Mother Superior Maria Devna told Dree, “Before you leave Sunday morning, you will wake us. We will pack the tetanus and other vaccines that have to be refrigerated. They should not freeze and should not get too warm, but you know this because you are a nurse.”
Dree pulled Sister Mariam aside and asked, “Am I going to need all these things? Are there hospitals where we’re going?”
Mariam shook her head sadly. “Jumla province is very poor. The cities are, of course, like cities everywhere, smaller versions of Kathmandu. There is an excellent training school for doctors and nurses near Chandannath, the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. However, once you get out into the countryside, it is very bad. Some people do not see doctors for years, and many people die of things that they should not. You will take the supplies?”
“Of course, I will. I’m a nurse. I took an oath to treat people and save their lives.”
Mariam patted Dree’s hand. “It is much like the vows that we take. Indeed, a great number of nurses are also sisters because this desire to help someone is very close to God. I know you will be with Deacon Father Maxence, but he may not be with you every moment of the day.”
That was uncomfortably close to what Maxence had said. Dree suddenly had a little more trepidation about going out into the wilds of Nepal, even though she had grown up near the Mexican border in southwestern New Mexico.
Sister Mariam continued, “I can give you a veil to wear, so people will think you are a religious sister, and they will leave you alone. They will also respect you more. Do you have a cross?”
“Um, no. I’m sorry. It was stolen. I wasn’t wearing it when I went to work on the last day when I was in the United States. None of us nurses wear jewelry. You never know when you’re to be standing next to an MRI scanner and have your earrings ripped out of your ears. Anyway, everything I owned got stolen while I was at work.”
Mariam frowned. “May I ask what happened?”
Dree swallowed hard, trying to clear her embarrassment out of her throat and her voice. “One day while I was working a fifteen-hour shift, my fiancé stole all my money and every single possession that I owned, and he sold everything for whatever he could get for it because he owed a lot of money to some criminals. When I got home, I hadnothing.Everythingwas gone. After I fled the country and freaked out for a few days, I called the principal of the Catholic high school where I’d gone to school, and she hooked me up with people to get me here, where my ex or some other people who are looking for him won’t be able to find me.”
Sister Mariam’s eyes had gone wide, showing white all around her very dark brown irises. “I just wanted to get away from home and leave Kerala.”
Dree laughed. “It’s a stupid thing that happened to me. I still can’t quite believe it.”
Mariam shook herself and blinked a few times. “Nevertheless, we are very happy that you are here, and we honor and respect you for doing a mission for Catholic Charities. If you ever want to become a sister in our order, we would happily accept you. Wouldn’t we, Mother Superior?”
Mother Superior Maria Devna nodded. “Although we would appreciate it if you would gossip less and not lead Sister Mariam into temptation.”
Sister Mariam blinked, and Dree got the distinct impression that she was working very hard not to roll her eyes or glare at her mother superior. She said, “Come with me, Andrea Catherine. We will find a veil for you.”
Before they could go, the mother superior asked Dree, “Did Father Maxence mention if he was saying Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Sunday?”
“He didn’t mention Sunday, and I think we’re leaving too early that morning,” Dree told her. “But he said he would be assisting and preaching the homily there tomorrow morning, Saturday.”
A shiver ran through the group of sisters, and they all glanced at one another.
Mother Superior Maria Devna said, “I will reserve the school bus for tomorrow morning.”
Dree stuck her tongue between her molars to keep from cracking up. She certainly understood why they were all excited, though.
She’d been on her knees in front of Maxence, and it was spectacular.
After giggling with Sister Mariam half the night because she really did know all the gossip about every religious person in Kathmandu, Dree sat in a pew the next morning at Our Lady of Perpetual Help with the rest of the sisters, all of whom wore perfectly pleated dove gray saris and shining faces.
Thank goodness Dree had made her confession to Father Moses just a few days before, so she didn’t have to ask Sister Mariam to find her a confessor because she’d been having relations first with her boyfriend Francis for months and then with the almost-priest-guy for four glorious days.
Oops.Impure thoughts. She didn’t need any of those on her conscience, especially while she was actually sitting in church and could finally take communion again.
It felt good to be able to receive communion and have a clear conscience. Francis had always made fun of her for being upset and not wanting to go to church because she was too embarrassed to admit she’d slept with him and upset because they weren’t going to stop, and then there was the whole birth control issue.
But she and Maxence had agreed not to indulge ever again, and so they wouldn’t.
With an open and honest heart, she’d told Father Moses in Paris that she had no intention of sinning anymore.
Heck, at the time, she’d believed she was never going to see Augustine again.
And now the spectacularly gorgeous Augustine—Maxence!
Dang it, she had to remember that guy’s name wasMaxence,though she had told him to lie to her about his name.
