Chapter 12

• Satisfying the Nun
• It was her voice that first caught his attention. Soft and soothing; dear and comforting. He had been sitting near his sleeping friend whom he had come to visit in the hospital. A mutual friend had told him that Richard had a "home accident" and had broken a leg, so here he was, waiting for the old boy to wake up, and watching him breath peacefully and occasionally glancing at his leg in a cast.
• It was early in the morning, so early that the weight of dawn still hung heavily on the weather, while he sat there waiting and watching when suddenly, he heard a soothing whisper. He turned for the first time and took his first notice of other patients in the ward. But she was not a patient; she was a nun. And as he turned, she turned sharply away. She had been staring at him while whispering to the woman on the hospital bed. Jim's gaze lingered on her for a few seconds or so, then he glanced at the now sleeping sick woman. He wondered what was wrong with her. There was no physical injury he could see on her, so it was probably internal? His gaze quickly shifted back to its real target: the nun. Her face was still turned away, so he had ample opportunity to study her.