A Seal Upon Your Heart

Chapter 2

"Don't you dare forget. I am Tutsi and you are Hutu, but here we are just Africans. They took away your name, but don't let them take your history. Mwaramutse!"

"Mwaramutse," Jane whispered back.

"And I want you to say that to me each morning, little one; good morning in our own language."

Jane had nodded shyly at the bigger and tougher girl's words.

Jane pulled the last letter from the envelope. It had been written three years ago. She looked at the address and telephone number, an invitation for her when she left St. Bartholoma. Except Jane had never left and now she was twenty-three and didn't know how to move forward.

Dhakiya had left on her eighteenth birthday, and Jane had never again set eyes on her sister-friend. Even still, they had exchanged letters and the older woman had offered to help her when the time came. And now Jane hoped Dhakiya would help her find a place. She loved the sisters, but she also hated every second of her life with them.

She slipped the letter into the pocket of her dress and replaced the others. Then she left the large building and walked into town. Bartholoma was located in Silverton; a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. Silverton had a small library, a strip mall, a park—and not much else. When she attended the all girl's college located on the other side of town, a bus collected her, giving her an opportunity to see glimpses of a city that she was not familiar with. Thus the reason that she enjoyed the long walk into town; it gave her an opportunity to see the world around her. Oh, there were television and books. But the sister's frowned on anything that was not considered educational.

Once they had watched a movie about faith, and the husband and wife had kissed. Jane had felt a strange sensation at the sight of it. But Sister Nicolette said that those feelings were bad and needed to be suppressed. You weren't allowed to touch yourself because doing so would only make you act on those bad feelings.

Later Dhakiya had said that Sister Nicolette was a stupid cow. "Jane, it is your body to do with as you please. Who are they to say it is wrong to find pleasure in touching or even imagining?"

She knew that her friend was right, but the sisters were so convincing when they taught that those feelings were bad. And therefore you didn't associate with things that brought those feelings to light. Yet she still could not completely forget that kiss. Her heart would race and her ears would ring and her eyes would imagine a man that wanted to place his lips on hers.

Why should that be bad? It wasn't coupling. It was her body becoming joyous—and not only over the idea of being married to God.

After an hour of brisk walking she reached town. She went straight for the public library because it was the only other place that she felt familiar with. It was almost like home, a place to study, to enjoy time away from the sisters, to read about things that didn't have scripture in it. The library was more of a home to her than the school was.

But her purpose for being there was to use the public phone. She slipped in the necessary coins and dialed the number that was on the letter that she clutched. Maybe Dhakiya wouldn't want to hear from her after all this time. Maybe she would be disappointed that she had chosen to stay so long when Dhakiya could barely wait to escape.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Dhakiya? I can't believe it's really you!" Any hesitation immediately left her at the familiar sound of her best friend's voice.

"Ah! Martier? My God, little one, I never thought I'd hear from you." Her rich voice caused Jane to smile. The accent was still present even though Jane had pretty much lost hers. "Where are you? Are you still at the school?"

"Yes."

"Please tell me that you haven't become a nun!"

"No."

"Thank God! We have to get caught up! Can we get together?" Her friend was speaking rapidly and Jane couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Yes. I was hoping you'd say that."

"Where are you? I can come get you." Jane couldn't stop smiling at her friend's enthusiasm, and it was almost as if they hadn't last seen each other seven long years ago. Jane told her where she was and waited for Dhakiya to come and get her.

Tim hung up the phone with a scowl. Sister-whatever-her-name-is had wrangled a favor out of him. He'd promised some girl a job, and not just any girl but one from a convent! The firm only hired through a temp service, which made it much simpler to get rid of them.

Working closely with an assistant, a secretary, or a paralegal was all very personal. Whether or not a girl stayed around for any amount of time should have been based on her knowledge and skill, but looks factored in as well. Some even looked for the pretty ones. Tim knew this from experience. Once upon a time, hadn't he done the same? An attorney involved in an interoffice affair was par for the course. Not that he had been married at the time, but close proximity and long hours made things happen. However, he had never been tempted to cheat on Corrine, of that he was proud.

With a sigh, he grabbed his briefcase and left the office.

"Good night, Mr. Singleton," the temp said.

He didn't even try to think of her name. She was the third one that he'd had in the last six months. It had been a bad year.

He muttered some type of response and left, thinking about what he'd do with the girl from the school. He'd dump her into the clerical pool or maybe the mailroom. There was no way that she could mess anything up down there.

Corrine had been fond of her causes, one of which had been little orphaned children. He barely knew which charity his checks went to. His dear Corrine had been the one to keep up with that. But now … Tim shook the thought out of his head and stepped into the elevator.