Birgitta the Nun

Part 7 - Mingle

Breakfast was served in the same fashion as supper, only poorer. Every nun of the convent appeared, happily slopped her milky tea and rye bread, minutely prepared by Petra, though on a budget. Even weak Madeleine looked more cheerful this morning.

The wizard felt tired and miserable, despite her solid night's sleep. She could have given her hat for a cup of java but she kept her wishes to herself - today she would fit in. Instead, she drank the milky perfume they called tea, and somewhat pleased, observed they at least served butter and ham with their fresh, but stiff and sour, bread.

She avoided any kind of conversation, as did her fellow table companions. They ate faster than she did. The chews grew in her mouth. A chair was pushed from the table and the first nun disappeared. The wizard forced the ration of her meal. The last bite of her plate offered a piece of crust stuck between her teeth. She winced. Her gums experienced some unnecessary stress, but, before she had time to retreat to do something about it, the abbess made her approach—

"We're not much for activities, here at the monastery—" the nun drawled. "But Madeleine will join you for a game of croquet in the backyard."

"Activities you say?" the wizard replied and wiped out a yawn. Her tongue searched her teeth, trying to find that wicked little piece of crust. The tension in her bridgework was exquisite and she grimaced.

"I'm sure you will find it refreshing," the abbess continued. "Being locked up in a monastery, must not be a part of a plan of a wizard?"

The wizard left out her answer, let the abbess have it. After all, she had not come here to argue. Better let things take their course.

Madeleine and the wizard made a big fuss about what to wear before leaving for the great outdoors. They didn't want to dirty their vestments, also, their fabrics were none too stretchy—the wizard demonstrated with a whip of her stark skirts—to change into something more resilient had to be the wisest thing to do, Madeleine nodded. But the abbess wouldn't have it. She pushed the stingy couple outside, treating guest and resider alike. They could have their excuses to themselves.

Birgitta acted faster, kept her wry words to herself, and ran in the other direction. No activities could snare her - let the games begin without her.

The garden surrounding the monastery was a huge thing and very much in need of a gardener. From time to time, someone would come and mow the lawn, but the bushes grew by anarchy, and every plant ever planted had turned into something wild. Now, this was alright with the nuns. They kept a garden not to show off, nor to spend all their precious energy trying to tame it, but to enjoy some peace and quiet beyond the usual stone walls.

Occasionally, a fox or a rabbit would find its way into the green mess, giving the monastery an exotic glow. Also, for the felines, to have some proper wildlife just around the corner, so very close to the hearth, turned out to be an exquisite thing indeed - squirrels fighting in the pretty rosebushes aptly below the window, an occasional feisty cricket in the water bowl, a bird building its fluffy nest right next to one's favorite cushion - and so, all as a course of appropriation, their cat-instincts grew in harmony with them being spoiled.

Today, as it happened, in the midst of activities unplanned, the lawn befell as especially un-mowed. Large tufts of grass effectively ate Charlie's croquet balls, as she shot them onto the game course. She went to the edge of the lawn, poked her nose into the wilderness of nettles and unassorted grass. Her ball was nowhere to be seen. "Is this your abbess' sense of humor?" she asked, and gave the thick grass a whack with her club. "What does she mean by it—am I a that unwelcome guest?"