Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 02 - Dark Carnival Read Online Free PDF

today.”
    “Hello,
Sarah.  How are you?”
    With
her right hand, Sarah rubbed her left elbow through her tattered coat.  “My
joints are hurtin’ pretty bad today.  You think you can fix ‘em up, Miles?”
    He
smiled pleasantly at her.  “I don’t see why not.  Why don’t you come back a
little later?  I have some things to take care of first, and then we’ll be
ready to start.”
    Sarah
looked at me, perplexed at first, and then a note of realization hit her.  “Hey!
 Is she gonna to help, too?”  She grinned, revealing two missing bottom teeth.
    Miles
patted her on the back.  “We hope so.”  He pulled out a ten dollar bill from
his pocket and handed it to her.  “Why don’t you go get some lunch and then
come back later, okay?”
    She grinned, looking down
at the ground and, with one dirty shoe, kicked at a few pebbles nearby.  “I
ain’t taking your money, Miles.  They fed me lunch already today.  You go ahead
and keep it.  You might need it later.”
    “Please,
Sarah?” he coaxed her.
    “Well
… okay.  But don’t offer me any next time, okay?”
    “You
got it.”
    Sarah
hesitantly took the money from Miles, and he and I went inside the convent as
Sarah headed down the street.
    The
nuns were Dominican, in honor of St. Dominic, and they wore white.  They varied
greatly in age from twenties to seventies.  We were greeted in the lobby by one
nun who appeared to be in her mid fifties.  Her hair was brunette with a few
streaks of silver, her smile warm and welcoming.  Around her waist was a woolen
belt.
    “Miles,
is this Leigh?  The young lady you were telling us about?”
    Miles
smiled at her.  “Yes.  Leigh, I’d like you to meet Sister Alice Martin.  Alice,
this is Leigh Benoit.”
    Sister
Alice shook my hand.  “Pleasure to meet you, Leigh.”
    “You,
too,” I said.
    “I
think we should show her around the convent first, and then we can get to
work,” said Miles.
    “Why
don’t you go ahead and set up in the back.  I’ll give Leigh a little tour.”
    “Sounds
good,” he said.  He smiled at me for the first time since I met him.  “You’ll
be okay with Sister Alice.”
    “Sure,”
I said, returning the smile.  He headed for the back of the convent with his
black case.
    “Right
this way, Leigh,” said Sister Alice, leading me through the lobby and out into
the courtyard in the center of the convent.  It was lovely with a small
reflecting pond and stone benches with a large oak tree in the middle of the
yard.  The convent itself formed a square shape with a Spanish-style covered
walkway extending around the parameter of the courtyard.
    Sister
Alice talked as she led me across the courtyard.  “We often use this area to
visit with family and friends and for solo time to pray and be connected with
nature.  In the far northeast corner we have a little vegetable garden.  That
and the flowers and plants you see are all thanks to Sister Melanie.  She has
the green thumb here.  I’m sure she’s here somewhere.  Can’t miss her—a tiny,
little blonde.  She’s in her thirties, but when she’s wearing normal clothes,
she’s constantly mistaken for a teenager.”
    When
we got to the other side, she stopped under the covered walkway in front of a
set of thick, oak double doors.  She opened them, revealing a hallway with
fifteen doors.
    “This
is the dormitory.  We each have our own rooms.  Right now, there are only
thirteen of us.  Sadly, we recently lost Sister Margot to pneumonia.  She was
eighty-two and the best cook we had.”  She smiled fondly at this. “And Sister
Diane—she’s twenty-four—left a couple of months ago, saying she was being
called to do mission work in Haiti.  She was our resident photographer.”
    “Couldn’t
Miles help her?” I asked.
    “I’m
sorry?”
    “Sister
Margot.  Couldn’t Miles heal her pneumonia?”
    Sister
Alice seemed as though she sighed internally.  “No.  It was her time to go,”
she said