But in the end, she joined the convent.
I chose the right path, the Reverend Mother Betina thought, because I have never known so much happiness…
And now here was this battered child saying, “I’m afraid.”
The Reverend Mother took Graciela’s hand. “Take your time, Graciela. God won’t go away. Think about it and come back and we can discuss it.”
But what was there to think about? I’ve nowhere else in the world to go, Graciela thought. And the silence would be welcome. I have heard too many terrible sounds. She looked at the Reverend Mother and said, “I will welcome the silence.”
That had been seventeen years earlier, and since then Graciela had found peace for the first time. Her life was dedicated to God. The past no longer belonged to her. She was forgiven the horrors she had grown up with. She was Christ’s bride, and at the end of her life, she would join Him.
As the years passed in deep silence, despite the occasional nightmares, the terrible sounds in her mind gradually faded away.
Sister Graciela was assigned to work in the garden, tending the tiny rainbows of God’s miracle, never tiring of their splendor. The walls of the convent rose high above her on all sides like a stone mountain, but Graciela never felt that they were shutting her in; they were shutting the terrible world out, a world she never wanted to see again.
Life in the convent was serene and peaceful. But now, suddenly, her terrible nightmares had turned into a reality. Her world had been invaded by barbarians. They had forced her out of her sanctuary, into the world she had renounced forever. And her sins came flooding back, filling her with horror. The Moor had returned. She could feel his hot breath on her face. As she fought him, Graciela opened her eyes, and it was the friar on top of her trying to penetrate her. He was saying, “Stop fighting me, Sister. You’re going to enjoy this!”
“Mama,” Graciela cried aloud. “Mama! Help me!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lucia Carmine felt wonderful as she walked down the street with Megan and Teresa. It was marvelous to wear feminine clothes again and hear the whisper of silk against her skin. She glanced at the others. They were walking nervously, unaccustomed to their new clothes, looking self-conscious and embarrassed in their skirts and stockings. They look as though they’ve been dropped from another planet. They sure as hell don’t belong on this one, Lucia thought. They might as well be wearing signs that say CATCH ME.
Sister Teresa was the most uncomfortable of the three women. Thirty years in the convent had deeply ingrained a sense of modesty in her, and it was being violated by the events that had been thrust upon her. This world to which she had once belonged now seemed unreal. It was the convent that was real, and she longed to hurry back to the sanctuary of its protective walls.
Megan was aware that men were eyeing her as she walked down the street, and she blushed. She had lived in a world of women for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to see a man, let alone have one smile at her. It was embarrassing, indecent…exciting. The men aroused feelings in Megan that had been long since buried. For the first time in years, she was conscious of her femininity.
They were passing the bar they had gone by before and the music was blaring out into the street. What had Friar Carrillo called it? Rock and roll Very popular with the young. Something bothered her. And suddenly Megan realized what it was. When they had passed the theater, the friar had said: It’s disgraceful what the cinema is permitted to show these days. That movie is pure pornography. The most personal and private acts are there for everyone to see.
Megan’s heart began to beat faster. If Friar Carrillo had been locked up in a monastery for the past twenty years, how could he possibly have known about rock music or what was in the movie? Something was terribly wrong.
She turned to Lucia and Teresa and said urgently, “We’ve got to return to the store.”