True Believers(35)

“Wait till she gets pregnant,” Linda Melajian said, pouring coffee into Gregor’s mug from her Pyrex pot. She checked everybody else’s cup, and everybody else’s food, so that she was satisfied that nobody needed anything. Then she marched away.

“I don’t think Donna wants to get pregnant just yet,” Russ said. “I mean, she does eventually, you know, but I think she wants to finish college first.”

Gregor got a clean paper napkin out of the little stack of them Linda had placed in the middle of the table when they first sat down. The Ararat used cloth napkins for lunch and dinner, but for breakfast they used paper. It was a good thing, because Gregor was always trying to find something to write on. He took out his pen—Bennis’s pen; she stole his bathrobes, he stole her Bic medium-point pens—and began to draw a diagram that started with the governor’s office on top and meandered its way down to the state attorney general and the mayor of Philadelphia. He was just thinking that he had never gotten along with the mayor of Philadelphia—which was rather like saying that Jesse Jackson had never gotten along with Jesse Helms—when he became aware that everybody else at the table had suddenly gone quiet.

“What is it?” he said, looking at his diagram as if it could really tell him something, instead of being the restless doodle it was.

He looked up, and when he did he saw Sister Mary Scholastica standing by their table, wearing what looked like the Count Dracula’s cape over her long habit. Her veil was on slightly crooked, as if it had been knocked sideways in the wind. A few strands of hair were coming out of the white-tipped edge of the stiff crown. She was not alone. A small, much younger, much more tentative nun was standing just behind her. Gregor stood up.

“Sister,” he said. “Sit down. I haven’t seen you in a year. Bennis isn’t here. She had a late night last night. I think she’s still—”

“I haven’t come to see Bennis,” Scholastica said. “Oh, I’m sorry. I mean, I do want to see Bennis. I’ve been wanting to see her for weeks. But now. Now I came to see you. This is Sister Peter Rose.”

“Sister,” Gregor said.

Sister Peter Rose bobbed and blushed simultaneously.

“Maybe Sister Peter Rose would like to sit down,” Scholastica said. “While you and I go somewhere to talk. It really is important. Couldn’t we just go and find an empty table—”

They looked around There were half a dozen empty tables in the middle of the room. Sister Scholastica shrugged.

By now, of course, everybody in the room was looking at them. People on Cavanaugh Street had run into Sister Scholastica before, since she and Bennis were friends, but it was still highly unusual for two nuns in only slightly modified habits to show up at the Ararat at quarter after seven in the morning. In fact, Gregor was willing to bet it was unheard of. Linda Melajian had already appeared with two clean coffee cups and the coffee. Sister Peter Rose slid into the place Gregor had just vacated.

“We’ll go over there,” Gregor told Linda, pointing to a table five feet away. He led Sister Scholastica across the room. “I thought you said it was no longer a rule, that nuns had to travel in twos,” he said.

“It’s not.” Scholastica sat down. “I just didn’t like the idea of wandering around in the dark on my own. I’m not used to cities, did you know that? Colchester was as close as I’d ever gotten to one before this, at least to live in, and it was hardly Philadelphia. I’ve got a problem.”

“I had figured out that much.”

Linda Melajian was there with the coffee and the cup. She had Gregor’s half-full cup with her as well. She put it down before Gregor could analyze how she was managing to juggle all these things at once.

“Cream and sugar?” she asked Scholastica.

“No, thank you,” Scholastica said. “I drink it black.”

Linda Melajian wandered away.

“Well,” Gregor said. “What is it? I can’t believe you’re in any kind of serious trouble. You’re one of the sanest people I’ve ever known.”

“Oh, it’s not me exactly,” Scholastica said. “It’s—do you know I’m living in Philadelphia now? I’ve meant to call Bennis, but I’ve been too busy. I came in at the beginning of January to replace the principal at St. Anselm’s Parish School.”

“St. Anselm’s? The place where there was that suicide a couple of weeks ago?”

“It’s been nine days,” Scholastica said. “Exactly ten days. Today makes ten days. That’s the place, yes.”