” she said.

  Kathy sputtered, “Oh Sister, I am so sorry! Let me get Gracie. I promise I will hold her more tightly this time.”

  Sister Lacey shook her head, “Gracie doesn’t seem to like truck rides. She can stay here with me.” She looked at the muddy lawn and shook her head. “Mr. Lemon will be mad at us again.”

  The Sisters were blessed to have inherited the home from Mother Mercy’s wealthy aunt. In a lovely neighborhood with smooth green lawns, it was large enough for each of the Sisters to have her own room. It also had plenty of room for new Sisters to join the community.

  Most of the neighbors welcomed the convent and the many animals that Sister Krumbles seemed to collect. But their next door neighbor, Mr. Lemon, complained to the other neighbors about everything. The Sisters worried that they were nothing but trouble to the neighborhood.

  “I will go see if Mary’s husband Joseph can fix Mr. Lemon’s lawn,” Sister Lacey said.

  “We will be back as soon as we can. Can you keep Gracie out of Sister Shiny’s hair until then?” Kathy asked.

  “Oh, Nit-picking Nuns! Don’t worry!” said Sister Lacey.

  Sister Krumbles managed to get the truck out of the mud and head to the Giant Depot store.

  The two Sisters were so excited when they saw the size of the new store. “Look!” laughed Sister Krumbles in delight, “Why, there is one whole aisle just for hammers!”

  Kathy, her eyes wide, asked “Where will we begin?”

  Sister Krumbles bounced up and down, as she pulled a list from her pocket. “Here is everything we need to build the dog house,” she said. She tore the list in half.

  Handing the bottom to Kathy, she said, “I’ll get the wood and nails. You find the roof shingles and tar paper. We’ll meet at the front of the store in half an hour.” Off the two sisters went.

  Sister Krumbles was delighted with the lumber department. It was so big that the wood took up three aisles. There were two-by-fours and plywood. There were moldings and fancy trim. Too bad all I need is plain plywood to build the doghouse! she thought as she loaded what she need
ed on the cart. She rolled the heavy wheeled cart down the aisle.

  “Squeak…squeak!” cried the wheels of the cart as Sister Krumbles struggled to push it down the aisles. The wheels of the cart were stiff. She was huffing and puffing when she finally reached the tool section.

  That’s when Sister Krumbles saw a stack of little oil cans and had a dazzling idea. Picking up a small squirt can, she took off the lid and squirted oil all over the wheels of the cart.

  Now she pushed the cart back and forth. The wheels began to loosen up.

  Brilliant! she thought as she put the oil can in her cart along with two hammers. Excited, she gave the cart a big push, and it rolled quickly down the aisle.

  But now it was rolling too quickly. Sister Krumbles could not control it. To try to make it stop, she jumped on the back of the cart. But it only went faster!

  On the cart rolled, past startled people. Sister Krumbles held on for dear life! “Whoa!” shouted Sister Krumbles as if the cart would obey.

  An old man saw the cart coming and dodged. A woman dropped the two paint cans she was carrying and ran. One can hit the cart and cracked open. Red paint splattered everywhere.

  “Watch out! Coming through!” yelled the sister to the people at the checkout line. People scattered to get out of the way.

  The cart crashed into a display tower of nails. Boxes and nails flew everywhere! Sister Krumbles tumbled out of the cart onto another display for outdoor hammocks. Luckily, she landed right in the middle of the largest hammock.

  Splayed out on the hammock, Sister Krumbles rocked back and forth, stunned. Everyone stared at her. She had red paint on her face. Nails and boxes lay all around her. She tried to think of something cheerful to say.

  Picking up a box of nails that had landed on her veil, she exclaimed, “What a wonderful thing! These are exactly the nails I need for my project!”

  Everyone laughed. The old man helped Sister Krumbles out of the hammock. The other shoppers began to help Sister Krumbles pick up the nails and other things.