Abbaye Saint-Pierre Solesmes
Abbot Antony smiled when he saw Nicola and Theodore, walking towards him. Today was the day. All three of them knew it. He saw excitement in her eyes, trepidation in his. The kind old abbot thought about Anna Maria, and briefly looked up the sky.
She's here, dear sister. Nicola is here. And how she reminds me of you.
Nicola's smile grew wider as she approached the abbot. She ran the rest of the way, and almost tackled him in a big bear hug.
"Uncle Antony," she whispered to his ear, as she hugged him even tighter. "I'm here. I read everything mum wrote. I'm ready."
She, then, let go of the abbot, who was now looking at Anna Maria's husband.
"Bonjour, Theodore," he said softly. "Merci beaucoup. You brought her here."
"Bonjour, Abbot Antony," Theodore bowed. "Actually, it's the other way around. Nicola brought me here. This was all her idea."
The abbot laughed. "Ah, our Nicola, all grown up, and as stubborn as Anna Maria."
"Uncle!" Nicola exclaimed as she playfully swatted the abbot's arm. "I'm not stubborn! I simply know what I want, and I do everything I can to get it."
Theodore looked aghast. "Nicola! That is no way to treat Abbot Antony. If the other monks see you, they'll --"
"Laugh it off," said the abbot. "Oh, they know how Nicola bullies me whenever she's here. I must say that they were scandalised the first time she made a face at me when she first came here, but they've gotten used to this firebrand niece of mine. Well, now, before we begin, would you like to visit her first?"
Father and daughter looked at each other. "Yes, please," Theodore said, "It's been awhile."
"It has, hasn't it, Dad," Nicola said, intertwining her hand with her father's. "Let's go see her."
The abbot led them to an old grey wooden door, of the abbaye's crypt. He fished out an ancient brass key from his vestment pocket and unlocked the door. Theodore helped him push the door open. To Nicola's surprise, the crypt was well-lighted and clean, and not as spooky as she remembered. At the centre of the crypt was a slim status of a Madonna and child, looking down at a tomb of marble and stone.
Nicola, then, put the bouquet of yellow carnations she held all this while on top of the tomb. She, then, kissed the top of the tomb.
"Mum, I'm here now," she said.
Theodore, then, put his hands on the tomb, and knelt in front of it. "Je te manque, mon amour," he whispered. It took him a full two minutes before he stood up, his eyes visibly brimming with tears.
The abbot turned to Nicola. "Do you know why your mother died, Nicola?"
Nicola didn't look at the abbot, but looked straight at the tomb. "Mum was sick. I couldn't remember what the sickness was. All I knew was that she had been weak for a year or two before she died."
The abbot looked at Theodore, silently asking for permission. Theodore nodded.
"You know about her abilities, yes?"
Nicola, then, looked at Abbot Antony. "You mean, her ability to go inside another person's head and figure out what they're thinking? It's incredible, isn't it, Uncle? I didn't know until I read her journal."
Abbot Antony nodded. "Yes, and she had the ability to influence the mind of a weaker person to an extent. As an oblate, she knew she had special abilities. But those abilities only came out in full force once she met her soulmate."
Nicola gasped. "The soulmate system -- I read about it before, but I thought that was all fiction."
"Yes, it's fiction to everyone else in this world, except to the oblates. There is a rule, though, to this 'soulmate system', as you call it. If you decide to come together with your soulmate, and the soulmate happens to be an oblate, that soulmate will lose his or her abilities, and die. However, in the case of your mother, her soulmate was not an oblate."
"Dad," Nicola then looked at Theodore. "Did you know?"
Theodore sighed, "Yes, I did. I loved your mother enough to not be with her, just so she can live, but she was strong-willed enough to think otherwise. She bargained with Abbot Jean-Pierre that she will do one last critical mission -- the one only she can do among all the other oblates -- for as long as the abbot allowed her to be with me. I tried to dissuade her from doing so, but then--"
"She refused to let her fate as an oblate influence her life," said the abbot. "But then, it meant that she would pay the price. That's why you never saw her abilities in action. That's why she died the way she died."
Nicola couldn't help but kneel in front of her mother's tomb, the same way her father did earlier. If she admired her mother before, she admired her all the more now.
"Mum," she breathed, "nous sommes les mêmes. We are the same." She stood up slowly, kissed her mother's tomb once more, and faced the two men.
She clutched the silver medallion with her right hand. "I want to be like mum. I know all that she stood for, and all the reasons why she did all those things she wrote in her journal. Nothing in that journal spoke of regret. Her mother embraced it all.
"Dad, Uncle Antony, I'm ready to be an oblate of the order. I'm ready to be an oblate now."
