A Girl Called Blue by Marita Conlon-Mckenna

Author:Marita Conlon-Mckenna
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781847174581
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2012-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

The Keys

‘Do you think about Jess?’ asked Lil, her head bent, a look of concentration on her thin face as she sewed a rip in a white cotton blouse.

How could she explain how she felt? Blue knew she would never forget Jess, no matter how long she lived.

‘She was my best friend,’ was all she said.

‘I miss her too,’ Lil sighed, cutting a piece of thread with her teeth.

The two of them had been assigned to laundry duty, a job Blue absolutely detested. The warm autumn weather taunted them while they were stuck in the stuffy laundry room for hours, sorting and folding clean, dry clothes, matching socks, re-fixing loose buttons. Lil liked sewing and was good at mending while Blue kept pricking herself with the needle and could barely sew on a button.

‘It’s not fair, us stuck up here,’ she complained. ‘We should be outside, playing in the yard.’

Lil just shrugged her shoulders and kept on sewing. The work had to be done and somebody had to do it.

Blue stood over by the narrow window and noticed the sky suddenly blacken as a heavy shower of rain begin to fall. It was a huge downpour.

‘Quick, Lil, help me close the window before we’re drowned.’

They pulled the window closed and watched a stampede from the yard down below as the girls all ran in screaming from the lashing rain. Even the nuns were running to get out of it, their heavy habits and veils soaked.

Fifteen minutes later Sister Carmel pushed her way into the laundry room and hung two wet habits on the large drying frame.

‘Poor Sister Regina and Sister Agnes are drenched to the skin,’ she explained. ‘Leave those clothes to dry there overnight. I’m going to run baths for them.’

She spread the two habits on the wooden drying bars and hoisted them up overhead. Not bothering to check the girls’ work, she rushed out of the room.

Lil kept on sewing. Glancing upwards, Blue could hardly believe her good fortune. Above them, almost hidden in the dripping black material, she spotted the glint of silver keys. The keys to the office! It was exactly the opportunity she had been waiting for. Immediately she grabbed the pulley and began to lower the frame.

‘What are you doing?’

‘The keys, Lil! Look, The Crow has left her keys.’

‘What do you want her keys for?’ asked Lil, appalled.

‘This is my chance, my only chance to get into her office and find my file. There’s nobody around. You heard what Sister Carmel said, they’re going to be out of the way.’

They all knew Sister Regina guarded her office like a fortress, the silver keys always attached to the narrow leather belt she wore strung around her waist, hidden in the folds of her long black habit. With her beady eyes and sharp face, she had earned her nickname. She constantly watched everything that happened. The orphanage was her domain and she made sure that everybody knew it and that nobody dared to cross her. Even the other nuns bowed and scraped and were ill at ease when she was around.

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