The Sisterhood by Helen Bryan

Author:Helen Bryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Religious, Historical, General
ISBN: 9781611099287
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Las Golondrinas Convent, Spain, April 2000

The next morning Sor Teresa shrilled, “Deo gratias!” and Menina rubbed her swollen eyes, and pushed herself up. She hated the world and everything and everyone in it. Her head ached. Thursday. Three days till Easter. Then she remembered the humiliation of yesterday and nothing mattered.

Sor Teresa hobbled briskly out the door. Menina drank her coffee without tasting it, cringing at the way she had lost control the day before. She couldn’t afford to do that again. She pulled on her clothes, feeling numb.

An hour later, she was following Sor Clara toward the sala grande when Sor Clara paused in the kitchen and, grinning broadly, pointed to a startling sight: a large basket of foil-wrapped chocolate fish, wrapped in layers of rainbow-colored cellophane, all topped with a huge bow of multicolored ribbon trailing elaborate ribbon curls. The label said: VALOR.

“Valor is famous, very nice, very expensive!” said Sor Clara, appreciatively. “Captain Fernández Galán brought it.”

Menina eyed the rainbow basket. “Why?”

“Why? Because fish are a Christian symbol! In Spain there are chocolate fish for Easter; people give for presents, in the family, to friends.” Sor Clara cast a sly glance at Menina. “Men give to girls. And a little note is here.” She handed it to Menina and waited.

Menina unfolded a scrap of paper that said “Polizia” at the top, and read aloud.

Señorita Walker, Every year my older sister in Zaragoza sends these for Semana Santa, to remind me I am still her little brother. Please accept them for yourself and the sisters with my compliments.

Alejandro Fernández Galán

Menina normally loved chocolate. Now she ground her teeth, ripped the note in pieces, and was about to hurl the basket on the floor and stomp it flat with her Timberlands when the frightened look on Sor Clara’s face stopped her. “You must take it,” Sor Clara quavered anxiously, pointing at the basket. “Please, you bring it. Alejandro said he will see you later.”

Oh hell! “Why?” She picked up the heavy basket.

Sor Clara shrugged and opened the door of the sala grande. “I don’t know why. Is another of his girlfriends here last night.” Obviously the old-lady grapevine didn’t shut down over Semana Santa. “So many girlfriends. He should get married. He is lonely.”

“Is he?” It came out a little sharper than Menina intended. Why didn’t he give his girlfriend the damned chocolate, let her get fat! In the sala grande Menina slammed the basket down. Captain Fernández Galán was a pain in the ass! One minute he was rude, the next he was worrying about the nuns, the next prying out her secrets, the next…another red-hot girlfriend. She was sick of the captain.

In fact, she was thoroughly irritated by everything and everyone, including poor Sor Clara, the walls of dirty, stupid pictures, and the fact that she probably had only four or five hours of good light. She looked at the painting of the crowd and the demons in its tarnished silver frame, and the clean space on the wall where it had hung.

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