The Sister(208)

‘Are they happy?’ Miller said, indicating the small group.

‘They’re not unhappy.’

‘If you laid them to rest, would it mean I'd never see them again?’

The Sister smiled serenely. ‘In your heart, they will always be near you.’

His former shadows bloomed into full Technicolour for the first time, faithful in every detail to the pictures that hung in the gallery of his mind. He scoured their impassive faces for a clue. What do you want me to do? No answer came. He searched for guidance in the depths of his soul. At last, he said, ‘Always in my heart? Then let them be at peace.’

They faded from his view.

‘Sister, I can’t feel them anymore, have they really gone?’ he said, looking troubled.

‘Nothing is ever really gone, unless you believe it to be so.’

A strange sensation tugged at his senses like the moon pulling on tides, and he was struck with a sudden realisation: Dr Ryan was Rosetta’s father. It came through so strong; he knew she had wanted him to know. They exchanged glances.

‘I lost my powers for a long time after that happened. I didn’t think they'd come back, but they did.’ She fondled the stone wistfully and smiled. ‘You absorbed something of me; you had a part to play. No more, I’m setting you free, go,’ she said waving him away. ‘Now it’s time I saw Stella.’





Rosetta had risen from her seat before Miller arrived, already taking Stella by the hand as he walked into the room. He looked exhausted, but managed a half-hearted grin before he sat down in the warm seat vacated by Stella.

She took a deep breath as Rosetta led her down to the end of the long passageway.

The door was open. She entered the room.

‘Come, Stella, sit with me.’ Sister moved from the gloom nearer to the window, where a small round table with two chairs was conveniently located. ‘It’s my reading table,’ she explained. ‘Close enough to the light to see, not too close so as to burn me. I have this condition, see. It stops me living life to the full.’ She stretched across the table and took Stella’s hand. Closing her gloved fingers around it, she squeezed reassurance. ‘What’s your excuse?’

‘I’m sorry?’ she said, looking straight into The Sister’s face. Seeing neither lines nor any blemish on her skin, she shifted her gaze to her eyes. What she saw frightened her. Eyes that were previously green now shone with opalescence, shimmering, changing colour. Stella tried to look away, but a peculiar magnetism locked her in. Her hair stood on end, as The Sister’s rose in harmony, haloing her head.

If the Sister had had reason to delve into Stella’s past at Ryan’s funeral, she would have seen the truth as it now presented itself. The truth of what really happened to her parents. Stella doesn’t know. Allowing her perceptions to form fully, she reached into the past.

Her eyelids fluttered; static stormed across the surface of her skin. Energy sparked needles through her gloved hand into Stella’s, and the shock jolted her into letting go.



Sister stood witness in her parent’s bedroom on a night blacker than she’d ever seen.

Her father was having a nightmare, muttering in his sleep; a sheen of perspiration covered his face. Suddenly he called out, crystal clear. ‘Don’t you touch my child!’

Her mother stirred and laid a hand on his chest, gently reassuring him. ‘What is it?’ she said.

‘Something’s happened to Kathy!’

His eyes were wet and tinged with sadness. Wiping tears, he blinked hard. ‘We’re never going to see her again, are we?’

‘Don’t say that, love, don’t say that.’ A strange light was in her eyes. ‘One day we will see her again. Together. Do you believe in God?’

He nodded; teeth clenched; eyes closed.

‘Then, whatever happens, one day, we-will-see-her-again.’

The following day, her mother had brought home a large dose of horse tranquillisers from the vets where they worked and waited until her husband had fallen asleep, before injecting him first and then herself. Sister, viewing ahead, held onto the vision. She remembered once asking Father O'Malley when she was a child. ‘A white lie isn’t a sin, is it Father?’

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘A sin is a sin. What is the sin we’re talking about here?’

‘Keeping quiet about something to spare someone’s feelings.’

‘Are you talking about shielding someone’s feelings here, now? It’s most likely a venial sin.’ His eyes softened. ‘I don’t think anyone would get overexcited if you told a lie like that.’

Sister decided she should spare Stella’s feelings.

‘Your mother wrote you a letter the night before the suicide; you never read it did you?’

Stella shook her head.

Giving her no choice, Sister recited from the image in her mind.



My dearest Stella,

I’m so very sorry, but by the time you read this, dad and I will have gone. There’s nothing I can say that will change anything now. Your father had a nightmare, and I knew after that, we couldn’t carry on. It would have been unfair to burden you with our loss anymore. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

I hope you can forgive us.

Mum. xxx