Spring 2024 - Recrudescence

“Stitches

was some primal force waiting inside. We hadn’t believed in it before, but Imogen had. We would also have you believe that we got rid of it that day once and for all, every drop. We didn’t think that any more would come out ever again. When we returned to Polar, the nuns gathered us all urgently in the assembly hall. We told them the story, and the nuns agreed that they’d have done the same. Look me in the eyes, said Sister Mártara Junior when we’d finished, are you sure that you’ve told us everything you have to say? We have, Sister, cross our hearts, Sister. Well, that’s that, then. Go rest now and, if you can’t, go see Sister O’Malley for a cup of English breakfast tea. Tomorrow this will all have passed. It will have, Sister, we said like an echo, and we left. Sister Elvira Lecumberri was hunched over in the hallway watching us. We didn’t even turn our heads to look at her. We had lost interest in her; we were at that age.

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