‘And your blessing?’
‘Why not?’ I couldn’t think of any reason why I wouldn’t give it. It was slightly irksome but if something good, such as Christy getting a book published could come out of this, then who was I to prevent it?
*
‘I have something to ask you,’ Mary said, standing at thedoor of my office. ‘I need to go away. I know it’s short notice but…’ She looked at me pleadingly.
‘Come in,’ I said. ‘Come and sit down.’ We were two weeks to the end of term. Something must be wrong. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I am so sorry, Tabitha,’ she said, sitting down in the chair in front of my desk, her hands twisting in her lap. ‘But I have to go. I don’t have a choice.’
‘Okay…’
‘But,’she said quickly, ‘everything’s in order. I thought that I might have to go and so I’ve been getting everything ready just in case. Just in case. The school reports are ready to send out, all the notices for next term, the filing… everything’s done. I stayed late, all night, actually, yesterday. It’s all done.’ She looked at me. ‘Please?’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘If you have to. But what is it?Where are you going? Are you ill?’
She shook her head. ‘No, not ill. I’m fine but I can’t tell you, Tabitha, but I will, as soon as I’m home again I will. I just can’t. It’s too important and…’ There were tears in her eyes. I’d never seen Mary well up before. ‘I can’t tell anyone anything. Just in case…’
‘Just in case what?’
‘Just in case I jinx it.’
Maybe it was financial trouble? She wasn’tabout to join the Sisters of Charity? Never to be seen again without a wimple.
‘It’s all I’ve ever wanted,’ she said. ‘I can’t tell you what it is because you’ll tell me not to do it or that it’s too risky and I’ll only get hurt like the last time…’
‘If there’s anything I can do to help you… anything at all… Please call me. Money… whatever you need.’
‘Tabitha, you make it sound like I’m dying.’
‘You’re not are you?’
‘My time will come but, as far as I’m aware, it won’t be anytime soon.’
‘You will look after yourself, won’t you? And call me, any time. Please?’
She nodded. ‘I’ve never been so nervous in my entire life,’ she said, standing up. ‘Wish me luck, Tabitha. Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck Mary.’ It was like she was off to war. Oh Jesus. She wasn’t heading off to fight terrorists,was she? I went over to her and we grabbed each other’s hands and hugged tightly, her tiny body shaking like a leaf.
