The Stain by Rikki Ducornet

Author:Rikki Ducornet [Ducornet, Rikki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Demoniac possession, Birthmarks, Girls
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 1995-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter

23

"The Envoys of Heaven are always vegetarian," said the Mother Superior as she held Charlotte's hand firmly in her own. Edma was boiling bones, and the kitchen—already sweltering in the heat of midsummer—was filled with steam. Pacing the room and perspiring in his shiny black suit, the Exorcist added:

"Cucumbers are gorged with light. ..."

"God is contained in plants," the Mother Superior cut in eagerly. "When we eat plants, we eat Him." As Charlotte's mouth fell open in confusion, the Exorcist explained:

"In the beginning, the demons of the lower regions, chained to the Cogs of Time and sickened by the rotations of the zodiac, aborted, thus occasioning the World and dissipating the Light of God throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Animals eat plants and as the human soul loses more spiritual energy assimilating this corrupted light than it receives. ..."

"The Envoys of Heaven are always vegetarian!" The Mother Superior sat back triumphantly. And she summed up the afternoon's lesson with the suggestion that as cooking destroys the luminosity of plants, Charlotte had better eat her cucumbers raw.

"What about crayfish?" Charlotte asked.

"What about crayfish?" The Mother Superior was confused. "Are ... do ... are they light? Or dark?" The Mother Superior looked helplessly at the Exorcist. So far her indoctrination had not broached the subject of Crustacea.

"Crayfish, crabs and so forth," he said, searching his memory, "are, as I recall, very dark, very dark indeed."

Charlotte had one more question.

"Euh. Euh. . . . What are the Teton twins?"

"Monsters!" he replied. "Monstrosity squared! Monstrous to have twinned in the womb! Monstrous to have— despite this initial monstrosity—developed a deceptive normality! Oh, they are dark! In some countries twins are tortured, put to death!"

"Oh! Why?" Charlotte was terrified.

"To calm the fevers of those mortals who have no double to protect them from the Evil Eye! In a curious way they are your brothers . . . born the same day. Now that was a season of miracles!" And reaching for her face, he traced the Stain with a greasy finger. Charlotte suppressed the desire to bite him.

From the kitchen window, Edma looked on as the Exorcist and the Mother Superior continued to talk alone together in the garden. With bowed head and bright eyes, the Mother Superior listened attentively to the heretical creed of Mani.

"Sexuality," said the Exorcist (Edma was eavesdropping), "has its roots in every garden. ..."

"As does Nostalgia," the Mother Superior whisPèred, inspired, "for an earlier epoch when Matter was shorn of Risk."

"Matter," the Exorcist reprimanded, "is Risk."

Meanwhile Charlotte fidgeted in her chair, lifted crumbs from the cracks in the kitchen table with a hairpin and picked her nose.

"Idle fingers do the Devil's work!" Edma snapped. "Go and fetch your sewing!"

Charlotte went to her room for the underthings she was in the process of embroidering with her initials. As she sewed by the light of the open door she deliberated upon the afternoon's lesson. It occurred to her that a Truly Spiritual Person must one day cease to consume matter—both animal and vegetable—entirely.

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