Spring 2024 - Recrudescence

“Stitches

Polar.

Some days, sure, we managed to go on with our lives. We were horrified to think about what it was that we’d have to do. We couldn’t continue this way, but to do something also seemed impossible. Maybe we’d have been able to go on like that for many years, even until we had to leave Polar, if it weren’t for something that happened a few days later when we saw Imogen leave Sister Elvira Lecumberri’s sewing classroom. It was like seeing her climb out of the swimming hole once again. Soon, Sister Elvira Lecumberri appeared behind her. This time she wasn’t pale but positively aflame. What’s more, it looked to us as though Sister Elvira Lecumberri was blushing because Imogen had just gotten something from her that she’d wanted very much— the thing she’d wanted most in the world—though we didn’t know what it was. We had to look away; we’d never seen anyone blush like that. Meanwhile, that filthy Imogen had the nerve to laugh. Climbing the steps to the dormitory, she looked at us, looked at Sister Elvira Lecumberri, and fell into stitches. Another day, Sister Elvira Lecumberri was showing us a stitch and getting a bit irritated when it didn’t come out well. We couldn’t get it right, because we were thinking to ourselves that now we’d really have to do something. Whatever shall we do, we thought. The only answer that occurred to us was to continue as always, go bathe in the swimming hole and allow what would be to be. The nuns must have noticed something. Look, they’re more sullen than normal, more withdrawn, a bit congested, they said when they saw us walking in the hallways towards the dining hall, towards the dormitory, towards the communal showers. They’re congested; the water won’t do them any good. They’d better not go to the swimming hole this Saturday. We started to tremble in alarm, which only encouraged the nuns. They said: Look how the shivers rise from their toes to the tops of their heads; you can see it all the way from the third floor patio. Soon we’ll have to send them to Sister 175