The Fatal Fall

Two-2

I’M WALKING DOWN THE hallway at the police station toward Helen’s office when I pass a conference room. Glancing inside, I stop at the site of my bride-to-be, the Chief of Police, talking to a group of children and their moms.

I recognize most of the group as Saint Clare’s homeschooling co-op. Miriam Conway, one of the leaders, is there, along with her daughter Catherine. Other moms and children from the parish are listening in rapt attention to Helen speak.

“So,” she’s saying with a smile, “when we need to track a bad guy through the woods, or see if a car or van has drugs in it, we call on Sergeant Cupcake here for help.”

I walk in and smile at the sight of the proud German shepherd standing next to Helen. She has her hand firmly on the leash, more to emphasize her control than to prevent Cupcake from hurting the children.

Unless given a command to attack, Cupcake is as sweet and gentle a dog as I’ve ever seen.

A hand shoots up. Helen smiles at the questioner. “Yes, David?”

Daniel Wright, child of the parish—and a nemesis of Catherine, truth be told—asks in his usual loud way, “Is she trained to kill?”

That produces startled gasps from some of the children. But before Helen can answer, Catherine steps forward to Cupcake and drops to her knees, wrapping her arms around the dog. In response, the dog whines and licks her face.”

“I know, I know,” Catherine says. “That’s just Daniel. He’s a poopyhead.”

Miriam says, “Catherine, what?—”

The girl looks up at her mom with her wide brown eyes. “Daniel hurt her feelings. She doesn’t like it when people think she’s a bad dog, just because she works for the police.”

Helen says quickly, “That’s right, Catherine. Cupcake is highly trained and only attacks on command—not to kill, just to stop a bad person. Now, that’s the end of our tour, who—”

Daniel laughs and says, “What, Spooky? You can talk to animals, now?”

Catherine stands up and turns to face her tormenter. But before she can say anything, Cupcake growls menacingly at Daniel.

“Aahh!” the boy screams. Cupcake growls a little louder and stands up, taking a step forward.

“Down, Cupcake! Obey!” Helen commands, pulling at the leash.

“I thought you said she wasn’t dangerous, Chief!” Daniel’s mom Lilith says, grabbing up her now-scared son.

“She’s not,” Helen says, still pulling on the leash.

“Don’t let her eat me!” Daniel says. “I’m sorry, Catherine! Tell her I’m sorry!”

Calmly, Catherine turns around and says to Cupcake, “He’s sorry. You can stop now.”

Immediately, the shepherd stops growling and sits. Catherine pats her on the head. “Good girl,” she whispers.

“Um—I—I’m sorry about that,” Helen stammers. “Ahem, now, we have some treats for all of you right over there. I’ll just take the Sergeant back to her partner.”

Quickly, Helen walks from the room, leading Cupcake. I realize that no one has made a move to the table ladened with punch and cookies.

Instead, all eyes are on Catherine. And Miriam.

I decide an intervention is in order, so I clear my throat and say, “The Lord be With You!”

Automatically, the moms and children respond, “And with your spirit!”

“Bless us, oh Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

“Now,” I say with a smile, “with those tempting treats properly blessed, eat up!”

Deciding that cookies are more interesting than what just happened, the children clamor to the table. Catherine walks with the group, but I notice no one is speaking to her.

“Miriam, you need to do something about her!” I turn to see Lilith talking to Miriam, who visibly stiffens at this.

“What do you mean, Lilith?” she asks with her chin up.

“What do I mean? Look, I thought all this talk about ‘Spooky Catherine’ and her seeing visions and angels and everything like that was just something the kids made up. I heard the rumors about her predicting that Father Tom and Helen Parr were going to get married, and dismissed them as foolish. But after what I saw today—I’m sorry, there’s something wrong with her. Even dangerous.”

I open my mouth to step in, but Miriam says, “Lilith, there is nothing wrong with Catherine, and certainly nothing dangerous. She sees things the rest of us can’t. Other than that, she’s just a normal little girl.”

“You really think—”

“And before you start showing concern for my daughter, perhaps you should talk to Daniel about how bad bullying is. Because that’s what he is. A bully.”

Lilith stiffens and walks away, grabs Daniel out of the line for the treats, and begins to lead him away from the table.

“Miriam, I’m sorry,” she says across the room, “but we won’t be at co-op anymore.”

“Have a nice day,” Miriam grins and waves.

As soon as the angry mom clears the doorway, Miriam’s shoulders sag and she sinks into a seat. The other moms are busy with their children, so I walk over to her and sit down next to her.

“Are you OK?” I ask, placing my hand gently on her shoulder.

She looks at me and sighs. “Yes. No. I don’t know,” she says. Looking over at Catherine, who is eating cookies and laughing with a couple of other girls, she adds, “I wish she had never fallen out of that tree and hit her head. It jarred something, Father. The doctor’s say her scans are perfectly normal, but ever since then—she’s been like this.”

I nod my head. Catherine’s gift is as undeniable as it is inexplicable.

“Dan and I are at a loss,” she continues. “It was one thing when we could keep it private. But now, it’s like the entire parish knows. And today’s not going to help.” Turning to me, she asks, “Any advice?”

I take a deep breath. “Miriam, I pray for your family every day, and for Catherine in particular. But beyond that, this is a little above my pay grade. I do think one thing that might help is if you start teaching Catherine to be more discreet in what she says and who she says it to. You, Dan, me as her priest—that’s fine, but she needs to keep anything she sees or hears private otherwise.”

Miriam nods. “I just don’t want her to be shunned by the other children.”

Just then, there is a burst of girlish laughter. We turn to see a group gathered around Catherine, and they’re all chattering animatedly about something.

Pointing to the scene. “I don’t think you need to worry too much about that, Miriam. From what I’ve observed, children have an easier time accepting one of their own who is different than many adults do.”