Page 55 of The Gathering
“Agreed,” he muttered.
“But ifyou’reneeding a nine-year-old explaining, then I surely can’t tell you. I’m not into scandalizing people.”
His laugh belted out.
“What?” she demanded.
“You can’t scandalize me.”
“Is that a challenge, Mr. Mayhem?”
“It definitely isn’t. Miss Sister.”
Her glittery laughter hit the air like a scatter-shot. “You’refunny!”
“You’re shocked.”
“I am, given your name!”
“Well, I can say the same about you, givenyourname.”
That put her in her place for about three steps. “Do you want to know why I became a nun?”
The question weighed with sometesthe normally wouldn’t take but it also felt like a wild card he needed. “I do.”
“It was The Sound of Music!”
Of course. “Which music?”
“Not music, the movie The Sound of Music. It’s a classic. About the girl that isn’t sure she wants to be a nun so attends the Abby to find out. What she really wanted was to bring joy to people and figured a nun was the perfect job to do that. The Sisters at the Abby saw her wild spirit and knew the convent walls were not the place for her, so they sent her to be the governess for the widowed husband and father of seven children.” She shot a smile over her shoulder. “So she wins over the children—who vowed no replacement for their mother—with music and songs and love and patience.” Another flash grin tossed back. “And that’s not the only thing she won over. The hardened Mr. Captain George Von Trapp also got himself won over.”
He waited for more, particularly the logical parts of such a decision but instead got all those useless details she seemed excessively fond of. All the soft, pretty colors. Never mind the blacks and blues and sick greens of reality—colors she eventually met.
“But whatexactpart of this movie made you want to become a nun?”
“All of it!” she cried. “Minus the falling in love part, I had no interest in that, obviously!”
“Obviously?”
“My grandmother said it was my superpower.”
“What was? Singing?” Her big laugh was like a canon and it made him grin. “You don’t sing?”
“Oh Idosing—all the time! But it’snotmy superpower, my Sisters will assure you. It’s my ability to bring joy to others,”she said, quiet for a few seconds. “Apparently, she thought I had a knack for it.”
Sinrik felt all the wrong colors bleed into those last few words. “You do have a knack for it,” he assured.
She turned fully and stopped, her smile returning. “I do?”
He stopped at a distance that allowed for close-up reading. She noticed the proximity and took a step back. He eyed her then stepped forward again. She again took note, but didn’t move. “Are you using your tricks?” she wondered, happy to let him.
“And what if I was?” he said, bothered by it. Bothered she didn’t know him or his tricks or anybody else’s tricks.
She considered the question like it might be a test. “Well… if you must.”
“You need to stop doing that.”
She looked up at him. “What am I doing?”
