A Seal Upon Your Heart

Chapter 4

"Well, Christ will be there to pick up the pieces when I lose my mind. But the thing is to try not to lose it in the first place!"

"I hear you!"

Dhakiya's eyes grew sharp. "So what in the hell are you still doing at that school?"

"Well, I've been going to school and I just got my degree."

"Congratulations. I always knew you were college material. But you have to get out of there, Martier. Their piousness is their poison."

Jane shook her head, becoming uncomfortable. "You sound like one of those people they always talk about."

Dhakiya's dark lips twisted. "You mean one of those that are trying to lead you down the wrong path?" She rose and headed for the living room with Jane following close on her heels ready to apologize. "Do you still read the same book of the Bible?" her friend asked offhandedly.

Jane blushed and tried to deny it. Dhakiya reached a bookshelf and after a moment selected a book which she thrust into her friend's hand. Jane saw that it was a collection of poems by Maya Angelou.

"Do you know of this woman?"

"I know the name but haven't ever read her works."

"I want you to take this book. Read it. Read these poems and then you tell me if they are evil, if I am sending you down the wrong path."

Jane nodded solemnly and they continued catching up while Jane explained her dilemma. Dhakiya revealed that she lived with her boyfriend. He was an African American man that was also an auto mechanic. She was in love and offered to prepare Jane a traditional dinner one day soon so that she could introduce them.

"I'd let you live here, but …"

Jane was already shaking her head. She couldn't live with a man she didn't know. How different her friend had become. They weren't raised to live with a man in sin. She felt guilty judging her. But she also was not willing to cast away all that she had learned from the sisters because Dhakiya could.

"When you have enough to pay for half of the deposit and first month's rent then I'll help you with the other half."

"Are you sure?"

"Very much so."

As Dhakiya drove Jane back to school, she slipped a CD into the player. Jane began to nod her head to the beat of drums behind soft music. But then a voice began to sing and Jane's eyes grew large. She looked at Dhakiya. The female singer was chanting in Kinyarwanda and the voices of children could be heard. The music caused her heart to ache and her mouth flew open. She remembered running in the sun with other little boys and girls, and their voices were like bells—

"Martier."

Jane looked at her friend. They had parked in front of the school and Jane hadn't even realized it. Her eyes sparkled.

Dhakiya spoke in soft Kinyarwanda. "Do you remember?"

"I won't forget," Jane responded in their mother tongue. Dhakiya searched her eyes. She ejected the CD.

"Take this with you."

"No," Jane was shaking her head adamantly. "I can't. The sisters …" She had switched back to English.

"Yego! Please. It's for you to remember."

Jane swiftly took the offered CD and leaned forward to kiss her sister/friend. It was nearly eight o'clock and there was a curfew that was strictly enforced, even for an adult like Jane.

"When will I see you again?" she asked as she scrambled out of the car.

"Monday? Then you can tell me about your job."

"Muramuke!" she called over her shoulder as she hurried up the walkway.

"Turongera."

It was 7:50 when Jane entered the school. "Where were you?" Sister Short Mary asked. There were three nuns named Mary so everyone referred to them as Short Mary, Tall Mary, and Black Mary—unless it was to their face, of course. Then they reverted back to being Sister Mary.

"I … went to the library." It wasn't quite a lie.

"Well, you missed dinner so I hope you already ate. And Sister Louise was looking for you." She didn't seem pleased. Sister Short Mary was a nun who had chosen to stay "out of the world." Her life only revolved around the school, the children, and church.

"Yes, Sister. I'll go see her now."

"You missed devotion."

Jane nodded as she headed up the stairs. "Yes. I'll pray extra hard tonight." She went to her room. Sister Callista had not retired for the night so thankfully she had the room to herself. She didn't want to have to explain the book and the CD to the older woman. She slipped the items into her underwear drawer and then hurried to Sister Louise's office. She wasn't there so she went to her room.

None of the nuns had large rooms, and they were each simply decorated. Even Sister Louise, who was as close to a Mother Superior that the school had, had only a simple room with a narrow bed, a desk and chair, and three pictures on her walls. Jane never looked directly at any of them. They made her shiver. The first was of St. Mary Bartholomea of Florence, the school's namesake. The other was of the Madonna with the Christ child on her lap, and the last was of the Pieta, of Mary holding the dead Christ in her arms. Jane couldn't reconcile the two conflicting emotions that the painting brought.

She cleared her throat. "Sister? You were looking for me?"

The sister had retired to her gown and robe. She closed a ledger and stood. "Yes, you left so quickly I didn't have a chance to tell you anything about where you will be employed." The sister chuckled and Jane relaxed, remembering that sound of merriment from when she was a child and everything had been so scary until Sister Louise had brought her to the office and spoke to her so kindly. She'd laughed, and the sound made Jane know that everything would be all right again. Now they were both older, and the sister's hair was steel gray instead of jet black. She had become even smaller in stature, but she still carried herself as if she was as tall as Jane was.