The Mannings were in the kitchen: Jack, Sam, Timothy, Todd and Blair, and Little Ray was in his high chair between his parents. The Chinese food had arrived, and was steaming in white cartons all over the counters. Each of them was filled with something fragrant and tantalizing. Blair hit the dumplings first; Todd knew they were her favorite and had ordered extra of them intentionally.
Timothy stood behind Jack, in line for the goodies, and said, "How did you find that session today, my boy?"
"It was good, actually. I met some really cool people. We exchanged numbers so we can text and tweet and stuff. And of course, Jenna was there."
"Text and tweet, eh? Is that anything like going calling?" Timothy asked.
Todd laughed, "Oh boy, Jack, you fell into that one."
Jack said, "Just cool peeps, that's all."
"I'm glad," Timothy said, patting his back.
Sam said, "Jack's lying. There's one peep he really likes."
Jack said, "Squirt, I'm warning you. I'll toss you in that pool, and the water's like fifty."
"I can swim! You don't scare me!" the little boy said, hitting Jack's back end and running. Jack, handing his plate off to Timothy, chased Sam, and in two large bounds, grasped him, raising him into the air and heading for the back door.
Blair watched, smiling, as Sam, kicking and screaming said, "Wait, Dad, put on the pool heater!" as Jack threatened to bring him outside.
When he reached the back door, Jack said, "You little runt, you take back what you said, or you go Polar Bearing." He began to tickle Sam.
Sam was squealing with laughter, "Okay, Okay! I take it back!"
Jack finally put Sam down, who ran, jumped into Todd's arms and shouted, "Jenna!"
Everyone laughed, including Jack, and Little Ray, who appeared confused, tapped a march on his high chair table tray with his spoon. Blair said, "Oh, I forgot his food, let me do that first."
"I'll get it," Todd said, "you go ahead, you've already got yours and it will get cold."
The family sat for the next hour, talking and bantering, and enjoying the Chinese food. Jack, looking to start something, said, "So, Grandpa, how's Aunt Dorian?"
Blair choked and grabbed her water glass.
Todd said, "Jack, we're eating. I just threw up in my mouth a little."
Timothy smiled. "She's well, thank ya. Bridgette, I must tell you that your Aunt is quite a woman."
Blair, recovering from the bout with coughing, said, "She is, I know. She's a Cramer, that's for certain."
"Now, Blair, your mother, I've met her, she's a gift. But you're also close to your Aunt. Did she help raise ya?"
"Dorian took care of me for quite a time, when Todd and I were first married, and with Starr and all." She stopped. "I suppose I don't have much family to speak of, or experiences that I'd talk much about from when I was a child."
"I'm sorry to bring up something less than pleasant. This meal was a wonder, eh, Jack?"
"I like Chinese, it's okay," the teen said.
Todd watched as Blair slightly faltered, and grabbed the baby's hands to wash them. He reached over, and put his hand over hers, which brought her eyes directly up and into his. He drew his hand across hers, and back, and she slightly nodded to him, that she was all right. None of this got past Timothy, but he went on chiding Jack and Sam and instigating more amusing conflicts between them.
Soon, it was bedtime. The children had school the next day, and Timothy was tuckered out from his visit. He said, "Thank ya, both, for having me."
Blair said, "Any time, you're welcome here, any day you like."
"Thanks to you, Bridgette. Perhaps I'll make it a habit and pick up Sam once per week, say, the day of Jack's session?"
"That would be great," Blair said.
"Thanks, Pa," Todd stuck his hand out.
"Pa? That one has to go, my Lad. Pappy, is better, Dad is best. Just don't call me late for supper."
"Okay. Thanks again, for everything." Todd said, putting an arm around Blair's waist. They watched him go, then began the bedroom brigade. Jack went to his room and his earphones for homework; Sam brushed his teeth and put on his Spiderman pajamas, asking Blair to sing; Todd bathed the baby and put him to bed. By the time Sam was sleeping and Blair's song was finished, she walked in on Todd, with the baby curled up on his chest, against his shoulder, fresh, clean and in a blue striped onesie, asleep.
Todd gently put the baby into his crib, and as he did, Blair slipped her arms around his waist. She said, "There's nothing more sexy than watching you with that baby. You're so gentle and strong at the same time, Todd."
"I was thinking the same thing about you, Mrs. Manning."
"You like to call me that."
"Yeah, I do. It means that we're like this," he said, crossing his fingers.
"We are like this," she did it back.
He said, "Then you'll understand what I have to talk to you about."
***
That evening, Sister Rebecca Katherine readied for bed, and after her prayers, she settled back, and took out the sketch pad to read what Bea had written. She was in no hurry to read it; in honesty to herself, she dreaded what it might say, but knew it was something she had to do. Her diamond in the rough would require a great deal more polish, and she needed to understand.
In turning the first page, there were a series of small drawings, again of large hands, in threatening poses, seeming to be causing harm or pain. She turned the next page and saw a beautiful likeness of Jack, again. It was similar to the first, but slightly different, as if Jack's features were not exact. It was almost as if the woman had forgotten a little how Jack looked. That was how Sister Rebecca Katherine explained it.
She turned another page, and the writing was there. It was a jagged scrawl, in black pencil, but what amazed her was the straight and even distribution of the lines, almost as if Bea had used a ruler, which the nun knew she did not. She began to read:
I get very confused. I know, I remember being in this dark place I call The Jail. It was dim and the lights were almost never on. That is where I was before I came here. The People Who Kept Us were not nice like you. Most of them left us in our filth and never cared. A woman I had a room with saw rats. They were always there, on her bed, on her, but we never saw them. She made them up. I tried to tell her. She did not listen to me. She said I made up My Angel. I said she made up her rats.
There were four of us in a room with small beds that had metal legs and the mattress was thin like a couch pad. All night, things would happen. Nightmares. Screams. The woman and her rats. Noises. They would give us drugs. Men in white came in and out as they pleased. They would bully us and make fun. One of them touched and hurt the youngest of us, almost every night. She would cry. I could not tell, because this was after The Time of Black and I could not talk. They did not give me paper. I could not write or draw. One night, I scratched him and bit him to make him stop. They put me in The Hole. It was dark and I was alone. They hardly fed me and my stomach would ache and cramp and roaches came. After I learned my lesson, they would send me back to the other room to live.
This was the place that I was sent to by The Evil One. I will tell you about him, later. I am scared and I am tired and I have not eaten my dinner yet, just so I could write this. The People Who Kept Us were not nice, but they were better than where I was before. Better than The Evil One. It has been a long time. I know why they sent me there. I will tell you. But will My Angel forgive me?
So this was the place I called The Jail. The Jail was where I lived before now, without The Evil One. The Jail is where I lived before I came to St. Anne’s. I think that is what you called it. I called it “The Place With the Nice Nun” until you told me today the name. Names are not easy.
I don’t want to say more now but I will tell you more, Nice Nun. I am tired. Thinking of the bad times makes me tired. Writing about them takes life from me. Now, will you help me find if My Angel is alive? I must know that he forgives me.
The nun, overcome by her own tears, closed the sketch pad, and dabbed at her eyes with her family heirloom handkerchief that she kept by her bed. Looking at it, she realized what this start of the woman's revelations could mean and the probable horror that was to follow. She ruminated over the contrast between the legacy of this woman, Bea, and herself, and she wept bitterly.
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another great job
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