221

[221]

“Mom,” I begin in my sweetest voice. “You know, it would really be nice if I could stay home and study instead of going to church today. Do you think that I could stay home just this once?”
For a minute, I think I’ve got her, and then I realize that it’s just the shock of it that didn’t register on her face.
“Blessed realm forbid,” she says, raising the eternity symbol that she wears on a chain and kissing it. She tips her head a little to the side, looks earnestly at me, and folds her arms. Definite sign of a lecture.
“Kestrel,I know that it might seem attractive to put off things of the spirit for worldy matters. Benevolance knows I’ve had to fight with your father on it for years, but there is so much in you that comes from my side of the family. We have always been pious people. I wish that you could see the little chapel that I used to pray in when I was a girl. It was made of a beautiful limestone, and--”
“Mom!” Wren yelled as she ran into the room, “Mallee got into my stuff again!”
“Oh Wren, I thought that we gave you a trunk for a reason.”
“I can’t keep everything I own locked up at every minute. My room is now free range for everyone?”
“Where’s your sister?”
“In the goat shed--with my quilt and sheets.”
“What?” suddenly Mom was interested. “The white linen ones?”
“Those are the ones.”
“Do you have any idea what the thread count is on those sheets? Linen is not a toy, it’s like fine dishes that can be passed on.”
“Mom, I know,” Wren says. So do I; it’s not the first time we’ve had lessons on how to manage a linen cupboard. “So come help me get her before she stains them.”
“Stains them?”
“Goats.”
“Right. All right, I’m coming.” Mom gives me a look that says “I reserve the right to add further lectures about this when I’ve got the time.”
Then she pats me on the head--which I hate--and says, “Why don’t you go meditate for a few minutes? If you contemplate the Beyond, I know that you will be guided do the right thing.” Then she dashes off to save the goats and the sheets from Mallee.
I should have acted sick, but it would be a little bit suspicious at this point, so an hour later I find myself in church rather than out spying like I should be doing.
“As followers of the Belevolent Force,it behoves us all to ask ourselves how our actions relfect on the community as a whole. Are we,each and every one of us, committed to being a force for good--just as the Force that drives all of us is a force for good. When you bring ill to others, you not only damage them; you not only damage yourself; but you also weaken the goodness that reaches to the space inbetween. We are linked together--”
I listen for as long as I can before my eyes glaze over, and I find myself contemplating the wood grain of the pew in front of me. It’s not that what he is saying is wrong or bad or anything, but I can’t keep any kind of focus on it. It’s just that everything he says is slippery, like a bar of soap in a bath. And every time I try to get a hold of them, my mind just can’t grab onto it. Maybe I’m not as spiritual as I should be, but I don’t know how to get more spiritual.
As everyone in the congregation over fifty resorts to head-bobbing, a movement catches my attention. Up near the ceiling,I see a face looking out from the carved wood. It ought to be solid. He catches my eye, and the center of a scrollwork quickly shuts.
So that’s where Barry has been hiding. The question now is whether I should go try to talk to him myself, or if I should tell his mother where he is.

1) I need to make sure that I really do know what I’m talking about before I even consider telling her. Besides, how do I know that it’s the right thing to do?

2) His mom must be worried sick about him. I should go tell her right away. The faster she knows, then the better the chance that she will catch up with him before he leaves.