Time Drifters

Even before morning prayers, I realized that I had a lot to be thankful for. I was thankful that I had a nice bed at home, instead of the lumpy palette that I had to share with Barkley and Thomas. I was thankful that we had indoor plumbing instead of the bedpans that we were supposed to pee in when we woke to the sound of crying babies, over and over again. And I was thankful, over and over again, that there were no crying babies in the house to repeatedly wake me up when I hadn’t gotten to sleep so far past my bedtime.

The thoughts about Sister Vellena were probably as much to blame for the fact that I was tossing all night. Should we tell Capucine where the books were? If moving them was the last thing that we needed to do here, would we start to shimmer out? Renatta reminded us all that we’d stay until we were finished, but the longer we stayed, the worse it seemed to get. And what if we shouldn’t have touched the books at all?

We had agreed to stick as closely together as possible, in case she tried to sneak in and snatch away our crystals. We had worked out fail-safe plans to address these problems but it really didn’t make any difference until Capucine decided to leave.

Calico’s Dad was right; we likely didn’t have all the information we needed. But, at the very least, we now had some leverage to use if Sister Vellena did something threatening to us.

For all the noise they had made, I was surprised that the regular residents of the asylum were almost outnumbered by us. I began to appreciate the Monsignor’s precarious situation since he was running an asylum with so little capable help to maintain the upkeep. Not that any of us had much practice at housekeeping on this scale. And we were all on edge as the day began for fear of our lives, and because we were being thrown into situations that none of us knew, or very much liked.

Prayers and hot tea were followed by carpentry chores for Caelen, Thomas and Rufus, and laundry duties for all the rest of us. Unlike the room at the Hawaiian hotel, we had to fetch water in large pots, get it up to boiling on the stove and help to do everything by hand. I kept hoping for the clouds to break open in a downpour so that we wouldn’t be able to carry anything out to the clotheslines, but no such luck.

I took a break while a small flock of swallows descended on a tree nearby, exploring the creases and folds in the branches, demonstrating daring acrobatics as they swung upside down and sideways. I’d never thought much about people who watched birds as a hobby, but I found their birdsong and busy lives quite comforting at the moment. They were the same here as they were in my time period, and it reminded me that life continued for everyone. I needed the reminder.

The carriage had come to collect Aureliano, Capucine and Isaac as planned and, of course, the Monsignor had decided to accompany them. The three women who were called “daily ladies” had arrived and busied themselves with the children, along with two other nuns from Sister Vellena’s order, who were instructing them in French. These two women didn’t pay particular notice to any of us, and I didn’t feel any hairy eyeballs or hear any spells to cast out our demons, so I highly doubted that they participated in Vellena’s extracurricular activities.

It wasn’t until after Margaret Haughery’s wagon had come and gone that Sister Vellena reappeared at the door from the kitchen looking like she was about to experience internal combustion. She glared at all of us and we did our best to continue with our chores as she stomped into Isaac’s room, slamming the door behind her. Within a quarter hour, she emerged, more calm but still holding a sour expression of disdain when she crossed paths with any of us.

When the carriage returned with the town party, Capucine was on cloud nine, giddy with excitement about the delicate cotillion dress the Contessa had furnished. The girls made an appropriate fuss and even though I didn’t have much of an eye for dresses, I even thought it was a beautiful bright yellow with orange and deep red accents at the waist.

“’Like the flower that I am,’ that was what the lady said,” Capucine explained. She hung the dress on the door to her room, along with the proper suit that Isaac was supposed to wear.

We didn’t have time to warn her before Sister Vellena appeared and marched her outside for a discussion in private. And when she returned, she looked utterly shattered.

I had been dispatched with another basket of wet sheets and Capucine followed me as we passed Sister Vellena, who was standing vigilantly at the door.

“I think you’re going to have a very good time tonight,” I said, wanting to return her thoughts to happier things.

“Sister does not even want me to go,” Capucine said. “But Monsignor is insisting. She says that you have been asking her about topics that you should not know. Questions about the future, and about how to change things.”

“That’s a lie,” I said, dropping my laundry basket on the ground. “She’s a liar, Capucine. She was asking me about the same thing. About whether I’d like to be her ‘friend in the future.’”

“Is it a lie that you took something you should not have?” she said, squaring off with me.

“Well…” I said, shuffling in place.

“So it is true,” she said, visibly wilting. “Oh, Liam. I am disappointed. And hurt.”

“It’s not you, Capucine,” I pleaded. “We’re not trying to hurt you.”

“But you do,” she said. “Don’t you see? Where is it?”

“I can’t tell you,” I responded. “I’d don’t know. Really. And it’s too dangerous.”

“Who knows where it is?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, Capucine.”

“And so, I am alone,” she said. “I don’t have you, my friends. And I don’t have Sister Vellena, the only one who will keep me safe from Monsignor, who is the only one who keeps me from being on the street.”

“There’s the Contessa,” I said.

“She does not want a little girl, or even Isaac,” she said, turning to walk away. “It is not only money. Aureliano gave me some, in secret. The Contessa gave it to him, in private, knowing that it was not something the Monsignor would allow him to keep. She knows how things work and yet she does not ask for me or Isaac. Aureliano told me it was not something he could hold onto, as we both know.”

“That’s great,” I said. “So, you have a way.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “In the Drift, you told me I should go, and it was God who showed me where. But I am young, yet. I thought, with Sister Vellena, that I would have a purpose. Just to be somewhere is not enough, Liam. What we do is how we are connected.”

“I just know that you have to leave,” I said.

“You do not know everything, Liam,” she said. “And you should not pretend to know what is best for everyone. You know your own time. But you do not know mine.”

She turned and began to walk back to the house.

“I’ll tell you tonight,” I said. “When you come home.”

She stopped without turning around.

“I promise, Capucine,” I said. “Even if it hurts us all. I will find out and I will tell you. And then you can decide whether to trust Sister Vellena, or us.”

She nodded slightly and left me to my task.

I picked up the basket of laundry and then stopped. Imogene was standing at the edge of the clearing, staring at me. She took a couple of tentative steps towards me. I waved to encourage her, but she just spun around and ran.