Chase the Wind (22 page)

“Of course, we’ll go find you something now.” Jenny took off at
a rapid pace for the mission, challenging the sister to keep up with her long-legged stride, but the nun fell in beside her, matching her step for step. “You will be expected to earn your keep here. All of
the children contribute to the running of the mission.”

“We’re not afraid of hard work; we’ve done it all our lives.” Jenny
kept her eyes straight ahead as they walked back to the mission.

“I’m afraid we don’t have any girls your age here. They are all
younger than you.”

“That’s okay, I’ve never had much use for other girls anyway.”

“There are a few boys your age,” the sister continued as if she
hadn’t heard Jenny. “It will be nice to have some new students in our school. They always add a new perspective to things.”

“We learned more from what our parents taught us at home than
we ever did in school,” Jenny told the nun.

“Then your knowledge will definitely be an asset to our class
room,” the nun assured her. Jenny felt as if she were talking to a wall. Apparently, the woman didn’t understand that as soon as
Jamie was better, they were going to leave. Then, Jenny realized
she hadn’t known that herself until just this minute.

They came to the main building, and the sister led her to a huge room filled with tables and benches. “This is the girls’ table, here;
boys eat over there,” the nun said. Jenny felt that this separation was a foolish notion, but she kept that opinion to herself for the moment. She took a seat at the girls’ table, and the sister soon returned with a plate for her. The food was bland, but Jenny was
starving, and she attacked it with gusto. “Beginning tomorrow, you
will follow a set schedule.”

Jenny felt the walls close in on her as the nun went over the schedule with her. Visions of long summer evenings filled her
head—wading in the creek with Jamie, chasing frogs and lizards,
lying on the knoll watching the stars come out, counting the Sailing ones as they shot across the sky, catching fireflies with Gray Horse’s children, racing horses across the plains under a full moon, settling
into bed, listening to the crickets and the soft laughter of her mother drifting up from the room below. There was no room for
any of this in the schedule the sister had just given her. Where was
the joy of childhood in this place? It suddenly dawned on Jenny that although she had seen children about, she hadn’t heard one yet. The little girls who had been washing up while she had slept had talked in quiet whispers, and those she had seen around the place scurried about like scared rabbits. Come to think of it, the nuns acted timid, too, except for Sister Mary Frances, who was
now sitting across from her with a serene expression on her lovely face. She was beautiful, Jenny realized, older than her mother, not
quite as old as Elizabeth had been. Her face was worn but unlined.
Jenny recognized something in her eyes, something she had seen
recently in her own, but she wasn’t sure what it was. She suddenly
realized that she was very tired.

“Could I see Jamie again before I go to bed?” she asked meekly.
The sister couldn’t hide her surprise at receiving such a mild request from the brassy girl she had talked to earlier.

“Yes, that would be fine.” She rose from the table. “We’ll make
sure to allow time for that in your schedule.” Jenny smiled gratefully at the nun and followed her back to her brother’s bed. He was still asleep, and she tenderly swept back his hair and kissed his forehead before making her way back to her cot in the girls’
dormitory.

Jenny was awakened early the next morning by a gentle nudge on her shoulder. She heard a bell tolling, counted six peals of the giant instrument before it echoed off into silence. A nun was in the room
supervising the smaller girls as they washed their faces, combed their hair and struggled into their clothing in the dimly lit room. Jenny quickly dressed in her customary uniform—Jamie’s hand-
me-down shirt and pants—and quickly brushed her hair into a
single braid falling down her back. She splashed some cold water from the basin on her face and had started down the hall towards
the wing Jamie was housed in when the nun grabbed her arm.

“Devotions are this way,” she said quietly. The younger girls were
lined up in the hallway, waiting to be led to the chapel, and Jenny had no choice but to fall into line and follow along. The way was
dimly lit, and the only sound was the echo of footsteps in the early
morning air. They soon came to a chapel, and Jenny slid into the
end of the pew that was shown to her by a frowning nun. A number
of boys came in behind the girls, ranging in age from around six
to sixteen. They were seated opposite the aisle from the girls, and
it didn’t take Jenny long to realize that the sexes were always strictly
segregated at the orphanage. There was a large boy sitting in the
back and a small, wiry one next to him who seemed to be close to
her age. She noticed the large boy giving her the once-over while the wiry one made comments into his ear. He was rewarded with a poke of a stick held by a nun, and they both turned their eyes
forward, the large one rolling his eyes occasionally towards Jenny.
She dismissed him from her mind and turned her attention to the
goings-on in the front of the chapel.

Father Clarence entered through a side door and began a series of rising and kneeling with what Jenny assumed was prayer in between, but she really couldn’t follow the sing-song sound of the words. All of the children quickly knelt and rose as if on cue, and
Jenny’s awkward attempts to follow were greeted by a snicker from the large boy and his wiry friend. After what seemed like an eternity, the devotional time was over. Father Clarence was making his way down the aisle towards the back with Sister Mary Frances
following behind. He stopped short when he got to Jenny’s pew, and a look of horror came over his face as he took in her clothing. The look of horror became one of rage, and Jenny actually felt herself shrinking in the man’s presence. Sister Mary Frances laid her hand on the priest’s arm and whispered in his ear, and the man
turned on his heel and left. The sister held her hand out to Jenny
and led her out of the chapel while the snickers of the two boys in
the back rang in her ears.

“You must dress like a young lady now that you are here,” the nun said to Jenny as they made their way down the hall.

