“You don’t think it’s a little twisted?” The younger nun looked surprised. She had read high school essays for years and had never seen one like that.
“Of course I do. That’s the whole point. It’s supposed to be, and she works hard at it. She certainly doesn’t leave anything to the imagination. We should encourage her, not hold her back,” Mother MaryMeg admonished, and Sister Xavier walked away after saying that Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot were more her cup of tea. But definitely not Alex’s, or not in many years. Her writing was razor sharp and wielded like a scalpel. Both nuns thought about her again that night. The elder of the two was in awe of her ability, and the younger shaken by the horrors she created in her mind. But both of them were haunted by the story.
Alex went to bed with another idea for a story that night. She just wished she could show them to her father, who understood her style and knew how to comment on where it needed work to improve it. His editing had been a big help to her. She didn’t feel her writing was as strong without him, and it made her miss him even more. But it pleased her that the mother superior had liked her story, and that Sister Xavier was terrified by it. It made Alex smile as she thought of it and fell asleep.
—
Alex’s first month at St. Dominic’s flew by. They celebrated her fifteenth birthday three weeks after she moved in, and baked her a cake. It was her first birthday without her father, but they helped her get through it. She found her new school unexciting and uneventful. She made a few friends between classes, but no one she wanted to spend time with. She didn’t want to have to explain to them why she was living at the convent. Elena came to visit her on her birthday and cried the whole time, but Alex told her that she was fine and the nuns were good to her. She had told Bill Buchanan the same when he called. Mother MaryMeg had corroborated that she was doing well.
Alex was pleased that she could be alone in her room to work on her writing, but she was also helpful to the nuns when they needed her to be. She was no trouble at all. She was closest to Sister Regina, and despite the thirteen-year difference in their ages, they had become friends, and they confided in each other. Alex was very fond of Sister Xavier too, who had helped her prepare for a math test, on which she got an A. She was getting perfect grades in school.
At the end of the semester, the teachers handed out slips at school for the students’ parents to sign up for parent-teacher conferences, and Alex didn’t know what to do with hers so she threw them away. She had no parents to attend. Two of her teachers kept her after class to remind her that her parents hadn’t signed up yet. They didn’t know her story or where she lived, as her records were confidential. Only the principal knew that she was living at the convent.
She told Mother MaryMeg about the problem that night. “Can’t they just skip it? Why does someone have to go to their dumb conferences? My grades are fine.” Mother MaryMeg thought about it for a minute. She didn’t want to put the spotlight on Alex as different.
“What about if Sister Xavier goes for you, or Sister Thomas? Or both of them if you want. How does that sound to you?” She was trying to be creative, so the school didn’t feel that Alex’s family was disinterested in her, or disrespectful of her teachers or the school. Faculty didn’t respond well to that.
“Okay, I guess. My father hated those conferences too, and he didn’t always go. I never had a problem at school, my grades were good, and he didn’t think it was necessary. And once my English teacher called him in to complain about my stories.” Mother MaryMeg had read several more and that didn’t surprise her at all. She could clearly see Alex’s gift, and also why a teacher would find it disturbing, just as Sister Xavier had at first, although she was used to Alex’s stories now.
“I’ll see if Sister Xavier can make time to go, or Sister Tommy,” which was their nickname for Sister Thomas. When she asked them, they both said they wanted to go, since they had grown attached to their young ward. Alex got new slips for them, and they signed up and went together. They were very satisfied with what they heard, except that all of her teachers found her introverted and withdrawn and said that she needed to socialize more with her peers. But the nuns she lived with knew another side of her now, since they saw more of her, and at times they found her gregarious and funny, and she loved to tease and play tricks on them. But outside of her home environment, which the convent was now, she was quiet and shy, and she seemed to have trouble making friends with young people her age. Both nuns mentioned it to her when they told her about the teacher conferences. At school, one of her teachers said she had met her aunts and Alex wondered if that was who they had said they were. But another teacher said she had met her mother and aunt. No one seemed to be clear about who the two nuns were, nor cared, which was fine with her. She didn’t correct them either, and didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her that both of her parents were dead. It would have made her seem like a freak to the other students, and in her own eyes.
Mother MaryMeg was satisfied with their reports. She arranged to send Alex to a Catholic camp that summer in New Hampshire, where she would be an assistant counselor. And although Alex complained bitterly about going, she actually enjoyed it, and came back healthy and tan after swimming and sailing and taking care of younger kids for two months. But she couldn’t wait to get into her writing again as soon as she returned. Her stories were becoming more intricate and longer, and the nuns who read them could see progress and growth. Sister Xavier said they were more disturbing than ever, which Alex took as a compliment, and she was particularly pleased when Sister Xavier said she had had nightmares for two days after reading the latest one.
“Yes!” Alex said, and did a little victory dance around her. “And wait till you read the next one. You won’t sleep for a week!” she promised, and Sister Xavier rolled her eyes. But they had missed her when she was away, and were happy to hear her tales of the camp, the other counselors, and the campers, whom she had loved. It had been a great summer, and she had played baseball on the counselors’ team against the older kids. It reminded her of playing baseball with her dad.