Page 116 - NS 2024

Sister Maggie took another deep breath to elaborate, but before she could, Min raised one slim finger from the depths of her sleeves to her lips, silently shushing the Reverend Mother. It was then that she met her eyes with hers, two rich hazel orbs fit for a dragon and hauntingly fierce. Her voice matched the sentiment, unwavering and assured.
“Watch, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh.”
In the ensuing shock and silence, Min stood from her seat, and turned briefly to look at Sister Tonya with what could best be described as pity. Then she turned back to Sister Maggie.
“That’s Mark 13:15. Can I go now?”
And you did. Didn’t you, Min?
The Reverend Mother had a stroke a year later. She spent a few weeks clinging to life, but eventually gave up the ghost. Sister Tonya, though not the eldest, was chosen unanimously to fill the role. In the frenzy following this transition, she drifted out of the forefront of Min’s life. Min never heard from Charlotte, either, after the girl turned eighteen and was promptly dropped off at a homeless shelter. Would it have helped Min, now twelve, to know that her friend had turned to drug rushing and prostitution so that she could pay the rent on a two-hundred square foot studio apartment? Maybe not. All she had to remember her only friend by were the dozen packs of Marlboros the latter had left for her under a pillow before departing...and of course the myriad of dreams she would have of the other girl. Her heart ached desperately at this loss, differently than it had for any of the other mass of people who had entered and exited her life.