Jenny looked down at the clothing she had worn most of her
days. “This is all I really have, except for the dress I was wearing
yesterday. What’s wrong with what I have on? It’s what I always
wear.”

“It is unsuitable for a young lady to show her figure in such an unbecoming way. It will lead to sinful thoughts.”

“I always thought it was more practical to dress this way,” Jenny
retorted. The nun stopped and looked at her.

“You’re not at home anymore; things are different here. You will have to learn to follow the rules if you are going to survive.” Jenny
looked at the nun and saw the very serious expression on her face.

“Survive what?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I’ll let you see your brother for a few minutes while I find you
some clothes,” she said and took off down the hall. Jenny watched as she walked away, then fell into step behind her, determined that as soon as Jamie was better, they would be gone.

Jamie was awake when she reached his room. He was turned
away from the door, the bandaged side of his face showing white
against the russet of his hair. Jenny walked around to where she
could see him face to face.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey,” he answered, his eyes barely moving. Jenny knelt down
and folded her arms on the side of the bed. Jamie rubbed the
surface of her bandaged arm, wincing as the damaged skin on his
arm stretched.

“Does it hurt much?” he asked.

“Sometimes. I haven’t really thought about it.”

“How did it happen?”

“I fell out of the loft.”

He managed a small smile at the thought of her tumbling out of the loft. Jenny noticed it and felt a leap in her heart as she
returned it.

“It seemed the quickest way down at the time,” she added, her
lips turning up into a grin. Jamie tried to grin back, but the move
ment was painful and it ended as quickly as it had appeared.

“I remember,” he said after a while.

“What?”

“Being on fire.”

Jenny closed her eyes as the memories of his screams once again rang in her ears. “Don’t think about it. It’s over now,” she finally managed to say. She heard Sister Mary Frances enter the room and saw that she was holding up a skirt. “It seems that I don’t have the proper wardrobe for mission life,” she explained to Jamie as she took the skirt.

“So what else is new?” Jenny stuck her tongue out at her brother as she quickly shed her pants and stepped into the skirt. It was a bit big around the waist, and only hit her at mid-calf, but the nun decided it was more presentable than what she had been wearing.

“You must go on to breakfast and school,” the nun instructed her. “You won’t be assigned any chores until your arm has healed, so I have gotten permission to have you help here in the infirmary.” Jenny smiled gratefully at the nun. “Go on now. Come back here as soon as you are done with school.”

Jenny gave her brother a quick kiss and ran off to breakfast, slowing her pace to a walk when a nun chastised her for making too much noise.

Jenny ate a silent breakfast with the rest of the orphans, noticing that Father Clarence stared over his glasses at anyone who happened to make the slightest noise. Jenny wondered why the man had been put in charge of an orphanage when he so obviously hated children. She caught the large boy she’d noticed at devotions spying on her; and his wiry little friend was also looking her way. After breakfast she was led to a classroom where she was one of four students. The two who had been watching her were there along with another boy who was seated as far away from them as he could get.

When the teacher began, Jenny realized that her education was way beyond what the class was working on. She dutifully did her work and waited while the others struggled with theirs. One boy, Marcus, seemed to be bright and finished right behind Jenny. The other two seemed to be more interested in ways they could aggravate Marcus rather than learning anything. The sister just went on with her lesson plan; she was either unaware of the shenanigans of the two or unable to stop them, so she just ignored them. Jenny decided that ignoring them was her best defense also, even when
she felt a wad of paper hit the back of her head, followed by a
snicker.

“I hear you’ve got a brother in the infirmary,” the large boy said
as he came up behind her when they were going to the dining room. “I heard he was burned up and doesn’t have any skin left on him.” Jenny stopped and turned, her right hand balled into a
fist Surprised, the boy stopped so suddenly, the wiry one ran into
him.

“It only shows your ignorance when you talk of something you know nothing about,” Jenny hissed, her wide blue eyes mere slits
in her face. The teacher, who had been walking in front of them,
cleared her throat, stopping the large boy from pressing his attack.
Jenny fell into step with Marcus as they made their way to the
dining hall.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone stand up to Logan,”
Marcus whispered to her when they were a few steps ahead. He stole a look over his shoulder to make sure that the other two
couldn’t hear him.

“He’s just a big bully.”

“Yes, and he gets away with it, too.”

“Jamie will fix that when he’s better.”

“Is he your brother?”

“Yes, he’s my twin.”

“I have a sister here. She’s six. Our parents were killed in an Indian attack when she was just a baby. My dad was a doctor.” Jenny looked at the boy as he gave her his entire history in one burst. He had sandy brown hair and kind brown eyes. She had seen a little girl who resembled him and decided to watch out for
her.

“Do you ever get to talk to your sister?”

“I see her after school, and on Sundays we play together sometimes.” His voice trailed off as they reached the dining hall. They
all ate lunch as silently as breakfast, then were allowed to go outside
for some exercise, as Father Clarence called it. A ball was found, and the smaller children went chasing after it. Logan and his wiry
little friend, Joe, disappeared around a comer of the building. Jenny
and Marcus sat down on the bench in the orchard, and Marcus
told her about life in the mission, after Jenny briefly explained what
had brought her there. A cute little girl with brown curls came
running up, and Marcus introduced her as his sister Mary. He gave
her a hug and she went back to her little group of friends. All too quickly they were summoned back to their classrooms.